Ahead

I’m listening to a popular TV preacher “refute” the idea of a rapture.  He has read from Luke 19 and Matthew 24 and launched into “mocking” those who believe in “two comings.”

While I don’t profess to have this prophecy thing all figured out, I have spent some 50 years working on it and not as a side study but as a critical matter: critical for 20 – 25% of the Bible is yet unfulfilled.  It seems fool-hardy to not be passionate about something the Bible has much to talk about.  Furthermore, this verse is of great interest to me:  Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near, Revelation 1:3.  It seems silly to tell the Lord that I don’t want to have His blessing so I’m not going to study the book of Revelation or prophecy and to not learn from it so to more fully be found faithful when my time comes.  Prophecy can surely be a challenge but it is from God and given to us by God:  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work, II Timothy 3:16-17.  God gave us prophecy in order that we might grow spiritually and be about doing good all our days.  Prophecy is a very, very important part of the Christian’s life!

So here is a brief overview of what I think lies ahead:

1. Things are going to get worse. Despite Noah Harari, the WEF’s Great Reset or the agenda of the Biden Administration (the Sept. 1, 2022 speech); evil men will get worse, false prophets will grow, lies will abound (I Timothy 4:1; II Timothy 3:1, 13) AND immorality will worsen (Romans 1:18-32).
2. The snatching of the church (the Rapture) to a place prepared by her Groom is near! Jesus will call His “love” to His side before that great day of the Lord (Acts 2:20). This will be a resurrection from the dead of all true church saints then a snatching up of those yet alive (I Thessalonians 4:17).
3. God’s focus will again be on Jews and Jerusalem. (Jerusalem will be desolate UNTIL Jews say Jesus is a blessing, Matthew 23:39. Also, in Daniel 9:26-27, at the end of 483 years, Jesus will die then Jerusalem will be destroyed and the land be desolate and war ravaged until a false prince will sign a peace treaty with Jews back in the land.  The last seven years of God’s prophecy about Jews and Jerusalem come AFTER a period of desolation.  The Tribulation is about Jews and Jerusalem – Not the church!).
4. The second coming of Jesus to earth ends the 7 years of Tribulation when the nations have been gathered by God to a battle called Armageddon.
5. At that time Jesus will remove ALL non-believers from the earth as He did in Noah’s flood (Matthew 24:40-41). He will also remove Satan, the false prince, and the false prophet (Revelation 20:1).
6. At that time, every Jew alive will understand Jesus as their promised Messiah (Zechariah 12:10-14) and every one will repent and embrace Jesus and a Godly nation will be born (Isaiah 66:8).
7. At that time all those who believed in God and His Redeemer from the beginning of time and through the Tribulation and NOT part of the church, will be raised to a glorified body and so ever be with Jesus.
8. Jesus will establish a visible, literal kingdom over the whole earth. Jesus will rule as King from Jerusalem (Matthew 25:31) where a great temple will be erected (Ezekiel 40-48).
9. The kingdom will be glorious with Jesus being adored, worshipped and obeyed. There will yet be death (Isaiah 65:20) but wars, famines, plagues, diseases and God’s use of nature in disasters will be ended. The planet will experience a glorious rest (Isaiah 65:21-25).
10. At the end of the thousand years Satan will be released to serve as a leader for the humanity that were only outwardly compliant and they will rise up against Jesus and be destroyed by fire from God (Revelation 20:7-10).
11. All men who never embraced God and His redemption will be raised to be judged by Jesus and sent to an eternal destiny of grief and loss (Rev. 21:11-15).
12. The earth will be purged by fire and recreated perfect (II Peter 3:10, Revelation 21:1).
13. God Himself will “move” to the earth and will, along with Jesus, be glorified and served by the peoples who loved Him before dying (Revelation 21-22).

Prophecy is history pre-written that reveals God’s wisdom and power and reminds us that chance or luck have no place in our thinking.  We live in the realm of an awesome God so we need not fear!