Tag Archives: Rapture

August 2, 2008 · 2:45 pm

The Pre-Tribulation Rapture–A Parachute That Will Not Open

Millions of Christians are depending on a pre-tribulation “rapture” to save them from going through the Great Tribulation Period.  But it is a parachute that will not open.  This teaching has become so pervasive since 1900 that few question its truthfulness.

I certainly don’t blame my Christian brethren for wanting to escape all the destruction that’s coming to this earth during the Tribulation.  And I do certainly believe in a “catching away” of the saints when He comes back.  But the Rapure doctrine teaches that He will come for His church before the tribulation starts.  That sounds so good.  But there’s only one thing wrong.  The scriptures don’t back it up.  They speak of Christ coming back and the church being “caught up to meet Him in the air” at the end of the Tribulation.

Proponents of the “rapture” teaching usually base it on one-half of one verse in the Bible. It is found in I Thessalonians 4:17.  Christ comes back to earth; and the Christians who have died shall be raised 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.”

We see here that Christians, who will have been changed into their spiritual bodies (II Cor. 5:1-2) “shall be caught up” to meet Christ as He nears touch-down on earth.  We will meet Him “in the clouds” and “in the air.”  Clouds and air are only found in the earth’s atmosphere!  We will rise up to meet Him in the earth’s atmosphere, and then we will come right back down here to earth!

“And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” This is the second half of verse 17 that is never quoted.  He is coming back to earth at the end of the Great Tribulation Period, and since we are ever to be with Him, then we will be coming right back to earth with Him!

I Thessalonians 4:17 does not support Christians being caught away into the third heaven, the traditional concept of heaven, mystically up there somewhere in another dimension.  Yes, there is a rising up in our new spiritual bodies, to meet Him for a moment “in the clouds” and “in the air.”  However, it is a temporary lift-off, for He is on His way to earth, and we are ever to “be with the Lord.”

He is coming here to establish His 1000 year reign of peace, setting up His government, the Kingdom of God, right here on earth.  And few doubt that He will come back here after the Tribulation Period is over.  So the “catching away of the saints” happens at the end of the Tribulation Period, at the moment of Christ’s return to earth to establish His Milennial Reign.

This “Rapture Doctrine” is of utmost importance for us to either prove or disprove, for our families’ future is at stake.   We are told to “purge out the old leaven” doctrines ( see post https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/brutal-honesty-with-ourselves-purging-out-the-old-leaven/ )

Future posts will show scripturally the church, the body of Christ, active here on earth during the Tribulation Period. We as God’s princes and princesses must get this right.  We must study these things out in great detail in order to prepare ourselves to be rulers in His kingdom (see “Studying to Be…” at https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/studying-to-be-a-prince-and-princess-of-god/ ).   What’s your thoughts?         Kenneth Wayne Hancock

For more on this check out my books here: http://yahwehisthesavior.com/     or click link on the Blogroll to your right

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May 8, 2008 · 1:24 pm

Anti-Christ Stands in Temple Before Christ Returns

     “Whoa, Wayneman,” some will say.  “My preacher told me, ‘You better get right because Christ could come tonight!'”

     Although God is sovereign and can do whatever He pleases, He’ll keep His word first.  And He said by His Spirit through His apostle Paul that there are several pre-requisite prophecies that must come to pass before He comes back. 

     A, B, C must happen first.  1, 2, 3 takes place, then He returns.  

     But which coming are we talking about though?  The Big Coming.  The Coming when Christ is “revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.”  We’re talking “flaming fire taking vengeance” on the disobedient.  No time for political correctness during this coming.  It’s His coming “to be glorified in His saints {that’s us–the set apart sons and daughters, His princes and princesses}.  It’s that coming seen in II Thessalonians 1:7-10.

     But the Thessalonians in 54 A.D. were worried that “Christ could come tonight!”  So Paul consoles them and admonishes them to “be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled…as that the day of Christ is at hand…” (2:2)  Don’t get shook, he’s saying.  Certain things must happen first before this terrible day of vengeance comes.  1, 2, 3…

  1.    Deception reigns. He warns, “Let no man deceive you by any means” (2:3).  This is exactly what Christ told his disciples when asked for a sign of HIs coming: “Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matt. 24:3-4).  So there will be wholesale deception in the world around the time of His coming.
  2.    Because of the deception, there will come a “falling away” from the true faith.  Because of the unbelief of the people, an apostasy of grand proportions will engulf the earth.  The masses will fall for false teachings about God.  So much so that “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie…” (2:3, 11).  
  3.    Because of the delusion of the masses, the Anti-Christ, the “man of sin…the son of perdition” will be revealed–the Devil Incarnate.  His characteristics?  He “opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God…so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2:3-4).  Now who would fall for him?  All those deluded and deceived by his “power and signs and lying wonders” (v. 9).
  4.    The temple of God must be rebuilt in Jerusalem first before the man of sin can exalt himself in it.  This is a huge sign.  When we hear of this taking place, the Big Coming is getting close.  The rest of chapter 2 is our consolation wherein God comforts his followers through the end time as Christ puts an end to the evil.

     The time of the end will be catastropic on a world wide scope.  Political, ecclesiastical, and geological  upheavals will abound during this time of “great tribulation.”  This is why the Thessalonians in 54 A.D. were worried.  They believed that they would be around when the end-time terror and horror went down.  They did not believe that they would mystically and conveniently escape through a rapturous opening in the clouds.  They knew they would barely make it through the hard times, and that only with God’s help.  But that’s another post.

     So, that’s why I say, Christ cannot come back tonight.  Too many specific things must happen first.  And they are happening fast.  We need to watch and be alert.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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