November 30, 2012

Zionism vs. Peace in the Middle East


"He [Nick Rockefeller] even mentioned to me once that they were having a real problem trying to solve the Israel-Palestinian problem. And he talked to me once about [that] they were playing with the idea of bringing Israel to Arizona, and taking all the people from Israel and giving everybody a million dollars and setting up Israel in the State of Arizona to end that problem. That's a problem that they're not in charge of, in a sense. They're not controlling that problem." - Aaron Russo on His Conversations with Nick Rockefeller About the the Council on Foreign Relations and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (first 41 seconds of the video above; read more...)
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36)

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:14)
Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people is not surprising, for they have rejected Christ as the Messiah, along with His message to love your enemies. The Zionists in the State of Israel (who follow the Talmud rather than the Torah) are looking for a physical kingdom from which a physical king will reign (just as the Jews of the first century who rejected Christ were looking for a physical kingdom and a physical king), which is why they believe (along with many misguided Christians) that they are entitled to the land occupied by the Palestinians and, most importantly, the temple mount.

The deception by the devil in guiding the Zionists to construct a physical temple for a physical king to reign from Jerusalem for a "millennium" will serve the plan of God — it will be upon this final scene, with the false messiah ruling for "a little season" from the holy place in Jerusalem, showing himself that he is God, that Christ will return in the clouds of heaven for the judgment of the nations. (This deception by the devil will serve the purpose of God just as the rejection of Christ by some in Israel served the purpose of God — and this was to deliver the Gospel to the Gentiles, who now, through faith, partake of the blessings to the fathers and join with believing Jews to constitute the true Israel of God, the Church of Jesus Christ.)

The true Messiah, Christ, will never reign from a physical temple made by human hands; however, the false messiah will reign on this earth for "a little season" from the holy place in Jersualem, and he will deceive many with his signs and wonders — "and all the world, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder after the beast who shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition." This is "the abomination that maketh desolate set up," spoken of by Daniel the prophet. "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand), then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains."

And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified... Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name." Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, an angel spake to Him. Jesus answered and said, "This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." (John 12:23,27-31)

"But I say unto you which hear:
'Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you.
And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other;
And him that taketh away thy cloke, forbid not to take thy coat also.
Give to every man that asketh of thee;
And of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again.
And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.
And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.
And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great,
And ye shall be the children of the Highest: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged:
Condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned:
Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
Give, and it shall be given unto you;
Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.
For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again'."
(Luke 6:27-38)
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. (Acts 17:24)

And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament. (Revelation 11:19)


The Zionists' zeal to claim the temple mount is something over which the Bilderberg-owned governments of the world do not have control. This is the devil's plan, although under the ultimate control of God; and Satan is driving the Zionists to seize the land occupied by the Palestinians, including the temple mount, so that he can build a temple from which he will reign over his anti-Christian one-world government and religion. At the end of this age, for "a little season," the devil will stand in the holy place, showing himself that he is God, and he will deceive many with his signs and wonders.

God and the Nation of Israel

By Wayne Jackson

Premillennialism is the notion that Jesus will return to this earth before he commences a 1000-year reign on David’s throne in Jerusalem. Premillennialism, and its theological sister, dispensationalism, argue that in connection with the second coming of Christ, God intends to reestablish a Jewish kingdom in Palestine. The doctrine contends that there is yet a purpose to be served by physical Israel.

Dispensationalists allege that in the “seven-year tribulation period,” just prior to Christ’s “millennial reign,” God will restore the Jews to Palestine and a national conversion of the Hebrew people will occur. It is not claimed that every Jew will be won to Christ; however, such vast multitudes will be saved—numbers proportionate to Israel’s tragic fall—that it is appropriate to refer to the phenomenon as a “national” conversion.

One writer describes this so-called “restoration” as follows:
The same prophets who predicted the world-wide exile and persecution of the Jews also predicted their restoration as a nation. . . This restoration was to come about in the general time of the climactic seven-year countdown and its finale—the personal appearance of the Messiah to deliver the new state from destruction (Lindsey 1970, 37-38).
The foregoing theory is quite erroneous in that it repudiates numerous fundamental Bible truths. Further, it is exceedingly dangerous in that it offers a false hope to Jews. Walvoord, a millennialist, says that:
“This hope of restoration has sustained the Jews through 1900 years of struggle” (1974, 76).
This “hope” has been grossly misplaced—thanks, in part at least, to millennialists.

Israel in the Divine plan

A balanced study of the nation of Israel must include at least four elements: the selection, testing, rejection, and replacement of the Jewish people.

Selection

Almost 2000 years before the birth of Christ, Jehovah selected Abraham to be the founder of a new nation. It was declared that through him a seed would come by whom all peoples of the earth would be blessed (cf. Genesis 12:1-3; 22:17-18). Several centuries later, Abraham’s offspring were delivered from an era of bondage in Egypt. They were given a special law and ritualistic system of worship which were designed to separate them from the other nations of the world (Exodus 19:5-6; cf. Ephesians 2:14). All of this, of course, was in view of the coming Messiah (cf. Galatians 3:24-25; Hebrews 9:1-10).

Testing

For some 1500 years the Lord God attempted to cultivate the nation of Israel in preparation for the first advent of the Lord Jesus. It was a constant struggle to get the Hebrews to maintain a semblance of fidelity. They grossly violated the law, frequently went after “strange gods,” and they viciously persecuted the prophets that Jehovah sent to call them to repentance. Jeremiah summarized the history of the Israelite people when he charged that they did “nothing” of all that Jehovah commanded them (32:23).

Rejection

Because of the accelerating rebellion of the nation, consummated by the murder of Jesus Christ, God rejected the Hebrew people. Inexcusably, the Jews rejected their own Messiah; accordingly, Jehovah repudiated that nation and determined to scatter them as dust (Matthew 21:44). Thus, in the providence of God, the Roman armies came against Palestine in A.D. 70, and Judaism was destroyed (cf. Matthew 22:7; 24:1-34); the Jewish “vessel” was smashed, and it cannot be put back together (cf. Jeremiah 19:11). According to Josephus, some 1.1 million Hebrews were slaughtered, and thousands were taken into slavery. All Jewish records were lost in that holocaust. Today, there is not a single Jew who knows his tribal ancestry (McClintock and Strong 1969, 771). The physical nation of Israel is dead. The “Jews” that make up the State of Israel today (less than 25 percent of the world Jewish population) cannot legitimately be called a “nation.”

Replacement

As a consequence of Israel’s rejection of the Messiah, God has replaced physical Israel with a new nation, spiritual Israel. Today, the “Jew” is not one who is so physically, but one who is so inwardly, i.e., spiritually (Romans 2:28-29). In this age, those who submit to the gospel plan of redemption—whether Jew or Gentile (Romans 1:16)—become children of God, and thus are constituted as the true “seed of Abraham” (Galatians 3:26-29).

Errors of the Premillennial View Regarding the Nation of Israel

In view of the foregoing considerations, the following factors clearly indicate that the premillennial view of the nation of Israel is erroneous, and it should be rejected by conscientious students of the Bible.

First, it is a reflection upon the benevolent character of Jehovah to suggest that he intended to perpetually favor one nation over all others. Such a notion is at variance with the multiple Bible affirmations which assert the universal love of God, and his just, impartial disposition with reference to the whole human family (cf. Genesis 12:3; Psalm 145:9; Acts 10:34-35).

Second, the premillennial dogma ignores the fact that God’s initial selection of the Hebrew people, and the acquisition of the land of Canaan, was preparatory to the coming Christ. Jehovah employed the Jewish nation as a medium for the introduction of Christ into the world. Now that the Messianic mission has been accomplished, the role of “national Israel” no longer exists (cf. Galatians 3:24-25). That “middle wall of partition,” designed to isolate Israel from the nations, has been broken down (Ephesians 2:14). It was abrogated at the cross (Colossians 2:14). From the divine viewpoint, old physical Israel has passed away. It has been superseded by a new Israel.

Third, the Old Testament makes it abundantly clear that Israel’s favor with Jehovah, even under the Mosaic regime, was conditional.
And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that Jehovah thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth (Deuteronomy 28:1).
The Hebrews were constantly warned of the consequences of disobedience (cf. 28:15ff). They could be disinherited as a nation (Numbers 14:12) and disfranchised of their land (Joshua 23:13,16). The truth is, there are about as many Old Testament warnings to Israel as there are promises!

Fourth, there is not a solitary New Testament passage which speaks of the restoration of national Israel and the reinstitution of Judaistic ritualism, etc. The Old Testament prophecies which predict the literal return of the Hebrews to Palestine were fulfilled in the Jews’ release from political captivity (cf. Jeremiah 29:10; Ezra 1:1). Other predictions, which speak of a “restoration” of Israel, refer to a spiritual restoration (to God, not Palestine—cf. Isaiah 49:5) through Jehovah’s servant, Christ. [Note: Sometimes this spiritual restoration to God, through the redemptive work of Christ, is symbolically viewed in terms of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, etc. (cf. Jeremiah 31:38-40).] This blessing was for Jew and Gentile alike. Study carefully Isaiah 49:5ff, and note Paul’s use of this context in the New Testament (Acts 13:47; 2 Corinthians 6:2).

Fifth, there are many New Testament passages which portray a tragic future for physical Israel, 
with no hint of a national restoration.

Prophetic Pronouncements Concerning Israel

Like modern millennialists, there were Jews of old who felt that there was intrinsic virtue in being a physical descendant of Abraham (cf. John 8:39). John the Baptizer informed them, however, that God was able to use stones in raising up seed to the patriarch. He then warned:
“And even now the axe lieth at the root of the trees” (Matthew 3:10).
The context focuses upon a threatened “wrath to come” (v. 7), which would find its nearest application in the destruction of the Jewish nation by the Romans in A.D. 70. Now here is a vital point. When a tree is cut down, there is hope that it will sprout again, provided its stump or roots remain (cf. Job 14:7,8; Isaiah 11:1). But when the axe is laid at the root, where is the hope of restoration? There simply is none!

Christ once pronounced a curse upon a barren fig tree near Jerusalem. The tree served as an apt illustration of fruitless national Israel. Jesus declared:
“Let there be no fruit from thee henceforth for ever” (Matthew 21:19).
Where is the hope in that? Later, on that same Tuesday, just prior to Friday’s crucifixion, the Lord announced to the Jews,
“The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (21:43).
In other words, barren national Israel would be replaced by fruitful spiritual Israel, the Church (cf. 1 Peter 2:9; Galatians 6:16).

In the parable of the marriage of the king’s son, Jesus spoke concerning those who spurned the royal invitation. It was prophesied that the king (God) would send his armies (the Romans), and destroy those murderers (the Jews), and burn their city (Jerusalem). Why? They “were [imperfect tense—sustained state] not worthy” (Matthew 22:1-8). Is there any suggestion of restoration there? Later, in 23:38, Christ warned:
“Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”
The term “house,” as Bloomfield notes, refers not merely to the temple alone, but to the whole Jewish nation, especially its metropolis (1837, 116). “Left desolate” has a note of finality about it.

In the parable of the barren fig tree (Luke 13:6-9), it is suggested that fruitless Israel would be soon cut down.
“This parable gives Israel to know that its life is only a respite, and that this respite is nearing its end” (Godet 1879, 119).
There is no suggestion that the “tree” would spring up again. Strange indeed—if millennialism is true.

In another parable, uttered shortly before his death, Jesus depicted himself as a nobleman who was going into a far country (heaven) to receive for himself a kingdom (the Church). Later, he would return (the second coming). However, while he was in that distant land, his citizens (the Jews) hated him (imperfect tense—abiding hatred) and sent this message to him:
“We will not [present tense—continued determination] that [you] reign over us” (Luke 19:14).
Even millennialists admit that this refers to the Jewish rejection of Christ (Martin 1983, 252). Without the remotest suggestion that there would be an alteration of this hateful Jewish disposition, the nobleman, “when he was come back” (v. 15), characterized these citizens as his “enemies,” and commanded they be slain (v. 27). The language describes “the state of rejection in which [the Jews] are plunged till the Lord’s return” (Godet 1879, 223).

In yet another parable, Jesus foretold Israel’s rejection of the gospel, and the subsequent success of the kingdom of heaven among the Gentiles. Of those stubborn Jews, he declared:
“[N]one of those men who were bidden shall taste of my supper” (Luke 14:24). This refers, of course, to the Jewish majority that refused the gospel (a remnant accepted the invitation—cf. Romans 11:5).
Why did not the Lord give some clue that eventually there would be a massive Jewish acceptance of his invitation?

In Luke’s account of the Olivet discourse, Christ, alluding to Jerusalem’s impending destruction, declared that the city would be “trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). The term “trodden down” is a present tense participle, suggesting prolonged hardships (though not necessarily uninterrupted) for Jerusalem (and what she represented—the nation). This oppression was to continue until the “times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” The phrase “times of the Gentiles” is an expression for the current age. It implies a “times of the Jews” (i.e., the Mosaic period).

For fifteen centuries the Hebrews were Jehovah’s special people—an era which might be appropriately termed “the times of the Jews.” When they rejected the Messiah, that age of prominence (called a “reign”—Matthew 21:43) ended. It was superseded by “the times of the Gentiles”—the Christian age. It is clear that Israel is to be the recipient of divine retribution throughout the Christian era.

Millennialists argue, however, that Jerusalem was to be trodden down only “until” the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled. After that time, they contend, Jerusalem will be exalted to her former glory. The key word in their argument is “until” (Greek, achri). Premillennialists assume the term has a temporal implication in Luke 21:24, thus implying a reversal of events after the time specified. But the assumption is unwarranted. The term achri frequently has a terminal thrust in the New Testament. Consider, for example, Revelation 2:25, where Christ sought to encourage the saints at Thyatira:
“[T]hat which ye have, hold fast till I come.”
Does this suggest that these Christians will relinquish their blessings when he comes? Of course not. Similarly, just because the Lord declared that Jerusalem would be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, that does not imply that, following “the times of the Gentiles,” the city would be restored to some sort of divine glory. Proof for such a theory will have to be found somewhere other than in the word “until.” The truth of the matter is, God’s wrath has come upon Israel “to the uttermost” (1 Thessalonians 2:16).

In his letter to the Romans, Paul contends that “a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (11:25). There are several important matters that need to be noted here. First, the “hardening” was the Jewish disbelief in Christ. Second, the “in part” suggests that this lack of faith was characteristic of only a portion of the nation; there was a remnant that did believe (cf. 9:27; 11:5,14). Third, the verb “hath befallen” is a perfect tense form, stressing the abiding nature of that hardness—until the fulness of the Gentiles comes in. Fourth, “fulness of the Gentiles” simply denotes the accomplishment of Jehovah’s purpose among the Gentiles (or the “nations”). In other words, Israel’s hardness will remain until the end of the present dispensation. As B.M. Christiansen comments:
“This partial hardening will continue throughout the time of the Gentiles, i.e., until Christ’s return” (cf. Lenski 1961, 174).
Since the hardening of Israel was not total, but only “in part,” there was/is still hope that many Jews may be saved. But how will the Jews be saved? They will be saved by their acceptance of the gospel (Romans 10:12-16), and their surrender to the Deliverer from Zion (11:26). This provides the correct meaning of “so all Israel shall be saved.” The word “so” is an adverb of manner, meaning, “in this way.” Hence, it is in this way (the way of obeying Christ) that all Israel (who are saved) shall be saved. This passage does not affirm a nation-wide conversion of the people of Israel.
The theory that Paul expected a mass conversion of Israel is flawed on several accounts:
  1. It contradicts his entire line of argument in Romans 9-11.
  2. It leaves as inexplicable the throbbing anguish for his brethren in the flesh, which saturates this entire section. For instance, Paul writes: “For I could wish [potential imperfect—”I kept being on point of wishing"] that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Romans 9:3). Why—if he knew that a national conversion of Israel was an ultimate reality?
Conclusion

The premillennial concept of the “nation of Israel” is clearly erroneous. There is no promise of a national conversion of Israel in the Bible. The gospel is still God’s power to save both Jew and Greek (Romans 1:16), and all who possess hearts that are “honest and good” (Luke 8: 15) will accept it. The only “hope” for Israel is in the cross of Christ (see Acts 26:6-23).

Wayne Jackson has written for and edited the Christian Courier since its inception in 1965. He has also written several books on a variety of biblical topics including The Bible and Science, Creation, Evolution, and the Age of the Earth, The Bible on Trial, and a number of commentaries. He lives in Stockton, California with his dear wife and life-long partner, Betty.

A Synopsis of Zionism and the Israel/Palestine Conflict Historic Palestine

For thousands of years there was no conflict in Palestine. In the 19th century, the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population of Palestinian Arabs — approximately 86 percent Muslim, 10 percent Christian, and 4 percent Jewish. For centuries these groups lived in harmony.

In the late 1800s, a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as "Zionists," this group consisted of an extremist minority of the Jewish population who wanted to create a Jewish homeland. They considered locations in Africa and the Americas before settling on Palestine, where the Jewish State of Israel was established in 1948.

Largely due to one-sided special-interest lobbying by AIPAC, the U.S. has given more funds to Israel than to any other nation: $85 billion in grants, loans and commodities since 1949, with an additional $50 billion in interest costs for advance payments, for a total cost of $135 billion or $23,240 per Israeli. During fiscal year 2007, the U.S. gave an average of $7 million per day to the State of Israel.

Palestinian Loss of Land 1946-2005
Palestinian Loss of Land 1946-2005


Jews Against Zionism

"Although there are those who refuse to accept the teachings of our rabbis and will continue to support the Zionist state, there are also many who are totally unaware of the history of Zionism and its contradiction to the beliefs of Torah-True Jews. From its inception, many rabbis warned of the potential dangers of Zionism and openly declared that all Jews loyal to G-d should stay away from it like one would from fire. They made their opinions clear to their congregants and to the general public. Their message was that Zionism is a chauvinistic racist phenomenon which has absolutely naught to do with Judaism. They publicly expressed that Zionism would definitely be detrimental to the well being of Jews and Gentiles and that its effects on the Jewish religion would be nothing other than destructive. Further, it would taint the reputation of Jewry as a whole and would cause utter confusion in the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Judaism is a religion. Judaism is not a race or a nationality. That was and still remains the consensus amongst the rabbis."

"We were given the Holy Land by G-d in order to be able to study and practice the Torah without disturbance and to attain levels of holiness difficult to attain outside of the Holy Land. We abused the privilege and we were expelled. That is exactly what all Jews say in their prayers on every Jewish festival, 'Umipnay chatoenu golinu mayartsaynu'—'Because of our sins, we were expelled from our land.'"

"We have been forsworn by G-d 'not to enter the Holy Land as a body before the predestined time;' 'not to rebel against the nations;' to be loyal citizens, not to do anything against the will of any nation or its honour; not to seek vengeance, discord, restitution or compensation; 'not to leave exile ahead of time.' On the contrary, we have to be humble and accept the yoke of exile. To violate the oaths would result in 'your flesh will be made prey as the deer and the antelope in the forest,' and the redemption will be delayed."



Mid-East Strife: Re-Discovering the Bible's Forgotten Solution

By Rev. Ted Pike

The raging conflict in the Middle East sparks two essential questions.
  1. First: Do the Jews own Palestine? The answer is yes. Scripture makes it clear that the land of Palestine was given by God to the physical descendants of Abraham (Gen. 12:7, 13-14-17- 11 Chron. 20:7; Acts 7:5).
  2. Secondly: Do the Jews have the right to occupy Palestine? The answer to this question is no! Scripture states that if Israel rejects Jesus (Yahweh), who brought them into Canaan, He will expel them from the land. They can never lawfully return until they are obedient to their rejected Messiah.
Yahweh's conditional terms of occupancy are bluntly laid down in Leviticus 26-27,33.
"Yet if in spite of this you do not obey me, but act with hostility against me, then I will act with wrathful hostility against you ... I will you scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste."
Deuteronomy 4:25-27 continues:
"When you do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you shall surely perish quickly from the land ... You shall not live long on it, but shall be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the nations, where the Lord shall drive you."
And in Deuteronomy 28:63-4:
"If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law ... you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples."
In the Old Testament, when Israel and Judah abandoned Yahweh, both nations were exiled from Palestine: Israel by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., Judah by the Babylonians in 597 B.C.

Only abject repentance entitled a small minority of Judeans, under Ezra and Nehemiah, to return from Babylon and again occupy their land of promise. After the remnant Jews' rejection and crucifixion of Christ, they also were scattered among the nations in fulfillment of God's ancient decree.

Since their expulsion under Titus in 70 A.D., the Jews still have not repented. They have not given Christ the obedience He demands.

Who Has Rights of Occupation?

Who, then, are the legitimate occupants of Palestine today? When God exiled Judah under Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C. He allowed various mixed people, later called Samaritans, to occupy Judea. Such occupancy was not conditional on righteousness. What was important was that rebellious Jews not occupy the land.

Similarly, when God expelled the Jews from Palestine in 70 A.D. He allowed various peoples eventually known as Palestinian Arabs to occupy the land in lieu of Jewish obedience.

Do the Palestinians own the land? They do not. But they do have divine approval, as did the ancient Samaritans, to become tenants of the land until Israel repents.

Someday, out of great tribulation, a remnant of Jews will give God the obedience He demands. Christ will lead this believing remnant back to the land of their forefathers; they will dwell there lawfully, in peace and safety. This will be the only legitimate return the Jews will make to Palestine since their rejection of Christ 2000 years ago. It will gloriously fulfill hundreds of Old Testament prophecies (Isa. 4:4, 10:20, 59:20; Hos.14:4; Joel 2:18-20; Zeph. 2:7, 3:11-13). Until that time, God calls heaven and earth to testify that unbelieving Jews must remain dispersed, scattered, "wandering" among the nations (Deut. 4:25-27). And yet, as in ancient Babylon, God encouraged them to build, plant, marry and take root in the land of their dispersion, and to "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile" (Jer. 29:4-7).

The proper role for unbelieving Jews is to dwell scattered among the very safe and prosperous Jewish communities in New York, London, Paris, etc. They are not to wrest Palestine from its divinely approved occupants, thus inciting persecution and hatred against Jews worldwide. This timeless principle of "no obedience, no occupancy" was illustrated in the time of Joshua (Num. 13:25-33; 14:1-45). God invited the Hebrews to occupy Palestine by faith. Yet when unbelief emerged, He refused to let them in. When the people decided they wanted to penetrate the land anyway, God rejected them, ultimately condemning them to wander and die in the wilderness. Only a new, obedient generation (like the later generation under Ezra and Nehemiah) would be allowed to take root in a land dedicated to obedience.

Changing Times and Laws

Today, God's law requiring Jewish obedience has been subverted by Zionist Jews and by evangelical Christians. Zionism says to Jews:
"We don't have to remain scattered, wanderers according to the curse of God's law. We can be re-gathered, established in peace and safety in the land God expelled us from. Obedience doesn't matter any more."
The evangelical church heartily agrees, blessing them and bidding Godspeed.

Evangelicals believe the Church has a responsibility, like a midwife, to come alongside and encourage Israel's birth of faith in Christ by blessing and endorsing unbelieving Israel, right or wrong. Such blessing, the Church believes, can only hasten Israel's eventual national acceptance of Christ.

Yet the Church has no biblical right to bless the Zionist experiment in Palestine. Zionism's capitol is that fleshly Jerusalem which Revelation describes as "the great city, which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified" (Rev. 11:8). It is anathema that the Church should bid Godspeed or pray for the peace of such a city, a city Scripture portrays as embodying the perversions of Sodom and all the bondage and occultry of ancient Egypt. The Church is obligated to encourage and pray for the peace of that spiritual Jerusalem, which includes all Jews who accept the rulership of the "King of Jerusalem" or "King of Peace," Jesus Christ (Heb. 7:1-3). Yes, Christians must be kind to Jews, responsive to their rights and humanitarian needs — just as Christians are to be charitable, without discrimination, to all people (James 2:1-4). Yet the greatest blessing the Church can give Jews is to preach the gospel to them, leading them to the gift of faith, joy and eternal life in their only true messiah, Jesus.

A Counterfeit Return

Zionism's defiance of God's law not only creates anger in Heaven, but strife, hatred, revenge and terrorism within God's holy land, sending shock waves through the Middle East and the world. Further, because the Zionist presence in Palestine is against God's law, no attempt at peace-making by America, Israel or the Palestinians can succeed. If God really endorsed the Zionist occupation of Palestine, He would bless Israel and the region with harmony — the kind of harmony Solomon enjoyed with his political neighbors. God is the One who causes even the enemies of a righteous man to be at peace with him (Prov. 16:7). Instead, violence, hatred, terrorism erupt in the Middle East: God's laws have been turned upside down.

What is to be done? The evangelical church, while seeking the spiritual good of individual Jews, should end its support of the unlawful Zionist occupation of God's holy land. Such a return to Biblical law does not forsake or persecute Jews. Instead, it is a blessing, helping deliver them from further persecution and anti-Semitism. The fact is, Zionism stimulates hatred against Jews. The modern state of Israel was established ostensibly to provide safe haven to European Jewry — actually, Zionists' unlawful occupation of Palestine, expelling and persecuting the divinely sanctioned occupants, has only heightened hatred of Jews and lessened the security of Jews living in war-torn Palestine. In fact, it would be difficult to imagine a less secure place for Jews than Israel.

The Right Thing to Do

The argument can be made, of course, that God's law is impractical for us today. Exodus of the Jews from Palestine, it could be said, would be like giving America back to the Indians. Yes, it is inconvenient. But it is also God's law — the right thing to do. The alternative — heightened hatred and possible world war, destroying staggering numbers of Arabs, Jews, and probably Americans in order to uphold the Zionists' unbiblical claim — is a much more painful one.

Even worse, Zionist occupation will eventually precipitate the Great Tribulation, when the antichrist, Israel's false messiah, turns on the Jewish people in fury (Isa. 10:5-11; Ezek. 38 & 39). Just as Sargon II and Nebuchadnezzar scattered Israel and Judah, the antichrist will be God's instrument to once again enforce God's law to expel and scatter disobedient Jewry throughout the world (Hos. 9:13, Ezek. 39:23-28, Luke 21:24). Scripture tells us that the Tribulation will be the period of greatest suffering Israel has ever known, a holocaust to end all holocausts at the hands of antichrist, Arabs and gentiles (Deut. 28:15,18-29; Hos. 8:7-8,13; Isa. 47:6; Jer. 6:1-3; Ezek. 23:46-47, 33:28-29; Matt. 24:21-22).

God's Forgotten Law

We have come to a time, as in the time of King Josiah, when the law of the Lord concerning rightful occupation of Palestine has been forgotten. Both Israel and the Church have massively strayed from God's law. The Church, even when confronted with such law, has the greatest difficulty comprehending it. Such light is unwelcome, painful to those who have dwelt for a century in the dark shadow of Zionist propaganda.

It is time the Church returned to confidence that God alone, in His time and on His terms, will bring back His remnant Jews to Palestine. The Church dishonors God by joining with Christ-rejecting Jews in ramming a counterfeit return down the throats of the Arab world. Further, the Church is siding with a bully. It bids Godspeed to arrogant and bloody men. Such include Menachem Begin who, having committed such atrocities as blowing up the King David Hotel and its occupants, proudly proclaimed himself "the father of modern terrorism." Or Ariel Sharon, who presided over the infamous Shattilla and Sabra Massacres in Lebanon, slaughtering hundreds of innocent victims.

Scripture warns that those who misguidedly bless evil men, bidding Godspeed to them, become partakers of their evil deeds (II Jn 1:11). Only by separating from international Zionism can the Church escape further entanglement and corruption by it. The Church must also remind Jews that if they want to avoid persecution, anti-semitism and ceaseless strife, they must return to Christ's divine law and terms of occupancy, given not to the gentiles, but to their forefathers thousands of years ago. If they obey, the Middle East will at last have peace.

Read more:The 'Kingdom Age' vs. the 'Eternal Age': Millennialism vs. A-Millennialism

November 28, 2012

More Than 600 Local Governments in the U.S. Use Taxpayer Dollars to Pay Membership Dues to ICLEI USA

agenda 21

The 'Sustainable' Plot to Erode American Prosperity, Liberty and Independence

Right Angles
September 5, 2011

Colorado is on the verge of succumbing to a virulent plague that's disguised with the innocuous label of “sustainability.” The pestilence is spreading across the entire country. The primary infecting agent is the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives USA, commonly known as ICLEI USA.

Once the pathogenic ICLEI invades a host community, citizens experience seemingly benign symptoms such as smart growth plans that concentrate population centers and initiatives to reduce CO2 and greenhouse gases.

But as the sustainability infection rapidly strengthens, the evidence of a potentially terminal illness is apparent. American citizens are being stripped of liberty, subjected to quasi-government control, and forced into dwindling prosperity.

More than 600 local governments in the United States use taxpayer dollars to pay membership dues to ICLEI USA. In Colorado, member communities include Denver, Fort Collins, Aspen and Carbondale.

On its website, ICLEI unabashedly reveals that it advocates “participatory, long-term, strategic planning processes that address local sustainability while protecting global common goods … and therefore links local action to global goals and targets such as Agenda 21.”

Agenda 21 (aka Agenda for the 21st Century) is the social engineering blueprint of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

According to Agenda 21, the goals of sustainable development are integration of economic, social, and environmental policies to reduce consumption, restore biodiversity and attain social equity.

For the record, social equity is synonymous with social justice, which asserts that all people have the right “to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment.”

The clear-stated goals of ICLEI are rooted in the core principles of Agenda 21. In that regard, sustainability balances three interrelated aims: environment, economy and social equity. Societal decisions are to be made from a global holistic standpoint, casting aside the narrow perspectives of individual liberty, national sovereignty and free-market economics.

In the United States, ICLEI advocates are increasingly occupying staff positions within local governments. Aided by community activist groups, these staffers push elected leaders to sanction membership in ICLEI USA. The organization offers money and resources to member communities that adopt sustainability plans per ICLEI guidelines.

Sustainability plans typically include a climate action plan with measures like energy efficiency audits of municipal buildings, streetlight retrofits, public transit expansion, and renewable energy projects. Other common initiatives are affordable housing, green jobs programs, and bans on products like plastic bags. The entire globalist agenda is enacted without voter approval.

In addition to membership dues, ICLEI is funded by entities such as the U.S. Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Green Building Council.

At every level, our own government and regulatory agencies are paying this pseudo-government globalist entity to undermine our constitutional rights as Americans. Citizens are letting it happen because media buzzwords, such as climate change and carbon footprint, incite guilt for adherence to constitutional law and preservation of America's founding principles.

In fact, the rash of local sustainability planning has nothing to do with protecting the environment. ICLEI is part of a scheme, sanctioned by United Nations, to erode American independence, liberty and prosperity. It's about power and control for a globalist movement.

The prognosis is grim. ICLEI-sponsored education programs are already entrenched in our schools, teaching kids to be global citizens instead of Americans. Our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness could atrophy and die in a generation.

Eradication of the ICLEI infection is imperative. The cure must incorporate educating our children about American history and heritage, enlightening our neighbors about the lies of sustainability, and demanding that our leaders act within the framework of the Constitution. Without a concerted effort, our sovereign health is doomed.

WHITE HOUSE RURAL COUNCIL... Is This Agenda 21? And Why Haven't We Been Informed About This? Who Is Actually Watching Out for Us, Anyone?

SodaHead
February 11, 2012

On June 9, 2011, President Obama signed his 86th Executive Order, and almost nobody noticed.

(For the record, Obama is on par to match President Bush’s 291 orders executed during his two terms in office. The National Archives defines an Executive Order this way; Executive orders are official documents, numbered consecutively, through which the President of the United States manages the operations of the Federal Government.)

President Obama’s E.O. 13575 is designed to begin taking control over almost all aspects of the lives of 16% of the American people. Why didn’t we notice it? Weinergate. In the middle of the Anthony Weiner scandal, as the press and most of the American people were distracted, President Obama created something called “The White House Rural Council” (WHRC).

Section One of 13575 states the following:
Section 1. Policy. Sixteen percent of the American population lives in rural counties. Strong, sustainable rural communities are essential to winning the future and ensuring American competitiveness in the years ahead. These communities supply our food, fiber, and energy, safeguard our natural resources, and are essential in the development of science and innovation. Though rural communities face numerous challenges, they also present enormous economic potential. The Federal Government has an important role to play in order to expand access to the capital necessary for economic growth, promote innovation, improve access to health care and education, and expand outdoor recreational activities on public lands.
Warning bells should have been sounding all across rural America when the phrase “sustainable rural communities” came up. As we know from researching the UN plan for Sustainable Development known as Agenda 21, these are code words for the true fundamental transformation America.

The third sentence also makes it quite clear that the government intends to take greater control over “food, fiber, and energy.”

The last sentence in Section 1 further clarifies the intent of the order by tying together “access to the capital necessary for economic growth, health care and education.”

The new White House Rural Council will probably be populated by experts in the various fields that might prove helpful to the folks who live and work outside of large urban areas, right? Well, Tom Vilsack, the current Secretary of Agriculture, will chair the group, but let us review the list of members appointed to serve on this new council – according to the order, the heads of the following groups have been appointed:
  • (1) the Department of the Treasury; Timothy Geithner
  • (2) the Department of Defense; Robert Gates
  • (3) the Department of Justice; Eric Holder
  • (4) the Department of the Interior; Ken Salazar
  • (5) the Department of Commerce; Gary Locke
  • (6) the Department of Labor; Hilda Solis
  • (7) the Department of Health and Human Services; Kathleen Sebelius
  • (8) the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Shaun Donovan
  • (9) the Department of Transportation; Ray LaHood
  • (10) the Department of Energy; Dr. Steven Chu
  • (11) the Department of Education; Arne Duncan
  • (12) the Department of Veterans Affairs; Eric Shinseki
  • (13) the Department of Homeland Security; Janet Napolitano
  • (14) the Environmental Protection Agency; Lisa Jackson
  • (15) the Federal Communications Commission; Michael Copps
  • (16) the Office of Management and Budget; Peter Orszag
  • (17) the Office of Science and Technology Policy; John Holdren
  • (18) the Office of National Drug Control Policy; R. Gil Kerlikowske
  • (19) the Council of Economic Advisers; Austan Goolsbee
  • (20) the Domestic Policy Council; Melody Barnes (former VP at Center for American Progress)
  • (21) the National Economic Council; Gene B. Sperling
  • (22) the Small Business Administration; Karen Mills
  • (23) the Council on Environmental Quality; Nancy Sutley
  • (24) the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs; Valerie Jarrett
  • (25) the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs; and such other executive branch departments, agencies, and offices as the President or Secretary of Agriculture may, from time to time, designate. Chris Lu (or virtually anyone to be designated by the 24 people named above).
It appears that not a single department in the federal government was excluded from the new White House Rural Council, and the wild card option in number 25 gives the president and the agriculture secretary the option to designate anyone to serve on this powerful council.

Within the twenty-five designated members of the council are some curious ties to Agenda 21 and the structure being built to implement it:
Valerie Jarrett from the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs served on the board of something called Local Initiatives Support Corportation (LISC). LISC uses the language of Agenda 21 and ICLEI as their web page details their work to build “Sustainable Communities.”

Melody Barnes head of the Domestic Policy Council – Former VP at George Soros-funded Center for American Progress.

Hilda Solis from the Labor Dept – in 2000 received an award for her work on “Environmental Justice.”

Nancy Sutley head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality – Served on the board of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District and was one of the biggest supporters of low-flow toilets that are now credited with costing more money than expected while causing some nasty problems.
Is it possible that concerns about 13575 are just typical anti-government paranoia? Let us review the mission and function of WHRC:
Sec. 4. Mission and Function of the Council. The Council shall work across executive departments, agencies, and offices to coordinate development of policy recommendations to promote economic prosperity and quality of life in rural America, and shall coordinate my Administration’s engagement with rural communities.
“Economic prosperity” and a better “quality of life,” that all sounds fairly innocent and well-intentioned. But continuing deeper into the order we find the council is charged with four directives:
(a) make recommendations to the President, through the Director of the Domestic Policy Council and the Director of the National Economic Council, on streamlining and leveraging Federal investments in rural areas, where appropriate, to increase the impact of Federal dollars and create economic opportunities to improve the quality of life in rural America;
The vague language here sounds non-threatening. But, is there a hint here that a “rural stimulus plan” might be in the making? Will the Federal government start pumping money into farmlands under the guise of creating “economic opportunities to improve the quality of life in rural America?” It is difficult to discern as the language is so broad.

We continue with the functions of the WHRC:
(b) coordinate and increase the effectiveness of Federal engagement with rural stakeholders, including agricultural organizations, small businesses, education and training institutions, health-care providers, telecommunications services providers, research and land grant institutions, law enforcement, State, local, and tribal governments, and nongovernmental organizations regarding the needs of rural America;
Virtually every aspect of rural life seems to now be part of the government’s mission. And while all of the items in (b) sound like typical government speak, you should be alarmed when you read the words “nongovernmental organizations” (NGOs). NGOs are unelected, but typically government-funded groups that act like embedded community organizers. And NGOs are key to Agenda 21′s plans.
Continuing:
(c) coordinate Federal efforts directed toward the growth and development of geographic regions that encompass both urban and rural areas;
That one sounds very similar to the language found in the United Nations plan for sustainable cities known as Agenda 21. Managing the population in both rural and urban areas, with a focus on controlling “open spaces.”
(d) and identify and facilitate rural economic opportunities associated with energy development, outdoor recreation, and other conservation related activities.
This function of Executive Order 13575 ties energy development with outdoor recreation and “other conservation related activities.” When did outdoor recreation become a conservation related activity?

Aside from the content of this order and some its vague intentions, the timing of the signing should also be considered. Later this month, Washington DC is hosting a meeting of the Agenda 21 operatives who are members of ICLEI:
Washington, D.C. – ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA (ICLEI USA) and U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) today announced the launch of the National Press Club Leadership Speaker Series to be held on June 28. The event’s inaugural keynote speaker will be the Honorable Sha Zukang, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), whose keynote address, The Road to Rio+20, will explain the role of key global and national stakeholders, and the impact and vision of this historic conference.
As Secretary-General of Rio+20, Ambassador Sha Zukang will convene high-ranking leaders from government, the private sector and civil society to chart a pathway to accelerate the implementation of sustainable development decisions and the green economy through the creation of an institutional framework and inclusive participation.
The United Nations has pushed their sustainable development program for almost twenty years. The UN’s “social justice” blueprint called Agenda 21 requires governments to control almost all aspects of an individual’s life, but has recently met with substantial resistance in America. Since The Blaze covered this topic and the story appeared on Glenn Beck’s Fox TV program, we have been inundated with reports from around the country about efforts to remove ICLEI and Agenda 21 from local governments.

Carroll County, Maryland: Starting in February, 2011, all five newly elected county commissioners, led by Richard Rothschild, voted to become the first county in the nation to end the ICLEI contract.

Amador County, California: The Mother Lode Tea Party lead the successful effort to remove ICLEI form Amador County.

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: Activists Ruth Miller and Maggie Roddin have raised awareness that lead to the removal of ICLEI.

Edmond, Oklahoma: Molly Jenkins motivated 200 people to attend the city council meeting and demand action against ICLEI.

Las Cruces, New Mexico: continues to debate the issue, but rational voices are gaining momentum in the community.

Spartanburg, South Carolina: City Councilman Roger Nutt successfully directed the effort against the program and Spartanburg became the 6th community to kick out ICLEI in a vote of 6-0 by City Council (with one abstention).

There have also been anti-ICLEI rallies held in several cities this week, with more planned in the near future:
  • June 27, 11:30am-3:00pm
    Exeter, NH, Exeter High School
  • June 27, 5:00pm-8:30pm
    Galveston, TX, Galveston Convention Center
  • June 27, 8:30am-5:00pm
    Ocean Shores, WA, Quinault Beach Resort and Casino
  • June 30, 1:00pm-5:00pm
    San Francisco Bay Area, CA, TBD
  • June 30, 10:00am-5:00pm
    West Long Branch, NJ, Monmouth University
There appears to be a developing, grass-roots movement to reject programs like Agenda 21. It remains to be seen if these groups might also reject a Washington-based control over rural lands, like the council created by Executive Order 13575.

As long as there’s not another Weinergate, maybe they’ll notice.

What is Agenda 21? If you do not know about it, you should.

Agenda 21 is a two-decade old, grand plan for global ’Sustainable Development,’ brought to you from the United Nations. George H.W. Bush (and 177 other world leaders) agreed to it back in 1992, and in 1995, Bill Clinton signed Executive Order #12858, creating a Presidential Council on ‘Sustainable Development.’ This effectively pushed the UN plan into America’s large, churning government machine without the need for any review or discussion by Congress or the American people.

‘Sustainable Development’ sounds like a nice idea, right? It sounds nice, until you scratch the surface and find that Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development are really cloaked plans to impose the tenets of Social Justice/Socialism on the world.

At risk from Agenda 21:
  • Private Property ownership
  • Single-Family homes
  • Private car ownership and individual travel choices
  • Privately owned farms
The Agenda 21 plan openly targets private property. For over thirty-five years the UN has made their stance very clear on the issue of individuals owning land;
Land… cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice; if unchecked, it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes. The provision of decent dwellings and healthy conditions for the people can only be achieved if land is used in the interest of society as a whole.
WHITE HOUSE RURAL COUNCIL is this Agenda 21 and why haven t we been informed about this Who is actually watching out for us anyone

November 6, 2012

Antichrist Must Come First and Stand in the Temple, Showing Himself That He is God, Causing a Great Falling Away from the Christian Faith



The Amazing Parallels of End Time Scriptures

By John Aggson Sr.
Liberty To The Captives

Please check out how all these Scriptures fit together so perfectly: like pieces to a great end time puzzle, they go together to form an even greater overall picture (areas to study closely are “CAPITALIZED”):
1 Thessalonians 4:16: 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. 17) 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.”
The “raising of the dead” (verse 16) is known as the “RESURRECTION” — when the Saints rise up into the air to meet the Lord or are “caught up” (verse 17) — this is known as the “RAPTURE.” According to this passage, both of these things happen together, simultaneously, as one big event! The words “caught up” come from the Latin word “Raptio” from which we get our modern word “Rapture.” Well this SAME “RESURRECTION EVENT” is spoken of in verse 5 of Revelation 20:4-6.
Revelation 20:4-6:
4) And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and JUDGMENT was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5) But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 6) Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the FIRST RESURRECTION: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
Notice that this “FIRST RESURRECTION” (verse 5) comes AFTER these people were beheaded by the antiChrist for refusing to take the “mark of the beast!?” (verse 4). That means that they were obviously still here during this coming horrendous time and were not raptured out beforehand! If the Rapture and Resurrection occur together, simultaneously (1 Thessalonians 4:16 & 17), then they must also occur together, simultaneously, HERE in Revelation 20:4-6 at THIS RESURRECTION! And since Revelation 20:5 says that this is the “FIRST” resurrection, then there could not have been any “pre-tribulational” — one before it, right?! Otherwise it would not be the FIRST!

It ALSO speaks here of a “JUDGMENT OF THE SAINTS” occurring at this Resurrection, in which they are rewarded for remaining “faithful unto death” during the antiChrist’s persecution (verse 4). It appears that they are raised from the dead in the Rapture and then Judged and rewarded by the Lord accordingly! Well THIS VERY SAME “JUDGMENT EVENT” is spoken of in Revelation 11:15-18 as coming at the blowing of the 7th and LAST TRUMPET of the TRIBULATION PERIOD! This, therefore, places the RAPTURE & RESURRECTION at the BLOWING OF THE 7TH and LAST FINAL TRUMPET OF THE TRIBULATION (see verse 18 below).
Revelation 11:15-18:
15) And the SEVENTH ANGEL SOUNDED; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever. 16) And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, 17) Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned. 18) And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, AND THE TIME OF THE DEAD THAT THEY SHOULD BE JUDGED, AND THAT THOU SHOULDEST GIVE REWARD UNTO THY SERVANTS THE PROPHETS, AND TO THE SAINTS, AND THEM THAT FEAR THY NAME SMALL AND GREAT; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
So linking these verses all together by the association of the same events involved in each one we see that this “Rapture / Resurrection / Judgement / and Rewarding of the Saints” comes at the blowing of the LAST TRUMPET! This is exactly what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15: 51 & 52:
“51) Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMP: for the TRUMPET shall sound, AND THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE, and we shall be changed.”
You will notice that there is also mention of a TRUMPET being blown in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 & 17 above. There is also mention of a TRUMPET being blown at the Second Coming of the Lord in Matthew 24. As a matter of fact, these SAME THREE ELEMENTS that are found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 & 17 above (The Coming of the Lord - a Trumpet being blown - and the Rapture, or “Raising up of the Saints” to meet the Lord in the air) are ALSO found in Matthew 24:29-31, as well, and describe what is very obviously this SAME EVENT:
Matthew 24:29-31:
29) IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30) AND THEN SHALL APPEAR THE SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN IN HEAVEN, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, AND THEY SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN WITH POWER AND GREAT GLORY. 31) And He shall send His angels with a GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET, and they shall GATHER TOGETHER HIS ELECT FROM THE FOUR WINDS, FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN TO THE OTHER. (A big “meeting” of the Saints with the Lord IN THE AIR!)
Notice also that in Matthew 24 that this “Rapture” or “Gathering Together” occurs IMMEDIATELY “AFTER” THE TRIBULATION PERIOD, and not “BEFORE” (verse 29). This is all very strong Scriptural evidence AGAINST a “Pre-Tribulational Rapture” of any sort. In fact, it makes this all quite plain, in BLACK & WHITE!

These verses CANNOT be taken any other way than to mean exactly what they are saying! Most of the verses in the Pre-Tribulational teaching, though, CAN be taken another way and interpreted to mean that, instead of being Raptured out prematurely, we are merely, “kept” by the Lord and protected RIGHT HERE ON THIS EARTH until He returns to take us out! This is what Jesus said in John 17:15:
“I pray NOT that Thou shouldest TAKE THEM OUT OF THE WORLD, but that thou shouldest KEEP THEM FROM THE EVIL.”
This event of the “Gathering Together” of the Saints or “Rapture” is even spoken of in the Psalms!
Psalms 50:3-5:
3) Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: A fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him.. 4) He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that HE MAY JUDGE HIS PEOPLE. 5) “GATHER MY SAINTS TOGETHER UNTO ME; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”
Notice the “Coming of the Lord” (verse 3) and the “Judgment” of the Saints (verse 4) and the “Gathering Together” of the Saints to meet the Lord?” (verse 5) all are elements in other passages above that occur at this same time. Remember how 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says that the Lord will “descend from heaven with a shout?” Perhaps Psalms 50:4 & 5 tell us WHAT He will “shout” when He returns!? (See this same event also in Daniel 7:9-14.)

This same “Rapture” term, “Gathering Together,” is ALSO used in 2 Thessalonians 2:1; and like Revelation 20:4-6, this chapter states very plainly and clearly that the antiChrist must come FIRST before Jesus comes to “Gather us Together” unto Himself!!! This IS fact, and I hope you will see the whole reason that this chapter was even written in the first place — to make this one point!
2 Thessalonians chapter 2:1-3:

1) “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, and by OUR GATHERING TOGETHER UNTO HIM.” (From this introduction we can see that this chapter is going to deal with that particular “Coming of the Lord” in which we are “gathered together unto Him.”) (That would be “the Rapture!”)

2) “That ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” (Someone falsely wrote the Thessalonians and told them they had missed the Rapture, and signed Paul’s name to the letter) (So now Paul tells them not to believe any such false reports, because before Jesus returns to “gather” us unto Himself, the ANTICHRIST MUST COME FIRST and sit in the temple showing himself that he is God; causing a great falling away from the Christian Faith:)
3) Let no man deceive you by any means: FOR THAT DAY SHALL NOT COME EXCEPT THERE COME A FALLING AWAY FIRST, AND THAT MAN OF SIN BE REVEALED, THE SON OF PERDITION; 4) WHO OPPOSETH AND EXALTETH HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD, OR THAT IS WORSHIPED; SO THAT HE AS GOD SITTETH IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD, SHOWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD.
“THAT DAY,” according to verse 1, is the day of Christ’s coming and our subsequent “gathering together unto Him,” or “Rapture!” And these verses make it very clear that “THAT DAY”… “SHALL NOT COME” until the antiChrist, or “son of perdition,” comes FIRST!!!

Notice also the clear warning here not to listen to men who might try to DECEIVE us into thinking that this can happen some other way!? Jesus said in Matthew 24:3-5 that in the End Time “MANY would come ‘IN HIS NAME,’ DECEIVING many;” SPECIFICALLY CONCERNING what would be “THE SIGN OF HIS COMING” and the “END OF THE WORLD!” Is this happening today? Are there “many” today teaching that Jesus will come FIRST and rapture us out, instead of the antiChrist coming FIRST, like this plainly says? Can this be taken any other way than to mean exactly what it is saying in plain black and white?

Many of today’s preachers and teachers are putting the Church to sleep with “comfortable teachings,” telling them that they will be Raptured out before all these coming troubles, instead of PREPARING God’s people to STAND STRONG through these coming perilous times. This is exactly what happened to the Churches in China right before Mao Tse Tung came through and began slaughtering them by the thousands! The Chinese Church leaders that survived begged Corrie Ten Boom to warn the American churches not to make this same mistake. Her warnings have gone largely unheeded! Corrie Ten Boom said:
“There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this; these are the false teachers Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days.”
Corrie said to start memorizing your Bible, as the antiChrist will try to stamp out the Bibles and destroy the Word of God, and the only Bible some of us may have in the days ahead is what we have memorized and “hidden away” in our hearts.  

Begin by memorizing key passages that the Holy Spirit makes “stand out” to you. Amos speaks of this coming event, and says that in the end time there will be a “famine” for “hearing the Word of the Lord;” and that people will travel all over the world searching for the Word of the Lord and shall not find it!? (Amos 8: 11 & 12) This is something we should all take quite seriously and begin doing in earnest. On with our chapter…
5) Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? (Paul had, obviously, already told these folks before that the antiChrist must come FIRST, yet they had forgotten or overlooked this upon receiving this demonic letter telling them they had missed the rapture. So Paul is chiding them: “Don’t you remember I told you the antiChrist must come FIRST?” “You haven’t seen this happen yet, have you?” “Have you seen him sitting in the temple showing himself that he is God?” “How could you have believed this false report?”)
6) And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in His time. (And now you know what has to HAPPEN FIRST, before the Lord is revealed in His time…the antiChrist MUST COME FIRST!!!)

7) For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way.
Out of this entire chapter, verse 7 here is the only verse that is used in the Pre-Tribulational teaching! They blindly ignore the first six verses in this chapter which directly prove they are wrong; instead, they teach that verse 7 means that the Holy Spirit is taken from the earth and, therefore, we must go with it in the Rapture! That is “one heck of a lot” to read into this verse! This just says: “Until He be taken out of the way!?” It doesn’t say to “where!” That could happen right here on this earth!? This verse mentions nothing specific about a “catching up” or a Rapture; and it could simply mean that the Holy Spirit “steps aside” and lets evil come forth to fulfill it’s end time role.

To read all this into this one short verse, while blindly ignoring the first six verses before it which state things totally contrary to this view (in plain black and white) and which cannot be taken any other way than to mean just exactly what they are saying — is, in my opinion, VERY, VERY DANGEROUS! Yet this very view sums up the belief system of the vast majority of God’s Church today!

Some of these doctrines being taught in the modern American Church are rather like buying a car. If you don’t look “too closely,” or pay very close attention to detail, you will buy the first thing that comes along and think you got a good deal till it quickly falls apart! And the car dealers will polish it all up and make even a JUNK HEAP look good, as long as you don’t look too closely! If you go over these verses and read them quickly, not paying much attention to detail, you will easily be deceived by some of the modern teaching on them!

If you examine the Pre-Tribulational position on this subject closely, you will see that in order to believe this teaching, you would have to go back to verse 3 and change it to read: “That day SHALL come first before the man of sin sits in the temple showing himself that he is God,” instead of how it presently reads: “That day SHALL NOT come…” You would have to directly alter it so that it reads “EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE” OF WHAT IT PRESENTLY SAYS!

You would think that folks would see that by doing this they set themselves up as DECEIVERS according to the first part of this verse! This verse should SCARE these people! It should make them REALLY EXAMINE what they are teaching closely and carefully!?  

Folks, it is not a “light thing” to alter the Scriptures in this way! Yet that is exactly what many,  even MOST, are doing!? It really appears that these folks are unknowingly fulfilling Jesus prophecy in Matthew 24:3-5 by “deceiving” people concerning the “sign of His Coming” and “the end of the world.” That is exactly what they are doing by telling them it’s going to come some other way than what He plainly said in black and white!? The “signs of His Coming” are clearly laid out by Him, yetd these people are teaching us that we WILL NOT EVEN BE HERE to witness these very same “signs” He said to look for (see all of Matthew 24).

Some teach that perhaps the “Coming of the Lord” (spoken of here is the “Day of the Lord,” as it is referred to in other areas of Scripture) is a 7 YEAR PERIOD instead of something that just happens in an instant on one certain day — and that perhaps He comes and raptures us out at the BEGINNING of this period, and then the antiChrist comes and rules for seven years, after we are raptured out, and then Jesus returns once again at the end of this 7 year period!? (The “key” word in this belief is “perhaps!?”; that makes it a THEORY, yet it is taught and accepted as FACT!)  

But even if you take this view, according to verse 3, the antiChrist would STILL HAVE TO COME “FIRST” BEFORE THE “VERY FIRST DAY” OF THIS 7 YEAR PERIOD; or, once again, you would have to ALTER verse 3 to read “that day SHALL come… before the antiChrist sits in the temple showing himself that he is God,” rather than as it presently reads: “That day SHALL NOT COME...”

Does this seem like a “small thing” to be harping on to you? Not worth arguing about or even discussing? Well God turns the wheels of His great Omnipotence on just such “very small things!” Because of the loss of a “nail” in his hoof, a rider’s horse can lose a shoe, stumble, fall and kill the rider! This one small “oversight” by the Church may well cause this VERY THING to happen to it in the end!?

Why is it that people can never see the blindness and sin in their OWN GENERATION? Why can we look back to the past, and see the sins of others in the Bible down through time, but do not even suspect that, today, we are doing the same thing the Pharisees of old did? Why can we not see the “blindness” and “callousness” in our own hearts?



Many folks have gotten fed up over “arguing” over this subject, and they say that “they refuse to even discuss it anymore!” I have seen brethren almost come to blows and scream and yell at each other over this topic! The devil gets really angry when it is brought up because it is exposing one of his GREATEST DECEITS THAT HE IS FOISTING UPON GOD’S UNSUSPECTING CHURCH IN THE END TIME!

It is certainly wrong to get ANGRY over anything and get mad at each other, but it is not wrong to discuss such a serious and important matter as this! Satan just loves that feint! That “cop out!” He knows that then everyone will be afraid to bring up the subject for fear of starting a “hullabullo,” and so they just will not talk about it. And then folks go on teaching their perverted and distorted view to the flock of God’s Church! He is so clever! First of all, it is NOT a light thing, and it will have very dramatic negative effects on God’s Church when things do not transpire as folks have been taught they will!

Most folks teaching this “pre-trib” view are doing it in ignorance, just “parroting” what they have been taught since they got saved, without having ever taken the time to study it all out carefully and prayerfully. The Lord is very merciful and understanding and patient. He is trying to get folks to “see the light” on this, but it is very difficult. “As the branch bends, so grows the tree!” And once a person is grounded deeply in this false belief system, it seems to be very hard to convince them otherwise, or to even get them to LOOK AT THE FACTS surrounding all this and read Scriptures like the ones in this study.

Most will “stubbornly” cling to this false view, until it becomes apparent that it is wrong, and then they will say: “Oh WHY, didn’t we see this plain and simple truth laid out in the Scriptures?” “WHY couldn’t we see what Jesus warned SO CLEARLY of concerning all this?” Suddenly the “blinders” will be “ripped off” and they will clearly see, but it will be too late to alter the effects of what it will cause on “the Body!” Those who are “strong” in the Lord will survive but, sadly, it will not go so well for those who “follow afar off, for those who will begin to question their FAITH and the LORD, and for those who become very confused!” Many may just “give up.”

This is something that should be brought out into the open and discussed above almost all else, after Salvation and other basics of the Faith! People say that it is just “causing division.” The TRUTH always causes division among those who resent hearing it! Jesus’ Words caused division. Paul’s words caused division, and Paul ARGUED with the Pharisees and “contended” and “disputed” with them for three years in the Book of Acts before getting fed up with them and telling them he’d had it with them and was now going to the Gentiles! So it is not wrong to “contend” for the Truth!

When Satan has successfully deceived a group of people and you come along preaching the truth, THERE ARE GOING TO BE FIRE WORKS! THE DEVIL HATES BEING EXPOSED AND HIS WORK RUINED!
People get MAD! WE should not argue in anger, but discuss important topics like this with love and patience and prayer. This should not be swept under the rug! Let’s go on…
8) And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and SHALL DESTROY WITH THE BRIGHTNESS OF HIS COMING:

9) Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
As you can see by verse 8, the antiChrist is DESTROYED by the “brightness” of this same “Coming of the Lord” in which He “gathers us together” unto Himself, according to verse 1. So if this is the case, then how can the antiChrist rule or reign for another 3 ½ or 7 years, as is taught by so many, today, in the Christian world?

Perhaps it’s time to prayerfully rethink all of these teachings and put aside devotion to a particular Church’s beliefs out of blind obedience alone, and start studying the Scriptures deeply and praying for God’s guidance, and preaching the truth! “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!?” 

If the Church doesn’t get straightened out on this, this one false teaching could wreak more havoc on God’s Church, more than any of the calamities that have befallen it before down through time! It may even help facilitate the “great falling away” from the Christian Faith spoken of here.

Many Christians will even support the antiChrist when he comes, thinking that he couldn’t possibly be the antiChrist or they would have been raptured out already!? He’s not coming with “horns and hoofs” and a “pitchfork!” He will appear as “AN ANGEL OF LIGHT!” He will appear to be a very righteous and Godly man, a great man of peace, who will be championing the cause of Israel in the world courts, demanding that they be given the right to rebuild their temple (which he plans to sit in and rule from), and that they should be given the right to re-start their animal sacrifices once again.

Folks will think he’s the greatest man of peace and friend of Israel to ever come along! He’s going to fool nearly EVERYONE! BUT DON’T YOU BE DECEIVED!

Read these Scriptures again and pray over them, asking the Lord if these things are really the truth!  

Satan is setting the entire church system up for the greatest “sucker punch” he’s ever given them he will knock out their faith out by total surprise and shock when things do not turn out the way folks have been taught!  

Satan has lulled almost the entire church to sleep. Wake up and see what’s coming! He just LOVES this method of catching folks off guard by total surprise and causing the greatest amount of fear possible in an instant! It causes such great confusion, and he is the “author of confusion.” He wants to totally KNOCK OUT THE CHURCH IN ONE PUNCH!!!

Like a great commanding general who studies out his war strategies long in advance, Satan sat back and looked over this “end time” scenario centuries ago. He knew he would have to put the Church to sleep to be able to catch them by surprise in this fashion. He began to enter the Church with false “sleepy” doctrines.

Some have traced this “pre-tribulational” teaching back to around 1830 when a young Scottish girl named Margaret MacDonald received a prophecy which began to lead others this way in their thinking. Immediately influenced were John Darby of the Plymouth Brethren and Edward Irving of the Church of the Irvingites. Then C.I. Scofield, author of the Scofield Bible, picked it up and brought it to America where it swept the religious world like wildfire; even Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary! Undoubtedly, this is a fulfilling of the prophecy that “the time will come when they will not endure SOUND DOCTRINE, but will heap to themselves teachers having “itching ears,” and their ears shall be turned from the truth to hearing “fables!?” (2 Timothy 4: 3 & 4)

Author and researcher Dave Macpherson went back and studied the sermons of these two men, Irving and Darby, and found that up until the time of Margaret’s prophecy, they both preached what the Church had believed for the first 1800 years — what we now call “Post-Tribulation” / “Pre-Wrath” rapture. Then suddenly they both began to preach this new “altered” view and to vie with each other over who was the first to come out with it. Now it has become such a part of standard Church dogma, that if you speak against it, people think you are a false prophet coming along speaking against the Lord and the Bible!

What people grow up hearing for many years, over and over, is what they usually believe very strongly in; and it forms a “stronghold” in their mind, which, in this case, is a strong hold of Satan, even though they don’t know it! When you come along preaching the truth on this, many folks think you are teaching some “new doctrine” which is against the “old teaching” that has been around since the beginning!? Most are totally unaware that the “post-trib” / “pre-wrath” view is what the Church believed FIRST for nearly 1800 years!!! This “pre-trib” teaching is the “JOHNNY-COME-LATELY,” a mere 170 - 200 years old!

Other researchers have traced this “pre-trib” teaching to a Jesuit priest named Father Immanuel Lacunza, who wrote similar things in 1790. Who ever came out with it, it is part of Satan’s long term strategy to get the Church right where he wants us so he can wreak the most havoc and cause the greatest amount of confusion and damage possible when his man, the “beast” or “antiChrist,” comes to power!? 

From what I’ve read of Church history, no one believed or taught any doctrine like this from the time of the Church Fathers, clear up to the time of the Reform-Era Fathers, like Luther! THEY ALL believed that we would go through the tribulation, just like Jesus said, and be “gathered together” unto Him at the end  although there are a “host” of Churchy, “pre-trib” teachers and “apologists” right now who are trying very hard to trace it clear back to the early Church!? I think they are “making it all up as the go along” because, from all I’ve studied, I’ve seen it NOWHERE! They are trying to fit a modern belief into a past where it never existed!

The “Reform Era Fathers,” like Luther, believed in “post-trib” rapture; they just had the “lengths of time” for end time events off. Because, before in the Book of Ezekiel, God had told the Prophet to lie on his side for “so many days” and that the nation of Israel would suffer for an equal time in “years” — these reform-era fathers all thought that the 3 ½ years of tribulation that were coming were also according to this same “day / year” principle.

Three and one-half years, or 1,260 days, were to be considered 1,260 YEARS that the church would be in “tribulation” under the wicked Pope’s of Rome!?— this is what they all thought — and that the Pope’s were the antiChrist!? But none of them believed that we would be raptured out before the tribulation. One would think that since the first 69 weeks of Daniel’s “70 weeks” prophecy of the end (Daniel 9: 24-27) were NOT according to the “day / year” principle — that, therefore, the “LAST” and “FINAL” week would NOT BE EITHER but would be actual days and years in real time, just as the first 69!? But sadly this was not the case — another of Satan’s tricks! They thought He meant a day for a year during this era in Church history.

One by one, all their theories on the year Jesus would return turned out to be wrong; the final one being the most dramatic, in the fall of 1844; where William Miller’s followers (the Adventists) all got up on their housetops dressed in white sheets awaiting the Lord’s return on a specific day Miller thought he got by calculating this time period from one Pope, whom Miller considered to be the most wicked!? Well it obviously came and went and the movement fell into disorder, and out of it came the 7th Day Adventists and the Church of God 7th Day.  

THEN the “pre-tribulational” view came on the scene in the mainstream Church world, and over the course of the next 100 or so years, swept the religious world like wild fire! Like I said, NOW everybody thinks it is the “old standard” believed by everyone since the very beginning, and they don’t realize that it is a relative “newcomer” in the Bible Eschatology or “End Time Bible Prophecy” field!

That was a tragic day for much of the church in 1844, when Miller was proved wrong, but not nearly as tragic as what’s coming when the lie of “pre-tribulational” rapture comes to “full fruit” and has it’s full effect on the Lord’s Church!!? As I said before, many may support the antiChrist, thinking he’s a good man, and not suspecting him at all because they have been taught they will be “raptured out” first before he comes!? Then many will have their faith destroyed when he takes off the “halo” and puts on the “horns!” The entire Church will be in disarray, and many who have been taught that the “good” Christians will be raptured out, and the “bad” ones “LEFT BEHIND,” may give up in total discouragement. There may be many suicides and many in great depression, disillusionment and discouragement! To think that you’ve “failed the Lord” and that “He’s LEFT YOU BEHIND TO SUFFER!?” So many people are going to be hurt by this unScriptural teaching!  

The Church will “rock and reel” under the fiery darts of the one who will “speak great words against the Most High,” and “wear out the Saints of the Most High” — who will “make war with the Saints and PREVAIL against them!?” And when the “guillotines begin to fall,” and people begin to lose their heads for refusing to deny their Faith in Jesus Christ, many may begin to “jump off the boat” like “scared men fleeing a sinking ship!”

Instead of a “pre-tribulation rapture,” many are going to be “yanked” out of their beds in the middle of the night, by complete surprise — by “jackbooted” storm troopers brandishing sub-machine guns and dressed in black S.W.A.T. gear — and hauled off to PRISON CAMPS, which have already been set up all over America, under a program called REX 84!, first designed by Lt. Colonel Oliver North, in the days of President Ronald Reagan. This was even exposed in Congress by Congressman Jack Brooks, who publicly challenged Oliver North about it and was told to “shut up” as it was a matter of national security!  

Although originally designed to “house” American gun-owners and patriots who refuse to go along with a “new world order” takeover — complete with a massive “gun confiscation program, as well as other “dissidents”— the REX 84 program in the hands of a future administration may be used to lock up even other “Christian dissidents” who, although “peaceful” and non-violent, do not “believe” the way they are supposed to (i.e.: folks who dare to expose America and Israel’s sins!).

If you wish to know more about this “REX 84 program,” contact Evangelist David J. Smith of the Church of God Evangelistic: P.O.Box 36, Waxahachie, Texas 75168. Or call 972-937-2227. He has “proof” of this event! Smith is a good man to listen to if you want to keep up on all that is going on behind the scenes, that we are not being told about in the standard media, and especially how it relates to Bible prophecy; although I don’t personally hold to his doctrinal Church teachings. He does teach “post-trib” rapture correctly though! If you live in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, or Louisiana, you can listen to Smith nightly, Mon - Fri, from 10:30 till Midnight on 870 AM radio. It comes in great on most car radios! Tune in and find out things your church probably isn’t telling you! As I said, I do not adhere to all his beliefs in the Church of God 7th Day, but at least he’s telling it like it is on coming events  99 % of the other pastors across this land are putting people to sleep so that this all comes upon them UNAWARES!!!

In Matthew 24:9 & 10, Jesus spoke of this terrible “end time persecution” that would occur in every nation of the world against His followers, near the time of His return:
“9)Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall KILL you: and ye shall be hated of ALL NATIONS for My Names sake.” 10) “And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.”
Notice that this great “end time” persecution the Lord speaks of here comes BEFORE the RAPTURE of verses 29-31. GREAT PERSECUTION COMES FIRST!!!

Daniel the Prophet also spoke of this same event over and over: of a GREAT PERSECUTION of God’s Saints in the END TIME TRIBULATION PERIOD under the TERRIFYING REIGN OF THE ANTICHRIST:
Daniel 7: 21,22,25-27:
“21) I beheld, and the same horn MADE WAR WITH THE SAINTS, and PREVAILED AGAINST THEM: 22) until the Ancient of Days came, and judgement was given to the Saints of the Most High, and the time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom.” 25) And he shall SPEAK GREAT WORDS AGAINST THE MOST HIGH, AND SHALL WEAR OUT THE SAINTS OF THE MOST HIGH, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a TIME and TIMES and the DIVIDING OF TIME. (3 1/2 years) 26) But the JUDGMENT shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. 27) And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the Saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.”
Daniel 8:23-25;
23) “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, and king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up. 24) and his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, AND SHALL DESTROY THE MIGHTY AND THE HOLY PEOPLE. (Wake up America! YOU ARE the “MIGHTY AND THE HOLY PEOPLE!” The American Churches are going to feel the main brunt of this persecution, along with the tiny nation of Israel! It’s not just the Jews, folks, who are going to suffer during this time as many also falsely teach today!)
Jesus said in Matthew 24:15, to pay special attention to the “abomination of desolation” being placed in the temple and to FLEE at this time to places of refuge! Matthew 24:15 - 21:
“15) When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16) then let them which be in Judea FLEE into the mountains: 17) Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, 18) Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19) And woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20) But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21) FOR THEN SHALL BE GREAT TRIBULATION SUCH AS WAS NOT SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THIS TIME, NO, NOR EVER SHALL BE.”
Again, there is no mention of a “rapture” before this time anywhere in Matthew 24. It comes LATER in verses 29-31. If you follow pre-tribulaional teaching, it truly must be a “secret rapture!?” It’s SO SECRET that it’s NOT EVEN MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES!!! Ha! People should be “truly leary” of such a teaching! There should certainly be a lot more HARD EVIDENCE for it, if it were true! But there is not! All the HARD EVIDENCE falls on the side of “post-tribulational,” “pre-wrath rapture!”

Apparently, this placing of the “abomination of desolation” heralds the BEGINNING of the GREAT TRIBULATION PERIOD!? Let’s go to Daniel and read what happens at this time, as the Lord suggested above:
Daniel 11: 31-36:
“31) And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, AND THEY SHALL PLACE THE ABOMINATION THAT MAKETH DESOLATE. 32) And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: BUT THE PEOPLE THAT DO KNOW THEIR GOD SHALL BE STRONG, AND DO EXPLOITS. 33) And they that understand among the people shall INSTRUCT MANY: YET THEY FALL BY THE SWORD, AND BY FLAME, BY CAPTIVITY, AND BY SPOIL MANY DAYS. 34) Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. 35) AND SOME OF THEM OF UNDERSTANDING SHALL FALL, TO TRY THEM, AND TO PURGE, AND TO MAKE THEM WHITE, EVEN TO THE TIME OF THE END: because it is yet for a time appointed. 36) And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above EVERY GOD, AND SHALL SPEAK MARVELOUS THINGS AGAINST THE GOD OF GODS, and shall PROSPER till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
The “indignation” spoken of here is “God’s indignation” against the nation of Israel for “trying to take their kingdom back in the flesh” without going through the proper “doorway” of JESUS CHRIST, His Son (as per John 10); and winning the world through His love, instead of considering themselves better than everyone else (God is no respecter of persons); and mowing them down with machine guns, bombs and bullets to take back what they consider “rightfully theirs” — but is NOT since the Lord drove them out 2,000 years ago. And also because they are willing to accept “one who comes in his own name” to get this great advantage and blessing, instead of having accepted Him who came “in the name of His Father,” Jesus Christ! This “indignation of God” is also against the duped American church system for “aiding and abbetting” them in this great end time “fiasco!”

Both the American church system and the modern nation of so-called “Israel” are going to be PURGED AND PURIFIED AND MADE WHITE HERE to get them straightened out on this issue! When they finally realize all this — under the antiChrist’s relentless attacks and his actual “winning” against them and subduing and destroying them — AND THEY REPENT (as per Zechariah 13), then the “Lord will come and fight against those nations that have come against them, and He will return in all His glory to fight for His people and deliver them from their STRONG OPPRESSOR!” (as per Zechariah 14).

This is another “great lie” that has entered the “corrupt and compromised American church system” that the Lord is going to expose before all, before the great day of His Coming! Jesus said in John chapters 8 & 10, to the Pharisees, that they were not going to be saved and blessed by God merely because they were “flesh sons of Abraham,” and that they had to go through “HIM, the ‘DOOR’, to get into the kingdom!?” Now, 2,000 years later, the same bunch with the same mindset have returned to foist this same belief on the followers of Christ; and most have warmly received it with open arms, no questions asked, and would support them to the death, fighting to get their land back for themthinking that they are “doing God service!” But don’t worry! God is going to “straighten everyone out on this” before the Lord returns! It will be made very plain!

As both America and Israel “rock and reel” under the antiChrist’s future attacks and coming terrorist attacks — and natural disasters like famines, earthquakes, weather related disasters, disease, and ill health — many will TURN HARD to the Lord and begin questioning, “Why is all this coming upon us?” And the Lord will begin to show them the reasons for these things. But many of the new, coming, end time Prophets, who will show people this and will expose these things, will be killed in great anger (just like Jesus, His followers, and all the Prophets of old) by these same people or, possibly, even by infuriated “fundamentalist-evangelicals” with their .30-30’s in the back of their pick-up windows, “thinking that they are doing God service!?” (John 16:1 & 2).

The majority of American Churches have become SPIRITUALLY BLIND and DECEIVED on almost EVERYTHING THAT THEY BELIEVE!!! The only thing most have right is the foundation of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior! From there on it goes downhill quite rapidly, and even most of them are confused on that, and get folks SAVED going in one door, and then UNSAVED going out the other! Folks leave totally confused about their salvation and deluded on most every other teaching!

From “RICHES AND PROSPERITY” to “PRE-TRIBULATIONAL RAPTURE,” and “FALSE HOLINESS” or more properly, “SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS” (the sin of the Pharisees), they compass “land and sea” to make “one convert;” and when they have found him, they make him two-fold more the “child of hell,” as Jesus said, than they are themselves!?  

Most Churches are turning their people into “MODERN PHARISEES” instead of loving followers of Christ, like the early disciples were. Concerning the totally serious and sometimes “horrifying” end time events that are coming, they build on false foundation these modern “comfortable” teachings that put them TOTALLY TO SLEEP  and make them into “self-righteous judges” of today’s “wicked sinners,” and “publicans and harlots,” who condemn folks to hell with their tongues, instead of loving them into the kingdom. God bless you if your Church is NOT doing this and is trying to do it right the way Jesus intended. This message is not to all here, but to the “blind majority!” There are a few that are really trying to do it right and follow the Lord!

Most Churches are being taught that they are the “Church of Philadelphia” spoken of in the Book of Revelation; and that they are going to be “kept from that hour” (the great tribulation) by being “raptured out beforehand!” But if you will read on in your Bible to the very next church in that chapter, you will find a little more accurate description of today's modern Church system as a whole; the “Church of Laodicea!”
Revelation 3:14-20:
“14) And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceians write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15) I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16) So then because thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth. 17) Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing: (The modern “riches and prosperity doctrine of many?”) and knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and BLIND, and naked:

(SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS!!! When you try to show folks about pre-trib rapture, or riches and prosperity, or any of these other false teachings, they just cannot seem to “see” it, no matter how hard or long you try to patiently explain it and show Scriptures!? They read over and over them and just cannot seem to see what they are saying, they have been so programmed! It’s quite discouraging, but that is exactly what this verse is addressing here!)

18) I counsel thee to BUY OF ME GOLD TRIED IN THE FIRE, THAT THOU MAYEST BE RICH; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; (In one place in the Gospels, Jesus said that you get “RICHES IN HEAVEN” when you give of the money and blessings you have on this earth! You get RICHES THERE, by GIVING HERE! Of your time, your love, your material blessings, and your ALL!)
(Instead of the Gospel being perverted to mean that it’s “okay” to seek to be rich and have lots of money, prestige, and power — as the modern, mainly “Dallas based” televangelists teach — we are NOT to seek these things, but to give our lives as a “living sacrifice” and to give our all for Jesus in every way we can. We are to seek to GIVE OF OURSELVES, NOT TO GET!!! …and to anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see... Once again, to pray hard against the SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS of the teachings of the vast majority of today’s modern Churches and their inability to see messages such as this one, which is preaching the “unpopular truth!”)

19) As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Getting back to the subject of the rapture, one thing that might be causing confusion over this issue is this: the “pre-trib” view confuses two separate time periods in the Book of Revelation, the TRIBULATION and the WRATH, as being one and the same! They are not the same event. 

1 Thessalonians 5:9 says that, “we are not appointed to God’s wrath, but to obtain salvation;” therefore, “pre-tribbers” assume that we are not HERE on this earth for almost the ENTIRE BOOK OF REVELATION!? Folks! That is a lot of paper for God to “waste!?” There are a lot of very intricately detailed prophecies in there to just be discarded if the main body of the Church isn’t even going to be around for them!?

In the Book of Revelation, the TRIBULATION PERIOD is heralded by the BLOWING OF 7 TRUMPETS and, as shown before here, we are raptured out at the LAST ONE (Revelation chapters 8-11). This is then FOLLOWED by the WRATH PERIOD, which is heralded by the POURING OUT OF 7 VIALS, AFTER we are gone! (Revelation chapter 16). Therefore, we are NOT HERE for that event, but in heaven with the Lord at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, so we “are not appointed unto wrath.” Most churches are taught that “the wrath” covers the ENTIRE BOOK OF REVELATION!? As you can see if you will look up Revelation and read this, this simply is NOT TRUE!

The TRIBULATION is the time period in which the antiChrist tries to stamp out all other religions, and mainly Christianity, and to foist upon the world the worship of himself as God. The WRATH is the time period which DIRECTLY FOLLOWS THE TRIBULATION, in which the Lord returns to rescue His people from the antiChrist’s wicked and cruel clutches in the rapture, and then pours out His WRATH on him and his followers AFTER we are gone!

During the tribulation, one-third of everything is destroyed by the Lord’s “selective judgments,” while we are protected miraculously by the Lord right here on the earth (1/3rd of the sky is darkened, 1/3rd of the oceans turn blood red, etc.). This is a bit like how the U.S. uses “smart bombs” so as not to hit the innocent civilians in warfare. (I’m sure the Lord’s a lot more accurate though!) An example of the Lord doing this in the Old Testament is found during the plagues in Egypt of old: the judgments of the Lord fell only on the Egyptians and not on the Hebrews who lived right next door to them. During the wrath period, EVERYTHING is judged by the Lord. (i.e.: the WHOLE sky darkened, ALL the oceans turn blood red, etc…) (Read Revelation chapters 8-11 and 16 to see this.)

It is my earnest prayer that Christians will begin to wake up and see all these things that are coming and to prepare accordingly. This study is not written to make people mad or to cause division. Please don’t take anything that is said here in that way. PLEASE pray hard about this message, and ask the Lord if it’s the truth. Ask Him to remove any “spiritual blindness” from former teachings that might be hindering (and not allowing you to see these things, if you are having trouble understanding them)! PLEASE don’t let these things come upon you unawares!

Please begin an active Bible Memory Program and begin to prayerfully study the Bible as never before. Pray and learn to hear the “voice of the Lord” in your heart (Jeremiah 29:13, 33:3, John 16:13,14). These are three things that we will all need to be accomplished in to go through what lies ahead victoriously! We are indeed going to enter shortly into “times that will try men’s souls!” Let’s prepare now by getting as close to Jesus as we can, and by preparing in every way we can as we are led by His Spirit. 

Thank you for your time.



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