The False Vision and the True Vision

Two visions are given in the scriptures concerning this earth today. One is true and is from the Hebrew God Yahweh. And one is false. And both of these visions concerning God and His plan are out there on the airwaves, in cyberspace, and in the pulpits.

Since “there is nothing new under the sun,” and since “that which has been is now,” we look back to the prophet Jeremiah’s day. Then there were prophets speaking lies in God’s name to the people of Jerusalem. The Babylonian army was sweeping across the Middle East, and yet, they said that God was saying, “You will not see the sword, neither shall you have famine. But I will give you assured peace in this place” (Jer. 14: 13).

These “men of God” told the people what they wanted to hear–how God was going to spare them from Nebuchadnezzar’s army and how their “faithful worship” would be rewarded by God’s protection during the coming tribulation.

But Yahweh said to Jeremiah, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake to them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart” (14: 14). They were deceived and were predicting good things for the people in the face of imminent destruction. They wanted the “best” for their congregations and so were ripe to believe the lie that God would not punish their wickedness.

But Jeremiah had warned them earlier. “Be not proud…Give glory to Yahweh your God, before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while you look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death…Judah shall be carried away captive…and if thou say in thine heart, why come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity…” (13: 15-22).

And now I tell you that there is a sword coming upon us here in the West. The preachers today have told their flocks what they want to hear, how they will be lifted out of the earth just in the nick of time before the Tribulation Period starts. But like in Jeremiah’s day, today’s preachers, priests and prophets speak a “false vision” of what God will do during “the time of the end.”

A sword is coming upon the nations of this earth, upon the lost tribes of Israel, upon the West, and upon the whole world!

Devestation awaits the current edition of the world system, Babylon the Great, and its destruction will shake us all to our core. It will be so bad that only for His elect’s sake will God prevent total annihilation. Earthquakes, tidal waves, worldwide wars, famines, and cosmic catastrophes shall rack this earth and cause the survivors to wander in the “shadows of death.”

This world system is the rich man’s feeble attempt to rule this earth. It is Satan’s kingdom, and it is coming down. Read the vision of its fall in the book of Revelation.

The stage is being set for this final act. Devastation awaits, and Christians will suffer through the throes and agonies. And many will cry out to God, Why are these things coming upon us? We will suffer because of our iniquities–for tolerating the governments that legalized the murder of our helpless unborn babies; for condoning the addictions of drugs and pornography and the perversions of filthy movies and books; for sleeping while they shut our children’s mouths that just wanted to pray to the God of heaven; and for bowing our blindfolded eyes as they desecrated holy matrimony.

Holy matrimony. For few spoke up for God as they trounced the words of our King and Savior: “Have you not read, that He that made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matt. 19: 4-6). Male and female. Pretty simple.

No, the false prophets of our generation, from the presidents, premiers, and prime ministers, all the way down to the street corner pastor–preach a “false vision.” It is the “other gospel” that the apostle Paul warned us of. And because of the lies, our planet aches and groans in pain waiting and hoping for someone to rise up and say, No more lies.

For it is the truth about what is happening and what will happen to this earth and its inhabitants that will make us free. And the truth is that out of the rubble of the misery coming to the earth, the remnant of God will rise! His elect, His chosen ones, like Jeremiah, who after tortured tears cried for his people, wrote the true vision down for us. That we through “the patience and comfort of the scriptures” could find the map leading to the immortal city.

The whole world will suffer together during the end time wrap up. But out of this crucible of tears, a remnant of His people will shine forth as the sun. With their King’s Spirit, they with Him will lead the people who remain into a thousand years of peace. That is the vision that is true. That is the vision that Jeremiah and Isaiah and Daniel and the others saw. That is the true vision–the soon coming Kingdom of God established right here on this troubled planet with Christ the King of kings sitting on the throne–right beside His elect.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

Who Hath Believed Our Report? How long, O Lord?

A few weeks ago I put a couple of my books on consignment in a local discount grocery store that had a rack of Christian books.  It was a self-described Christian establishment sitting in the middle of the Bible Belt, and I figured a local author with a Christian book–what’s not to like?

So I came back to the store a month later to see if the books had moved and noticed that they were not on the rack.  So I asked the assistant manager who made the deal with me about stocking the books, “Did they sell?  I don’t see them on the rack.”

He looked at me real funny and being the diplomat/merchant that he is, he began to hem-haw around, saying, “Well, the manager hasn’t had time to look them over and approve them yet.”

I said, “Your racks contain scores of books that I doubt he spent any time pouring over to approve.”

“Do you want them?”

“Of course,  I want them if you are not going to try to sell them.”

“I’ll go get them.”  In a moment he returned with my books.

And then I realized what had happened.  They had put them on the rack because they had a price sticker on them.  But a shopper had perused them and did not approve of the teachings found in them and complained to the manager.  Probably my Yah Is Savior book insulted someone’s churchianity quotient; perhaps they read the back cover which has summary of its contents.  And so they stopped right there and got indignant.  If they had read on, they would have found out much about how Christ, the Son of God, came in His Father’s name, Yahweh and what that really means.

The more truth He gives you, the less likely it will be received by the masses

But what did I expect?  That everyone really wants the truth about God and everything else?  How naïve of me.  How presumptuous, like Moses, who “supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not” (Acts 7: 25).  God had showed Moses a glimpse of the plan but not the power; that would come forty years later at the burning bush (v. 30-36).

After my little incident, Isaiah’s question kept coming to mind: “Who hath believed our report? (Isa. 53: 1).  Why is there so much rampant unbelief?  Why can’t people just believe?

It is the age old dilemma for men and women of God.  The more truth He gives you, the less likely it will be received by the masses.  You and I have had several revelations of truth and, excited about it, we share it immediately with probably the first person we meet, and it falls disappointedly on deaf ears.  The kicker is that we honestly believe that they at this time ought to believe the truth we are sharing.  But the vast majority don’t, and we wonder why.

But the scriptures state that most will not believe.  In fact, if everything you share garners a huge following and acceptance by the masses, you don’t have the right message. 

The Wide Gate and the Narrow Gate

That’s a bold statement, I know.  But, we are to “enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt. 7: 13-14).  The masses are fooled and led to destruction through a wide gate; the few will find the true way.  These are the Savior’s very own words.

And how are the masses led astray by the tens and hundreds of millions?  Christ answers this in the very next verse: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (v. 15).  Sheep’s clothing.  They look like they are a Christian; they appear to be a bona fide spokesman for God, God’s helper, but Christ says they are ferocious wolves!  That’s how the masses are herded into the wide gate and destroyed.  By deceivers with their false teachings and old leaven concepts about God and not the true word of God.

In fact, Christ implores us to “strive to enter in at the narrow gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13: 24-30).  The word translated “strive” is rendered “fight” in many passages.  We must fight to enter through the narrow gate into the kingdom of God.  It is a fight, a struggle.  Fight against what?  Against the false doctrines and concepts taught by the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Because there will be many who went the easy way through the wide gate and  they will “seek to enter in, and shall not be able.”  Upon realizing that they messed up, they will knock on the Master’s door, but He will say, I don’t know you.  And they will be in anguish when they are rejected by Him.  Those that went in through the wide gate taught by the false prophets will be in big trouble.

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

So, the question remains.  Did I really expect when I committed my writing to God–did I expect to be believed?  Especially since what God keeps showing me is so different to the doctrines that organized churchianity teaches.

But why won’t the masses believe this message?

I found the answer, which lies in the fact that they did not believe the Savior Himself!  Very few “got Him” then, and very few get Him now.

“But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him” (John 12: 37).  It would be the same today if we had the same power to heal the sick and raise the dead.  Oh, the masses would clamor after a miracle for themselves, but they would not really take the truth in and believe it.

Nothing has changed.  But why?  Why at this present time in history won’t the people believe?

Verse 38 answers the question.  “That the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report…Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them” (Jn 12: 38-41).

Why can’t the people just believe when truth comes their way?  Because the multitudes are unable to at this time in history.  What?  And why can’t they believe?  Because God–yes, God Himself–has “blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts” (Isa. 6: 9-10).  He has blinded the vast majority of fleshly Israel and the Gentile nations.  That is what the sacred writings of the prophets Isaiah and John tell us.

The masses are blinded by Him, but “the few” that Christ spoke about above are entering in by the narrow gate.  These are His elect, His chosen ones.  To Christ’s disciples He said, “It is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the masses] it is not given” (Matt. 13: 11-16).  And then He quotes Isaiah 6: 9-10 to them.  Although not politically correct to say it, Christ is revealing precious mysteries at present as the masses remain blind and hardened to His truth (Rom. 11: 7).

How Long, O Lord?

But when?  God, how long will it be before You open the people’s eyes and soften their hearts so that they can believe You? When will their vision be restored and their hearts softened?  Isaiah asked, “Lord, how long?  And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land” (6: 10-11).

When the cities are wiped out, when the earth lies totally ruined and desolate, and when this world system is forever shattered and lying in rubble on the ground, then the masses will turn to God.  These are the disasters of biblical proportions.  This is the realization of all the disaster movies we’ve ever seen.  This is the great tribulation period that everyone alive on earth will go through, just before Christ’s return to earth to establish His kingdom.

When God unleashes His trumpets and vials of wrath upon the earth, then the masses will begin to awaken and believe.  They are asleep and deceived and “poor, wretched, miserable, blind and naked.”

God, please help us.  Spare thy people, oh God.  I am grateful for this knowledge, but it is a heavy burden to bear–knowing the sufferings that await the inhabitants of the earth.

The tribulation will come, and then more of the masses will have a softened heart to believe and love Him and they will repent and follow Him.

Of course, the false prophets and false teachers say that you won’t have to go through the tribulation period.  Of course, they would teach that.  How else are they going to get the massive numbers of souls through the wide gate that “leads to destruction”?  God, help us.      KWH

No Rapture–Further Proof

Many Christians feel that, well, God would just not allow His true people to go through the Great Tribulation Period.  God would just not let us suffer like that because He loves us.

Many reason that God is too merciful and through Christ’s sacrifice we have been redeemed.  So God would not allow His Christians of the modern era be killed during Tribulation and waste, as it were, His redemptive work in us.

God did say, “I change not…I am the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Mal. 3: 6; Heb. 13: 8).  So we need to find out what He has done in the past; that will be the key to gain understanding about this mystery.

He also said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my ways” (Isa. 55: 8).  Man thinks with man’s wisdom.  But God’s ways are grounded in precedent that He has laid out throughout history, telling “the end from the beginning.”  We all need to get this one thing: God is sovereign and will do things His way, not how we would do it. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 14: 12). It seems right that God would not let His followers suffer through the tribulation period. But that is man’s thinking.

I recently had a comment supporting the rapture.  It was well reasoned and articulated.  In it the reader said, “God couldn’t protect them all [Christians during the Tribulation] AND fulfill what has been prophesied.” I disagree in that “with God all things are possible.” God can do with us whatever He chooses to do

He also said that “God has always removed his own from places that would receive his judgmentl.” I replied, “Where does it say that?” In fact, the scriptures reveal just the opposite.

Before the Great Tribulation Period begins, God induces the 7 year tribulation by first opening the seals of the book that contains the Great Tribulation Period in its pages. These seals include the world wars, calamity of nations, famine, and Death [seals 1-4]. To think that these God ordained catastrophes, which are the seals of the end time book opened by Jesus Himself–did not include true Christians is not thinking this thing through. I know that of the 500,000 American dead in World War II, there were several thousand American Christians who were killed.  And that was just one war since Christ started opening the seals–His doing.

Look at the fifth seal in Rev. 6: 9-11: the souls of Christians killed are crying, Revenge us. And they are told to wait until their fellow Christians that should be killed should be fulfilled. Should be killed?

And what about the sixth seal–the mother of all natural disasters–great earthquake, “stars of heaven” falling into the earth [asteroids, meteorites], the “kings of the earth and the great men” say to the mountains, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come…” (6:15-17).

Christ even alludes to this time of the opening of the sixth seal when He spoke to those women, mourning for Him because of the imminent  death by crucifixion.  “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.”  Why? Because of the hardships on the little children brought on by the sixth seal.  “For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren…”  For the barren women won’t have children that will suffer through tribulation.  “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us” (Luke 23:  28-30).  These are the exact words used by the “rich men” in Rev. 6 when earth wide disaster hits.  And He said that to His followers!

So God’s wrath has already started; it is all His doing and His followers are still on the earth. With all of these seals opening, Christians unfortunately may be killed.  But for us, “to die is gain.” And this is just the preview of the trumpets and vials to come during the actual 7 year Tribulation.

Moreover, Christ is speaking directly about the Great Tribulation Period in Matt. 24. At the time of the abomination of desolation, “there shall be great tribulation…and except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened” (Matt. 24: 15, 21-22). We are talking about the real flesh bodies of the elect of God, perishing right along with the rest of humanity except that God would intervene and cut the wrath time short.

Historical Proof

Furthermore, here is biblical historical proof that God’s followers perish along with the unrighteous–done by God’s own hand: God is warning Jerusalem through Ezekiel. “Behold, I am against thee, and will draw out my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked…against all flesh…” (21: 2-4). What was Yahweh’s sword? The Babylonian army. “…That the sword of the king of Babylon may come” (v. 19). At the time of the fall of Jerusalem about 600 B.C., God still had “7,000 that had not bowed the knee to Baal,” and some of them perished by the sword of the LORD–Babylonia.

So we see that Christians have been and may be slain through God’s auspices; He is sovereign and can do His plan exactly the way He wants to. Perhaps this is what it means when it says, “You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations…You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us…All this happened to us, though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant” (Psm 44: 11, 13, 17, NIV). And, yet, “as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Rom 8:36).

God is sovereign, and His way of doing things is not our way.  He has His reasons why His followers will not be raptured, why no one will be raptured–a concept foreign to the early church apostles and fathers–a concept literally born in a dream by a woman in the 19^th Century.

Don’t Depend on the Rapture–All Christians Going through Great Tribulation

We saw last time that The Great Tribulation Period is the “Day of the LORD,” spoken of by many of the prophets in scripture.  We referenced a few of them who wrote about this disastrous time on the earth–Daniel, Zephaniah,  the apostle John, to name just a few.

Many who read about all this destruction will say, What difference does it make?  It doesn’t pertain to us.  We Christians will be raptured out before the Tribulation starts anyway.

Many will not take this time of wrath to heart because they do not believe that it applies to them.  They believe in a rapture/reward for being good little children of God.  They do not believe that God could be that “cruel” to them and their families–to treat them just like the ungodly in that He would  make them go through the end time calamities.  God speaks about these foolish “followers” of Christ.

The Parable of the Five Wise and the Five Foolish Virgins

Christ was asked by His disciples what the sign would be for three things:  the total destruction of Jerusalem where one stone would not be found on another, the sign of His return to earth,  and the end of the world (Matt. 24: 1).  He answers these three questions in the next two chapters.  Everything in Matthew 24 and 25 is in answer to these three questions concerning “the end of the world.”  And this also reveals that some lukewarm Christians will be around during the tribulation.

Christ uses two parables to convey the secret answers to the mysteries of when the end will come.  In the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25: 1-13), five were wise and took oil in their lamps and had eyes to see, but five were foolish and had no oil for their lamps.  They were virgins; they were little children of God, but they were lacking in the Spirit of God, the oil, within themselves.  They had not studied and prayed and were told by the wise virgins to go buy their own oil from the same place where one may “buy the gold tried in the fire…and the white raiment…and the eye salve” (Rev. 3: 18).  It was too late to pray and study for those little children, the five foolish virgins.  For the bridegroom came while they were out and they missed  the wrap up, the great marriage supper.  And they cried to Him to open the door, but He told them, “I don’t know you” for this honor.

The Parable of the Five Talents

Another example of spiritual unproductivity is this parable in the very next verse (Matt. 25: 14-30).  Three servants were given talents by their master, “according to his own ability”–five to one servant, two to another, and one to another.  They all three were servants of the same master.  Those with five and two gained the same and were praised upon the master’s return as “good and faithful servants.”  The other servant was “afraid and …hid it in the earth.”  “You wicked and slothful servant,” said his master.  “Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Then the master took the talent from him and gave it to the one with ten talents.

What went wrong with the unprofitable servant?  He had no faith; he was disobedient and did not gain anything for his master with His goods.  Of course, this parable reveals a mystery “kept secret from the foundations of the world.”  The spiritual application shows us three levels of  fruit production as in the Parable of Sower in Matt. 13–30, 60, and 100 fold.  Christ has told all of His followers to study, pray, prove all things, and carry the good news of His kingdom into all the world.  He has told us all to dig deep and build our house upon the rock, and call out others to this great kingdom soon to fill the whole earth.

Laodecean Church Age–The Condition of the Church at Christ’s Return

But do most children of God do this, really?   I don’t think so.  In this last church age of Laodecea (laity deceived) painted for us in Rev. 3: 16-17, we see that today’s average church goer is lukewarm  in the spiritual works of God and is about to be “spued out of His mouth.”  Why?  Because they  say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.’  And they do not know that they are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”  Pride in one’s denomination [‘our church is a Bible church, rich in the word of God], a particular church father, one’s pastor, priest, saint, pride period–all these lead one to say, ‘I am rich [in faith] and have need of nothing.’  Many denominations actually say that they are the only ones who have the truth.

In their heart they will say, Hey, we’ve got the rapture.  God will take care of us.  He wants us to prosper, to be materially well off while we are waiting for His return.  He’ll take us out of the hellishness of the tribulation period.  We don’t need these doctrines (teachings).  Mom and dad didn’t believe this new stuff.  Besides, all we need is Jesus.  And they go one as  sheep to the slaughter never realizing that “whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God” (2 John 1: 9).

And they will go on their shallow ways, having never proven the “rapture theory” from the scriptures–having never seen that they base it on 1/2 of one verse, never even quoting the other half of the verse: “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  They never realize that Christ is coming back HERE–not ‘up in heaven somewhere”!  In our new spiritual bodies, we will rise up into the “air” [look it up in the Greek and see that it is where the birds fly] but we won’t get too far, for He’s descending to earth, touching His feet on the Mt. Olivet, cleaving it, and we will be with Him in that wonderful moment!  “And so shall we ever be with the Lord!”  [I Thess. 4: 16-17].

And so I have to ask the rapture believers: Since Christ is coming back bodily to earth at the time of the “catching away,” who will you be with when your imagination carries you away?  Most have never considered what the scriptures really say in this one verse that they use to base the rapture on.

The Bridegroom comes here!  If this rapture illusion is not straightened out in a person’s heart and mind, if they are counting on something erroneous that is not happening, do you think He may cast them “into outer darkness where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”?

And why will all of this misery land on so many people?  It is because of their unbelief.  Christ said it with a broken heart as He looked on the people of His pasture.  “O ye of little faith.”

Unbelief–Just Like with Moses and the Children of Israel

But there’s nothing new here.  The children of Israel just would not believe the word of Yahweh. “So we see that they could not enter in [to the Promised Land] because of unbelief.”

So, whose voice were the children of Israel listening to?  They listened to Aaron,  a voice from a false god, who led in the worship of the golden calf while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai.  They murmured and complained and said, God would not put all this deprivation and sacrifice on us.  We are God’s people.  Out of 2-3 million people, only two, Joshua and Caleb, made it into the Promised Land.  And what happened to all of those millions of unbelievers?  Their “carcases fell” in the desert outside of Canaan land.  They had a false conception about how that era would end.  And they paid the price.  They died never glimpsing God’s glory.  And the things that happened to the children of Israel “are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come” [3].

The consequences of their unbelief admonishes those living at the “end of the world”!  That’s us.  And we should take the warning to heart.  To be one of the few to get into the promised land of His presence when He returns, we must throw away “every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” [4].

The little children of God are mostly alive for what they can get from the Father.  That’s why they are children and not spiritual adults in the Lord.  They have consequently believed that the Father will miraculously deliver them in a supernatural “rapture” before tribulation breaks out.

The rapture is based on wishful thinking.  It is an imagination and a lie  that will not only disillusion millions of professing Christians, it will also alienate them from God.  When they are not “raptured out” before the tribulation, many will turn against God and will be part of those who “gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores” (Rev. 16: 10-11).  They will blame God for the wrath that He is wreaking, and not the liars that told them they would escape all of the bad things.

But even as just two people, Joshua and Caleb, entered the Promised Land, even so very few will denounce the rapture theory, one of the most addictive sugar stick false doctrines out there.  Most will not believe.  Consequently, they will not prepare, both physically and spiritually, for the tribulation period.  And the sad part is, they are the ones who will be most disillusioned and upset at God.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1.  See https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/no-pre-tribulation-rapture-gods-elect-on-earth-during-tribulation/

2.  Hebrews 3: 13-18

3.  I Cor. 10: 11

4. II Cor. 10: 5

No Pre-Tribulation “Rapture”–God’s Elect on Earth During Tribulation

The Scriptures do not support a “Rapture” that happens before the Tribulation starts, as millions have been taught.  They do support a post-tribulation event where Christians are “caught up to meet the Lord in the air”  (see post “The Pre-Tribulation Rapture–A Parachute That Will Not Open here  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/08/02/the-rapture-a-parachute-that-will-not-open/ ).

If we can see in the Scriptures the church, actively and literally living on earth during the Great Tribulation, then we will have proof positive that Christians were not “raptured” out of the earth before Tribulation started.  If you will stay with me for a moment, I will show you proof of this.

In Matthew 24, Christ’s disciples ask Him, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (v. 3).  He lists many signs like deception, wars, famines, earthquakes, which “are the beginning of sorrows.”  Then “false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many (v. 4-11).

Then He says, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (v. 12).  The end of what?  The “end” of the tribulation that precedes His coming back to earth.  Then He says that “this gospel of the kingdom” will go out all over the world, and then the end will come.

Then the big sign comes when He says to watch for “the abomination of desolation.”   This is when the Anti-Christ desecrates the newly rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.  When you see that, you better run for cover.  Remember He is talking only to His disciples, which are a type of all of His disciples.  “For then shall be great tribulation” like the world’s never seen.  It will be hellish, as seen during the seven trumpet plagues and the seven vials of wrath in Revelation ch’s 8, 9, 16.

Stay with me, now.  Almost to the proof-text.  It is so bad and destructive to mankind that “except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Mt. 24:22).  In other words, if God allows the destruction to continue, no human beings would survive!  “But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (v. 22).

If the church, God’s elect, have already been “raptured out” to safety before tribulation started, then why would God be so concerned about saving His elect from the physical destruction happening on earth?

“For the elect’s sake” means He doesn’t want His body of believers to die with the wicked in a total annihilation of earth.  For their sake, so that they won’t perish with the wicked, He cuts the tribulation short to prevent total destruction.

It will be horrendously bleak.  Christ’s followers will be looking for their Savior’s return.  He warns that at that time false prophets “shall show great signs and wonders…that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mt. 24:24).  These false teachers are so convincing that they almost deceive the elect of God!

If God’s church, His elect, are already in heaven, then how could they almost be deceived by imposters on earth? They would be in the very presence of God.  They couldn’t be deceived.  No, during this horrible time, His church, His body of believers are still on earth, enduring the suffering, waiting patiently for their Savior’s return.

But some will say that “the elect” spoken of here in Matthew 24:22, 24 are not the church, the body of Christ.  Don’t believe this falsehood.  His elect is His true church.  I will prove this in the next post entitled, “The Elect of God–His Body, His True Church.”  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

For more, check out my books found here:

http://yahwehisthesavior.com/

See also:  “The Cup of Fury”–Yahweh Has a “Controversy With the Nations”

“God’s Elect”–His Body, His Chosen, His Church

The Pre-Tribulation Rapture–A Parachute That Will Not Open

Millions of Christians are depending on a pre-tribulation “rapture” to save them from going through the Great Tribulation Period.  But it is a parachute that will not open.  This teaching has become so pervasive since 1900 that few question its truthfulness.

I certainly don’t blame my Christian brethren for wanting to escape all the destruction that’s coming to this earth during the Tribulation.  And I do certainly believe in a “catching away” of the saints when He comes back.  But the Rapure doctrine teaches that He will come for His church before the tribulation starts.  That sounds so good.  But there’s only one thing wrong.  The scriptures don’t back it up.  They speak of Christ coming back and the church being “caught up to meet Him in the air” at the end of the Tribulation.

Proponents of the “rapture” teaching usually base it on one-half of one verse in the Bible. It is found in I Thessalonians 4:17.  Christ comes back to earth; and the Christians who have died shall be raised 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.”

We see here that Christians, who will have been changed into their spiritual bodies (II Cor. 5:1-2) “shall be caught up” to meet Christ as He nears touch-down on earth.  We will meet Him “in the clouds” and “in the air.”  Clouds and air are only found in the earth’s atmosphere!  We will rise up to meet Him in the earth’s atmosphere, and then we will come right back down here to earth!

“And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” This is the second half of verse 17 that is never quoted.  He is coming back to earth at the end of the Great Tribulation Period, and since we are ever to be with Him, then we will be coming right back to earth with Him!

I Thessalonians 4:17 does not support Christians being caught away into the third heaven, the traditional concept of heaven, mystically up there somewhere in another dimension.  Yes, there is a rising up in our new spiritual bodies, to meet Him for a moment “in the clouds” and “in the air.”  However, it is a temporary lift-off, for He is on His way to earth, and we are ever to “be with the Lord.”

He is coming here to establish His 1000 year reign of peace, setting up His government, the Kingdom of God, right here on earth.  And few doubt that He will come back here after the Tribulation Period is over.  So the “catching away of the saints” happens at the end of the Tribulation Period, at the moment of Christ’s return to earth to establish His Milennial Reign.

This “Rapture Doctrine” is of utmost importance for us to either prove or disprove, for our families’ future is at stake.   We are told to “purge out the old leaven” doctrines ( see post https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/brutal-honesty-with-ourselves-purging-out-the-old-leaven/ )

Future posts will show scripturally the church, the body of Christ, active here on earth during the Tribulation Period. We as God’s princes and princesses must get this right.  We must study these things out in great detail in order to prepare ourselves to be rulers in His kingdom (see “Studying to Be…” at https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/studying-to-be-a-prince-and-princess-of-god/ ).   What’s your thoughts?         Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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