I was raised in the “rapture” belief system. In fact I believed it most of my life, and even taught it to others for the better part of 11 years, after my conversion to Christ. I read all those “Left Behind” fictional books before I ever came to Jesus. If you had debated me on it, I would have defended it against you, CERTAIN that I knew the scriptures and that YOU were wrong. Note: Being able to recite scriptures and the memorization of them IS NOT the same as knowing the Bible. Just because you can recite your doctrinal stance and the cherry-picked passages they are based on does not mean you know the Truth. In some cases it can even mean you are blind to Truth. Remember, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day had all learned scripture wrongly, but rather than be challenged to repent, they chose to kill the Teacher, to remain in their contrived system and keep “their church” as it was. They were damned for it too. Don’t be that person.
But after all that, guess what? I stepped down from a decade long stint of worship leading in a Pentecostal denomination, frustrated to the core of my being, questioning whether I even could hear God. I laid my Bible open before taking a trip to Israel, and said, “Lord, I don’t want to forsake You. But I despise the thing they call “church”, and the self-focus and placating to men that happens daily. Everything I think your word says is met by people telling me, “No Chris, that isn’t what that means….” And they would proceed to put filters on my thinking and tell me how to interpret even the most plainly spoken scriptures. I proceeded to pray, “Jesus, I will forget EVERYTHING I think I know, just show me the Truth. I am not loyal to any denomination or doctrine. I just want You and the Truth.”
Within 10 days of that prayer, God began to honor it. On a hillside in Galilee, day 1 in Israel, I sat on a tour bus while everyone else was outside taking photos of their first view of the Sea of Galilee (2013). I heard the Lord speak to me, (and no it wasn’t an audible voice, and some big dramatic theophany.) It was a still, small voice that said, “Open your Bible and read John 6:54…..
I opened my Olive Tree Bible app. I knew the gist of John 6, and the basic context of the chapter. It was the chapter where many were offended at Jesus’ words and turned and walked away from Him. But I wasn’t at all sure of what this specific passage would say, in that moment. I opened and read this from the KJV…. (You know the version that people think Jesus and Paul themselves carried, and that all other translations are heretical? Yeah that one. The one translated by unbelievers at the command of a drunken, tyrant King James, surrounded by homosexual accusations, due to inordinate affections for a few men he exalted, and allowed to sleep in his bed. You know, the KJV. Good translation, not perfect.
John 6:54
“Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
In that moment I saw two words jump off the page at me, and I saw the heresy of the rapture teaching, and how it creates a false expectation of Jesus to protect Christians from suffering. You know, in the end time of the a great falling away of believers, God will supposedly rapture them out to prevent this most rebellious generation in history from having to suffer for His name, like the most faithful Apostles and first century church had to? Ludicrous! Something that is the opposite of what God asks of believers. Go figure! We are called to suffer for His name! Hence the term “witnesses”, which is the Greek word “MARTYR.” Hello?
This day in June 2013, God began to cut away the things that had tormented me with confusion for years. I would read these passages about the end-times and my mind would be troubled, because I am being taught this “pre-tribulation rapture” that precedes a supposed seven-year period of tribulation. But what the scripture said in context actually contradicted their views. So like many, I assumed these men with all this “experience and knowledge” MUST know better than I, so I yielded to that faulty thinking, and accepted their teaching. You know, putting your faith in man instead of being solely loyal to Jesus’ word? And so went a decade of making excuses for people’s rebellion. Yeah…. So I bought it hook, line, and sinker! Do I think they propagate those things with bad intentions? Not usually, no. I just think preachers repeat what other preachers say, that agrees with their own views, repeat what they were told growing up in church, and what their family believed, and thereby they in turn teach the same errors to others. They study other laymen-preachers and never true scholars, who actually know Biblical languages, the ancient context of scripture, and the ancient culture the scripture hails from, and the worldview of the Biblical authors. That world then is alien to our modern worldview, folks. Most professing believers know nothing about it, and break the number one hermeneutic rule that: “NO SCRIPTURE WAS WRITTEN TO YOU.” The scripture even tells us that it was written for our learning, not written TO US. Unless you lived 2000 to 6000 years ago, not one word recorded in the Book was written to address you, your church, or this day and age. It was addressing a people THEN. Are you from Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Rome, or Israel in the first century? Were you an Israelite at the Red Sea? Babylonian captivity? At Babel? A Temple observant Jew? No. Then the letters weren’t addressed to YOU. They certainly have an application to our lives, but in order to rightly interpret the application you must first understand the context and situation being addressed in the day those letters were written. THEN you can properly apply it to 2021, if it can apply. If you can’t do that, you are not qualified to teach God’s word. Period. Going to your chosen seminary that teaches the doctrine of your denomination biases does not qualify you for anything. It just exposes your true god and motive, and your deception. It is your filter. Jesus told the church leaders in His own day, “when you make one convert, you turn him into twice the child of Hell that you are!” Ouch! Same today!! Don’t believe me? Please explain to me why pastors today, living by the fear of man and placating to men, will believe…let’s say a Wesleyan view of salvation (more works based) and call the Calvinist (by faith alone heresy) Baptist down the street their “brothers and sisters” in Christ, when Paul declared that ANYONE who teaches a gospel that deviates in any way from what the Apostles delivered would be damned to hell??? Why? Because people worship Satan and call him “Jesus” today. Just like the Jews in John 8 were doing when Jesus plainly told them that Satan was their daddy, but they were calling him Yahweh. What most call Jesus today is a lie. Fact. If it is Reformed doctrine, chances are very high that you believe a lie and have a filter on your eyes about Jesus that isn’t supported by the Bible.
Galatians 1:9-10
“As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell! Am I now trying to gain the approval of people, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ!”
He just told you that the majority who claim to be Pastors and preachers are liars in God’s sight, if you didn’t catch that. The reason they placate to men and families is self-preservation and avoiding persecution. If you don’t tell people no, they will never be mad at you. But God will hate you, especially when you take His name upon you in vain and misrepresent His word, allowing man to run the show to save yourself from suffering.
In God’s eyes, a false teacher is anyone teaching anything different than His Apostles taught. No excuses. His word is a serious matter to Him. And we none have an excuse for staying blind and stubborn to it. Rejecting the Truth is also called “blaspheming the Holy Spirit” in scripture. Your “likable-good guy” preacher is not good. Jesus said, “there is none good but One.” Face it, God doesn’t excuse people like we want to do. That “good ole boy” in the pulpit is God’s enemy and a false prophet if his message is not exactly what the Apostles taught. Fact.
So what is the Pre-Tribulation Rapture view anyway? The Rapture theology says that there is coming a day where Jesus will come like a thief in the night and take His church just prior to the Great Tribulation, said to last 7 years, and 3.5 years into it the Antichrist is revealed and makes everyone take a mark to be able to buy or sell. It stands upon Pauls verse in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, which reads…..
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
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.
The Rapture teachers equate “so shall we ever be with the Lord” as going back to heaven with him” in this event, though scripture says that NOWHERE. Then they quote 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 as follows…..
1 Corinthians 15:51-52
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
You see, the motif is that Jesus sneaks up on the world one day and all the saints disappear. Those who are dead in Christ, will be resurrected first and rise to meet Jesus in the clouds and then those Christians who are alive and remain at this point will be transformed into their eternal glorified bodies and rise to meet Him in the air. And they all go back to heaven with Jesus, and this all happens just before a seven year period of judgment on the earth, that seems that sinners and Jews are all who are left to suffer this judgment. And the rapture theology teaches that mid-way through this 7 years, the Antichrist man will be revealed and will issue a mark called the mark of the beast, and raise a statue that he will demand people to bow to and worship. It is referred to as the “image of the beast”, and rapture theology teaches that all who refuse this mark are eventually beheaded and that these people will be saved during the tribulation, because they refused to deny Jesus.
But does the Bible support any of this teaching? ABSOLUTELY NONE OF IT! And I’m going to show you that without debate. But the question is: Will you bow to Jesus’ words or stubbornly worship your traditions, upbringing, and your denominational bias? The answer to that question will tell what you serve: Whether Jesus or your made-up religion god. Read John 8 as a mirror to yourself. Was that not exactly what the religious Jews of Jesus’ day did? They rejected Jesus for their church traditions, and damned themselves, their religion, their temple, and their priesthood. All of which Jesus Christ cursed and replaced! Wake up people! If you swallowed this teaching, you have been duped by letting men place filters over your eyes. And if they’ve deceived you with this, what else have your eyes been veiled to??? It is scary, but Jesus warned and taught about deception and false teachers more than any other subject in his earthly ministry. So if He said MANY false prophets would arise, and deceive many, who does your mind allow them to be? Your dad, pastor, friend, brother??? Of course not, but we tend to love mother, father, brother, pastor, etc. more than Him. And we CANNOT be His disciple in so doing. He said that, not me.
Matthew 10:37-40
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
So….as promised, let’s break it down: The Rapture exposed!
There are many ways I could go about this. I could lead you through a string of scriptures, leading up to a very sobering passage that totally annihilates the pre-tribulation rapture teaching. But I’m not going to do that. In fact I’m going to start with the most sobering punch straight from the book of Revelation, from the mouth of the Apostle John. The pre-tribulation rapture believing people are saying that the rapture of the church occurs before the tribulation and they are taken to heaven just prior to God’s judgment of seven years upon the earth, correct? Exactly. Please explain to me this passage……
Revelation 20:4-5
“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I SAW THE SOULS OF THEM THAT WERE BEHEADED FOR THE WITNESS OF JESUS, and for the word of God, and WHICH HAD NOT WORSHIPPED THE BEAST, NEITHER HIS IMAGE, NEITHER HAD RECEIVED HIS MARK UPON THEIR FOREHEADS, OR IN THEIR HANDS; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead (the damned) lived not again until the thousand years were finished. THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION.”
How can this rapture/ resurrection of the saints happen before some seven-year tribulation, when John clearly tells you that those martyred DURING THE TRIBULATION FOR REFUSING THE MARK OF THE BEAST WERE PART OF THE FIRST….FIRST….FIRST……FIRST RESURRECTION??? Please tell me! There is only ONE resurrection of the people of God in the New Covenant. Jesus speaks of ONE coming resurrection. Paul speaks of ONE resurrection of the righteous. THE RESURRECTION. THE is singular. THE is the definite article of grammar. And so every other Apostle, who are the foundation stones of this Covenant speak of ONE RESURRECTION, people. Shamefully, if this is not enough for you to stop defending a false doctrine that was first invented by John Nelson Darby in 1820, who listened to a teenage girl tell of a dream she had of people ascending into the clouds, and created this doctrine, that NO-ONE in church history prior ever believed, nor wrote anything about, then lets let Jesus tell you. Please submit yourself to Christ and do not defend a false system. Repent and change and follow Jesus, not your preacher who obviously has no business handling the scriptures.
Look again at these two passages used by Paul, that pre-tribulation teachers use for the “rapture back to heaven” stuff….
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the TRUMPET 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.
Jesus descends, and the Trumpet sounds, a voice of the archangel, and the Christians rise to meet Jesus in the clouds. What Trumpet did Paul say this was?
1 Corinthians 15:51-52
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at THE LAST TRUMPET: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
At THE LAST TRUMPET. Hmmmm. Ever ask yourself where the ONLY place in the New Covenant a succession of Trumpets sound? The Book of Revelation. How many Trumpets are there????? After all, Paul said the resurrection occurs at the LAST trumpet sounding. There it is above in black and white? You still sure of your “knowledge” that the rapture is Biblical? If you accept the words of Christ and the Apostles, you should be waking up right now.!!!
Let’s go see what happens in SCRIPTURE when the LAST (7th) TRUMPET sounds, shall we?
Revelation 11:15-18
“And the seventh angel sounded his trumpet; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD HAVE BECOME THE KINGDOMS OF OUR LORD, and of his Christ; AND HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, AND THE TIME OF THE DEAD, THAT THEY SHOULD BE JUDGED, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest DESTROY THEM which destroy the earth.”
Jesus has come to earth and taken His Kingdom. When? At the last trumpet, when Paul says the resurrection takes place. Not seven years prior. When did Jesus say He would raise those who partook of His flesh and drank His Blood, or the cup of His suffering?
John 6:54
“Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at THE LAST DAY.”
Tell me, is the LAST DAY seven years before the LAST DAY? Folks, the scripture is clear, but we allow men to project false teachings upon us and tell us what to see. What do you think a false prophet does? They teach false things. Most of them do it unwittingly, but never-the-less they are false prophets in God’s viewpoint and they will be damned if they don’t repent. The title they’re known by (pastor, teacher, evangelist) is NOT GOD’S WORD!! You are to prove them, not follow them. If what they say is not aligning to the scripture in context, THEY ARE LIARS and false prophets, period. I don’t care if they realize it or not. They should be shown their error, and if they refuse correction, be removed from the assembly, or you remove yourself from being influenced by them.
So…..Paul said that when this LAST trumpet sounds, the Saints who are dead will rise first and those who are alive and remain on the earth at His appearing will be changed in a moment, and caught up to meet Jesus in the clouds, and so shall they ever be with Christ, correct? Let’s see how Jesus spoke of this event…..
Matthew 24:30-31
“AND THEN SHALL APPEAR the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. AND HE SHALL SEND HIS ANGELS WITH A GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET, AND THEY SHALL GATHER TOGETHER HIS ELECT from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Does that reinforce what Paul said about Jesus coming in the clouds and calling up His faithful followers? Yes, He is coming in the clouds here, and has the angels gather the righteous at the sound of a loud trumpet. This is what Paul declares to be the resurrection of the Saints. Question: If people miraculously disappeared and went to heaven, why do the nations mourn and see Jesus coming? Hmmm… If the LAST TRUMPET is the rapture seven years before the tribulation, why is there another LAST trumpet here, if this is some coming back at the end? Are Jesus and the Apostles stupid to use the word LAST loosely? Ughhh no. They mean what they said. But here is the kicker…. When does Jesus Christ say this takes place???? Before the tribulation? Look at the verse prior to these…. Verse 29…… context context context
Matthew 24:29-31
“IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: AND THEN SHALL APPEAR THE SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN IN THE HEAVENS: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
When is this “catching away to the clouds” from Jesus’ mouth? IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION.” What happens in this verse that also happens just prior to Revelation 11:15? The Sun is darkened and the moon turns red like blood. An eclipse. When scripture is left in context, it all aligns. Paul, John, Peter, Jesus, etc. are all saying the same thing. That is called “unity in the Spirit.” The rapture teaching is BS!
John the Baptist had a wrong expectation of Jesus. He thought Jesus should come and deliver him from prison and death. What did Jesus say to John? “Blessed are those who are not offended in the way that I do things.” Why did every Apostle suffer a martyr‘s death, except John? (They boiled John alive in oil but he survived.) But I thought Jesus paid it all and it was finished on His cross? No Jesus said to take up YOUR CROSS and follow His example of suffering and self-denial to be saved. Every Apostle said to “follow our example” as they followed His. The pre-tribulation rapture teaching has instilled a false expectation in people that Jesus has a motive to keep them from suffering, and that is shown nowhere in scripture. In fact the opposite is shown. Ever read the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters two and three, where Jesus tells them to be faithful in suffering, or else he would remove them from his salvation? Rapture believers have been deceived into a false expectation that breeds self-focus and weak faith. John Baptist showed the same weakness, but repented. Will you? I did in 2013.
You humbled yet? If you have been deceived by this false 200 year old heresy like I once was, you should be thanking Christ for His kindness in revealing the Truth to you. Why were we deceived? Because we refused to let scripture in ITS CONTEXT be our guide, and we let men twist it and tell us what to see and how to see it. My Bible says that the way is so simple that even a fool cannot error in it. Well, I was once worse than a fool, because I let preachers tell me instead of God’s word. I repented, as should you. Ever wonder why God judges preachers more severely than others? The lowest Hell is full of those who preached lies about God in Jesus’ name. No excuses.
James 3:1
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
Pre-tribulation rapture teachers use the teaching of Matthew 24 to say that the person “taken” in the scenarios Jesus presents is the “righteous being raptured.” But it behooves me that when you show the actual context Jesus was speaking in, I have people refuse to accept the same passages as referring to the wicked being taken. All of a sudden it appears unacceptable to literalize the wicked being taken, but the pre-tribulation rapture theology uses the same verses the other way around. Hypocrisy!! As Paul said to the Romans, “Yes, let God be True and EVERY MAN A LIAR.” Scripture in the context given wins, folks. My opinion and your opinion, and what we want it to say has zero validity. Anyone who truly loves Christ submits to the authority of his word, as he said it, and not how your pastor twists it.
Look at the context of Jesus’ warning…..
Matthew 24:37-42
“BUT AS THE DAYS OF NOAH WERE, SO SHALL THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN BE. JUST as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, AND TOOK THEM ALL AWAY; SO SHALL ALSO THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN BE. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”
Jesus references Noah’s flood as a metaphor for the day He returns. Question: who was taken away by the flood? Noah and his family, or the wicked???? Jesus says plainly that His return will be exactly the same scenario. When He returns, the wicked are REMOVED FROM THE EARTH. It is end-game and the Kingdom comes fully. From John’s own mouth, as we read above…..
Revelation 11:18
…..And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest DESTROY THEM WHICH DESTROY THE EARTH.”
When Jesus returns and raises the saints to Him, his enemies, those who refused His salvation, die on sight and await the second resurrection, which is the Great White Throne judgment of the wicked, just as it says.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-10
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness IN THEM THAT PERISH; because THEY RECEIVED NOT the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
Rejecting correction is to reject Christ. The Word is Truth, not proof-texting the passages that repeat your man-made doctrines. I know heretics in the local so-called church, and I know heretics on national and international stages. They all will be damned if they don’t repent, if perhaps God will even allow them to. Most, like Judas, have sold out the Son for silver.
Question: if Jesus cursed the Temple of Judaism and it has remained desolate for 2000 years, along with the three other cities that he cursed; Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaeum, why in God’s name are people teaching that there must be a third Jewish Temple of Judaism built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and that Jesus is going to walk into it and sit on the throne for 1000 years? He cursed their Temple because it was as anti-Christ as Islam. Judaism still is Antichrist. To rebuild the thing Jesus hated is blasphemous. Think people!!!! He replaced their Priesthood with the saints, folks. He replaced their literal temple with a temple not made with human hands, called the Church. Our temple is the church corporately; the body of believers. Hello?
1 John 2:22
“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.”
Judaism and Islam deny the Son. So tell me, if the Apostles and Jesus speak of the Temple in the new covenant metaphorically saying, ……
1 Peter 2:5
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:20-22
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
…how are you to explain the Man of Lawlessness sitting in a metaphorical “Temple?” Think!!! The Biblical writers constantly used the art of PERSONIFICATION to give a human characterization to inanimate objects. (I will be posting a teaching on this aspect soon).
Yes, if the Temple is a metaphor, please tell me how some literal antichrist is going to walk into a metaphorical building and declare himself as Christ? Because antichrist represents a disposition opposing God‘s word. So how does antichrist walk into the temple, which is the church? Through people unwilling to submit to the word of God. That is a lawless one in the temple declaring themselves as God!! Literalism is often spiritual blindness to scripture, folks. Remember the Pharisees mocking Jesus when he said, “tear down the temple and I will rebuild it in three days?” He was speaking metaphorically of His body and the Apostles are speaking metaphorically of Jesus being the chief corner stone, the prophets and apostles being the foundation stones, and the saints being lively stones that are building the temple in which God now resides, which is the Church. Do you really think Jesus wants someone to build that diabolical temple that he cursed in Jerusalem 2000 years ago for denying Him? To refill it with the articles that all were representations of Him? No!!! This entire rapture teaching is blasphemous and has created an escape mentality from the suffering that God says is a prerequisite for salvation and receiving a glorified body just like Jesus..
Romans 8:17
“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; IF SO BE THAT WE SUFFER WITH HIM, so that we may be also GLORIFIED together WITH HIM.”
Man was made for earth. Adam was an immortal being without sin and perfect. In the Garden, God walked in it WITH ADAM. Every ask yourself why God walked in the cool of the day with Adam? Ever wonder why angels were present in the garden with Adam? Why an angel was placed at the entrance of the garden to keep Adam and Eve from re-entering once they were expelled? Take the FILTERS OFF YOUR EYES.
What happens when Jesus returns? He once again walks with His creation on this earth in a glorified, unfallen state. The plan of redemption was to redeem man AND THE EARTH back to Himself. The rapture teaching is a lie. Oh, and that “Thief in the night” teaching? What did Paul actually say? Did God say Christians would be caught unaware? No, they ignore that part too, for their false doctrinal stance. Here is what scripture actually says, but you have never heard it in churches that teach this crap….
Here is the part they cherry-pick…..
1 Thessalonians 5:1-2
“Now on the topic of times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night.”
And then they tell you all this fearful stuff about being ready. Sure we are to be ready by being faithful and obedient. But this passage wasn’t warning Believers. It was encouraging them. Read on….
1 Thessalonians 5:3-6
“Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape. BUT YOU, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, ARE NOT IN DARKNESS FOR THAT DAY TO OVERTAKE YOU LIKE A THIEF WOULD. For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober.”
So who is being overtaken and doesn’t recognize the times and seasons? Believers? No!!! He said the wicked would not be alert and be overtaken. Geez, if people just read the Bible with an open heart and stopped worshiping their filtered doctrines……
Galatians 1:13-19
For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
Then AFTER THREE YEARS I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
What was Paul loyally seeking? Religious traditions of his peers. He knew the scripture better than all other Apostles, yet he was deceived and blind to Truth. Also notice, he spent three years learning properly from Jesus in Damascus, before being allowed to teach anyone. And today they’ll let anyone speak in Jesus’ name. It is wicked rebellion too. But God “called me to Pastor” even though everything I perpetrate on others is false teaching, but “God knows my heart!!!” (Please put me out of my misery!) When I see people caught in these traps, my heart aches to help them see. Most reject me, and when my passion rises to defend Truth, they think I’m getting “mad.” I’m not ever mad. I’m stirred to witness to them. Sadly, I usually talk to the wall whole they smirk and scoff, as if I don’t have a clue, as if they have put the time in to learn languages,as if they can tell me the backstory of a passage they merely have memorized, or tell me the context of the scripture at hand. Ever wonder why Jesus got so angry at religiosity? John 11:35- “Jesus wept.” Ever heard them tell you how He was moved with compassion for them in that verse? Ever read it for yourself? Jesus wept in anger at their unbelief. He was PISSED! He sat and did things before them repeatedly that no other person could do, and they STILL wouldn’t believe Him. I feel it. And I go away broken in heart, because I love the stubborn people who refuse to open their eyes and ears, because they have read the passages many times, all the while still sitting and listening to lies every week, and they cannot discern it. My God, even the Disciples were corrected daily. Jesus help us.
Matthew 13:18-23
Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.