When you meet with other Christians does the topic of the rapture of the church ever come up? Have you ever noticed that some Christians are unaware of how important the New Testament (NT) writings are? I think some may not realize how important the NT writings are because all they hear from many pulpits is the Old Testament (OT) quoted. If you were to ask some people about the NT writings their answer may surprise you. Some think they are not that significant; they view them as just writings after the death and resurrection of Jesus by the apostles that just contain their personal opinions on certain matters. Some imagine the NT as just a small volume of Christian thoughts compared to the OT, so they view the Old as more important than the New. When they need a word from God some of these people just haphazardly crack their Bible and it opens up to the OT—what are the chances? Because of this practice, they feel like God is always speaking to them from the OT and very rarely ever from the New, so in their mind, they believe the OT must be more important than the New. I am not saying that God does not speak to the Christian using OT Scripture, but if the NT writings are specifically for the believer, then does wisdom not reveal that God will use the NT to speak most times to his new creation? Some consider the OT as the meat and potatoes of the word of God, and the NT as just leftovers that they may pick at for a snack. The people who think this way do not realize that the NT writings are the Christian handbook, a divine-inspired written manual on how to live the new life they have been given in Jesus Christ. The NT reveals how the Christian is supposed to live and how not to live. The NT truly was written to prepare the Christian for the day the body of Christ is raptured into the heavenly realm. Some of those that I inform of this fact are sometimes kind of surprised. They never heard or thought of it that way before. They spend most of their reading time in the OT because of what I said above, that is what they hear preached all the time. I usually explain, that although the OT has some important truths that the Christians can apply to their walk with Jesus, it is for the most part a Testament concerning the nation of Israel. That does not mean the Christian does not read and study the OT because it has written in it the foundation of God’s redemptive plan through the Jews, but the Christian should realize that the way to live and walk in the Spirit of God is by reading, studying, and applying the NT to their lives every day. The NT is completely dedicated to transforming the believer into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29; 12:2; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-10). It is meant to make the believer strong in the Lord as it is planted into their heart (Eph. 6:10-18; 2 Tim. 2:1, 15; Jms. 4:7) so that they can continue in the faith without giving up (Lk. 8:15; Acts.11:23; 14:22; Col. 1:21-23; Heb. 3:6, 14).
Approximately one-third of the OT contains prophecies that concern the nation of Israel, but many in the church think these prophecies are Scripture references concerning the church because they are being taught so, but they are not. This practice leads to deception and sometimes the church is on the receiving end of false prophecies because of it. The other approximately two-thirds of the OT is concerned mainly with the history of the nation of Israel, its leaders, and its kings. Because so much of the OT writings are taught to the church as that they are referring to the church of Jesus Christ this has some in the church believing that Yahweh is finished with the Jews, that the church is the new Israel. This theology is false. God has not replaced Israel with the church of Jesus Christ. There are prophecies in the Old Testament that foretold the first appearance of Israel’s Messiah (which is of interest to the Christian because it reveals how our salvation began), and there are also many prophecies concerning his second appearance when he will redeem the remnant Jewish people (Ps. 2:6; Isa. 14:1 Jer. 23:6; 31:31; Hos. 1:7; Zech. 10:6-12). This happens at the end of their prophesied seventieth-week period (Dan. 9:24-27). There is prophecy concerning their seventieth week period which is sometimes referred to as the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer. 30:7-11) or the time of Yahweh’s wrath (Ps. 79:6; Ezek. 7:7-12)—these OT prophecies are important to the nation of Israel, but they have almost nothing to do with the new creation except for gaining knowledge about the time the church is living in; they are signs we are to look out for.
The NT is a very important section of the canon of Scripture. The gospels are a compilation of historical information about the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts is a record of the early church from the time the disciples witnessed Jesus raptured in the heavenly realms to the time of the apostle Paul’s second imprisonment when he was under house arrest. Romans to Jude is a collection of divinely inspired material to guide the Christians from the first day of their salvation to the last day of the church-age when their salvation will be completed (Rms. 6:1-23; 1 Cor. 15:50-53). When the church-age is completed, the Christian will have their body redeemed and transformed as they are raptured into the eternal realm to be with the Lord forever (1 Thess. 4:13-18)—the NT was written to get the Christian prepared for the rapture. As there are many prophecies in the OT concerning Israel in the endtimes, there are also prophecies in the NT concerning the church in the endtimes before the seven-year Tribulation Period begins (Israel’s seventieth-seek). I shall not forget the revelation of Jesus Christ, for at its beginning it is a prophecy given to the church to reveal the different phases of development – both good and bad – it will go through by using as an example seven of the early churches that the apostle John ministered to in Asia Minor (Rev. 2-3). These examples have revealed the different stages of both spiritual growth and spiritual decline the church will experience throughout the church-age, ending with the rapture of the faithful at the end of the church-age (Rev. 4:1). The revelation of Jesus Christ is also a prophecy of the endtimes, written so that the church may study it and know what the world will be like after it is raptured, and just as important so that they can warn the people of the world what it will be like after the church is gone (Rev. 1:1)—the church must study the revelation of Jesus Christ so that they can prophecy and warn the unbeliever of what the world will be like when God finally releases his wrath upon the fallen angels, the ten kings, the Antichrist, the false prophet, and the unbelieving world. It is the believer’s responsibility to prophecy and warn the world so people may have the opportunity to escape the time of God’s wrath by believing in the name of Jesus so they can get saved (Zeph. 1:19; 3:8; Lk. 3:7; 21:23; Rms. 2:5, 8; 5:9; Eph. 2:3; 5:6; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9).
As I said previously, the NT was written and preserved by God so that the body of Christ throughout the church-age – especially the final generation of the church – can study it and abide by what is written so they can be prepared for the day the church-age is over and be raptured into eternity. It is no coincident that the apostle Paul when writing First Thessalonians writes just before the revealing of the rapture (4:16-17), that the church must conduct their lives to ἀρέσκειν θεῷ (aréskein theó) please God (4:1a). In another place he had written that the church must work towards pleasing the Lord (2 Cor. 5:9). Some in the church today live primarily to satisfy themselves and to a lesser extent to please other people. These believers do not know how to please God because they do not study and follow the divine manual, the NT writings—living to please self and others is more satisfying to some because of the earthly rewards they may receive. Paul asked the Thessalonian believers, even begged them, to live to please God so that as they receive instruction from him and the other apostles they may abound more and more in God (4:1b). Living to please God helps get the Christian prepared for the rapture. Do you think a Christian who lives for self and other people pleases God?
Paul wrote: οἴδατε γὰρ τίνας παραγγελίας ἐδώκαμεν ὑμῖν διὰ τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ (oídate gár tínas parangelías edókamen ymín diá toú kyríou Iisoú) “for you have seen what order we have given you through the Lord Jesus” (4:2, MGNT). It is the will of God that the believers ἁγιασμός (hagiasmos) sanctification, abstain from fornication (4:3). Sanctification refers to the believer being divinely set apart for God. He made the believer’s spirit holy when he sealed it with his Holy Spirit—man is a spirit, with a body of flesh to live in while on the earth, and with a soul to communicate with. Being spiritually holy before the Lord means that fornication is forbidden. The Greek term Paul used that we have as the English word fornication is πορνεία (porneia)—Vines Dictionary says porneia is used to describe forbidden sexual intercourse and adultery. Metaphorically it is used to describe pagan idolatry.[1] Fornication is also used in some English Bibles in referring to sexual intercourse with the same sex and with animals. The believer should control his body, its sexual passions and lusts, and not be like the unbeliever who cannot control his sexual desire and lusts—the believer is to control himself in holiness and τιμῇ (timí) honor (4:4-5). Timí has the sense of seeing one’s body as being valuable, like in the price that was paid by Christ for it. The believer should not take advantage or do wrong to another believer in Christ, for the Lord will avenge, or punish the one doing wrong (4:6). Paul is primarily referring to coveting or stealing another believer’s spouse with this specific instruction, but this objective would also include doing any kind of wrong to another believer. He said that he, and possibly Silas and Timothy, had warned them about this before—likely when they were with the Thessalonian believers in person.
Paul did write to the Galatian believers with a warning: Any believer living in sexual immorality, impurity, excessive sexual pleasure, hatred, strife, rage, selfishness, conflict, jealousy, and resentment, will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21). He wrote the Ephesian believers something similar: There can be no fornication, impurity, or covetousness among the saints, nor profanity, promiscuity, coarse and crude joking (Eph. 5:3-4). He also warned them: πᾶς πόρνος ἢ ἀκάθαρτος ἢ πλεονέκτης ὅ ἐστιν εἰδωλολάτρης οὐκ ἔχει κληρονομίαν ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ (pás pórnos í akáthartos í pleonéktis ó estin eidololátris ouk échei klironomían en tí vasileía toú Christoú kaí theoú) “every fornicator or unclean person or a profiteer who is an idolater has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:5, MGNT). He also wrote the Corinthian believers: Those who do not walk in righteousness, nor prostitutes, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who lie with men, will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9). Paul did not leave it there: People that steal, or who are greedy, slanderers, drunks, or people who are extortionists, shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10). He did remind the Corinthian church that this is what some of them were involved in before they were justified and sanctified in Christ (1 Cor. 6:11), but now some of them were going back to the old ways like taking their disputes to the ungodly to judge between them instead of taking it to the body of Christ (1 Cor. 6:1). They had started to act like the unbelievers and were taking one another to court right in front of the ungodly (1 Cor. 6:6), getting them to execute judgment over the children of God. The fact the Corinthian believers were doing this meant that their faith in Christ had been defeated, they were cheating one another and defrauding the body of Christ (1 Cor. 6:7-8). All the people in these churches who were involved in these acts of the flesh (sinful nature) were doing them without remorse, or Paul would not have had to bring these issues up in his letters. The fact he had to publicly chastise them revealed they saw nothing wrong with what they were doing. Even though they were sanctified they were walking in unrighteousness, which meant if they did not sincerely repent, they would not inherit the kingdom of God.
Please do not disregard what is being said. The apostle Paul wrote to Christians, he is warning the church of God. I believe that when he said a believer will not inherit the kingdom of God, he is implying they will not be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, but will be cast into the Tribulation Period where they will be given one last chance to repent for corrupting their sanctification. Some disagree with my conviction but there is just too much evidence in the NT writings of the apostles that verify my statement. If you did not know; the believers in the first century believed that the rapture of the church was imminent, that it may happen while they were still in their earthly bodies—the church believed this truth up until approximately the third century when some stopped believing in the imminent pre-Tribulation rapture and worked at disproving it. Consequently, believers in this generation should take this warning to heart, because the rapture of the church will happen in this generation as I have written in other articles giving Scriptural evidence as proof. I am not predicting the day and hour, but I am prophesying the season, the generation the rapture of the church will happen. We can do that when we understand endtimes prophecy. Many have no interest in endtimes prophecy so they will disregard what I say—that is between them and God. Jesus taught in metaphors when he prophesied to his disciples that there would be some Jews still alive to witness his second coming who also witnessed the rebirth of the nation of Israel (Matt. 24:32-34; Mk. 13:28-30; Lk. 21:29-32). The γενεά (genea) generation that made it through The Holocaust (1941-1945) and witnessed the rebirth of the Jewish State (May 14, 1948) will also witness Jesus Christ come out of the eternal realm to defeat the globalists and their one-world government (Rev. 19:11-21). A right interpretation of Scripture reveals that the rapture of the church will happen at least seven years before Jesus comes to defeat the Antichrist—you might want to do the math. So, I am not guessing or making false statements, but rather I am using Christ’s prophecy to inform the reader what day we a living in.
The apostle Paul reminded the Thessalonian believers that God did not call them to impurity, but to sanctification (1 Thess. 4:7). He has called the church to live in holiness. Paul warns the church, that Christians who disregard his instruction do not disobey man, but God who gives the believer his Holy Spirit (4:8). Paul continues: That as for φιλαδελφίας (filadelfías) “love for the brethren” he does not need to write the Thessalonians about it because God has taught them to love one another (4:9). The Thessalonians were already doing that, they already were displaying filadelfías in Macedonia, but the apostle begs them to abound in love for the brethren even more (4:10).
As I wrote above, I do not believe it was a coincidence that Paul instructed the Thessalonian believers to learn how to please God right before he wrote a clear and concise description of the rapture. The believer is to do it so they may abound more and more in God. His instruction to get rid of all fornication and to learn how to control one’s body, its sexual passions and lusts, is a must to walk in holiness and honor. His warning to not do wrong to another believer in Christ must not be ignored, because God is sure to punish anyone that does. The believer is called to live a holy and righteous life. If he disregards this instruction on holiness then he does not disobey men, but he disobeys God who gives the Christian his Holy Spirit. The believer must prepare himself for the rapture before it happens. Now is the time to do it.
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