You
may have seen that I write quite frequently about the coming of the Lord on my
Blog ‘The Logos Revealer” and on my website ‘Maranatha Faith Believers.’ The
reason I write primarily on this subject is because I am very passionate about
this topic, and because of how real it is to me. Certain people who know me
know that I can discuss the Lord’s coming with great enthusiasm. If they are
likeminded with me our discussion can go on for a long while, and at the end we
are so energized because the presence of Gods Spirit stirs us up to seek and
know him even more.
In
the early years of my life in Christ I have been very fortunate to sit in the
congregations of two wonderful Pastors who were called by the Lord to shepherd
the flock of God, I believe this because they both had the witness of the
coming of the Lord in their heart, just like I do. They did not introduce to me
the initial knowledge of the Lord and his return, for that truth had been
planted in my understanding prior to meeting them, but they sure did add more
to my understanding.
These
men, whom one is passed on and is with the Lord in spirit and the other is
moved on to another location enjoying his senior years, knew what the Lord is
speaking to the Church in these last and final days of the Church age. They
read and saw how important the rapture of the Church is in the plan of God, and
they understood through the word that Jesus commands the believer to watch and
be ready for his coming. They knew through study that the Lord’s appearing
would be witnessed by the same people who were alive to see Israel
As
I move on from my mini biography I would like to share some more about the
coming of the Lord with you, by his coming I am referring to the rapture of the
Church and his second coming; where he redeems the nation of Israel at the end
of the Tribulation Period — if you need to know the difference between these
two separate and distinct events than I suggest you read my article called ‘Do
You Know The Difference?’ on my blog site. I have reported before that the
rapture is such an important subject that the writers of the New Testament have
recorded more than fifty passages concerning this event, you must have the
revelation of the Spirit to see most of these references or you may just read
over them not understanding what God is saying. If you desire to know these
passages you can go to my website* where I have listed and prepared brief
commentaries on each of them.
The
rapture is important because at this event God completes his salvation in all
those who remain in Christ, and are then fitted with glorified bodies: “For we
know that if our earthly house of [this] tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in
this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven” (2 Cor. 5:1-2, KJV). This is when our mortal bodies will put on
immortal bodies, taking place at the last trumpet, in as fast as it takes for
the human eye to blink (See 1 Cor. 15:50-53). These glorified spiritual bodies
are of the same spiritual substance like the Lord Jesus Christ possesses: “For
our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord
Yeshua the Messiah; who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed
to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to
subject all things to himself” (Phil.3:20-21, HNV).
At
the day and hour of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ God shows grace to those
who were living in fellowship with him and have already passed on, as he
will raise them first into glorified
spiritual bodies — they have been living in heaven since they passed on only in
spirit and without their body — then we who are still alive physically he catches
away immediately to be with the Lord forever in the spiritual realm: “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”
(1 Thess. 4:16-17, KJV).
It
is all well and good to believe that the rapture will happen someday, someday
far away, like twenty, fifty, a hundred years from today; many live day to day with
this notion without giving this glorious day any thought or consideration
whatsoever in their busy life. When you discuss life with many Christians they
discuss how they will live to be old, they cannot wait for their children or
their grandchildren to grow up so they can partake with them what they have become.
Grand thoughts these people possess but we must first consider the hour we live
in.
The
Church must consider what God has said in his word about when Jesus will come
for his people. I know there are a hundred and one excuses given why we cannot
know when the rapture will take place, these excuses are usually given by the
clergy. Many times those who have been appointed to shepherd the flock of God
will criticize anyone who writes or discusses the coming of the Lord, because
they are unlearned about this event themselves. Hence, those who are being
shepherded begin to get critical also against those who write and discuss the
coming of the Lord. You have heard them, they usually say that we do not know
the day and hour, thinking by saying these words it will protect them from
their willing lack of knowledge; may the Lord be merciful.
God
has revealed in his word when Jesus will come for the Church, at the rapture,
and then for the nation of Israel
Jesus
Christ prophesied in the Gospels that the same people who witnessed the rebirth
of the nation of Israel in May 1948, will also witness the second coming of
Christ at the end of the Tribulation Period, that is if they miss the rapture
of the Church and survive the horrible time of the Tribulation (Read
Revelation). His prophecy was in Matthew 24:32-34 and the parallel verses in
Mark and Luke — again for the sake of writing space I cannot go fully into all
the details of this prophecy but I do in my book. As of today it has been almost
sixty five years since the rebirth of Israel, and if you witnessed the rebirth
than you are over the age of sixty five, because you had to be at least five to
ten years old to understand what was taking place that day on May 15, 1948. Part
of the prophecy Jesus proclaimed was that those who would see or perceive (εἴδω)
{eidō} Israel’s national transition, witnesses of the rebirth, would witness
his second coming. I doubt that anyone under the age of five years old can
remember what happened that day in 1948, and if they cannot remember than they
were not witnesses to this event because they could not perceive or comprehend
what was taking place; because they were too young to understand. We must
consider that anyone who witnessed the rebirth of Israel
Consider
this, the second coming takes place at the end of the seven year Tribulation Period,
so there is at least seven years until the second coming occurs. How old will the
witnesses of the rebirth of Israel be at the second coming, considering they
are in the range of seventy to seventy five years of age, or even older right
now? What is the statistical life expectancy of people in our day and age? In
case you do not know it is seventy nine to eighty years of age, meaning that
people are not expected to live past this age — although a slight few do. I am
not being cold hearted; I am trying to help you see what time it is. I only
want you to understand how close we are to the rapture of the Church, the Tribulation
Period and Christ’s second coming. Israel’s seventieth week can only occur if
she is a self ruling nation, something that did not take place since 605 B.C. Israel
has been independent since May 15, 1948., when she was declared a nation by the
power nations at that time.
I
did not touch on how my former Pastors knew that God’s house is to watch and be
ready for the coming of the Lord, or about why those called to feed God’s house
information about the coming of the Lord is so important, because I would than
have to turn this article into a booklet. As the Lord wills I will touch on
these points in another article. May the Lord bless you!
