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:
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“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.
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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]
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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.
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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:
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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)
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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:
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“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.
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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!
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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
