Edition 273. August 19^th 2015

Preparing for the rapture:

Preparing for the rapture:

●In the next edition I’ll deal with some exciting things on the Jubilee and other factors on timing.

Introduction:

Unless you’ve been on planet Pluto, you would have seen all the material from numerous sources, some reputable and some not, of a possible rapture taking place on Rosh Hashanah (13^th-14^th September 2015).

There is much weighty evidence in favour of it. But, I must caution that we are commanded of God to watch and pray, and to be ready, but that there is a possibility that it may be next year or the year after, at the latest.

Put your faith, hope and trust in getting ready and watching. The other side of the story is the great tragedy of many Christians with no interest in eschatology. You listen to them talk and its all worldly talk. Not necessarily sin, just the continuous talk of a continuing world. These people are boring, have no spark or fire of God in their hearts.

Actually if you have no interest in end-times you will have a powerful interest in world now-times. You will not be ready and are will be in danger of being swamped by the spirit of the age.

When will the rapture occur, or not!

Before we get into the main subject matter of this edition, I must bring this to your attention. Please take this as a word of warning.

There is an enormous weight of evidence for the rapture taking place and the tribulation beginning at Rosh Hashanah this year (Next month). A lot of this evidence is valid, some is not. Personally I lean towards this year, because of this evidence and a few items of my own, which I have not shared yet.

There is however, one big problem with this year being it. I wish it were not so, but I must be lay all the cards on the table.

The missing trigger:

We are commanded to watch and pray for the coming of our Lord. We are commanded to know the signs. But we must also know what signs are missing.

The Bible is clear on what actually kicks off the tribulation period. The rapture would then need to occur at the same time.

It is the signing or confirming of a seven-year peace treaty between “the many” and Israel. The Bible also declares that this event reveals the antichrist.

Daniel 9:27 “Then he (antichrist) shall confirm a covenant with many for one week (of years).”

2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 “Now you know what is retraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; Only He who now restrains, will do so until He is taken out of the way and then the lawless one(antichrist) will be revealed, who the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.”

We have had numerous attempts to set up a peace treaty from the Oslo Accord to the current Two-State Solution. All have failed. Right now we do not have any sort of peace treaty or deal on the table with the Palestinians, Arabs, or any others and Israel.

We do have an upcoming event at the UN General Assembly in September. But this is only the presentation of an agenda and will not result in anything like a treaty of any sort coming about and being officially signed or confirmed in September.

This is the big problem. We don’t have the trigger on the horizon now. Could it come about? These days so many extreme things are happening that it could come about.  It could come in a surprising unexpected form.

We can’t jump the gun! We will watch and see what, if anything materialises between now and September.

►Many other ducks are in a row for September, but I join many other prophecy watchmen in proclaiming caution right now.

If it is not this year, time is running out fast – very fast. I doubt that we can go further than 2017.

Preparation for the rapture:

●Be perfect!

There is one verse containing one principle that sticks out head and shoulders above all others.

Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Do you want to be ready? Good- Be perfect! Some are thinking I wish he didn’t say that! Actually I didn’t, God did and I really love it.

I love it because it so succinctly sums up the Christian life. You can’t do it. It’s impossible to live the Christian life. You can’t be perfect. So you may as well just give up. Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. You can’t live it in your own strength and self effort, but He can! Our Lord can live a perfect life in and through you if you would learn to get self out of the way.

As true believers we do have perfection in our re-born spirits. But the problem is working that from the inside to the outside or into the soul realm. This is called sanctification.

Of course this is an entire subject on its own, and a most liberating one, but we can take home the fact that as we die to self and decrease, He increases and lives His perfect life in us.

We can and must be perfect! If you do not aim at it you will never hit it!

Psalm 37:37 “Mark the blameless (perfect) man, and observe the upright; for the future of that man is peace.”

Proverbs 11:5 “The righteousness of the blameless (perfect) will direct his way aright, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.”

Hebrews 6:1 “...Let us move on to perfection...”

●We must know the times. Do not be ignorant of the urgency of the hour. In fact it is an emergency!

●Prepare your heart, repent of all sin now. Get your life and proprieties right. Walk in surrender, humility and yielding to God.

●Walk in defiance to the ways of the world!

●Get your doctrine right fast. That means accepting and rejecting many things.

●Stand for Israel and let your life be an open door for the Jews and God’s plans for them.

●Stand fast in the fast-coming upheavals where everything that can be shaken will shake!

●Check your foundation!

●The Bible says that we are to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.

●Take stock of your life!

The love of God and the love of Satan:

Today we are faced with many strong powerful delusions and deceptions, even sweeping unsuspecting Christians into the arms of Satan. We must know these things and how to deal with them in our preparation for eternity.

We must know how to differentiate between the love of God and the love of Satan.

The love of Satan is essentially of “another Jesus.” This different “Jesus” also operates in love. But this love is deceptive. It is love which is all inclusive with no separation between right and wrong, it has no judgement, no rebuke, discipline, correction, warning or severity.

The true love of God is the arch-enemy of the love of Satan. Those of this “other Jesus” hate those of the truth because true love rebukes, and demands correction and holiness. The love of Satan operates with no restraint. It includes and tolerates all manner of sin.

In the resurrection we will all be perfect! – Forever perfect, but we can tap into a good deal of it right now.

All those, especially those outside of the fullness of the Spirit are trying to be right and do good. What a miserable bunch they are. They’re trying to do the impossible in the energy of their own flesh and will fail with God for even trying. Then we come along and just die and then we’re perfect – viola!

In Messiah we have died yet are more alive than ever before. We lose life to save it. We are full of wisdom when our reason is defeated. We’re unworthy yet are of immense eternal value. We glory when we are wrong in the world’s eyes! We take up our cross daily, yet we are seated in heavenly places. We can of our own selves do nothing, yet we are more than conquerors. Death works wonderful, spectacular, magnificent, monumental eternal life in us.

Of course that makes us complete wacko’s. We die to live and be perfect!

The Christian’s real power comes from death. It is the “power of the resurrection”. Satan’s power is the power of life. One is automatically born into it, and all people are alive to it by birth. No dying required! The former has all the sin stripped out leaving you in holiness. The latter has all the sin still in it, but masquerading as good.

The power of cross-death is the way to holiness, while the way of co-life with the devil is the way full of sin, tolerance and relevance.

Satan’s power is the power of life. You don’t need to do anything to have it, just live as one with the world and you’ll have his power. Yes you can do it, yes you can, just do nothing but follow the crowd. Of course you will be following the world’s god under his power all the way to the “Great supper of God.”

The two great suppers:

The Revelation reveals two suppers that are coming up! One is in heaven and one on the earth. One is called “The Lamb’s marriage supper” and the other is called “The great supper of God.”

Here are the two suppers:

Revelation 19:7-9 “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready, and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb...”

When you are invited to a very special marriage dinner, you would spend some time preparing before you go. This will be the dinner to end all dinners! It will be perfect in every sense. Only invited guests will go. In this case, the guests are also the ones married to our Lord. So it is exclusively for believes.

Some say that it’s a literal marriage supper, others that it’s allegorical. Either way, the message is clear; it’s only for true born-again believers

Now we come to the “great supper of God.” This is a supper of horror. Here we have a shocking look at the futile end of all the unbelievers of the world. It’s not a pretty picture. The end of this supper is the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20).

Revelation 19:17-19 “Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, ‘Come gather together for the great supper of God that you may eat the flesh of the kings and the flesh of the captains and the flesh of the mighty men and of the horses and those who sit on them and the flesh of all the people free and slave both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against His army.’”

In much of my conservation work in the wilds of Africa, I have often sat watched and photographed vultures at a carcass. Lions are messy eaters. They leave half their dead prey. The vultures come screaming in, sometimes 50 or more at a time. They tear, devour and strip down an entire animal to clean bones in a flash. It’s a staggering experience!

Note the people at this horror-supper. They are kings, (political leaders), captains, mighty people, horse riders (military men), all people free and slave and the small and great. That’s representative of the whole world, excluding true Christians.

This supper of God is a picture of devouring. It is symbolic of the end of evil and the destruction of those who did it their way. It is the gruesome horror-end of all the people of the world who rejected God and his ways. It is the savage end of all those who rejected us Christians with our “offensive” holiness.

Note that this savage supper does not end in a democratic vote on sin. It does not end in reconciliation. It does not end in the love of forgiveness, sitting on the patio drinking coffee together. It’s all too late for that.

 After this supper there is nothing left. This is the final great eternal “I told you so.” The end of all those who tried to devour us will be devoured. Then comes the eternal lake of fire!

Note however that this horror “supper of God” comes after our marriage supper. This devouring supper is on the earth and is in fact simply another view, in type, of the events of the Second Coming. This supper is on earth at the end of the tribulation, ours is in heaven before this one and before the end of the tribulation!

That necessitates a pre-tribulation rapture.

The chapter goes on to describe the beast (antichrist) and the false prophet and the kings of the earth being cast into the lake of fire. At the end of the Millennium which follows these events, we see all these individuals still in the lake of fire where they have been for a thousand years. Satan himself is then cast into this eternal hell.

Luke 12:36 “Be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately.”

(It can be argued from this verse and the preceding verses that our Lord is speaking here to Jewish disciples (verse 22) implying that “when He returns from the wedding” with the church, the tribulation saints will be ready for Him.

What marriage feats has He just been to? He is not going to a wedding, but returning from it! Obviously this wedding occurs in heaven, during the tribulation period.

Preparing for the great supper of God:

You don’t need an invitation to this supper. Actually you will be the supper and you won’t come back from it – ever.

Those present will be kings, queens, celebrities, VIP’s of all types. It will be the rich and the poor, the wise and the fools. It will be one or more of your own family. It will be your friend and neighbour. It will be all those who neglected their spiritual lives and believed that they were okay, because some minister in a frock told them so.

This terrible supper will have a great many church ministers presiding over it, saying grace, and serving the antichrist, the false prophet and a host of demons.

To prepare for this terrible supper you just need to arrive with all supporting views of LGBT, homosexual rights, your beliefs on abolition, abortion, disciplining children, interfaith, and all the evil ways of the world.

God is about to turn the heat up:

We all know, (or should) that the seven feasts of the Lord will all be fulfilled. The first four have been fulfilled in the events surrounding the cross, bringing us to Pentecost. This is symbolised in the flames of the image above. The final three will be fulfilled in the events shortly to unfold.

The next to be fulfilled is the Feast of Trumpets, also called Rosh Hashanah and also called the “feast of which no one knows the day or hour.” This is because it begins on the sighting of the new moon. For this reason the feast takes place over two days.

It is 100% impossible that the remaining three feats will not be fulfilled. The Feast of Trumpets will be fulfilled at the end of the church age (Pentecost) and the start of the seven year tribulation period. This would place the rapture right at the start.

This means that seven years of absolute hell on earth is about to begin. The tribulation is the closing of the Old Covenant dispensation, or Daniel’s seventy weeks, which means that God is about to turn the heat up in a major way. I have done the calculations and they show that over four billion people will die vicious and violent deaths.

 Most importantly, this also means that there is very little time remaining for believers to get their lives right!

The good news is that you can get ready and be ready now! You can completely repent and cleanse yourself of all sin now and be perfect now.

Get your priorities right. I can’t and won’t tell you what to do in this regard, but I’ll share with you what I am doing. You must do what you feel led to do.

There are some things that I’m delaying until October in case we get to October. Non essential things like buying new shoes can wait. Other things I’m continuing to do as always. Many are “prepping”. In other words they’re stocking up with food. They are proclaiming that they’re going through the tribulation!

If you believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, you have the most glorious, unimaginable marriage supper coming up – you won’t need rotten ugly, lousy, tinned baked beans.

Sure, stock up if you see food supplies drying up before we get to the tribulation / rapture.

What happens if it’s not this year?

To the critics of us end-time watchmen, and to the “no one knows the time” brigade, I have this rebuke for you. What you are saying is “continue as normal in the world. Don’t bother with all this alarmist stuff. Don’t watch! What you are saying is continue to “find your life in the world.””

Your message is more dangerous than you know.

If we are wrong about the very soon coming of our Lord, what have we lost if we suddenly got radical for our Lord and got sin out of your lives? We have lost nothing. We have gained immensely and eternally.

It is in fact you who have lost, because you have discouraged people from watching and being ready. You have gained nothing but the cow-dung of the world. Oh yes, and you are so boring.

It is you, end-time critics and scoffers who have lost a most incredible opportunity to get your slothful lives out of the mire.

If it’s not this year, we will watch and pray and look for all the reasons. We will always watch!

Final thoughts:

I would love for the rapture to be in September. I am still leaning towards it. But the missing trigger is a major issue, which may throw a spanner in the works. Just keep that in the back of your mind.

All I can safely say is – stay tuned, be tuned into our Lord. Be ready, but also be ready to change expectation until 2016 or 2017. Walk in holiness; be separate from the thinking and ways of the world.

I took this picture in the beautiful orange dunes of the Namib Desert. This is an ancient Camel Thorn tree, some 2000 years old.

If you want to see some pictures of this desert click HERE

Shalom and grow in grace!