Addressing Intemperate Remarks about the PreTribulation Rapture

by Jeremy James 

The Adversary has different ways to attack the Word of God and it behoves believers to know what they are. Those who study His Word daily and take it to heart will learn to recognize what the sceptics are up to and act accordingly. Normally it is the attitude of these people that we recognize first. Unless they are experienced deceivers, they will generally behave as though they are scouting for a weakness or seeking a line of attack. However, three times in recent weeks I came across instances where commentators whom I thought were completely sincere said something which resounded like a thunder clap. There was no lead in, no sign that something was brewing. These individuals are generally fair and balanced in their approach, respectful of Scripture, and even-handed when discussing opinions that don’t match their own. Nevertheless they each announced, as though from nowhere, that the doctrine of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture was “Satanic”. 2 None of them attempted to present any scriptural evidence to support their opinion – which, by the way, was expressed with real passion. Nor did they issue their condemnation as part of a general review of false teaching in the church today. There seemed to be only one errant position on their mind, only one that deserved to be labelled “Satanic.” All three defined it as a heresy dreamt up by two Jesuits in the 18th century or part of a subversive plot involving C I Scofield in the early 20th century. That seemed to be their sole justification. One would have expected them to describe the great harm that this alleged heresy has caused, but they made no reference to that. Presumably their respective audiences were meant to nod their heads in silent agreement, as though the calumny was too well known to warrant further discussion. The bile and rancour of these outbursts was surprising. Even though they were premeditated they seemed to serve no purpose. Normally articulate, these people reverted momentarily to the level of a loudmouth who gets a buzz from chanting slogans and goading his audience. As we stated in a previous paper, the Enemy hates the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, so outbursts like these may become more common. A rainbow of mercy The Pre-Tribulation Rapture is like the rainbow, radiant with God’s mercy. Just as Satan mocks the rainbow, linking it blasphemously to all kinds of sexual perversion, he also likes to mock the “Blessed Hope” (Titus 2:13). The idea that Christ would return without warning for his bride is, to him, a gut-wrenching catastrophe. Just when he is about to spring his trap and capture the whole of mankind in his Antichrist deception, Lord Jesus comes from heaven, from the right hand of the Father, and carries his bride far from this troubled world. Believers everywhere will hear his voice and the trumpet of the Archangel, but everyone else will hear nothing. In an instant they are gone. This astonishing act of mercy really ought to awaken the sleeping and rebellious dwellers upon the earth, but seemingly it won’t. All kinds of confusing reasons will be given to explain the sudden disappearance of so many people. 3 The Babylonian lie The fallen angels who channeled the New Age plan to Alice Bailey, whose works now constitute the core teaching of Theosophy, were quite open about the removal from the earth of a certain class of people at the end of the age. They knew the Rapture would occur just as the Bible foretold and they needed an alternative way to explain it. Since it encompassed only those who were faithful to the LORD God of the Old Testament, Bailey called them “Jews”. This was her derogatory term for anyone who refused to take the Luciferian initiation offered by the Antichrist: “You have often been told how, at the close of this solar system, a certain percentage of the human family will fail to make the grade and will then be held in pralaya, or in solution, until the time for the manifestation of the next and third solar system comes around.” – The Externalization of the Hierarchy, p.41 She added: “When that happens, the problem will be rapidly solved and one of the major difficulties will disappear off the face of the earth.” So who will “disappear off the face of the earth”? The church, of course. This is the portion “of the human family” which failed “to make the grade.” The Ascended Masters – the deified gurus of Theosophy – had to remove them from the earth before the Antichrist could begin his ministry and lead humanity into the New Age. Had they been allowed to remain they would have constituted a “major difficulty” and jeopardized the serene mystical process of Cosmic Transformation. Even though they have their answers ready, the architects of The Great Reset are not keen that believers put their trust in the Blessed Hope. It is not called by that name for nothing! Someone who has that hope has certainty. He is secure in Jesus and unshakeable in his faith. The Enemy hates this since it greatly reduces the impact of his disabling End Time weapon – universal fear and trepidation. He intends to use fear on a scale never seen before, to cripple the masses and drive them like a stampeding herd into the beguiling arms of the Antichrist. 4 The closer we get to that critical period in history, the more dangerous are those who are not shaken by the ever-expanding campaign of terror. Just as the entire effect is spoiled if just one person in a theatre chuckles during a tense and frightening scene, the dark theatrical performance that the Enemy has prepared will lose a lot of its force if a small group of people refuse to buckle. They will continue to remind the world that Satan breaks his teeth when he tries to chew on God’s Word. They will trust in the promises that God made and will repeat again and again the commitment that Jesus made to the church at Philadelphia: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." (Revelation 3:10) Those who condemn the doctrine of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture as “Satanic” should look carefully at what God has said – lest they break their teeth. The Blessed Hope was revealed for a reason and we take a lot upon ourselves when we treat it lightly. Perhaps the critics think the church is weakened by this doctrine? If so, they have no respect for the promise that Jesus made to the church at Philadelphia. In their view everyone should go through the Tribulation, but in making this claim they are showing an arrogant disregard for what the Bible teaches about Calvary, God’s Wrath, the nature of the Church, and much else besides. How to avoid the worst mistakes Since we have covered this doctrine in detail in previous papers, we will not go over it again here. However, we would like to draw attention to a set of verses which, by themselves, obliterate the case made by the sceptics. Perhaps they won’t induce a diehard sceptic to change his position, but they may help other believers, who are less sure about the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, to avoid making the same mistakes. We’ll start with one of the most beautiful doctrines in the Bible, the day of Jesus Christ. 5 The Day of Jesus Christ This doctrine is not properly understood because of scandalous corruptions in several modern translations of God’s Word. The corruption in this instance is very subtle but also very damaging. The Textus Receptus, which was used as the exclusive source for the translation of the KJV, includes the following Greek words in 1 Corinthians 5:5: ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ The last word is Ἰησοῦ - iēsous or Jesus. The full verse in the KJV reads: “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Corinthians 5:5) [KJV] Incredibly the word “Jesus” is omitted from several modern translations, including the New International Version (NIV), the English Standard Version (ESV), the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), the New English Translation (NET), and the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) – see box below: “hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” [NIV] “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” [ESV] “hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” [CSB] “turn this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” [NET] “turn that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.” [HCSB] Why did the translators do this? Was it because they didn’t understand the passage or because they were engaged in a deliberate deception? Many Christians will think the difference is slight, when in fact it is enormous. The false translations are referring to “the day of the LORD”, while the KJV is referring to “the day of the Lord Jesus”. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME! 6 The day of the LORD is the day of God’s wrath upon a sinful and rebellious world. The day of the Lord Jesus, on the other hand, is the day Jesus comes for his church. The first “day” is a period of time, seven years. The second is a specific day. They do not and cannot overlap. We know this because they are described as distinct events, each having its own time or “day” in the LORD’s calendar. For this reason alone the day of the Lord Jesus cannot fall in the period known as the day of the LORD. We also know that Jesus returns with his saints during the day of the LORD. THEREFORE the Rapture (Harpazo) must take place before the day of the LORD commences. The following words appear in 2 Thessalonians 2:2 of the Textus Receptus, the original Greek text used by the translators of the KJV: ἐνέστηκεν ἡ ἡμέρα τοῦ Χριστοῦ The last word is Χριστοῦ - Christos or Christ. The full verse in the KJV reads: “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” (2 Thessalonians 2:2) [KJV] Once again the modern translators did their cunning work and replaced “Christ” with the word “Lord”, thereby changing the meaning from the day of Jesus Christ to the day of the LORD. The duplicity shown by these alleged experts is shocking. The versions include the New International Version (NIV), the English Standard Version (ESV), the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), the New English Translation (NET), the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the Revised Standard Version (RSV), the American Standard Version (ASV), and the New Living Translation [NLT] – see box below: 7 “not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us – whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter – asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.” [NIV] “not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.” [ESV] “not to be easily upset or troubled, either by a prophecy or by a message or by a letter supposedly from us, alleging that the day of the Lord has come.” [CSB] “not to be easily shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.” [NET] “that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.” [NASB] “not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.” [RSV] “to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is just at hand;” [ASV] “not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has come.” [HCSB] “Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun...” [NLT] 8 The Day of the LORD We’ll now look briefly at some verses that show the stark difference between the day of the LORD and the day of Jesus Christ: “Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.” (Amos 5:18) As Amos tells us, the day of the LORD is not something anyone should look forward to! It is a day of darkness, and not light. He then adds the following: “Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?” (Amos 5:20) Again he stresses the depth of spiritual darkness that will characterize the day of the LORD. He confirms also that there will be “no brightness” in it. Is not the Rapture of the church an occasion of spiritual “brightness” and “light”? Of course it is! – therefore it cannot occur during the day of the LORD. Isaiah refers in stark terms to the day of the LORD, a time of calamity and destruction from the hand of God, when all men shall howl. Lest anyone miss the horrifying significance of this, he describes it in more detail a few verses later: “Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.” (Isaiah 13:6) 9 “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.” (Isaiah 13:9) Ezekiel tells us that the day of the LORD is uniquely “the time of the heathen”. The “heathen” are those who have rejected the Gospel. If this is the case, then the church CANNOT be involved: “For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.” (Ezekiel 30:3) God in His Mercy repeats this singular truth in the short book of Obadiah: “For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.” (Obadiah 1:15) We must pay attention to what the Word of God is telling us! The Tribulation is the day of the LORD, a time when the heathen – those who have rejected the Gospel – will be judged severely by God. As they have done, so will it be done unto them. The Age of Grace has ended and the church is no longer on the earth, leaving behind it a great spiritual darkness. The heathen will be obliged to face the consequences of their rebellion, their arrogant refusal to accept the salvation offered by Jesus – “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) 10 Jesus paid our sin debt on Calvary and he paid it in full. As believers, we are no longer under condemnation. The wrath of God will come upon the earth in the seven-year Tribulation, the great day of the LORD. It will be concerned exclusively with those who are still under condemnation, who in their pride are determined to find salvation by some other means. The church cannot be here on earth while His “fierce anger” is poured out. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” – John 14:3 This is the time that John the Baptist was referring to when he chided the Pharisees and the Sadducees for coming out into the wilderness to hear his message: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matthew 3:7). In contrast, the Apostle Paul tells us that believers will be rescued (or delivered) by Jesus from the wrath to come, and that they are waiting patiently for this precious moment: “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” (1 Thessalonians 1:10) To know that we will be delivered or rescued from the wrath to come is a joy and a blessed hope. It is a special day indeed, the day of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul liked to remind believers of the joy he experienced when he thought of the many souls – known to him personally here on earth – who would stand with him in the presence of our Lord on that special day: 11 “As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (2 Corinthians 1:14) “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” (Philippians 1:6) “That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;” (Philippians 1:10) “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” (Philippians 2:16) CONCLUSION There is so much more we could say. Our earlier papers cover the subject in detail, setting out and expounding the numerous passages in God’s Word that point very clearly to a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Do believers “deserve” to be rescued in this way? Not at all! As the Psalmist said, “...verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity...” (Psalm 39:5) We have done nothing to merit salvation. Neither have we done anything to merit the Blessed Hope. Christ earned this great blessing for us on Calvary. He paid the price. He paid our sin debt in full and freed us from the power of Satan. Everyone else on earth, whether they know it or not, are governed by Satan and subject to the Satanic world system. As we have already seen, the Bible refers to them as “them that dwell upon the earth”: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." (Revelation 3:10) The original Greek word for "dwell" in the phrase "dwell upon the earth" has a deeper meaning than its English counterpart. The more usual Greek word is oikeo, which means simply ‘to dwell’, while the word used by John in the book of Revelation is katoikeo, which means to dwell permanently. It is used, for example, to describe the fullness of the Godhead that dwells in Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:9). Therefore "them that dwell upon the earth" are those who see the earth as their true home. As such they are citizens of the earth by choice. 12 It is deeply troubling to think that most of the population of the earth today are in this category. In the Age of Grace the Holy Spirit shed abundantly His wonderful mercy, reaching out to all who sincerely longed for Truth. Nevertheless, a huge proportion did not have any real love for the Truth and failed to heed His call. They are those who “received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). God could justly close the door right now, but He intends instead to offer all who dwell upon the earth one last opportunity to accept His Son. The suffering of the Tribulation, “the hour of temptation”, will spur many of these rebellious souls to repent, to set aside their pride and humbly accept the priceless gift of salvation. Incredibly, in His Mercy – before this great door closes – He will send forth tens of thousands of witnesses to preach the Gospel over the entire earth and issue a final warning to mankind. 

Jeremy James Ireland April 2, 2022

The Old World Order is About to Slide into Chaos

by Jeremy James 

It doesn’t take much imagination to see that Europe is rapidly slipping into a major energy crisis, with all that this entails. On the other hand, it takes a lot of imagination to believe it will somehow sort itself out. It won’t. This crisis has been carefully planned, where a significant proportion of the energy needed to fuel the largest economy in Europe depends entirely on the good will of just one country. Russia can cause chaos in Germany by simply shutting down the Nord Stream pipelines. Past premiers, Schröder and Merkel, among others, were instrumental in getting Germany ensnared in this way. The leading German industrialists – who control companies like Volkswagen, Siemens, Bosch, Audi, BMW, Bayer etc – said nothing at any time about this insane situation because they are part of this great betrayal. The energy crisis will afflict the whole of Europe, driving tens of thousands of companies out of business. Consider the Netherlands, for example. Their elaborate food production facilities, which operate under glass, make extensive use of affordable energy to heat and irrigate their crops. The escalating costs will either put them out of business or force them to charge such high prices for their produce that consumers will take to the streets. 2 The coming social unrest We are about to witness serious social unrest across Europe. Middle-class families will struggle to pay their heating and electricity bills, in addition to the severe hike in the price of food and standard household items. We are not looking at just one country in this dreadful bind, but an entire continent. A great many elderly people, living off a fixed income, will be made to endure freezing conditions in their own homes. Many will be forced to relocate to heated community centers to avoid freezing to death. Those who are unable to do so will need emergency intervention. The hospital services will be overloaded and huge numbers of residents will die in care homes across Europe. It should be obvious, for those who care to look, that Europe is under attack. There is a well-known dictum: Prepare for the next war, not the last one. The nature of war has changed. The public find it hard to imagine a war without guns and direct person-to-person aggression. For example, if one country poisons another by stealth, is that war? Of course it is, but the victims may not live long enough to learn how an undeclared enemy had attacked and destroyed them. The weapons in modern warfare are not necessarily made of steel. If a country is brought to the brink of economic ruin by the international banking cartel, then that country has come under attack. If a country is overrun by “refugees” and “migrants”, it too is under economic attack. That assault may later translate into a direct internal attack as the newcomers coalesce into strident ethnic groups which oppose or seek advantage over the indigenous population. An unelected cabal known as the EU Commission is steering the whole of Europe into a terrible storm. 3 The weapons being directed against Europe The main non-military weapons being directed against Europe are discussed below. These have been used for decades to slowly crush Europe in the style of an African python. The constriction has been slow and few seem to have seen it happening, but the serpentine asphyxiation of all these nations has been worked out in detail. The very institutions that we believed were ‘protecting’ Europe were actually complicit in this insidious strategy. 1. The infiltration of governments The first weapon is the installation of governments via the ‘democratic’ process which, unknown to the public, are actually working for world communism, the international banking system, the multinational corporations, or in accordance with another agenda hostile to the interests of the host country. Most European countries appear to have been infiltrated in this way. This means they are steering their respective nations into the maw of the New World Order. 2. Debt slavery The second weapon is the massive level of national debt which most countries in Europe have allowed to accumulate. In a time of long-run prosperity and steady growth in the world economy, there was no reason for this. All of these countries should have been running a surplus. The ‘globalists’ have long used debt slavery as a means to weaken nations and impose conditions which advance the NWO agenda. 3. Stealth invasion 3. The opening of Europe to a vast influx of “refugees” from the Middle East and North Africa. This has been permitted even in the absence of any apparent economic or humanitarian purpose. In a great many instances these immigrants are an economic drain on the national economy. Furthermore, the criteria for admission appear to be nominal and designed to facilitate easy entry. In additi0n to this, very large numbers of migrants are gaining entry illegally. We are asked to believe they are paying hefty sums to middle-men to convey them to Europe when we know most of them are being assisted by a few dozen NGOs funded by the ‘globalists’. There is little evidence that the governments of Europe are making a concerted effort to prevent these massive waves of illegal immigration. For example, inflatable dinghies are landing on the east and south coasts of England on a daily basis, each carrying a dozen or more illegal immigrants, most of whom are fit young men of military age. 4 Severe damage has been done to the social fabric of Sweden by legal, government approved immigration. Large Islamic enclaves have developed and the national crime rate has soared. A sizeable proportion of the population of France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands is now Islamic. The risk that this poses to the future stability of these nations hardly needs to be cited. An ever-growing non-integrating ethnic group, with a strong antipathy to Christianity and Christian values, is certain to pose a future threat to national security if and when appropriate methods of incitement are used. These enclaves are powder kegs with a short fuse. Islamic Malmo, 2022. Malmo is one of Sweden’s largest cities. 4. Energy restrictions The fourth weapon directed at Europe is the gradual suppression of energy diversity through the bogus science of ‘global warming’. Germany has shut down her nuclear power generators to reduce the risk to the environment – which makes no sense whatever. It has also significantly reduced its dependence on oil and switched to natural gas, which is allegedly more environmentally friendly. This was done in the knowledge that its future energy needs would be greatly reliant on the availability of natural gas from its main supplier, Russia. Large sums of money have also been paid to build wind-powered generators, unreliable and inefficient devices which cannot possibly supply all of the energy lost by the ongoing reduction in oil consumption. Carbon targets and quotas, which are based on outrageously dishonest scientific models, are being used deceitfully to impose severe restrictions on power generation and industrial output. The real-world impact of these bogus targets will cause great hardship. For example, the Dutch government is trying to persuade one third of the nation’s farmers to cease production by 2030 in order to reduce nitrogen emissions. The resulting loss of agricultural produce – our food!! – would seem to be of little concern. The perverse willingness of the Dutch government to make demands of this kind is proof that the ‘globalists’ are prepared to use extreme intimidation and threats of imprisonment to enforce draconian restrictions and, by this means, cripple industrial and agricultural output. 5 Inefficient and unreliable wind turbines in a German town. These ridiculous structures are very costly to erect and maintain. 5. Inflationary pricing strategies The fifth weapon is closely related to #4. Poor energy diversity means prices can rise suddenly if supply is interrupted, and they can rise prodigiously if it is greatly reduced. The closure of the LPG pipelines by Russia is essentially an attack on Germany and other European countries. The price of virtually everything will be affected. Inflation will take off and severe social hardship is inevitable. The cost of producing fertilizer will also increase substantially, resulting in greatly inflated food prices. Even by traditional standards what Russia has done is an act of war. European countries may have brought this upon themselves by imposing economic sanctions on Russia – in response to its invasion of the Ukraine – but, for families struggling to survive, the outcome is the same. As a globalist catspaw, the EU Commission has betrayed the citizens of Europe. 6. The stealth introduction of foreign militia The sixth weapon in this war will only be discernible to those who see how the other five weapons are being deployed. Once one realizes that Europe is under attack from within, it becomes clear that popular resistance or push-back must be expected at some stage. Already we are seeing massive protests by Dutch farmers, as well as large protest rallies in many European cities. Increasing popular unrest will result in direct conflict between protestors and law enforcement. As more and more citizens conclude that their governments have betrayed them, the social contract will break down. Many disaffected citizens, especially those on lower incomes, will loot retail outlets in retaliation. Some will vent their anger by attacking and burning buildings which they identify with the ruling elite. Politicians and other establishment figures may face real threats to their physical safety. When this happens curfews will be imposed and, quite possibly, martial law. 6 The above is a screenshot from a short pre-recorded video of the Queen which was broadcast at her Jubilee and shown on a giant screen to the huge audience outside Buckingham Palace. She is depicted in an animated sketch with Paddington Bear. The two are having tea together and the bear says: “Perhaps you would like a marmalade sandwich? I always keep one for emergencies.” “So do I,” she replies, as she proudly takes a sandwich from her purse: “I keep mine in here.” The Elite are saying to the world: ‘We control your daily bread.’ This blasphemous boast is directed against the prayer given to us by Jesus: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread...” 7 The Elite know they cannot be absolutely certain that their own security forces – police and military – will protect them. Many of the rank and file will have witnessed scenes which lead them to believe that the government lied to the people with criminal intent. The authorities cannot risk having to deal with a breakaway group of this kind. In order to avoid this happening, disaffected elements within the security forces will need to be removed quickly and, if necessary, brutally. The only way to do this is to use armed enforcers who have no patriotic allegiance to the country – in short, foreigners with military training, men who will have no qualms about arresting and, if necessary, executing whomever the government directs. The usual way to do this is to formally request foreign assistance after the trouble has started, for example by calling on the UN to intervene. But this would leave an appreciable time gap between the start of unrest and the arrival of foreign aid. So how will the governments of Europe meet this threat? We believe many countries have counter-insurgency troops in place already. They could have crossed the border in the guise of ‘migrants’ and been assigned to cities and towns across the country. As we noted above, a large proportion of these ‘migrants’ and ‘refugees’ are fit young men, many of whom may already have received military training in their country of origin. Illegal migrants, mostly fit young men, approach the English coastline in 2022. They seem confident that the authorities will not do much to prevent them from entering the UK. 8 Take the case of Ireland. In the period 2020-2021, about 150,000 immigrants gained legal entry into our country (There are believed to be many more who arrived illegally). It would have been a simple matter to conceal an undercover militia of 15,000 men among that number. Under ‘normal’ circumstances, we would be justified in dismissing this possibility as absurd. But these are not normal circumstances. What is happening in Europe at the moment is anything but normal. Ireland is in the ‘war zone’ and is scheduled to fall beneath the wheels of international Communism, just like the rest of Europe. - two personal observations Two personal observations may help to put this in perspective. A few weeks ago I went to the local cove for a swim. The beach was packed with noisy families enjoying the spell of fine weather. As I got ready to leave I noticed three well-built men sitting apart from the crowd. They were clearly eastern European. I watched them for about twenty minutes to see if I could shake off the suspicion that they were off-duty military personnel. Their demeanor and general behavior only reinforced my initial assessment. Perhaps I was mistaken. After all, what would foreign military personnel be doing on Irish soil? Only later did the penny drop. When I related this episode to a wide-awake Christian friend, he said he had been told by a contact in the Gardai (the Irish police) that, unknown to the Irish public, UN troops were being trained in Irish policing procedures by the Gardai. He didn’t know how many UN troops were in the country for this purpose but, even if the contingent is small, it is proof that something very strange is happening within our borders, with the approval of the Irish government. The same would seem to be happening in the UK. Boatloads of fit young men arrive in the UK every day, most of whom appear to be from Eastern Europe or the Middle East. A small number are ‘detained’ by immigration officers at Dover and sent back to France or – if you would believe it – Rwanda, but the vast majority merge quietly into the population. A great many more arrive by night along the east coast, uncounted and undetected. This has been happening continuously for several years under the tightly shut eyes of the UK government. They keep coming. 9 - the situation in the UK It is estimated that there are around one million illegal immigrants in the UK, comprising men, women and children. If only 5 percent of these are part of an undercover militia, they still amount to a force of 50,000 men. The total number of police officers in the UK is 135,000, down from 170,000 ten years ago. So, while the hidden threat is growing, the number of police officers is falling. Furthermore, given that a large percentage of police officers in the UK are Freemasons, including virtually every officer of senior rank, the possibility that a meaningful number might question the authority of the government is very remote. Hidden in plain sight. The Freemasons control the British police force. 7. Fiat currency and paper assets The seventh weapon is fiat currency, the deliberate proliferation of banknotes (and paper assets) which are underpinned by nothing. This weapon is being used on a grand scale all over the world, not just Europe. At a time of their choosing, the Elite will press the button and cause the entire financial system to implode (See our paper #323). They may do this under the cover of a major ‘natural’ disaster – such as a tsunami hitting London or New York. In reality the ‘natural’ disaster would be caused by manmade submarine explosions. Why has there been so much talk in the media about asteroids and the awful possibility that one of them might shortly collide with the earth? This has been going on for over twenty years, with more and more baleful reports of “near misses” which could have had catastrophic consequences for life on earth. If the impact occurred in the Atlantic ocean, it is alleged, it could launch a devastating tsunami at both the US and European coastlines. The public is being gradually conditioned to believe this deceitful, idiotic nonsense. The propaganda is supplemented by powerful images and emotional scenes in movies and television programs which purport to depict an asteroid impact. 10 This photo, which was released by NASA in 2018, purports to show an asteroid named ‘Bennu’ taken by the OSIRIS-REx ‘spacecraft’. These peculiar names are blatantly Masonic. The ‘Bennu’ in Egyptian mythology was a divine bird closely associated with the sun, dawn, and the pagan gods Ra and Osiris. Like most (if not all) NASA photos, it is a forgery, a mock-up produced in a studio using graphic-design software. Asteroids are a hoax, yet another mythical entity in the arsenal of poison arrows devised by Satan and his earthly servants. Just as a hunter has a quiver full of arrows, these wicked deceivers have a quiver full of lies: “Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity: Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.” – Psalm 64 CONCLUSION A great barrier to understanding what is happening today is the belief that wars take place only between countries. This isn’t true. In fact, when two countries enter into conflict, it is often because a third country or outside agency has used lies and intrigue to stir up tension between them; then, having done so, it provides both sides with the arms and matériel needed to conduct the war. This third party is generally working with the international banking system, without which the funds needed to finance the war would not be available. The enemy that is attacking Europe is not a country but a cartel, a consortium of ultrarich families which for generations have been working together to mold the world according to their will. Each war reshapes the political landscape in some way according to their wishes, and at the same time enables the cartel to extract enormous profits and capital gains from one or both of the countries embroiled in the conflict. The City of London, the center of world finance, would appear to have a role in virtually all of these wars. 11 The cartel wants to impose on Europe – as well as the US and Canada – the same system of social and economic control that it has already successfully imposed on China. One may ask, how could the small group of families which control China have managed to enslave 1,400 million people in this way? We can see from this that huge political power can be exercised by just a few players in a hierarchical system. As the Word of God states: “Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.” (James 3:4) 12 EU Commission The Queen’s video was also giving a warning to mankind: ‘Do you have a store of food set aside in case of an emergency?’ 13 Time is very, very short. Before long we may not be able to communicate like this. The Enemy is racing ahead. As Christians, we need to remember the wonderful grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father. We may not understand why such distress must come upon the earth, but we must trust our Father. Known unto Him were all things from the foundation of the world. We must pray for one another and encourage those near to us in every way we can. They will be bewildered beyond measure and unable to grasp what is happening. Our patience, our composure, and our trust in Jesus will mean a lot to them at this critical hour. In closing I would like to thank all of those readers who prayed for my protection over the past 12 years or so. It meant a great deal to me. These prayers were a great blessing when the going got rough. With love in the precious Name of Jesus. _____________ 

Jeremy James Ireland September 9, 2022

Zephniah

Cautionary Words on the End Time from H A Ironside

by Jeremy James 

Like many believers I have considerable respect for Bible scholars of the 19th and 20th century who stuck closely to God’s Word and refused to be distracted by the latest theory, fashion, or political development. They studied carefully what God said and examined real world events from that perspective, even when it was not popular to do so, or when a new ‘scientific’ discovery came on the scene which conflicted with Scripture. They could see that the Jews would shortly return to the land of Israel because the Word of God stated that this would occur as the Age drew to a close. They didn’t allow themselves to be led astray by analyzing exactly how it happened, or the motives of those involved, and foolishly dismissing its crucial role in Bible prophecy. They knew that God often accomplished His will by using those who opposed Him as instruments of His purpose. We strongly recommend the writings of H A Ironside – see Appendix B – because they are based on a sound hermeneutic and are backed by a truly diligent examination of what God recorded for our benefit in His Word. The Roman Catholic prelates have long deplored men like Ironside because they remind them, over and over, that God expressly stated that we are never to add to, or take from, His Word. Successive Popes down the centuries have done just that, issuing Bulls and other theological edicts which add to God’s Word or change the plain meaning of what He said: 2 “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2) “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32) “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” (Proverbs 30:5-6) “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19) This is a very simple request from our Creator: I have said what I have said for your benefit and well-being; don’t add to it or delete any part of it. But man in his fallen state is incredibly disobedient. He is also cunningly industrious when it comes to finding ways to justify his disobedience. We are witnessing today the culmination of that disobedience, where even those who purport to study and respect His Word are ignoring what He said and following their own opinion instead. They never admit that they have rejected it, but claim rather to have come to a greater understanding of what He really meant. They are often pushed in this direction by alleged prophets and visionaries who have “reimagined” the truths of the Bible or uncovered a special truth which no-one has discerned or understood until now. 3 “If ye love me...” Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). One of these commandments is to believe and honor all that his Father revealed to us in His Word. So, according to Jesus, those who who add to Scripture, or take from it, do not love him. This is a hard message for a great many professing Christians today. If anyone tries to evade the force of John 14:15, let them weigh the significance of two later verses in the same Gospel: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me...” (John 14:21) “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love...” (John 15:10) It was made even more explicit, if that is possible, on the occasion where he was surrounded by a great audience and his mother and his brothers sought to get through and speak with him. When he was told of this, he asked rhetorically, “Who is my mother, or my brethren?” (Mark 3:33). In Luke he gives the following answer: “My mother and my brethren are these [i.e. the faithful among his audience] which hear the word of God, and do it.” (Luke 8:21) The Antichrist will leave his audience spellbound. Like the officers sent to arrest Jesus, they will say, “Never man spake like this man.” (John 7:46) But in their case they will say it because they never took Scripture to heart nor lived in obedience to God’s Word. This is why Jesus said he never knew them. After the Church is taken away in the Rapture, the professing Christians who are still on earth will turn in large numbers to the Antichrist when he reveals himself. They will do this because their hearts were not transformed by the Gospel. Where Jesus connected love very firmly with obedience, these professing Christians saw little or no connection. This, in part, is what makes the Antichrist so attractive initially to the masses of humanity. 4 Who will accept the Antichrist? Drawing upon many passages of Scripture to make his case, H A Ironside stated in his brochure, Who will be Saved in the Coming Period of Judgment?, that anyone who rejects the Gospel before the Rapture will be judicially unable to do so afterwards and will gladly receive the Antichrist. Rather than summarize what he said, we would urge our readers to study it for themselves (See Appendix A). A copy of his paper was kindly sent to me by a regular reader who, like many other believers, is troubled that nominal Christians – the great majority of the visible church today – will be facing this predicament. Dr Ironside expressed a similar view in his book, The Great Parenthesis: “But during the last half of the seventieth week he [i.e. the Antichrist] will deceive the nations by power and signs and lying wonders. Those [among the Jews] who will be preserved in that day are designated in the prophets as "the remnant." This Jewish remnant will become God's messengers to the Gentiles who have not yet heard and resisted the truth, but for those who have heard and had every opportunity to be saved but persisted in refusing the message of grace, there is no possibility of salvation in that awful day. Because they refused the love of the truth when they might have known it, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe not merely a lie, but, according to the original text, the lie, that is, the lie of the Antichrist, that they all might be damned or doomed to judgment because they believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” – H A Ironside, The Great Parenthesis, p.119 If he is right – and I believe he is – then many professing Christians, and very possibly some who are known to us, will end up accepting the Antichrist. How are we to reconcile ourselves to this? After all, the matter is entirely out of our hands. As ever, we must trust in LORD and His great mercy! We can also reflect on the crucial criterion in Dr Ironside’s paper, namely, that those who are affected by the “strong delusion” (2 Thessalonians 2:11) are those who heard the Gospel before the Tribulation but chose to reject it. Thus, according to this interpretation, those who “came out of great tribulation” (Revelation 7:14) are the saints who heard the Gospel for the first time during the Tribulation and accepted Christ as their savior. These will include a great many Hindus and Moslems, as well as a wide variety of people across the face of the earth who, until then, were unbelievers. 5 We should note what the Word of God states in 2 Thessalonians 2:12: Those who “take pleasure in unrighteousness” are heading to perdition. Who are these people? Many would say they are false believers with a cruel disposition, people who secretly enjoy the suffering of others. But this interpretation is far too narrow. Take the case of Ireland: On 25 May 2018, five out of every seven people of voting age decided to support the murder of unborn children or chose not to go to the polling station and vote against it. How many of these took pleasure in unrighteousness? The modern apostate church has departed so much from the Gospel of Christ that a great many professing Christians today have never heard the true Gospel. This should not surprise us. There is wide gap between the social-ecumenical gospel taught by the Laodicean church and the true Gospel of Christ. This suggests that many professing Christians, who were not part of the Body of Christ at the time of the Rapture, will respond with joy to the Gospel message during the Tribulation. They will likely pay with their lives, but they will be saved. The Word of God seems to be pointing in that direction when it states: “...whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13). The Third Temple in Jerusalem A plausible sign of this “strong delusion” will be the importance attached by nominal Christians to the construction of the Third Temple in Jerusalem. Many who will end up receiving the mark of the beast will believe that the Third Temple had been constructed by well-intentioned men to honor the LORD God of the Bible. In reality it will be constructed by Freemasons and apostate, Cabalistic Jews to honor the Antichrist, the false messiah. Artist representation of Solomon’s Temple. 6 The Book of Revelation tells us that, after the Church has departed, God will send two witnesses to replace the Church as His witness on earth. These will appear on the streets of Jerusalem within hours of the Rapture and will begin the mission given to them by God. The Temple may already have been erected by that time or it will be erected very shortly after their appearance. They will take control of the Temple and, having evicted the Masonic-Cabalistic imposters, they will consecrate it to the LORD. This is when Elijah, one of the two witnesses, will “restore all things” (Matthew 17:11). This will include the restoration of the daily sacrifices and the consecration of Aaronic priests. The killing of the Two Witnesses Despite the best efforts by the agents of the Antichrist to evict the two witnesses, they will be unable to do so. The witnesses will have remarkable supernatural powers and will be ousted only when the Antichrist himself goes to Jerusalem and kills them. Their bodies will be left lying in the street and the whole world will rejoice at the sight, having watched the drama unfold over several months on their television screens. After three and a half days the two witnesses will be resurrected from the dead and will ascend into heaven. The world will be in shock. All who follow the Antichrist will be greatly unnerved when they see this amazing event. This was something they had never expected. It will seem to them that their ‘messiah’ has been thwarted in some way. In his rage the Antichrist will enter the Temple and commit the “abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15). 7 Remember, in order to constitute an abomination in the eyes of God, the Temple itself must be consecrated to God. This can only be done by a true prophet of God. If Elijah and his fellow witness did not do this it would remain a secular building constructed by the enemies of God for their own purposes. (For a more detailed study of the role of the two witnesses see our earlier paper, #164.) Anyone who supports the construction of the Third Temple, whether financially or in other ways, is actually facilitating the arrival of the Antichrist. The Temple is being built for him. It is by this means that Satan intends to achieve his third ambition, the third “I will” in chapter 14 of Isaiah: “I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:” (Isaiah 14:13) See also Psalm 48:2 – “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.” A secular Zionist admits the Temple is definitely not for Jesus In Lecture 15 of his commentary on the Book of Revelation, H A Ironside recounted the following episode: “...when Dr. Mosinsohn, of the Hebrew College of Jaffa, was touring America in the interests of the same Zionist movement [i.e the Zionist Congress], I had the privilege of hearing him give an address at the University of California. In the course of his remarks, he said, “Think of all the great religious leaders who have come out of the East. Moses arose in the East, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Mahomet all arose in the East. And we say to you people of the West, with confidence, that if you will restore the Jew to his ancestral home it will not be long until we will give you another great religious leader who will perhaps transcend all who have gone before.” A Christian physician and I, who had gone there together, looked at one another in amazement. We felt that we were listening to a “John the Baptist” of the Antichrist, so startling was the announcement. And with the light that the prophetic word throws upon the now very near future, who can doubt that this Hebrew leader’s declaration will indeed seem to an unbelieving world to be fulfilled in the willful one who is to be raised up in the land of Palestine, and whom apostate Judaism and apostate Christendom alike will acknowledge as the Christ – the coming man. Toward this awful end all modern cults and -isms are tending, and when the personal presence of the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn from the earth, his manifestation will not long be withheld.” [p.142] 8 Dr Benzion Mosinsohn, pictured in an article about Zionism in The Sunday Star, Washington DC, 9 October, 1927. His surname is also spelt ‘Mossinsohn’. His tour of America took place in 1937. He was a member of the Zionist Actions Committee, a leader of the General Zionist Party, and a delegate to most of the World Zionist Congresses. When he died in 1942, all Hebrew schools in the Holy Land were closed for his funeral. Dr Ironside was issuing a warning to all who cared to listen. The apostate leaders of Israel were knowingly heading into a future where they hoped to produce a great religious leader like those listed – or who would even “transcend all who have gone before”! The leaders of secular Zionism are preparing the way for the Antichrist, as are the leaders of apostate Christianity. It was insightful of Dr Ironside to see this so clearly, even before the state of Israel had been established. He wasn’t buying the sales pitch delivered by a high-ranking Zionist. He knew exactly where all of this was leading. Spokesmen for the Temple Institute in Jerusalem have long boasted that preparations for the construction of the Temple are well advanced. It is believed that the Temple may even have been erected in the Negev Desert on a trial basis from prefabricated components and that, when the time comes to erect it on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the project will take only a few months to complete. 9 Evidence that the Temple Project is far advanced We were recently given evidence that preparations for the Third Temple are well under way. In February 2020 Israel’s Transportation Ministry announced that it was moving ahead with plans to build an extension to the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem high-speed line that would directly connect Ben-Gurion International Airport to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Last week the Airports Authority for Israel announced that a new, ultra-modern terminal would open at the airport in 2023. This is intended to cater for the anticipated increase in international visitors coming to Jerusalem. The proposed high-speed line, linking the airport to the Western Wall, will operate from this terminal (Estimated travel time: 28 minutes). Current rapid rail link between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, introduced in 2019. Steps are also being taken behind the scenes to keep the Islamic world on side. For example, Israel recently signed normalization agreements with neighboring Arab countries which have increased the number of air routes available and made it easier for Arab tourists to visit Israel. Despite the rhetoric in the press, the nations of Islam are run by Freemasons, so negotiations like this are easy to arrange. The Monotheism Trap It should be remembered also that Judaism and Islam are both monotheistic. Both reject the Trinity. Both strenuously deny that God has a Son. Considerable efforts are being made, for example through the ‘Abraham Accords’, to convince the Islamic world that Allah and the LORD God of the Bible are one and the same. It is claimed, for example, that if there is only one divine being, then the God of Moses and the God of Muhammad must be the same Person. The Roman Catholic Church is preaching the same message. Article 841 of its modern Catechism states: 10 841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day." Plainly, the masterminds behind New World Order are planning to create a One World Religion comprising members of the ‘Abrahamic faith’. The proposed new Temple on the Temple Mount will probably be presented to Muslims as a ‘House of Prayer’ that will be pleasing to Allah. Medal commemorating the Abraham Accord signed by the US, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates in August 2020. Parakaleō As true believers, we trust in the Word of God and lean on His promises. This includes the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church. We don’t ‘deserve’ heaven and nothing we have ever done merits our inclusion amongst those who will enter heaven. But we live in the strength of this blessing, this heavenly assurance, because of what Jesus, our Savior, did on our behalf. The Word of God tells us that living believers will be taken from the earth on the same day as the resurrected dead: “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 shall rise first: 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18) 11 Why are Christians told to “comfort one another with these words”? Because they are immensely important! The Holy Spirit is telling us that this news, this revelation of divine truth, is about the most reassuring intelligence we could ever receive. The word for comfort in the Greek original is parakaleō. In the KJV this word is translated as “beseech” 43 times, “comfort” 23 times, “exhort” 21 times, and by other words 22 times. We are asked to ensure that all believers get this message. Why else would we “beseech” and “exhort” our fellow believers to understand and become familiar with this truth unless it was of immense importance? The Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church is a fundamental Bible doctrine. Before the Lord comes to judge those who have rejected the Gospel – “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:” (2 Thessalonians 1:8) – he must come for those who received it. These are two separate events. He will meet the Church in the air on the first occasion and will descend to the surface of the earth on the second, and only on the second, to exact judgment. The Holy Spirit is on earth today in a special way We need to remember that the Holy Spirit is on earth at this time in a special way. He was not present in this way during Old Testament times, and He will cease to be present in this way after Resurrection Day. Once He leaves, the Church must depart from the earth as well since all of her members, as living stones, collectively comprise the Temple wherein He dwells. The Word of God tells us that, once He enters our hearts, He never leaves – “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever” (John 14:16). In the same Gospel account Jesus also referred to something which many believers seem to have forgotten: 12 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” (John 16:7) Jesus and the Holy Spirit cannot both be here on earth at the same time! If Jesus is to descend to the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4) the Holy Spirit must already have departed. The time gap, at his first coming, between the departure of Jesus and the arrival of the Holy Spirit was ten days. The time gap at his second coming, between the departure of the Holy Spirit and the arrival of Jesus on earth, will be 2520 days. This period is known as the Tribulation or “the great day of the LORD” (Zephaniah 1:14). During this awful time, the LORD’s wrath will be poured out upon the earth. The ‘great day’ of His grace and mercy will have ended before this starts – as it must! The Church cannot be here. Those who contend that the Church must endure all or part of the Tribulation are greatly mistaken. The Church, the Bride of Christ, is a stunning creation. Jesus went to Calvary “for the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:2). She cannot be anywhere on earth when his Father pours out His wrath in great fury on all mankind. His anger is directed solely at those who have rejected His Son. The Flood, the last great Judgment, afflicted every square inch of the earth; so too will the wrath of God during the Tribulation. “And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.” - Revelation 11:9-10 The Beast attacks the Two Witnesses (from the Bamberg Apocalypse, 11th century). The whole world rejoices at the news that the two witnesses have been killed. Why? Because they prevented the New World Order from using ‘their’ Temple for a considerable time. 13 Date setting and the Rapture There is much talk today about the timing of the Rapture. Many commentators are making what they believe to be a sound hermeneutic connection between the Feast of Trumpets and the Rapture. They interpret the reference to “the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:52) as a reference to the final extended trumpet blast at the close of the Feast of Trumpets. The trumpet or trumpet ensemble allegedly sounded 100 times during this Feast, with the last being much longer than the previous 99. This very long final note is sometimes called the Tekiah Gedolah or ‘great reverberating blast’. H A Ironside does not agree. Here is what he says: “I have no doubt that those expositors are right who understand the expression "the last trump" to be an allusion to the third trump of the Roman legions. When the first trumpet sounded, whether it came in the night or in the day, the soldiers sprang to their feet and struck their tents. When the second trumpet sounded, they fell into line. At the last trumpet they marched away. And so we who believe have heard the first trumpet, awakening us when we were asleep in our sins. The second trumpet has called us to recognize the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we await the sounding of the last trump when we shall be caught away to be with Him forever. Then those who are living in their natural, mortal bodies will suddenly put on immortality. That is, the body will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and made like unto the glorious resurrection body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have died and whose bodies have corrupted in the grave, will be raised to incorruptibility, and in their new bodies will be with and like Christ forever. This is our hope. For this we are called to wait. At any moment the Lord Jesus may return to fulfill these Scriptures. How blessed to be ready to hail Him with joy at His Advent!” – H A Ironside, The Great Parenthesis, p.109 What a glorious promise the LORD has made! As Harry Ironside says, “This is our hope. For this we are called to wait.” And we are privileged to do so! 14 We should take careful note of what he says about the Roman army. The Emperor had military garrisons and forts all over the Middle East. The sight of these legions marching from one location to another was familiar to all. Smaller groups would also be seen walking from town to town, carrying their weapons and heavy equipment. This was arduous work in the heat of the day. When Jesus said, “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.” (Matthew 5:41) he was referring to the authority exercised by the Roman legionnaires, who could compel a citizen to walk a mile with them and help carry their equipment. Every mile was marked by a milestone, so it was easy to determine the distance. Metaphors and images derived from the ubiquitous presence of the Roman armies crop up frequently in Paul’s writings. Perhaps the best known is “the whole armour of God” in his letter to the Ephesians. He also refers to disciplines associated with the Greco-Roman games, where athletes competed with one another for the prize or laurel wreath, the stephanos or crown which he exhorts all believers to keep continually before them. The ‘tuba’ or trumpet used by the Roman military to issue orders to their troops. It could be heard distinctly over a wide area. So, when Paul speaks of a trumpet call, he is almost certainly referring to the three clarion calls that were familiar to everyone across the Middle East, both Gentile and Jew. At the first call, the Roman soldiers broke camp and assembled their equipment into handy loads for the march ahead. At the second call they all fell into marching formation, ready for inspection. And at the third call, they set off. This “last trump” was a universal message in effect, telling everyone in the locality that an orderly contingent of soldiers was about to march through the town or village, a sight which would invariably have attracted a large throng of onlookers. 15 It was easy to see why Paul used this term. Everyone understood what it meant, especially the Gentile readers of his letters. As the Apostle to the Gentiles he was wont to use expressions which were readily understood by non-Jews. The Tekiah Gedolah at the Feast of Trumpets would have been unknown to most Gentiles. They would neither have heard it nor heard of it! The Rapture can occur at any time The Jewish feasts were given by God to the Jewish people to mark major phases in their plan of redemption. The first four spoke of the First Coming, and the last three spoke of the Second Coming. The Rapture of the Church is not bound up in any of them. We are grafted into this plan and enjoy something which the Jews as a people have yet to experience – the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Paul had the difficult task of explaining the mystery of the Church to both Jews and Gentiles. The former had been called and found wanting, clinging rigidly to what had previously been revealed and refusing to receive the additional revelation granted by Jesus and his apostles. The End Time significance of the last three Jewish feasts is as follows: 1. The Feast of Trumpets: The righteous remnant among the children of Israel will be jarred into wakefulness by a series of shocks or “trumpets”. The departure of the Church will likely be one of these, along with the military attacks on the Holy Land, the work of the two witnesses, the death of the two witnesses, the abomination of desolation, and the miraculous preservation of a great many Jewish refugees by the Archangel Michael and his army of angels. 2. The Day of Atonement: This signifies the agonizing realization by the righteous remnant that they rejected their Messiah, Jesus Christ, at his first coming. The prophet Zechariah describes this deeply emotional occasion as follows: “And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.” (Zechariah 12:12-14) 16 The shock will be so great that they will hardly be able to look at one another. They will retire individually to their rooms and grieve bitterly for their faithless betrayal of their glorious redeemer. 3. The Feast of Tabernacles: This speaks of the immense joy that will come upon all Israel – which will comprise only those Jews who accept the Messiah – when the Lord takes up residence among them. This will manifest the prophetic meaning of his name, Immanuel – “God with us”! – “Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.” (Isaiah 52:6) Their joy will be fully reciprocated. Jesus will embrace his people, rejoicing with them and singing among them: “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) Avoid the trap Those who identify the Feast of Trumpets with the Rapture of the Church are falling into a trap. Firstly, they are refusing to accept that the harpazo can occur at any time. Many will claim they are not, but this is a hollow claim. They are setting a date, albeit one which rolls over from one year to the next. The second and more serious error is the risk that Paul alludes to in his first letter to the Thessalonians. These believers were greatly troubled by the possibility that the Rapture/Resurrection had already taken place, and seemingly had received one or more counterfeit letters claiming that Paul himself or one of his senior aides was teaching this. Paul wanted them to understand why and how they had been deceived. Please note this carefully! The Word of God sets out for our benefit a patent example of deception and confusion surrounding the date of the Rapture. Paul had given these believers very clear guidance in this matter and yet they were taken in by a trickster. If it happened to them, it could happen to us. We must be careful. 17 The Enemy is quite capable of staging a false ‘rapture’ to bolster his own End Time deception. The professing Christians who are most likely to believe it are those who are already anticipating its occurrence on the Feast of Trumpets or another specified date. Given that the public today are deeply conditioned to believe virtually anything they are told by the mainstream media, the deception – if it took place – would have a profound effect on millions of people. What would the Enemy gain from this? Well, apart from its greatly demoralizing effect on nominal Christianity, it would set the stage for the coming One World Religion. Many members of existing world religions and cults would feature among the ‘raptured’. If they included the Pope, the Patriarch of Moscow, the Dalai Lama, prominent Hindu gurus, and well-known Imams, Pirs and Ayatollahs, along with many New Age teachers, mystics and ‘masters’, the public would want to know why. The pundits would claim that their inclusive beliefs and inter-faith dialogue, combined with their exemplary works and religious zeal, were greatly pleasing to God. Moreover, if the fundamentalist, evangelical Christians are still here on earth then it can mean only one thing – the Reformation was a disaster for Christianity and salvation by faith alone through grace alone is a false teaching. The public would start to believe that all religions are one, or branches of the same Truth, and that they all worship the same God, while born-again, Bible-believing Christians – who teach nothing of the kind! – will be portrayed as narrow minded bigots, extremists and hatemongers who deserve to be locked away. A counterfeit Rapture would also prepare the way for a counterfeit Tribulation, or a period of war, famine and turmoil across the world which the politicians and the media, along with the Laodicean church, could describe as the Tribulation. The ramifications of this are difficult to fathom and we won’t attempt to explore them here. *** CONCLUSION The Church is a truly astounding creation. The masses of humanity will not realize this until she disappears from the earth and the void is filled with the spirit of lawlessness. The shift will be immediate, setting off a cascade of events which, in their destructiveness, will seem almost unreal. Christ took upon himself the wrath of God on Calvary. He did this for each one of us, namely those who come to him in faith and true repentance. He paid the price. Since the price has already been paid in full, the Church cannot be here on earth when the LORD pours out His wrath on disobedient humanity.

Zephaniah