Rapture and End Times

“This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:39,40)

What is “the last day”? Biblical history is best understood as a series of dispensations and covenants. A dispensation can be defined as the particular means God uses to deal with man and creation during a given period in redemptive history. The term “covenant” is of Latin origin (con venire), meaning a coming together. A Biblical covenant is an agreement between God and Man, to make a contract, agreeing on promises, stipulations, privileges, and responsibilities.

The New Covenant that Jesus initiated ushered in the Age of Grace. The church age is outlined with Jesus’s message to the seven churches, as John outlined in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. He used actual churches as examples, that were located in the region we now know as the country of Turkey:

The day that Jesus referred to is the last day of the Age of Grace. This happens when the Church is Raptured.

Jesus spent 3 1/2 years carefully explaining His mission. The basics of Jesus’ teaching were profound, yet were simple enough for a child to understand.

He taught that He was the fulfillment of messianic prophecy, that God requires more than external obedience to rules, that salvation comes to those who believe in Christ, and that judgment is coming to the unbelieving and unrepentant.

Jesus claimed to be the promised Messiah, but was rejected by His people. The hearts of the people were hardened to the truth. There was a corrupt religious leadership who would not receive his claims. Therefore it was the sin of the people that kept them from accepting Jesus as the Promised One.

But as I told you, you’ve seen Me and yet you do not believe. Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 6:36-38)

The Jews that chose to reject Jesus had knowledge and wisdom, but they did not have belief. Pervasive lack of belief is not much different today.

Knowledge

Over the last 2,000 years, the world system has acquired an enormous variety of theoretical and practical information on every subject. The Bible tells us that: “Many will roam about, and knowledge will increase.” (Daniel 12:4)

Recent examples include:

First ever black hole image released / BBC News, April 10, 2019

Astronomers have taken the first ever image of a black hole, which is located in a distant galaxy.

It measures 40 billion km across – three million times the size of the Earth – and has been described by scientists as “a monster”.

The black hole is 500 million trillion km away and was photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the world.

The image matches what theoretical physicists and indeed, Hollywood directors, imagined black holes would look like, according to Dr Ziri Younsi, of University College London – who is part of the EHT collaboration.

“Although they are relatively simple objects, black holes raise some of the most complex questions about the nature of space and time, and ultimately of our existence,” he said.

 

Bulla, altar in Israel top list of Biblical archaeological finds / The Jerusalem Post, January 2, 2020

“Each year, discovery after discovery adds to our knowledge of the biblical world… and to the mounting evidence that demonstrates that the Bible is historically reliable,” Bryan Windle said.

A 2,600-year-old bulla (seal) from the Kingdom of Judah bearing the inscription “[belonging] to Nathan-Melech, Servant of the King,” unearthed in Jerusalem’s City of David earlier this year, has topped the list of top ten discoveries in biblical archaeology in 2019, compiled by the Bible Archaeology Report.

Both the title ‘Servant of the King’ and the name ‘Nathan-Melech’ appear in the Hebrew Bible, the latter in II Kings 23:11, where he is described as an official in King Josiah’s court.

According to the Bible Archaeological Report, epigrapher Christopher Rollston, who the publication says is known for his “cautious approach” to inscriptions, concluded that the “data converges to make it probable that the figure of the Bible and the figure of this bulla are one and the same… as for me, I am entirely comfortable considering it most likely, or virtually certain, that 2 Kings 23:11 and this bulla refer to the same person.”

 

Are These Giant Neurons the Seat Of Consciousness in the Brain? / Singularity Hub, March 9, 2017

The towering trees with their sprawling branches in the redwood forests have always reminded me of neurons in the brain.

Like trees, each neuron extends out tortuous, delicate branches in a quest to make contact with others in its ecosystem. By communicating through thousands of contact points—synapses—dotted along their branches, neurons coordinate their activation patterns across the brain. In this way, bits and pieces of information integrate into unified experiences that are our memories, feelings and awareness of the world.

In other words, the secret of conscious thought may lie in the connections of neuronal trees.

This week at the BRAIN Initiative meeting in Maryland, Dr. Christof Koch, the president of the Allen Institute of Brain Science based in Seattle, announced the discovery of three neurons with branches that extensively span both hemispheres of the brain.

Incredibly, these neurons sit in the claustrum, a mysterious, thin sheet of cells that Koch believes is the seat of consciousness. Among the three, the largest neuron wrapped around the entire circumference of the mouse brain like a “crown of thorns”—something never seen before.

If the brain is a language, we’re still learning the alphabet, remarks Yuste. But every characterization of every single neuron brings us closer to identifying key components of neural networks that control our thoughts, feelings, behavior, and yes—maybe even consciousness.

 

Freeman Dyson, Math Genius Turned Technological Visionary, Dies at 96 / New York Times, March 5, 2020

Freeman J. Dyson, a mathematical prodigy who left his mark on subatomic physics before turning to messier subjects like Earth’s environmental future and the morality of war, died on Friday at a hospital near Princeton, N.J. He was 96.

As a young graduate student at Cornell University in 1949, Dr. Dyson wrote a landmark paper — worthy, some colleagues thought, of a Nobel Prize — that deepened the understanding of how light interacts with matter to produce the palpable world. The theory the paper advanced, called quantum electrodynamics, or QED, ranks among the great achievements of modern science.

“Science is exciting because it is full of unsolved mysteries, and religion is exciting for the same reason,” he said in his Templeton Prize acceptance speech. “The greatest unsolved mysteries are the mysteries of our existence as conscious beings in a small corner of a vast universe.”

 

Wisdom

If knowledge is information, wisdom is the understanding and application of that knowledge.

It was with wisdom that the Lord created the Heavens and the Earth:

I, Wisdom, share a home with shrewdness
and have knowledge and discretion.

“The Lord made me
at the beginning of His creation,
before His works of long ago.

I was formed before ancient times,
from the beginning, before the earth began.

I was born
when there were no watery depths
and no springs filled with water.

I was delivered
before the mountains and hills were established,
before He made the land, the fields,
or the first soil on earth.
I was there when He established the heavens,
when He laid out the horizon on the surface of the ocean,
when He placed the skies above,
when the fountains of the ocean gushed out,
when He set a limit for the sea
so that the waters would not violate His command,
when He laid out the foundations of the earth.

I was a skilled craftsman beside Him.
I was His delight every day,
always rejoicing before Him.

I was rejoicing in His inhabited world,
delighting in the human race. (Proverbs 8)

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

So God created man in His own image;
He created him in the image of God;
He created them male and female. (Genesis 1:26-27)

It was with wisdom that Solomon chose to worship the Lord, and reined over a Golden Age of history:

Solomon offered sacrifices there in the Lord’s presence on the bronze altar at the tent of meeting; he offered 1,000 burnt offerings on it.

That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him: “Ask. What should I give you?”

And Solomon said to God: “You have shown great and faithful love to my father David, and You have made me king in his place. Lord God, let Your promise to my father David now come true. For You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Now grant me wisdom and knowledge so that I may lead these people, for who can judge this great people of Yours?”

God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart, and you have not requested riches, wealth, or glory, or for the life of those who hate you, and you have not even requested long life, but you have requested for yourself wisdom and knowledge that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge are given to you. I will also give you riches, wealth, and glory, unlike what was given to the kings who were before you, or will be given to those after you.” (2 Chronicles 1:7-12)

The Golden Age of Jewish History / The Jewish Magazine, February 1999

These 40 years were the reign of King Solomon the Wise and included the year 2928 (833 BCE) the year the first Temple was built in Jerusalem. These 40 years witnessed the realizations of all our goals, the completion of all our projects, the fruition of all our efforts. These years were built on the foundation built by Moses and David. Moses succeeded in bringing the infant Jewish nation freedom from slavery and giving them the Torah, the Divinely ordained legal and moral system to govern ourselves for all time. He also prepared us to take possession of our land.

Economically, our nation flourished. With war behind us we were able to build, create, and produce. Farms produced an abundance of olive oil, wine, grain, and spices above and way beyond the necessities of all, in fulfillment of the prophetic words, “… if you shall love the Eter-nal with all your heart and soul… you will gather your grain, wine, and oil… you shall eat and be satisfied…”(Deuteronomy 11:13-15).

The masses had time. time to improve themselves through study, prayer, and meditation. There were musicians, artisans, inventors and scientists. Nobles and aristocrats came from all over the world to view the nation of kings, where unlike other nations in which one in one hundred had acquired wealth at the expense of the rest, rather, each household flourished. Where the clothing of the common child was of fine embroidered linen.

They gazed at our Temple and learned that a building can be sublime. They gazed at our King and learned that a ruler can be benevolent. They gazed at our nation and learned that a people can be loving. They gazed at our laws and learned that there may actually be only one G-d.

Thus Israel was the source of all the great accomplishments that were to soon follow in Europe, Asia and even faraway continents and islands. For who had not heard of Solomon’s fame?

The King’s ideas, poetry, and prose were recorded in “Ecclesiastes”, “Proverbs”, and of course “Song of Songs” which the talmudic sage Rebbi Akiva refereed to as the “holiest of the holy.”

Who put wisdom in the heart
or gave the mind understanding? (Job 38:36)

What about our current leaders? What is the wisdom today?

Cuomo Boasts Of Low COVID Infections: ‘God Did Not Do That’ / The Daily Wire, April 14, 2020

During a press conference on Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, boasted about the lowering rate of novel coronavirus cases in the state while seemingly taking a jab at the faithful.

“The number is down because we brought the number down,” he told reporters Monday. “God did not do that. Faith did not do that. Destiny did not do that.”

Gov. Cuomo has a track record of what’s been at least perceived as a hostile commentary and actions toward faithful conservatives.

For example, the Democrat celebrated an abortion-till-birth law by lighting up buildings pink, adding insult to injury for those who opposed the bill, including vocal faith leaders and followers.

Moreover, in 2014, Cuomo suggested conservatives, including the “Right to Life” groups by-name, leave the state of New York if they do no like his liberal policies.

 

Belief

The word belief in Greek is pistis, which means confidence or trust. It is not blind trust. Many Christians when asked by unbelievers why they should believe anything the Bible says, the most common response is “Just have faith!”. Faith or belief is not intellectual suicide. We are told: “Always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have, but do so with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15)

In fact, there is massive proof of God in creation, and proof of Jesus Christ in history. But, Christianity is under a severe attack in this day. “The New Atheist” movement has set a goal to eliminate religious belief from the face of the Earth. Once again, the world has chosen to reject Jesus.

Where does that leave us?

Along with all of the other signs pointing to the Last Day, a dramatic one was seen by millions of Americans. It happened on August 21, 2017 and darkness fell across the face of America. It was the Great American Eclipse.

The path of eclipse made it the most-viewed eclipse of all time. Millions of Americans witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime event as the Moon passed between the Earth and the Sun and day turned to night for up to almost three minutes.

It was the same “shadow of death” that happened on August 21st, 1914 when a total solar eclipse crossed over Eastern Europe shortly after the outbreak of World War I. Interestingly, it crossed over the site of ancient Nineveh in Mosul, Iraq.

Known as the “War to End All Wars,” — which, of course, it didn’t — World War I would introduce humanity to the horrors of modern warfare, including the introduction of armored tanks, aerial bombing and poison gas. And then there was the terror of trench warfare, with Allied and Central Powers slugging it out for years with little gain.

The next coast-to-coast total solar eclipse will then happen on April 8, 2024. Because the 2017 eclipse travels across the country from northwest to southeast and
the 2024 eclipse makes its way through the nation from southwest to northeast, the
two paths cross each other and create a zone of overlapping totality of almost 9,000 square miles. Right over the New Madrid fault.

New Madrid Fault Line May One Day Divide the Country in Half / WKDQ-FM, September 20, 2017

Yes, there is something much worse than dividing the country in half politically. It is an earthquake, so strong, it could divide the US, literally, in half.

In October 2009, a team composed of University of Illinois and Virginia Tech researchers headed by Amr S. Elnashai, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), considered a scenario where all three segments of the New Madrid fault ruptured simultaneously with a total earthquake magnitude of 7.7.

The threat of much larger earthquakes is a real danger. Here are some of the scenarios that resulted from a 5 day Federal Government simulation of a much larger earthquake.

“In May, the federal government simulated an earthquake so massive, it killed 100,000 Midwesterners instantly, and forced more than 7 million people out of their homes.”

This is the time of testing for America. From a Biblical perspective, we are the United States of Nineveh. The Lord is sickened by our Laodicean complacency.

Those called of God NOW are under probation, or judgment, based on how they live by every word of God.

Our goal has been to provide solid Biblical teachings, with a focus on End Time events. The result has been a world-wide ministry of sowing the Good News and winning the lost for Christ. Today we are lead to encourage Christians in the United States of America and throughout the world to pray for this nation.

We must pray for forgiveness and for our land to be healed! It is time to wake up, repent, and get spiritually ready.

The Lord tells us:

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Let’s break it down.

First God says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves…” The Bible speaks in depth about humility and its opposite, pride. These are some key selections:

humble themselves

The humble He guides in justice,
And the humble He teaches His way. (Psalm 25:9)

Do not lift up your horn on high;
Do not speak with a stiff neck.
For exaltation comes neither from the east
Nor from the west nor from the south.
But God is the Judge:
He puts down one,
And exalts another. (Psalm 75:5-7)

Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD;
Though they join forces, none will go unpunished. (Proverbs 16:5)

Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly,
Than to divide the spoil with the proud. (Proverbs 16:18-19)

Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth;
A stranger, and not your own lips. (Proverbs 27:2)

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:12)

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. (Philippians 2:3)

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pray and seek My face

Lord, I bring my requests before your throne, and…

I ask you, Father, in Jesus’ name:
Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:23-24)

I ask, believing that I have received the answer to my request:
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. (Mark 11:24)

I ask for things that please you:
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (1 John 5:14-15)

I ask while obeying your commands:
And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. (1 John 3:22)

I ask that the Son may bring glory to the Father:
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14:13-14)

I ask, while remaining in Jesus:  
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. (John 15:7)

I ask, because you care for me:
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

I ask, because you will meet all my needs:
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

I ask, while confessing and repenting of my sin:
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. (Psalm 66:18)

I ask, while forgiving all others who have sinned against me:
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)

I ask, while offering a sacrifice of praise:
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. (Hebrews 13:15)

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turn from their wicked ways

LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
He who walks uprightly,
And works righteousness,
And speaks the truth in his heart;
He who does not backbite with his tongue,
Nor does evil to his neighbor,
Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the LORD;
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
He who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved. (Psalm 15:1-5)

Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the LORD,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Psalm 24:3-5)

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him… (Colossians 3:8-10)

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world. (1 John 2:15-16)

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And so, putting it all together, we have:

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Please pray for the people effected by the current and upcoming disasters, and prepare yourself for the Last Day.

If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior, now would be an excellent time to ask Him into your life. We each need a Savior! 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.”

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