The Daily Word of Righteousness

"Rapture" or Resurrection?, #5

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 for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:12)

Bible students, please notice above that Jesus Christ takes His place as King at the time of the sounding of the seventh angel. This is the last of the seven trumpets and the time when we shall be changed into immortality, according to the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. There assuredly is no resurrection or "rapture" prior to the sounding of the last trumpet.

He comes with His victorious saints to establish His righteous Kingdom on the earth. When Antichrist and the False Prophet have been hurled alive into the Lake of Fire, He—the Lord Jesus Christ—will go up to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There He shall be crowned King of all kings and Lord of all lords.

Then His army shall go out through all the earth, driving every vestige of Satan from our planet. One angel will throw Satan into the bottomless pit.

This is the revealing of the sons of God, and through them the saved peoples of the earth will be released into the glorious liberty of the children of God, of those who live in God's Spirit.

Can you see the difference between the true Kingdom vision and the miserable, fleshly delusion of the any-moment rapture? Obviously one or the other is scriptural; one or the other is a distracting, destructive lie that has left a good part of American Christianity helpless in the face of the age of moral horrors we are entering.

No, we are not going to be caught up to Heaven in our overalls and bikinis.

Some are practicing jumping up and down next to their pews in preparation for the unscriptural "rapture." I will tell you from the Word of God that the preparation God wants is for the hearts of the fathers to be turned toward their children and the children toward their fathers. Already the Christian people are being deceived as they buy their children games that lead into supernatural violence and witchcraft. These are foreign gods of the occult. We had better look to our families, for Satan is doing everything in his power to destroy them.

We have been deluded by the enemy. Let us turn to the Lord that we may save ourselves and our households throughout the spiritual nightmare that is rapidly approaching the United States of America.

Numerous believers in Christ are facing stripes (or worse!) in the spirit realm because of their halfhearted, disinterested, disobedient walk in Jesus. The concept of a "rapture" to deliver them from suffering is not taught in the Scriptures. Indeed, it may be "out of the frying pan into the fire" for multitudes of the church-attenders of our day.

If the present generation of Christian "believers" were to be caught up into the Presence of Him whose eyes are a flame of fire there would be scenes of agony, remorse, wailing, terror, that no person could bear to watch.

The believers have been taught that once they make a profession of Jesus as Christ they no longer need to fear the judgment of God. While such a concept can be derived from one or two passages, the bulk of the New Testament writings declare the opposite.

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:30)

But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:8)

And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. (Revelation 2:23)

None of the above passages is addressed to the unbelievers.

Nowhere in the New Testament is there a suggestion that Christ will deliver the believers from tribulation by lifting them up to Heaven. Are we preaching and teaching that which is not taught clearly in the Scriptures?

A change in emphasis from the doctrine of the catching up of the immature believers to Heaven to avoid tribulation, to an emphasis on the pursuit of righteous and holy behavior such that the resurrection from the dead is attained (which was the expressed hope of the Apostle Paul), will restore spiritual vitality to the Christian churches. (from "Rapture" or Resurrections?; from It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking)