Rapture and End Times

But I will continue to do what I am doing, in order to deny the opportunity of those who want an opportunity to be regarded just as our equals in what they boast about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:12-14)

The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders, and with every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved. For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe what is false, so that all will be condemned—those who did not believe the truth but enjoyed unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 American science fiction film. It tells the story of Roy Neary, an everyday blue-collar worker in Indiana, whose life changes after an encounter with a UFO. Roy refuses to accept a “logical” explanation for what he saw and is prepared to give up his job, his home, and his family to pursue the “truth” about UFOs. The climatic First Contact takes place at the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.

Many philosophers have speculated on the ways in which a friendly civilization might interact with humankind. Albert Harrison, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, thought that a highly advanced civilization might teach humanity such things as a physical theory of everything, how to use zero-point energy, or how to travel faster than light. Seth D. Baum, of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, and others consider that the greater longevity of cooperative civilizations in comparison to uncooperative and aggressive ones might render extraterrestrial civilizations in general more likely to aid humanity.

In the original 1951 version of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, a humanoid alien visitor named Klaatu comes to Earth, accompanied by a powerful eight-foot tall robot, Gort, to deliver an important message that will affect the entire human race.

SETI researcher Carl Sagan believed that a civilization with the technological prowess needed to reach the stars and come to Earth must have transcended war to be able to avoid self-destruction. Representatives of such a civilization would treat humanity with dignity and respect, and humanity, with its relatively backward technology, would have no choice but to reciprocate.

2019 was banner year for credible UFO sightings / New York Post, December 15, 2019

Once thought to be fictional works used to sell tabloids, 2019 has been awash with news of UFOs, aliens and strange phenomenon — including reports (complete with video) from verifiably sane sources.

In May, the Pentagon admitted it investigates UFOs soon after Navy pilots claimed to not only have seen but recorded UFOs during training exercises in 2004 and 2015.

In November, another report in Popular Mechanics confirmed that after the 2004 incident, two “unknown individuals” took the data tapes away and wiped the memory from the Navy hard drive.

Meanwhile, just around the time the Popular Mechanics report was released, unidentified flying objects were captured on video off North Carolina’s Outer Banks and the Army announced a partnership with Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge’s To the Stars Academy to research alien technology.

We have a well-documented “close encounter” in the Holy Bible:

On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and a loud trumpet sound, so that all the people in the camp shuddered. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.

The Lord came down on Mount Sinai at the top of the mountain. Then the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and he went up. (Exodus 19:16-20)

The Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians, and around 1,500 B. C. God used a man named Moses to deliver them from their slavery. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites wandered through the wilderness on their way to a good land, which God wanted them to live in. While they were in the wilderness, God gave Moses the law from the top of Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula.

This law provided the infrastructure for their society, for generations to come, and still impacts us today.

Then God spoke all these words:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
1. Do not have other gods besides Me.
2. Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers’ sin, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands.
3. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses His name.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
6. Do not murder.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Do not steal.
9. Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.
10. Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:1-17)

During the Bronze Age of the time of Moses, these 10 laws were a bright light in a world culture of darkness. The people practiced a fertility religion, and ritual prostitution of both males and females was a common feature of worship. They regularly practiced ritualized child sacrifice.

What new light could an alien race bring to Man? Could they save us from destruction?

Has First Contact already taken place?

What are the real facts?

 

The Devil knew that the Lord was setting up humans to one day rule the Universe with Him, and so he targeted the first people by turning them against their God. He then released his followers to mate with Earth women and infect the human race with his offspring, the “weeds” that would look human. The Lord rounded up these fallen angels and has kept them in His cosmic prison, but the Devil and his remaining angels are still loose. Right at this moment, the Devil, his angels, and his human agents are planning to destroy all of the Christians – the Lord’s seed.

The history of the Devil and his angels, along with their final destiny, is best understood by looking at the big picture:

The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared. The landowner’s slaves came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’

“‘An enemy did this!’ he told them.

“‘So, do you want us to go and gather them up?’ the slaves asked him.

“‘No,’ he said. ‘When you gather up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but store the wheat in my barn.’”

Jesus Interprets the Wheat and the Weeds

Then He dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached Him and said, “Explain the parable of the weeds in the field to us.”

He replied: “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;the field is the world; and the good seed—these are the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,and the enemy who sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin and those guilty of lawlessness.They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen! (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

The actual weed Jesus spoke of was the darnell, a ryegrass that in its early stages resembles wheat.  The sabotage, the sowing of the darnell, was not unheard of in the first century.  Roman law prohibited it.  While allowing darnell to grow with wheat may not be the preferred solution for a farmer, it is God’s solution to the problem of evil.

So, where did these “sons of the evil one” come from?

The Temptation and the Fall

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.  But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”

 “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman.  “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

 Then the Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:1-5, 14-15)

Note the reference to “your seed”…

Sons of God and Daughters of Men

When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful, and they took any they chose as wives for themselves. And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward, when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind, who bore children to them. They were the powerful men of old, the famous men. (Genesis 6:1-4)

Watch what immediately happens when the “sons of God” have children:

Judgment Decreed

The Lord had to wipe out the Earth population because of the infection – Noah’s flood.

When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.Then the Lord said, “I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the Lord. (Genesis 6:5-8)

Note that the angels who mated with the daughters of men were already judged:

Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: The Lord first saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;and He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, the angels who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling. (Jude 5-6)

For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but threw them down into hell and delivered them to be kept in chains of darkness until judgment… (2 Peter 2:4)

The Devil’s seed is spread throughout the world. The weeds look just like the wheat. From our human perspective, we can’t tell the difference. Only the Rapture and the End Times that follow will separate them:

The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon

 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in labor and agony as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: There was a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. His tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she did give birth he might devour her child. But she gave birth to a Son—a male who is going to shepherd all nations with an iron scepter—and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. The woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, to be fed there for 1,260 days.

The Dragon Thrown Out of Heaven

 Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought, but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was thrown out—the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him.

 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

The salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of His Messiah
have now come,
because the accuser of our brothers
has been thrown out:
the one who accuses them
before our God day and night.
They conquered him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony,
for they did not love their lives
in the face of death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens,
and you who dwell in them!
Woe to the earth and the sea,
for the Devil has come down to you
with great fury,
because he knows he has a short time. (Revelation 12:1-12)

 

Right at this moment, the Devil, his angels, and his human agents are planning to destroy all of the Christians – the Lord’s seed. They are following a One World Plan that will make it impossible to survive as a Christian. The Plan has always been to “devour” the Christian offspring – through abortion, war, imprisonment, martyrdom, debt slavery, and any other method that will kill, steal or destroy.

In the very near future, a real version of Star Wars will rock the Universe. The Lord’s angels will round up the Devil and his angels, and cast them to the Earth. At the same time, the Rapture will remove all of the Lord’s true believers. This is symbolized by the child being caught up to God and His throne.

Once the exchange has taken place – Satan and his angels cast to Earth, the Lord’s people Raptured into Heaven – then the 7 year Tribulation begins.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”(Hebrews 12:18-29)

 The final fate of the Devil is detailed in Revelation 20:

Satan Bound

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years.He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the 1,000 years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time.

The Saints Reign with the Messiah

Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the people who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of God’s word, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with the Messiah for 1,000 years.The rest of the dead did not come to life until the 1,000 years were completed. This is the first resurrection.Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of the Messiah, and they will reign with Him for 1,000 years.

Satanic Rebellion Crushed

When the 1,000 years are completed, Satan will be released from his prisonand will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea.They came up over the surface of the earth and surrounded the encampment of the saints, the beloved city. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them. The Devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen! (Matthew 13:43)

When He took the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:

You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because You were slaughtered,
and You redeemed people
for God by Your blood
from every tribe and language
and people and nation.
You made them a kingdom
and priests to our God,
and they will reign on the earth.

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. They said with a loud voice:

The Lamb who was slaughtered is worthy
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing!

I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say:

Blessing and honor and glory and dominion
to the One seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb, forever and ever!

The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:8-14)

If you are not sure that you are saved, you can accept Christ into your life right now, by praying:

“Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.  Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of eternal life.  I ask you in to my life and heart to be my Lord and Savior.”