BIBLE REFERENCE:
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4
ENCOURAGING WORD:
In these days in which we live there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about the second coming of Christ. The reason that there is so much confusion is because most of the churches of today teach it as if the “Second Coming” and “The Rapture” are the same event. When you read and understand the Bible as it was meant to be understood, you will see that it is obvious by the scriptures written in the Bible that there are two separate comings of Jesus Christ which will fulfill the “Day of the Lord.” I will explain with precise detail according to the scriptures how this has to be. First of all, like I said, most of the churches treat this as if it is a single event. We need to study the whole counsel of God and not just pick and choose what verses we want to try to understand. I say, “try to understand,” because if they are not Born-Again, there is no way that they can make heads or tails of what the Bible teaches.
I’m going to share a few major differences that explain why it cannot be the same event. First of all, let’s look at; 1 Thessalonians 4: 17; Jesus Appears in the heavens. “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (Raptured) together with them (The dead in Christ) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord.”
In Revelation 19: 19-21; Jesus returns to the earth (not in the clouds) to make war with the beast and those that worshipped him. “And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him (Jesus) who sat on the horse and against His army. Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two (The False Prophet and the Antichrist) were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.”
In 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18; Jesus returns for His church (The Rapture) in the clouds, not on the earth. “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. (The dead in Christ) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the “dead in Christ” will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
In Revelation 19:14; Jesus returns with His church to the earth. “And the armies (The Saints) in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.”
In 1 Thessalonians 4; Jesus returns as a deliverer. (The Rapture) He meets us in the clouds to remove us from what is about to take place on the earth for the next seven years. “Then we who are alive and remain shall be “caught up together with them in the cloud’s to meet the Lord in the air.” This is obvious in the following Bible verse.
1 Thessalonians 5:9; “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,”
The Apostle Paul is telling us about the wrath of God that is coming to an unbelieving world to judge those that rejected Jesus Christ and His propitiation for their sins. That’s obviously not for the believers in Christ!
In Revelation 19: 11-16; Jesus returns with His church as a warrior. (The Second Coming) “ Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, (Jesus Christ) and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, (This is not His own blood, it is the blood of the unsaved) and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. (These are the redeemed that were taken in the Rapture) Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, (Which is the Word of God) that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:
KING OF KINGS ANDLORD OF LORDS.
In 1 Thessalonians 4;13-18; Jesus returns in grace as we just read. (The Rapture)
In Revelation 19: 11-16; Jesus returns with wrath as we also just read. (The Second Coming)
1 Thessalonians 4; 13-18; Jesus appears as a bridegroom. (The Rapture)
In Revelation 19: 11-16; Jesus returns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. (The Second Coming) In order to completely understand the second coming of Christ, we need to study the prophecies of end times. This does not get taught in most of the denominational churches of today as well as most of the non-denominational churches. The Mega Churches also fall into this category, they are for the most part seeker sensitive and prosperity churches. They are all about the money and do not teach their congregations the truth about sin and Gods plan of salvation. A movement of seeker-sensitive churches, with the goal of making church services and other programs more appealing to unchurched people, began developing in the 1980s. We read about this in the following Bible verse;
2 Timothy 4:3-4; “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they gather to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
Now let’s examine why there has to be a rapture from another point of “eschatology.” (A belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humankind.”) Matthew 24:36; “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”
If the return of Jesus Christ is imminent, (The Imminent return means that Jesus could come at any time.) which it is, then there has to be two separate comings. The second coming of Christ to the earth has to be preceded by the following events which is hard core evidence that there has to be a rapture. (1). There has to be seven years of tribulation before Jesus can return. (2). There has to be the rebuilding of the Jewish temple. (3). The revelation of the Antichrist has to be revealed. (4). The killing of two witnesses has to take place. (5). The desecration of the temple has to take place. (The abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet) (6). The institution of the mark of the beast. (7). Salvation of the Jewish remnant. These seven events have to happen before Jesus Christ can return to the earth. How then can it be like a thief in the night if He cannot return today? Even the people in Paul’s days were expecting the possible return of Jesus Christ at any time! If we do not accept the rapture as truth, then we take away the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Since all these things have to happen before Jesus can come back, then it is obvious that Jesus cannot come back for at least seven years which would allow people to live anyway that they wish until it gets close and then they can accept the Lord…how dangerous is that? If we teach people that Jesus cannot come back today, and He does happen to return today, we will have the blood of all those people on our hands. If we teach this doctrine, then we are teaching a doctrine from the pit of hell. Satan wants the human race to believe all the lies that are taught as truth from the pulpits of today. Satan wants us to be caught off guard.
Here is what happened back in the days that Jesus walked the shore of the Galilee. The church leaders of that day did exactly what today’s churches are doing to their congregation which is not preparing them for the soon return of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees and Sadducees of that day should have been warning the people that Jesus was coming soon because of the prophecy of Daniel. Daniel 9:24-27 prophesied the exact day that Jesus would proclaim Himself to be the Messiah.
Luke 19:43-45; tells us what the consequences were for not knowing the time of His coming, “For days will come upon you (Israel) when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
There penalty for not knowing prophesy was blindness until the fullness of the gentiles come in. We read what the Apostle Paul said in; Romans 11: 25-27; “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.”
Do you know what is going to happen to our generation because today’s churches are not teaching the truth and warning their congregations about coming events? Those that miss the soon return of Jesus Christ will be cast into the "Great Tribulation" for seven years in which God Himself will pour out His wrath on an unbelieving world. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. During this time, those that parish during this seven year period will be sent to Sheol, where they will be in torment and suffering for one thousand years, and then the “White Throne Judgment" will take place and the final judgement will come where they will be sentenced to “The Lake of Burning Fire” forever!
The Bible is crystal clear that no one can know the day or time of the Lord’s return which is the rapture of the church. But the day of the second coming where Jesus returns to the earth can be calculated precisely. In the same way that Daniel prophesied the exact day when Jesus would proclaim Himself to be the Messiah, we can know the exact day of His second coming, if we are here after the rapture of the church. Of course, all believers will be taken in the rapture so there will be no one left that knows the scriptures of the Bible, so when Jesus does appear at the end of the Tribulation period, it will be like a thief in the night to those who are still on the earth at that time. For those that believe, a thief in the night is in reference to the Rapture, to those that are left behind, a thief in the night is Jesus's Second Coming to the earth.
We read this verse in Daniel 12:11-12; “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. (Which is three and a half years) Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.”
1,290 days from the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet is the day that Jesus Christ will return to the earth for the sheep and goat judgement. There is some speculation as to what happens during the forty-five days after His return, but most good Bible scholars believe it is the time of judgement for those that will be taken away to judgement and those that will be left to populate the thousand-year millennium. That is why it says, “blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.”
We read this in Matthew 25:31-33; “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, (The Second Coming after the seven year tribulation ) and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.”
After the battle Armageddon, Jesus tells us that He will place the sheep, (Christians,) on His right side and non-Christians on His left; Matthew 25:34; “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” Those who are placed on His right will go into the Millennial Kingdom. The Millennial Kingdom starts as an Earthly Kingdom and one-thousand years later transitions into a heavenly kingdom after the final battle that takes place at the end of the Millennial Kingdom.
Those on His left will go into eternal punishment, which is hell or the Lake of Fire. Matthew 25:46; “And these (The Goats, Unbelievers) will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Like I have always said in the past, believe what you will, I am just here to teach what I believe the Bible has to say about the coming days. It is up to each person to read the Bible for themselves and come to the conclusion as to whether they want to believe this teaching or reject it. Based on the scriptural evidence that I have shown, I believe what I wrote to be true. The only part that is questionable to me is the last paragraph where it is only speculation of what those last forty-five days can be.
We are all instructed to be Bereans like it says in Act 17:11; “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
You need to search the scriptures for yourself and hear what the Holy Spirit has to say to you. If He speaks to you as He spoke to me, you will realize that you have not been taught the truth from the churches of today. If you ask a pastor from a denominational church about what I just shared with you, he will say that I am wrong, but they will not be able to explain the verses that I showed you. They will explain them away and try to make them out to be allegoric. Believe what you will, you will be held accountable for what you believe. I am not responsible for your salvation, but I am called to share the truth of God’s Word.
In conclusion we read in Romans 15:5-6; “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”
May God continue to bless you in all you do and take care!
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