This ministry has a distinct kingdom vision, identifying with God’s call and plan for Israel and the church. My position is pre-trib! I was saved in 1976 while working as a war correspondent, journalist, photographer, artist and environmentalist. My calling is to share with you the great end-time dramas, to stand as a watchman and above all, to glorify my God, to bless Israel and her people and the kingdom of God. |
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Shabbat (Sabbath) begins on Fridays at 6pm and ends on Saturdays at 6pm. The purpose of this report is to help the church and Israel become reconciled in Messiah.
15th January 2021
Shabbat Shalom to all!
Who owns your truth?
Jeremiah 2:11-13 “Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But My people have changed their glory, for what does not profit. Be astonished O heavens at this, and be horribly afraid. Become very desolate says the Lord. For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters and hewn for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
Many people are at a crossroad right now. Which way they go will bring them great victory or deep darkness!
Jeremiah 13:15-16 “Hear and give ear; do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God, before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for the light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness.”
Job 21:14 “They say to God, ‘depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.’”
We have a growing divide right now between the godless liberal left and those that stand for a nation under God. The divide is actually correct, because “two can’t walk together unless they be agreed.”
O f course political parties don’t agree that’s normal, but all should agree on one ultimate authority and provider of truth – God and His word. The basic principles of the virtues of God should be held in esteem above the law of the land or politicians in all nations.
The removal of the word of God from society places it in godless jeopardy with Satan and his word now the authority. Pelosi is a good example of that. So many things get removed from society when the Bible is removed including the all important four swords revealed in the Bible:
●The sword of murder, ●the sword of Capital punishment, ●the sword of war, ●the sword of the Spirit.
If you remove the Bible’s definition of murder (homicide) it sends a message of tolerance with crime and destroys deterrence. If you remove the sword of capital punishment, you meet out injustice to the victim. If you remove the sword of war, you create a nation of push-over pacifists. If you remove the sword of the Spirit, you remove the authority of the believer and make him defenceless.
This is the way to weaken a nation right at its foundation. It is the way of liberals!
You need to be aware of this and the intensifying evil spirits at work otherwise, you are in big danger.
The great reset will produce the great eternal regret at the end of the day.
You can attack the truth, but remember, God owns the truth. You are attacking Him. The Bible may bleed for a few seconds, but it will be you who will eventually and eternally!
God owns the truth, and if the truth is in you are owned by Him and are unshakable, safe and secure. The truth is unbreakable and unchangeable. It will break those who try to break it, it always does.
The political mayhem is one side of the present day troubles. The mutating virus is the other. Both are changing the very face of the world right before us.
On top of the socio-political upheavals on the go, the virus is mutating and spreading faster than before. These things are all causing great stress in the world.
►Will things return to normal? Absolutely not! A vaccine is not a substitute for repentance. You can’t take a pill or get a vaccination to remove the results of the disease of sin! (I am in no way coming against those who take the vaccine. I’m talking generally)
Will God accept a vaccination instead of repentance?
Things can only return to normal if we are far from the whole end-time train rolling in. We are not far, but very close to the whole picture unfolding.
Why is God calling loudly for repentance now through so many of His voices? It is because time is running out fast and He wants people as holy as possible, ready for heaven at the rapture. He is also preparing Israel for a sudden return to holiness, so that they can be effective witnesses and evangelists in the tribulation period.
It’s also because the world’s wickedness has gone into overdrive and is speeding up. It’s because of where we are on the grand prophetic calendar.
(By the way, I have some incredible revelation of some familiar verses on the rapture and Israel, which I will share soon. It will destroy some deeply held, but incorrect views.)
Don’t you think it’s interesting that the church has failed in her commission to the Jew, while the Jew in the tribulation will be very successful in taking the gospel to the Gentile!
The big reason for the rapture is not the great escape, although that is quite true. It is to bring in the last Gentile and then see the veil removed as the gospel goes to the Jew.
Matthew 23:37-38 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often have I want to gather your children together like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you were not willing! See your house is left to you desolate.”
When Bible prophecy is on the march, what a terrible thing to be left behind and right out of it, with no idea of its existence and relevance!
►1 Thessalonians 5:20 “Do not despise prophesies.”
The word “despise” is Strong’s G1848 ‘Exoutheneo.’ Meanings: Despise, set at nought, make contemptible, not to be esteemed.
This verse above means you had better wake up fast to Bible prophecy, even if your parrot behind the pulpit won’t touch prophecy.
Most importantly, it also means that presumptuous, always-wrong prophecy teachers and watchmen are the very ones causing prophecy to be “set at nought” and “made contemptible, not to be esteemed”
False watchmen are prophecy killers and faith killers!
Proverbs 12:19 “The truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”
For your edification:
You need to be spiritually strong in these days. You must be clearly defined in who you are spiritually and in all areas of your life.
We have as part of the church the happy clappies and hands up church (me included) and the no-happy, no-clappies, hands down, boring, dead, denominational non-spirit filled crowd, with no insight except that of the world.
Even if you are not in a local church you need to be demonstrative in your walk with our Lord. Once you are Spirit filed, even in your home alone, raise your hands in prayer and clap your hands, and if your dog bites you, serves you right for hiding your spirituality.
a† Shalom...Joel.
Edition 311: May 11th 2016
The logic of the pre-tribulation rapture:
The logic of the pre-tribulation rapture:
Introduction:
Today there are very few churches worldwide teaching on end times and even fewer teaching on the rapture. It is the greatest story never told! And the result is – the sheep are blind, vulnerable and totally worldly.
Those who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture (pre-tribbers) and those who believe in a post tribulation rapture (post- tribbers) will always be at each other’s throats and always for the same reasons.
There is one huge, big separating and dividing issue and it’s consistent. It is the belief in dispensations. If you reject the existence of dispensations you can quite easily prove a post-tribulation rapture. If you believe in dispensations, you can’t.
This is not a salvation issue, so at the end of the day you should be able to walk with a post tribber, but it is a very important issue not to be avoided.
I want to assure you that my motivation in this edition, is not to prove myself right and others wrong. It is not to prove a pre-tribulation rapture position. It is first and foremost to seek, know and honour my Lord and Saviour and His word.
The logic of dispensations:
The word “dispensation” simply means different divisions in time where God worked in new or different ways with man. That does not mean that God changes, just that He changes in the ways and methods he works.
I have written numerous editions on the subject which you can find in the “Editions by subject” index on the right.
Post tribbers have a certain blind spot in their theological thinking. They just can’t see it. Maybe they know it all and just won’t see it, because it brings their post-trib position, to which they are enslaved and attached, crashing down.
Dispensations are clearly in the Bible, a number of times and are clearly evident in history and reality. So how can you say dispensations don’t exist? They’re plain logical and in the Bible.
Here are some verses dealing with dispensations where the original word for “dispensation”, “Oikonmia” is used:
Hebrews 1:1 “God, who at various times (dispensations) in different ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in the last days spoken to us by His Son...”
Ephesians 1:10 “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Messiah...”
Ephesian 3:2 “Have you heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you.”
The last trumpet blast of the Feast of Trumpets marks the end of the church age. It is the last trump of the church age and the mark of the start of the next dispensation, the seven-year tribulation period. Many, many things change in the way God deals with man in this dispensation called the tribulation.
The dispensation deniers claim that the Old Covenant runs right into the new without any changes and that there is no dispensation of the church age and therefore no pre-tribulation rapture for the church.
There will be much more on this in the next edition. I will share with you some incredible revelations and truths about major messages contained within the Feasts, especially the Feast of Trumpets.
So now, the post tribbers deny the existence of dispensations. If you do that, how do you explain the verses above (and there are others)? Simply, they can’t. If you deny dispensations you have to claim that we are still under the law, which they do. You then have to deny the fullness of the church age and the age of grace, which they do, or explain it away.
Pure logic defeats their entire argument. So many things don’t add up or fit together in their no-dispensation view.
I have yet to find one single post-trib argument that is valid. Some are convincing at face value, but when you look more deeply into their position, you see the problems.
Some of the post-trib claims are pure lies. The worst is the lie that dispensations and the pre-trib rapture are modern doctrines. It’s an absolute all out lie – look it up – it’s been refuted a million times!
Many of the post –trib rapture claims and positions disappear in the light of dispensations.
Some logical arguments for a pre-tribulation rapture: (There are many more.)
●The Bible says that the “gates of hell will not prevail against the church.” (Matthew 16:17). Yet in the tribulation we see that the “saints” are delivered into Satan’s hands to be slaughtered.
Revelation 13:7 “It was granted to him (Satan) to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe tongue and nation.”
The “saints” in this verse above, can’t be the church, because the “gates of hell will not prevail against the church”. The “saints” here are the tribulation saints, which are those who are saved in the tribulation, both Jews and Gentiles.
They are a different company to the born-again church, with specific promises given them.
Many post-tribbers mock us pre-tribbers saying that we are just escapists, wanting to escape terrible times.
Luke 21:36 “Watch therefore, and pray that always you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass (the tribulation) and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Okay, so now we have the great escape in the Bible! If you had the slightest idea of what the tribulation will be like, you would be thankful that God has provided the way of escape!
Wrath and punishment:
Every one of the verses in the Old and New Covenants dealing with the wrath of God in the tribulation also imply furious punishment in the extreme. In fact, so severe and extreme that we can’t even imagine the horror of what’s coming.
The Bible says that it will be a time like never was, nor ever shall be again!
Wrath and punishment in the tribulation period are poured out on Satan, his demons, his world and his people, which are those not saved by the blood of the cross of Calvary.
Wrath and punishment has in fact been accomplished and dealt with for the believer. It all fell upon our undeserving Messiah of glory on the cross. He paid the price of all sin, evil and wickedness. He took the wrath of God upon Himself.
We as believers are given the free gift of His righteousness as our sins are forever destroyed and removed by the power of the cross.
But without the work of the cross and the shed blood of Messiah, you are legally guilty, condemned and due to fall under the wrath of God.
The entire tribulation period sees wrath being poured out in ever increasing proportions. The second half, the wrath of God, sees the full intensity of it, but the first half is referred to as the “wrath of the Lamb.” Bear in mind that the wrath of Satan and the supernatural wrath of nature run throughout the seven years.
Part of the reason for the pre-trib rapture is to separate the righteous from the unrighteous so that God can pour His wrath and indignation on the unsaved.
Note in the verses below that the wrath of God is upon the wicked. Legally, it cannot ever be upon the saved, who have already paid the price, in Messiah by His substitutionary transaction.
Isaiah 13:9 “Behold the Day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it.”
Nahum 1:2 “He reserves His wrath for His enemies.”
1 Thessalonians 5:9 “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.”
John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Romans 1:18 “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
Ephesians 5:6 “The wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
Note in the verses above who the tribulation is for. It is for and upon: sinners, His enemies, unbelievers, the ungodly and the disobedient.
Not one verse says or implies that God’s wrath and punishment is upon His own people, the believers.
● “No one knows the time”:
Like a stuck record many take the verse saying “No one knows the day or hour” and say, “You see, the Bible says no one knows the time.” Take note of the following verse:
Matthew 24:33-34 “So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the very doors. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things are fulfilled.”
The above verse maintains that you need to see with spiritual eyes. The word “know” is in the imperative tense and is actually a command and could be written; “I command you to know when it is near.”
Yes there is a verse saying “no one knows the time”. (Acts 1:7) But here our Lord is speaking privately with His disciples about the end, and He says to them personally that it is not given to them to know the time, back then. That’s got nothing to do with the general statements of our Lord to all believers about the end-times and knowing the time and season. (Matthew 16:3)
Our Lord condemned His people the Jews, for not knowing the time of their visitation (by the Lord Himself at the first coming).
Luke19:44 “Jerusalem was destroyed because they didn’t know the time of their visitation.”
It’s inconceivable and illogical to believe that now, for the second Coming, we are banned from knowing the time! 1 Thessalonians 5:4 “You brethren are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief.”
►If we can’t know the time, how do you explain the following verses?
Titus 2:13 “Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Yeshua the Messiah.”
Hebrews 9:28 “Messiah was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time, apart from sin for salvation.”
Hebrews 10:25 “Exhort one another...even more as you see the day approaching.”
1 Thessalonians 5:4 “You are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief, therefore let us not sleep but watch.”
Matthew 16:3 “Hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky, but can’t discern the signs of the times.”
Matthew 24:33 “When you see all these things, know that it is very near even at the door...therefore be ready.”
Matthew 25:13 “...Watch therefore.”
1 Peter 4:7 “The end of all things is at hand, be serious and watchful.”
John 16:13 “He shall show you things to come.”
Jeremiah 33:3 “Call on Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.”
Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”
Matthew 24:36 (Amp) “Of that exact day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Church minister, reading this, why do you ignore these verses above? Why are you silent on this subject? Read the verses above again. How can you ignore them? You can only do so if you are a blind guide!
The argument of silence or absence:
Critics of the pre-trib rapture always say that our argument that the church is absent in all the Revelation chapters speaking of the tribulation on the earth, is a weak argument. They say that the tribulation saints (those who are saved in the tribulation), are in fact all believers, the church, Jew and Gentile in the tribulation and not just those who are saved during the tribulation.
Firstly, the Bible does use the term “saints” for both the church and the trib-saints, and saved Jews, so we need to go by context.
Secondly, what about Daniel’s seventieth week (of years), which is the seven-year tribulation? The first 69 weeks of that incredible prophecy is exclusively for the Jews. (“My people”)The seventieth week is distinctly, in character with, and part of the 69 weeks. The church is not seen or referred to in any part of the sixty nine or the seventieth week.
●So, we see the church missing in the seventieth week of Daniel (the tribulation), ●and the church missing in the Revelation chapters dealing with the tribulation! The one confirms the other. If you are going to argue that the church is on earth in the Revelation chapters, you must be consistent and argue that the church is also in Daniel’s seventy weeks. And that’s an impossible argument!
●Then on top of this we do see the church in heaven in a number of Revelation verses, while the tribulation is on the go on the earth.
There is no church evident in the prophecy of Daniel’s seventieth week. There is no church evident in the tribulation verses of the Revelation and there is a church evident in the Revelation verses of heaven. What’s the logical conclusion?
Revelation 19:1-9 “After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honour and power to our Lord our God...The twenty four elders, (seen earlier in the Revelation as well – in heaven!) and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God...Praise our God all you His servants and those who fear Him...and I heard the voice of a great multitude saying Alleluia...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.
THEN
Revelation 19:11-14 “THEN I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True and in righteousness He judges and makes war....and the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.”
The term “white linen clean and white” is never used for angels or the unsaved. It is only a reference to the true born- again, blood-washed saints of the Most High God.
The original word used here in the Revelation for “clean” is Strong’s G2513 meaning, “clean, pure, free from sin and guilt, blameless, innocent! This is what the work of the cross does for true believers.
Jude 1:14 “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, ‘behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints.’”
The above verse is a parallel to the Revelation verses above.
So, here we see the church in heaven and returning from heaven with our Lord at the end of the tribulation. Logic says that you can’t have the church being slaughtered on the earth and in heaven at the same time!
Luke 12:35-36 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves 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. Blessed are those servants whom the Master, when He comes, will find watching.
I wonder what wedding our Lord is returning from here?
There are a number of other verses showing the church in heaven while the tribulation is on the go on the earth.
Some try to prove their post-trib position by saying that the Revelation is not in chronological order. They are wrong! It is in order. The term “and then” appears dozens of times.
Perhaps the single most important, clear and logical verse referring to a pre-tribulation rapture is the following verse from the letter to the Philadelphian church:
Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept My word to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”
The term “keep you from” means to be kept clean out away from. It contains within its meaning a clear separation. It does not mean, “Protected through.” Besides, as we have seen, the saints in the tribulation are not protected.
The restrainer and the apostasy:
The antagonists and attackers of the pre-tribulation rapture use many arguments that actually don’t hold water. One of them is that the restrainer is not the church or the Holy Spirit or the church indwelt by the Holy Spirit. They claim that the restrainer, who is to be removed at the start of the tribulation, is the archangel Michael.
They claim that it must be Michael, because his job is to protect Israel.
As the tribulation begins, when the restrainer is removed, the whole world and not just Israel will fall into the worst times it has ever known. Yes, the central focus will be Israel, but the whole world also experiences the tribulation. The job of Michael was never to hold back evil on the whole world.
2 Thessalonians 2:2-8 is the discourse on the “falling away” and the revealing of the antichrist as the restrainer is removed. This “falling away” is also referred to as the “great apostasy.”
The term “falling away” is not a reference to the apostasy of the church, although a certain section of the church is falling rapidly into apostasy. It would be better translated “the departure” and is in fact a powerful reference to a pre-tribulation rapture!
Logic says that this restrainer is in fact the true church indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the “apostasy” or “falling away” is in fact the great departure or rapture of the true church.
Finally:
When you put all the pieces together, the picture becomes clear and quite logical. There is too much to explain away if you are in the post trib camp.
Here is a wonderful Old Covenant verse that you can apply to the rapture.
Psalm 90:10-12 “The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength, they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off and then we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For as is the fear of You, so is your wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we gain a heart of wisdom.”
I took this picture drifting down the river Ogooue, Gabon on my way to the hospital founded by Albert Schweitzer in the 1800s near Lambarene. The hospital is still run by his granddaughter. This area is 90% tropical rain forest, inhabited by Pygmies, Pygmy elephants, gorillas and all sorts of living things.
If you would like to see some more pictures of this amazing place click HERE
Shalom and grow in grace!