If you wanted to compare the so-called evangelicals with Bible believers in terms of working out, the Bible believers would be the original Gold's Gym in California, and the evangelicals would be your average Planet Fitness with their 'Judgement-Free Zone'.
"I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills." Song Of Solomon 2:7,8 (KJV)
It seems that everywhere I look lately, be it online or something I overhear in conversations on the streets, that so many people are repeating things they 'know to be true' about the return of Jesus Christ that simply are are not true at all, according to the Bible.
An article in the UK Guardian today really got my blood boiling. In it, they were attempting to say that the evangelical community in America was experiencing 'end times fatigue' because events long prophesied haven't come to pass so far. This is what they said:
This “post-evangelical” generation was raised on a steady diet of low-budget movies and pulp novels that injected a potent fear of the coming Rapture, a dynamic most eloquently described by the late Billy Graham. “I pick up the Bible in one hand,” he said, “and I pick up the newspaper in the other. And I read almost the same words in the newspaper as I read in the Bible. It’s being fulfilled every day round about us.” In the 1990s, Christopher Stroop was one such evangelical. He has now abandoned his faith and leads a social media campaign seeking to galvanize “exvangelicals” with hashtags like #emptythepews and #raptureanxiety. He said he had “definitely seen a lot of ex-evangelicals talking about being triggered by the Jerusalem news”.
source
Man oh man, what a load of hooey that is. Why is it that news outlets like the Guardian and others never, and I mean
never, will interview a Bible believer about the end times and instead choose to post the ridiculous views of "ex-Christians" who have "abandoned their faith" because the Rapture didn't happen. Complete and utter nonsense. If you wanted to compare the so-called evangelicals with Bible believers in terms of working out, the Bible believers would be the
original Gold's Gym in California, and the evangelicals would be your average Planet Fitness with their '
Judgement-Free Zone'. I mean, really. Any "christian" who abandoned their faith in Jesus Christ because the "rapture didn't happen" was quite likely never saved in the first place.
If You’re Left Behind After The Rapture Of The Church, You May Never Get Another Chance To Get Saved
So here are a few easy-to-digest bullets points that I hope will go a long way towards correcting some of the many unbiblical assertions being made today about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and at the same time boost your faith in God's preserved word as found in the King James Bible.
- THE RAPTURE IS NEITHER THE SECOND COMING OR END OF THE WORLD: In various places in the Bible, we read about the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church that takes places just before the start of the time of Jacob's trouble. "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter." Revelation 4:1 (KJV). We know that it cannot be the 'end of the world' because multiple events over a 1,007 year periodtake place right afterwards. And we also know that it is not the Second Coming of Jesus Christ because in the Rapture of the Church, Jesus only comes back as far as the clouds and pulls the born again believers up to Him. "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: 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (KJV). At the Second Coming, Jesus returns to rule and reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years, quite different from the Rapture of the church. Things that are different are not the same.
- YOU ARE NOT 'BRINGING IN THE KINGDOM': The Kingdom of Heaven in the Bibleis a literal, physical and visible earthly kingdom over which Jesus Christ will rule as King for a thousand years, and His Throne will be in Jerusalem. This kingdom cannot and will not be established on the earth until Jesus and His army of redeemed saints on white horses return at the Second Coming at the end of the time of Jacob's trouble, at the Battle of Armageddon. We read about this in Revelation 19. "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." Revelation 19:11-16 (KJV). The Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom that everyone who is saved during the last 2,000 years of the Church Age is automatically put into the moment they became born again. You don't "bring in" the kingdom of God, you are brought into it when you get saved. Huge difference! So when I hear Christians tell me that they are 'working to bring in the kingdom', I always ask them "which one"? Biblically, there is no work any Christian can do to bring in either kingdom, that is all the Lord's doing, and it requires exactly nothing from us to make either one a reality. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 (KJV)
- JESUS WILL NOT COME BACK WHEN THE 'LAST PERSON' GETS SAVED:Again, this is something I hear just about everyday in one form or another, and it is 100% not true. Many Christians will tell me that the reason why they hand out gospel tracts and witness is so that Jesus will come back sooner. Here is the verse they claim for doing that. "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matthew 24:14 (KJV). Honestly, if that's why you witness, then stop. That is a terrible reason to witness to people. The only reason why a Christian should witness to lost people is because Hell is real, and you don't want them going there, and Jesus will save them from that fate if they get saved. There is no other reason to witness to lost people. The 'proof-text' they use from Matthew 24 is not talking about the Church Age, it is talking about how it will be at the end of the time of Jacob's trouble, otherwise known as the Great Tribulation. In that time you will have the Two Witnesses preaching for 3.5 years from Jerusalem, and you will have the 144,000 sealed servants of the Living God doing their thing as well. At the end of all those things after the last 3.5 years, then the end will come. Not the end of the world, but the end of the time of Jacob's' trouble. These are correct conclusion we come to when we 'rightly divide' the scriptures as Paul tells us to do, and make a clear delineation between the Church Age for born again Christians which we are in now and will end at the Rapture, and the coming time of Jacob's trouble for the Tribulation Saints.
Bible prophecy is great and very compelling, in fact, it's my second favorite thing in the Bible. But the main thing that thrills my soul like nothing else is reading about The One who loved me so much that He shed His own blood on the cross as Calvary, was died and buried, and on the third day rose again to prove He had power over death and Hell.
"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:" 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (KJV)\
The Bible Believers Guide To Understanding The Differences Between The Rapture And The Second Coming
How well I remember my own personal "midnight cry" out to the Lord to save me, on my knees in my room at midnight with my
King James Bible opened to John 3:16, now over 27 years ago. I asked Him to save me, and He did. Full and complete pardon on the spot, no waiting necessary. What Jesus did for me on that blessed evening He will do for any and all people who ask Him.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 (KJV)
I scan the eastern sky every night in the fervent hope that today will be the day that Jesus calls us up to be with Him in the clouds. This is what Paul calls the 'blessed hope' of all born again believers in Jesus Christ, the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church. Or as we say around here at NTEB, Flight #777 on Titus213 Airlines!
"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;" Titus 2:13 (KJV)
But my love for Jesus Christ is not predicated on Him coming to get us according to my timetable. I love Him because He first loved me and then He saved me from Hell! I love Him for who He is, and for what He has already done for me, everything and anything else like the Rapture and other fulfillment of Bible prophecy is simply gravy on the roast beef. If it comes in my lifetime, which I believe wholeheartedly it will, then great! But if not, then that's great too because one way or the other I am headed for Heaven and that's something that even the Devil can't prevent from happening.
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It is excellent to be a strong Christian witness, to hand out gospel tracts, and to plead with lost souls to get saved. In fact, it is
the work the Lord has charged us with in the time we have
from the day we got saved to the day we leave this world through death or rapture. But if you think that any of that is going to speed up the Rapture, make the Lord come sooner, or 'bring in the kingdom' which we have already shown is impossible, then please pull over and park for awhile and recheck your motivations.
I and my team have been preaching on the streets for the past 6 years, we preached this afternoon from 12-2:00 PM . Why on earth would I choose to give up the absolute best part of every Saturday afternoon to stand in the hot Florida heat to tell people on vacation about Jesus? It's quite simple, actually, and it has nothing to do with the Rapture or the end times.
Because since Jesus saved me, I know that Hell is real and I don't want anyone going there. That's why I witness, that's why I hand out tracts, and that's why I preach. And that's why news outlets like the UK Guardian will never want to interview me about the 'end times', because they don't want the truth from people who actually believe the Bible.
Brethren, the war is real, the battle hot, and the time is short...to the FIGHT!
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