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At this point I truly believe that the Lord could rapture us to heaven at any time. I think the signs are present that should cause us to be watching and expecting and WORKING on a moment by moment basis. I have been looking at the information presented in this paper for a number of years and have identified other times when I fully expected the Lord to come. He didn’t. While I truly expect the rapture to occur in relation to the moed of Pentecost, I also believe the event could be imminent. I’m not waiting for any specific date to make my peace with the Lord. I believe that all who are going will know ahead of time, but the question is: how much advance notice will be given? Noah had seven days warning that the flood would come. Lot was warned the night before the destruction of Sodom and Abraham knew even earlier. The children of Israel had at least four days notice of their departure from Egypt (Exo. 12:3-6). Elijah, Elisha and the sons of the prophets at Beth-El and Jericho all knew at least that morning that Elijah would depart that day. At this point we have less than two years before the end of the forty years that began on June 7, 1967. God has not spoken to my heart regarding the specific time of our departure, but I know that it is growing closer by the minute. And I grow more excited with every day that goes by. Some might argue that God is sovereign and is not tied to dates by which man keeps time. This is completely true. However, I am not looking at man’s time-keeping, but at God’s. In his sovereignty God has given us prophecies that Jesus has already fulfilled on the exact day they were scheduled. It is totally reasonable to me that in his sovereignty God has set specific dates on which he plans to fulfill his purpose. If the first four moeds of Lev. 23 were indeed prophetic of the redemptive works of Jesus, and if he fulfilled them on the exact day of the moed, I fully expect the fulfillment of the last three moeds to occur in the same manner. I do not think it is necessary, or even desirable, for Christians in general to have too much foreknowledge of exactly when the rapture will occur. What is necessary is that we know it is near and we can determine that by watching the nightly news. Based on Rev. 3:3 it is my opinion that no Christian will be surprised by the rapture; all who are going will know. I think it’s possible that God will simply cause a certain quickening, a strong anticipation within us as the hour approaches. Maybe the trumpet will sound for a time before the actual catching away. In Exo. 19 the "trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder." I don’t know how people will be made aware, only that at the proper time we will be on alert. Having observed the aftermath of rapture hopes after 1988, I think that an exact knowledge of the exact time of the Lord’s return could actually be damaging to many Christians. When a person believes he has a certain amount of time left, he may say in his heart "my Lord delays his coming." Concerning the second advent, Jesus taught (Matt. 24:48-51) that this attitude is hypocritical and leads to backsliding and eventually to judgment. If this is true of the second advent, how much more so is it for us who are waiting for the rapture. It is far better for most Christians to live in moment by moment anticipation of meeting the Lord in the air. In these articles we have looked at the two days or two thousand years since the birth of Jesus, the duration of a Biblical generation, the Jewish calendar cycle, the 7.61 days discrepancy in the Jewish calendar, the four hundred ninety years prophesied by Daniel, a period of one hundred twenty years before a total judgment of the earth, the beginning of the Biblical season of summer, a total number of two thousand five hundred and fifty days that start and stop on specific dates covering a period of seven years and which also correlate to the two thousand five hundred and fifty years of the times of the Gentiles, as well as prophecies from all over the Bible. The bottom line is this: we are definitely right at a point where all of these things are coming together. Mankind is about to have an encounter with God. |
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