Summary of Bible references on the Rapture

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
We are all witnesses. That is our mission in this age, our witnessing is the light shining. If you are involved in a ministry helping the poor, or helping families, or helping single parents, or involved in Sunday school, or helping people in jail or who need legal advice, or prayer, or evangelism, or any where else the Lord would lead then you are part of this lampstand.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Zechariah 5 The choice is yours, the Lord’s lampstand or this sinful woman in a basket.

1 I looked again, and there before me was a flying scroll.

In the last chapter he woke up and saw what the Lord had built with the church. Now he looks again and sees this flying scroll.

2 He asked me, “What do you see?”

I answered, “I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”


This scroll indicates the word of God that was sealed up but is now revealed for all to see and the size of this scroll reminds us of the door to the Holy of Holies.

3 And he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished. 4 The Lord Almighty declares, ‘I will send it out, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of anyone who swears falsely by my name. It will remain in that house and destroy it completely, both its timbers and its stones.’”

The word of God is filled with both the blessings to those that keep the word and curses for those that despise the word. So we have seen Joshua and Zerubabbel building the temple and bringing in the kingdom to Jerusalem, now we see those who are the thieves and liars. On the one hand the word will supply oil to the ministries that bring in the kingship and priesthood, on the other hand the word will be a curse to those that bring in death and deceit.

I have heard other Christians argue that we should just wait till this passes and still others argue that it is not for Christians to speak a word against crooks and liars in the government. I have seen this while teaching, some kids will tell you that as the teacher your place is at the front of the room. I tell them I have been given dominion over the entire room and will move freely wherever I need to. In the same way I will speak God’s word regardless of where it goes and His word is not restricted to some small neat little corner of the room. His word is over all and all will be judged by that word.

The Woman in a Basket

5 Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what is appearing.”

6 I asked, “What is it?”

He replied, “It is a basket.” And he added, “This is the iniquity of the people throughout the land.”

7 Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! 8 He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed its lead cover down on it.

9 Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.

10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me.

11 He replied, “To the country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When the house is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.”


The world will get a choice, they can choose this woman or they can choose the church which the Lord has built. Lead signifies sin, a woman in a sinful basket. She is from Babylon where a tower was built to God built with idols on every brick. It is like your typical advertisement for an automobile where they have to have an attractive woman next to the car to suggest that men who buy this car will be more attractive and have women drawn to them. This is babylonian commerce in a nutshell. God has two women who fly like Storks take her to Babylon. Storks according to ancient rabbinical understanding fly real high. This isn’t just some ad in a newspaper or even a glossy magazine, no these are ads on the internet using Artificial Intelligence to target you and to manipulate you. Many people were upset that Trump “lost” the 2020 election, but they obviously were not familiar with this chapter. At the end of the age you will be given a choice, the Lampstand that God has built filled with oil, giving light to the whole world, or you can choose this sinful woman in a basket. Taking a woman in a lead covered basket to Babylon to help sell your junk, that is very reminiscent of human trafficking. It is stunning how many people have been linked to Epstein’s pedophile island, whether Clinton, or Bill Gates or even justice Roberts. When the Bible talks about whoredoms, prostitution and other heinous crimes these are not just allegorical, the Lord knows much more than we do of the depth of their depravity.

Anyway, returning to the 2020 election, we are getting a very clear choice. The evidence is mounting that those in power in the US got there through theft and deceit. They also were carried aloft by the tech giants using AI to control what people read and heard and to manipulate people. This sinful woman has been set on high and the choice is yours.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Reading this chapter I was reminded there are many ways to lie, you can omit the truth, you can infer something that isn't true, you can gaslight (making sure people don't hear the truth) but this is not just a generic lie, it is to break an oath.

During the Campaign Joe Biden gave us his word, an oath, that no one in his family would have business dealings with China and yet we learn in May that Hunter Biden does have significant business dealings in China still. He gave us his word that his family would not use his presidency to extort money and yet Hunter Biden got a $2 million dollar signing bonus for a book deal where he sold 12,000 copies and already they are talking about a sequel! Kamala Harris also swore with an oath that if she were elected she would put an end to the human rights abuse at the border. She is now the "Border Czar" and yet the border is worse than it ever has been by orders of magnitude and she has not visited the border once. They are not simply lying to you, they are making solemn oaths to you that people then based their decision to vote for them on and breaking those.

For what? For the theft. Several trillion dollars have already been spent of US taxpayer money as a payoff to the political donors. Hunter Biden's book deal and China connections is theft. Nancy Pelosi's stock trades are theft. Hillary Clinton's "foundation" was theft.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Zechariah 6 The four horses of the apocalypse in four stages

1 I looked up again, and there before me were four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze. 2 The first chariot had red horses, the second black, 3 the third white, and the fourth dappled—all of them powerful. 4 I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these, my lord?”

5 The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world. 6 The one with the black horses is going toward the north country, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.”

7 When the powerful horses went out, they were straining to go throughout the earth. And he said, “Go throughout the earth!” So they went throughout the earth.

8 Then he called to me, “Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit rest in the land of the north.”


These chariots are the chariots of war. Zechariah is like a summary of the all the Bible prophecies, so you can see the Lord’s word here about wars and rumors of war as well as the prophecy from Revelation of the four horsemen. But there are some things here that we see that we don’t see elsewhere so let’s focus on that. The last hundred years have been numerous World Wars, it began with WWI, the red horse, and it was closely followed with the Black horse (the Spanish Flu) and this resulted in a new world order (white horse) where the US was the key superpower and Russia was also a nuclear power as well as other countries slowly joining that list. The impact of these wars resulted in God judging the land of the North where they had persecuted the people of God (Germany and Russia). By the time we get to the Gulf war we see a new world order with the US as the key superpower and all the other nations allied with them. That is the White horse. But then we see a speckled horse which is a composite of all three: war, plague and new world order. That is what we are seeing today.

One thing that really puzzled me is that these four horses always begin with the Red horse of war and yet Joel’s prophecy tells you that a global pandemic will be the sign that the Day of the Lord is at hand. However over the last sixteen months and particularly the last four months evidence has come out that the pandemic was an act of war from China. They weaponized the SARS virus which many Chinese already had immunity to. It also shows that the fourth horse is like a compacted version of the previous three, coming much faster and more furious than the first three.

This also helps us understand what is the goal here, why are all these things happening? The spirit of antichrist is trying to set up a one world government, this is the “new world order”. For thousands of years it was one nation against another but at the end of the age it will be the kingdom of Antichrist versus the Kingdom of God. These are the two mountains of bronze. WWI and WWII was fought between the East and the West with the chariots of war coming out of Germany in the middle.

Now today we see the same thing again with China and Russia being the East bringing war on the West (Europe -- Ukraine, Israel -- MidEast, Taiwan -- East, and in the US with cyberattacks, pandemic, open borders, and an attempt to steal the election, defund the police and take over the police with a national police force).
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
I like all of the messages he has given:

 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Zechariah 6:9-15 A Crown for Joshua

9 The word of the Lord came to me: 10 “Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon. Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. 11 Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jozadak. 12 Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. 13 It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’ 14 The crown will be given to Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen son of Zephaniah as a memorial in the temple of the Lord. 15 Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the Lord, and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the Lord your God.”

So we have seen there are two kingdoms, that of AntiChrist and that of the Lord. At this point, with the four horsemen already released, with us already getting to the fourth horse, the speckled horse where all three are coming at once (war, plague and a new world order) then at this time we get a word: “take silver and gold from the exiles”. We the believers are pilgrims, exiles in a strange land. What is the word that has gone out at this very strange time? Take your money and give it to make crowns. We have people like Mike Lindell making new platforms for free speech. We are to stop giving money to the “cancel culture”, stop supporting those who are trying to cancel you like the Mainstream media. We have seen their ratings drop by 40% as people pull out. Instead the highest rated shows are people like Steve Bannon, the Daily Wire, Tucker Carlson. These people try to be inclusive but they are obviously Christians (or orthodox Jews). At this time in the history we will see the house that the Lord has built, the church, and it will be a glory to Him. We are about to see the Millenial kingdom where Jesus will be both Priest and King and where for once in human history these two will be in harmony. It refers to Jesus here as the branch and the Lord of righteousness, but then it gives us these other names which refer to “the dream” and “grace”. At the end of the age we will be like those who dreamed and we will be crowned with grace.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Feast of unleavened bread is known as "the bread of affliction" whereas we are also told to count fifty days to our freedom which is the feast of firstfruits or Pentecost. In that sense the Feast of Pentecost is what we are looking forward to and is an annual feast celebrating the coming day of jubilee.

Another interesting point, you might think that Pentecost takes place after Passover, which it does, but suppose Pentecost is broken into two similar but separate celebrations just like the engagement and the wedding. Then, yes, the engagement takes place right after Passover, but the wedding will be after the Feast of trumpets, atonement and tabernacles as well as Hanukkah of the first year.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Another interesting thing about Pentecost is that it is the only feast that doesn't have a fixed date. All the other feasts take place on a specific day, but Pentecost is a feast that depends on when the first Sabbath is after Passover and then you begin counting from that day.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
There is another very interesting thing about Pentecost which is unique. One expositor was explaining that the word for "Sabbath" after Passover does not refer to the Holy day of Passover but rather to the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. Therefore, if that interpretation is correct Pentecost will never be on any exact day of the month, but it will always be on the eighth day of the week (the day after seven sabbaths), which is the day of resurrection or "Sunday" as some call it but "The Lord's day" as the Bible refers to it. The reason I find that particularly interesting is that we (Christians and the New Testament) have not been given any feasts to keep other than the Lord's table which we keep on the Lord's day. The only festival which is guaranteed to take place on the Lord's day is Pentecost.

The Lord's table is a dress rehearsal for the wedding feast, the coronation, and the Lord's second coming.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113

1. How are Christians supposed to know who to vote for?


We can answer all three of these questions from Zechariah. First, lets use an analogy that everyone familiar with football can understand. Suppose the political battle is like a football game played in the mud and rain. The two teams are slogging it out, battling in the trenches, and when it is over many of the players are covered from head to toe in mud and blood. But now you have to choose between two players to pick the guy you want to lead your team for the next four years in this battle. You know very little about them, how do you figure out which one to choose. One guy, his uniform is filthy, covered in mud and blood, and the other person his uniform is clean, starched and pristine. Now you are a Christian, you know the clothes represent the righteousnesses of the saints, so this filthy uniform is covered in "sins". You might think that surely the Lord would be the one with the clean uniform, but you would be wrong. When the Lord went to the cross He put our sins on Himself, just like putting on a filthy cloak. He wasnt' afraid to "get down and dirty", to "put his shoulder to the plow". Every football player is picking the guy whose uniform is covered in mud, they know he was in the center of the battle for the entire game. The guy with the clean, pristine uniform sat on the bench the entire game.

What we learn in Zechariah is that Satan is trying to "satanize" Joshua. The accuser of the brethren is going nuts accusing him of every sin there is. The way God lets you know who to vote for is you can hear who Satan hates. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. If you can discern that Satan, a liar, loves one candidate and hates the other that is as good an endorsement you can get, not for the one he loves but for the one he hates.

2. What is a "Christian platform"?

This is very simple, the Christian platform is that we are going to bring in the kingdom, not by power nor by might but by the Lord's Spirit. The crusades tried to do it by power, that was a mistake. Others have tried to do it with political action committees and lobbying, that also is a mistake. We bring in the kingdom by preaching the word. Some misunderstand this to mean that we don't bring in the kingdom or that somehow the world government is a separate realm. No, we are a light on the hill, we shine the light, today, on corruption. We are the salt that kills the germs today. Not sometime in the future. And, we stand on the Lord's command to be His witnesses. Anyone who tries to censor or stop our witness is violating the Lord's command. Peter already rebuked those saying "is it right to listen to you or to God". No one stops us from speaking the truth and anyone who tries will find they are fighting against God. The church is the apple of the Lord's eye, you poke the church it is the same as poking the Lord in the eye. He is going to respond.

3. What should Christians do if they are censored?

So, what do you do if you are censored? If they reject you in this city shake the dust off your feet and go to another city. Zechariah tells us to take the gold and silver from them and give it to those who are building the kingdom. If Twitter censors you go to a new platform and speak there. If youtube or facebook censor you create a new platform like Rumble or FrankSpeech and go there.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Zechariah 7 Either you are salt and light or else you too will be cast out.

1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. 2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord 3 by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

4 Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”

8 And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.

13 “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty. 14 ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’”


This chapter is amazing, very hard to believe that it is real and yet it is so real. So the fast and feast they are talking about are for the burning of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar and the murder of Gedaliah. Neither of these was established by God in the Old Covenant, rather they were the customs of man. For example there is no “Easter” or “Christmas” in the New Testament, but rather they were instituted by man later on. No doubt there is the incarnation of Jesus and the death and resurrection of Jesus so surely there were some believers who kept their hearts on the Lord. But as we know most “Christians” who “celebrate” Christmas and Easter do so for themselves, and not unto the Lord. The Lord does not appear to be upset about that, this is not a chapter on “putting Christ back into Christmas”. No the point is very different and stunning really.


The Lord says you have no problem assigning these feasts and fasts for yourselves under the pretense that you are doing it unto the Lord. However, what the Prophets say, you simply ignore. “Administer true judgement”. Oh no, we can’t do that, we let the unbelievers handle that. The New Testament tells us that all things are under the feet of Jesus, that we have been commissioned by Him to preach the gospel which is that Jesus is Lord and He is bringing in His Kingdom and we are to bring all things into submission to this glorious gospel. We are told to be light and that you don’t put anything over that light. Yet Christians are saying that we leave that up to the government? What? That is the same attitude that led to the Jews going through the holocaust. You allow the government to cover the light, you allow multinational corporations to cover that light.

Show mercy and compassion to one another. We live in a country (the US, but this would also apply to every other nation) that bullies other nations and does not show mercy and compassion. But the US has given more foreign aid than any other country? We use our foreign aid to gain power, control and to manipulate other countries. We use foreign aid to prop up puppet governments and keep the country in poverty.

Do not oppress the widow or fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. What do these four all have in common? The widow lacks a husband, the fatherless needs a father, the foreigner doesn’t understand our customs and the poor lacks the resources. We use their need to take advantage of them. Our school system is not focused on raising up highly educated people, no that is only for those with the resources to pay for tutors or send their kids to private schools. Instead the politicians use the schools budget to pay off political debts. You could easily have a much more effective and helpful school system for less money than we spend if we put an end to the politicians manipulating that budget for their own benefit. The mortgage meltdown in 2008 was a perfect example of our taking advantage of widows, fatherless, foreigners and the poor. Those selling the mortgages took advantage of these people not understanding what a balloon mortgage is. They put them into houses where they would do all they could to pay the mortgage every month for sixty months, let’s say $2,000 a month for a total of $120,000 then the mortgage balloons to $4,000 a month, they can’t pay, the bank forecloses, takes the house back but gets to keep the $120,000.

Now these very same people who set up fasts and feasts for when the temple was burned and Gedaliah was murdered, the same ones who say we can’t do anything about the houses being robbed from widows, or the poor being sent to fight bogus wars to make the elite powerful, they want to know what to do about this? Are these not the dumbest people, I mean dumb as a rock.

Wake up! We are the light and the salt. If the salt has lost its saltiness it is good for nothing but to be cast out into the dung heap. That is why the temple was burned and Gedaliah was murdered. That is why God scattered the people and they wandered in a desolate land. The corruption and crime is in your face, either you respond as light and salt or else you too will be cast out.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
I found this very interesting that the first trumpet is at Pentecost. We are all familiar with the prophesy that "at the last trumpet" we will all be transformed in the twinkling of an eye, so we connected this event with the festival of trumpets. But that is when "we all" will be transformed. Prior to that event about 42 months earlier the first fruits are taken. It makes sense that the first fruits are taken on the first trumpet and by the last trumpet everyone is taken.

Adapted from https://victoriousliving.blogspot.com/2010/05/shavuot-first-shofar.html

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 “See, I speak a secret to you: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

So Shavuot and the ‘first shofar’ or trumpet is connected with the marriage union between YHWH and His people! And this is why I say this – for a Hebrew marriage consists typically of two stages, listen to this Scripture:

Deuteronomy 20:7 “Has anyone become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him go home, or he may die in battle and someone else marry her.”

The word ‘pledged’, also translated as ‘engaged’, refers to the ‘pleading part’ or ‘engagement’ of a marriage known in Hebrew as ‘Kiddushin’. This is when the Bride says, “yes” to the proposal and receives the marriage contract – known as the “ketuva” and in so doing this she binds herself to her husband. This is considered as a legally binding contract that one cannot be divorced from except by death or adultery, and the parties – although not yet living together, they are legally married. This pledge / engagement known as ‘kiddushin’ is announced with a shofar. Now at Mount Sinai on Shavuot when the Ten Words were spoken – they heard the sound of the shofar – the very voice of Elohim – the sound of the first shofar announcing the marriage between Elohim and His people and he issued the Marriage contract – the Ten Words written on Tablets of stone. Israel was now legally married on Shavuot. Take a look at:

Exodus 19: 8 “And all the people answered together and said, “All that YHWH has spoken we shall do.” So Moses brought back the words of the people back to YHWH.”

Moses acts like a marriage counsellor, and the people say in effect as one body, “I do”.

This acceptance was then announced with the ‘first shofar’ in Exodus 19: 16 and verse 19!!! Twice they hear the voice or found of the shofar/trumpet. The wedding was now announced and then the terms of the marriage are given in the form of the Ten Words! Israel was now pledged or betrothed and was now seen as legally married!!! When we say yes to Yeshua, there is a trumpet sound of victory and we become betrothed to Him and now walk in His Torah, Commands, marriage contract that is now written on our hearts!

The Feast of Trumpets, when the last shofar is blown, is typically called “the wedding ceremony of the Messiah”. This is when the marriage is consummated!!!

Now to understand this a little better, after the first step or stage in the Hebrew marriage process – the ‘kiddushin’ or betrothal, the bride, who is now legally married, goes home to her father’s house and prepares her wedding gown!!!

The bridegroom goes to his father’s house and prepares a dwelling for them. When the bridegroom father is satisfied that the bride and the bridegroom are both ready does he then give, ‘with a shofar blast’, his son permission to go and fetch his bride.

When he hears this the son then goes, running I am sure, to the home of the bride’s parents and ‘lifts her up in the air’ and ‘takes her’ to his father’s house where the second stage of the marriage covenant is going to be taken. This is called in Hebrew ‘lakach’ which means ‘to take’ and ‘nissuim’ which means ‘to lift up’ for he takes her and lifts her up – ‘lakach nissuim’. This lift up and take is passive, as the bride cannot lift herself up and take herself to her husbands house – the bridegroom has to physically lift up and take his bride – the action is on the part of the bridegroom. How awesome picture we have here as you think how excited the bridegroom and bride would be when that shofar / trumpet is blown. The bride would be ready in her wedding gown, all clean and spotless and the groom would be running to fetch his long awaited bride and as he comes to her he with such joy and excitement he lifts her into his arms and takes her home!!!

Now listen to this – The Great Feast of Trumpets text in the Renewed Covenant (N.T.). speaking of Yeshua coming for us, His Bride is:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 “For the Master Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of Elohim, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Messiah in the air. And so we will be with the Messiah forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

Notice here in this passage the words ‘caught up’ – the ‘lakach’ and ‘nissuim’. The Bride will be taken and lifted up by the Bridegroom and so the second part of the marriage will take place when Messiah comes again and lift us up and takes us with Him to the great Wedding Feast. He is coming for His Bride who has made herself ready – He is not coming for part of His Bride – then coming for the rest – He is coming for His ready Bride!

So here we are today, to realise and recognise that we, His Bride are betrothed – legally married and this day is the day when the ‘kiddushin’/ the pledging/ engagement / betrothal took place at Mount Sinai, which Israel broke by adulterating herself with foreign gods, and now through the Blood of Messiah, Our Kinsman Redeemer, we have been redeemed from sin – paid for, that the marriage could be renewed, restored, repaired and redeemed through His sacrifice for our sins. At Pentecost the very contract or ‘ketuvah’ – His Torah is no longer written by His finger on stone tablets but now, written by His Very Holy Spirit on our hearts! How awesome is that!!! As we eagerly look forward to the last trumpet blast – let us make ourselves ready by walking in His Torah given to us by His Spirit on this day of Shavuot. We walk in His marriage contract out of love, we are not saved by it, for HE has already saved us by grace through faith, we live out the married life as a faithful Bride right here and now in the season between the first and last shofar, declaring our true and total devotion to our Bridegroom, keeping the marriage pure in preparation for His soon return.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
"The celebration of Pentecost typifies the rapture of the church"

 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
The number 5 signifies God's grace, the number 50 is the completion of grace and is used in the Jubilee as well as in Pentecost. The 50 days from the resurrection to the Pentecost signifies the age of grace. The rapture of the first fruits is the completion of the age of grace.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Zechariah 8:1-13 Do you even know what it is to be blessed?

1 The word of the Lord Almighty came to me.

2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.”

3 This is what the Lord says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the Faithful City, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.”


How about today, what is the NYC, or Beijing, or London, or any other city called? We use terms like “superpower” and “vibrant” and modern, but are any of these called “the faithful city”? People want their cities to be economically vibrant, but being faithful is the best reputation for any business.

4 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. 5 The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”

Here is a vision of a blessed city and we are so befuddled by the idolatry of the materialistic world that we have no idea what it is to be blessed. You have charlatans preaching that prosperity is to have gold chains, big cars and live in a mansion. They call that blessing. Hollywood and the media markets “blessing” in the same way, to be blessed is to have money and things. People live in gated communities, drive limos, and send their kids to private schools. I remember during the height of the AIDS epidemic you could go to the worst hit countries and it was as though an entire generation was missing. The entire age group it seemed had died from AIDS. When I taught in Taiwan I was stunned because about a third of my young adult students walked with canes. I asked why this was and they explained that they had been hit by cars while playing in the alleys. You can learn a lot about a city by simply walking the streets. Does this sound good today, for old people to sit in the streets and for young kids to play in the streets? No one wants to do that today because of cars, but get rid of the cars and you change everything. I grew up in the suburbs and we played in the streets all the time (streets that had very little traffic). The automobile has been a curse to cities. It isolates people and it robs the street from them. If your kids can play in the streets and your old people can sit out their watching the kids it is a safe city, a place that is very social where you get to meet your neighbors. Not only so but you obviously avoided wars for the last sixty years or so otherwise you would be missing a whole generation of men. Do you know what was a blessing to me? It was having my kids grandparents take care of them during the day. My two kids and their cousin would stay with them during the day. Their grandfather was in his eighties, he went to work every day and he played tennis everyday. He had escaped from China with the KMT when the communists took over and had to be nursed back to health in the hospital. The woman that nursed him back became his wife. At the end of the day all the kids would come to eat with them. My mother in law cooked dinner for us everyday. That was the best food I ever ate, healthy, fresh, with about twelve of us crammed around a small table. Everything was in good order, my kids grew up being respectful to their elders, and everyone was part of a family and a community. Everyone was healthy, we ate good, had good fellowship, and everyone had a function from the youngest to the oldest.

6 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “It may seem marvelous to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me?” declares the Lord Almighty.

7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. 8 I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.”


We will be known as the faithful city because we will be expressing the faithful and righteous God.

9 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Now hear these words, ‘Let your hands be strong so that the temple may be built.’ This is also what the prophets said who were present when the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord Almighty. 10 Before that time there were no wages for people or hire for animals. No one could go about their business safely because of their enemies, since I had turned everyone against their neighbor. 11 But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as I did in the past,” declares the Lord Almighty.

Now let’s look at the contrast with the black background. Everyone is cheating everyone. High unemployment and it was hard to get by living like an animal much less like a man. And he had turned everyone against their neighbor. Wow! That is what we are seeing today. The BLM and ANTIFA riots with people talking about “burn it down” or “lynching white people” or “death to America”. The town I grew up in was the same place that Norman Rockwell grew up in (after he moved from NYC). So when you look at his paintings you get a very good impression of what it was like. How we have changed in just one generation. I could never have imagined back then what I am seeing today in 2021. You see people randomly shooting and killing people with guns and knives. You see videos of people being jumped in the streets as though they were a straggler being picked off by the wolves. You see these woke corporations and talking heads kow towing to thugs and hooligans. There is a mob mentality on twitter and for some bizarre reason they seem to rule corporate america.

12 “The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people. 13 Just as you, Judah and Israel, have been a curse among the nations, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.”

One thing I have seen and really appreciated is that those who were most attuned to the damaging rhetoric were those who had come from socialist countries. I went to a Stop the Steal rally in Washington DC and wanted to know why people were there. I found people who had come from Cuba or Venezuela or China or Vietnam and they said they had seen the same thing happen where they came from. Experiencing the curse is like getting sick with the flu. Once you get better you now have immunity to that virus. You come from a place where everyone is turned against their neighbor you will have immunity. You will know how important the Lord’s command to love your neighbor is. Take that away and heaven becomes hell. I heard a story once illustrating this point. He said that in hell it was like being at a great banquet feast but you can only reach the food with these very long forks and it is impossible to then bring that fork to your mouth. People became savage having all that right in front of their face and they couldn’t eat any of it. Heaven was very different, they still needed the very long forks to get the food and it was still impossible to bring that fork to your mouth, but in heaven people had learned to feed each other.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Zechariah 8:14-17 These are the things that you are to do.

14 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Just as I had determined to bring disaster on you and showed no pity when your ancestors angered me,” says the Lord Almighty, 15 “so now I have determined to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah. Do not be afraid. 16 These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; 17 do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord.

Everyone makes it seem like there are so many different theories on what we should do that it is just impossible to know the best course. Universal healthcare or corporate healthcare? Border wall or no border wall? But they are missing the whole point, what you really need to do is speak truth to each other. Do you really want universal healthcare? OK, this is what it will really cost and this is what it will really be like. Pelosi makes a big stink over the wall costing $5 billion dollars and yet in the first 100 days of Biden’s presidency he spends $3 billion on undocumented aliens entering our Southern border and she says nothing. It all begins with speaking truth. The MeToo movement was up in arms about a woman making an unsubstantiated accusation against Kavanaugh. Many high profile senators were claiming that we need to believe all women. Then ten women come forward against Cuomo and they are silent. Not about something he did over twenty years ago in high school but about what he did as governor. All you hear from these same pompous liars is crickets. Three women came forward against Joe Biden, even Kamala Harris said she believed them right up until she was chosen as his running mate. First and foremost speak truth. Then you have to render true and sound judgement. The Chauvin trial was stunning. Prominent government officials threatening jurors publicly to make a guilty verdict. The jurors were so scared they found him guilty of three different kinds of murder all at the same time for the same murder! We know that some of the jurors lied to get on the jury. By any standard of justice this was a mistrial. They are taking people who are guilty of misdemeanor trespassing on January 6th and putting them into solitary confinement and allowing them to be beaten and abused in prison. George Floyd’s family is awarded millions of dollars in a settlement for his wrongful death and yet Ashli Babbit’s family cannot even know who it was that shot her or even ask questions. George Floyd had a criminal record and had committed several felonies at the time of his arrest, Ashli Babbit did not have a criminal record and at the time was guilty of trespassing, a misdemeanor. She did not have a weapon, nor was she threatening to harm anyone. Judge righteous judgement, that is not the same thing as mob rule. If you do those two things then it will go a long way to dealing with those who plot evil against one another. The US has had a number of evil plots, JFK assassination, 9/11, and the reason we went to war in Vietnam were all evil plots. War is very profitable for some, you can understand why they like war, it brings them huge government contracts. So we should not naively think that no one would intentionally provoke a war just because we don’t like war. We don’t like it because our kids go and die and we have to pay for the cost with our taxes. The rich elites who profit from war do not send their kids to fight and the money they make far outweighs the tax they pay. If you are going to deal with evil plots then you can’t be naive. The steel dossier was an evil plot and the great number of Americans who fell for it demonstrates how naive we are. Finally don’t swear falsely. We are discovering falsehoods everywhere. Joe Biden swore that his family would not have business dealings with the CCP, that was false. Kamala Harris swore that if we elected her she would put an end to the human rights abuses at our border, that was false. The FISA warrants on Trump’s campaign were gotten from those who swore falsely. The claims made about the Pandemic were falsehoods.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Zechariah 8:18-23 The way to victory

18 The word of the Lord Almighty came to me.

19 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.”


These fasts are due to Jerusalem being broken into, set on fire, Gedaliah murdered, and the siege of Jerusalem. Right now our cities are under attack, they are being set on fire, people are being murdered, and there is a siege on the US. There is a struggle throughout the world to have one world government headed up by the AntiChrist with his pandemic passport who will identify who is obedient to him and who isn’t. Right now if you are mourning for righteousness your grief will be turned to joy.

20 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, 21 and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going.’ 22 And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat him.”

23 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’”


The world is watching, they have all been conquered by tyrants and totalitarian regimes. It will be the people of the Lord, those that love their neighbor and those that speak the truth that show the world the way to defeat these tyrants.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Matthew 24:6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

I find this verse quite interesting, why would "rumors of wars" be a sign of the Lord's coming? I always used to think this was some kind of joke, wars, that is bad, but a rumor of a war? Well consider today, you have Washington DC surrounded by troops and barbed wire due to a "rumor of war". We had the biggest cyber attack on US soil, we had this recent cyber attack which shut down the pipeline, and there is evidence that the Pandemic might have been an act of war. It used to be we either were at war or we weren't but now the deep state, traitors, and people with their secret plots of evil have made "rumors of war" a major industry. After all how does the government manipulate the populace to hand over all power and authority to the central government, they give you scary rumors of imminent threats and wars.

Then look at what is next "famines and earthquakes". This translation has left out pestilences. Darby is an excellent translation and it says "and there shall be famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places." The discrepancy is because the difference in spelling in the two words is very similar, hence some translators may have thought it was simply a repetition. But look at it, not "a famine" but "famines". Today I read the news that we have a shortage of chicken, not only so but there are many other things that the supply chain is having a hard time filling. Lumber has gone through the roof, we have shortages of gasoline, etc. I don't think that famine only refers to food, but rather shortages of any essential commodity. We even have a shortage of workers while at the same time having record unemployment. This is the real impact of the pandemic is that it has caused a disruption to the supply chain. It is very possible that the pandemic was an act of war (though that is just a rumor at the moment) and that the purpose was to disrupt the supply chain (for example shutting the pipeline down to cause gasoline shortage). This is how the Antichrist will seize power. But these in turn lead to "pestilences". Not one pandemic, but a plural number of diseases. This is one example of why I don't think we have "turned the corner on the pandemic". When they first shut down NYC they told us it would be for one month, that was fourteen months ago. There is a prophecy that says it will be like when someone dreams and in the dream they eat a big banquet feast but then wake up to discover they are still starving. All of these optimistic proclamations from politicians will be like these dreams. Besides, it is simply science. You have wars and famines for over a year, all the great slums of the world cannot shut down for that length of time nor can they "socially distance". These slums like those in Brazil, South Africa and India become breeding grounds for more virulent pestilences that will spread worldwide. I live near JFK airport and there is a constant stream of airplanes into and out of this country. I see videos of our border and there is a constant stream of immigrants into the country. They are rounded up and kept in superspreader pens until everyone has been exposed and then they are bused and flown all over the country. We are going to have multiple pestilences. Yes we have a vaccine, but all that will do is favor variants of these pestilences that it does not protect against. As a result those vaccines will be useless in a very short order. If we made one we can make another vaccine, right? I wouldn't count on it. Biden is already looking to undermine the financial incentive for these companies to make the vaccine. Anyway I think we are just on the cusp of "pestilences". After that it says "earthquakes" but the thing to remember is that the Earth is tectonically active and has been and that is crucial for life on this planet. I can't see how some earthquake that is 3.1 or 5.5 on the Richter scale can be a sign. Earthquakes that are 8.0 are rare, a 9.0 or 10.0, that would truly be a notable sign. There will be some very notable earthquake when the sixth seal is opened and there will be an even more notable one when the Lord steps down on the Mount of Olives. Also there is a prophecy that when Satan is kicked out of heaven he knows his time is short and the great dragon spews a flood of water out of his mouth to wipe out God's people. There could be a very big earthquake at the 3 Gorges dam in China which causes the dam to collapse. That would send a flood of Biblical proportions down the Yangtze and wipe out an industrial center of the world that houses 500 million people.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Hold everything we have had wars for 2,000 years, we have had famines for 2,000 years and we have had some very big pestilences as well. What makes this different? What makes the birth pains different? They get closer and closer together. In Zechariah we see these four horses (war, famine and pestilence) come one at a time at first and then ultimately they all come together in a single "speckled" horse. Hitlers' tactical improvement was "blitzkrieg" to hit so fast and hard the opponent is overwhelmed. We improved on this with our "shock and awe" campaign in the Gulf war. Well the idea behind the "rumors" of war is that you set the stage for one overwhelming attack. You see them preparing for war but they call it "military drills" and "training exercises". The big cyber attack we had a few months ago gave them access to a huge host of critical services. This recent cyber attack is known as "rattle the cage". You monitor the response so you know how they will respond to your imminent attack.

It isn't hard to prophecy about this. Famines are a common result of wars and pestilence is a common result of both wars and famine. Wars are a result of these different rulers coveting what others have, they lust and do not have. Evil corrupt rulers will lust, they will have wars, these wars will cause famines and then pestilence. As a result we will have revolutions and get rid of the tyrants and replace them with a democracy. In order to manipulate a democracy into doing what you want you need rumors of war.
 

ZNP

Well-known member
Sep 14, 2020
31,643
5,606
113
Zechariah 9 -- The gospel and new wine skins

1 The burden of the word of Jehovah, in the land of Hadrach, and [on] Damascus shall it rest; (for Jehovah hath an eye upon men, and upon all the tribes of Israel

2 and also [on] Hamath [which] bordereth thereon; on Tyre and Zidon, though she be very wise.

3 And Tyre hath built herself a stronghold, and hath heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.

4 Behold, the Lord will take possession of her, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.

5 Ashkelon shall see [it], and fear; Gazah also, and she shall be greatly pained; Ekron also, for her expectation shall be put to shame: and the king shall perish from Gazah, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

6 And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines;

7 and I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; but he that remaineth, he also shall belong to our God, and shall be as a leader in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.

8 And I will encamp about my house because of the army, because of those that pass by and that return; and the exactor shall not pass through them any more: for now have I seen [it] with mine eyes.

It is very easy for us to become too focused on Israel and forget that God is the God of the whole earth. I did not grow up in Israel yet I saw and I heard what God of the Israelites had done.

9 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh to thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly and rIding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass.

10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle-bow shall be cut off. And he shall speak peace unto the nations; and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.

So many of the prophecies in this chapter have been fulfilled with the Lord’s first coming. It is a prophecy of the Lord’s kingdom over the whole earth and of the gospel going out to the ends of the earth.

11 As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I will send forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.

12 Turn again to the stronghold, prisoners of hope! even to-day do I declare I will render double unto thee.

13 For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will raise up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and make thee like the sword of a mighty man.

14 And Jehovah shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; and the Lord Jehovah will blow the trumpet, and will march with whirlwinds of the south.

15 Jehovah of hosts will defend them; and they shall devour, and shall tread down the sling-stones; and they shall drink, [and] make a noise as from wine; and they shall be filled like a bowl, like the corners of the altar.

This is part of the gospel, it is part of the New Covenant, you can certainly read about this in Ephesians, Corinthians, Timothy, Peter, and Revelation. The Lord’s people are being turned into an army through the gospel. They are just and they are lowly, but they are also like a bow filled with arrows and they are like the sword of a mighty man. They shall devour and they shall tread down. We are seeing this army devour the criminals from this election fraud. Just two days ago in Maricopa county they released a letter detailing massive election fraud after only reviewing 20% of the ballots. Why did they release it now? Biden’s DOJ was going to shut it down. Now the entire world knows that Arizona’s results were a fraud, that those who were telling us it was the most secure election ever were lying, and if Biden’s DOJ tries to shut it down now it will be a confirmation that this fraud is nationwide and the election was phony. These people, the “deplorables” were lowly, but they had excellent investigators, they had thousands of honest people who walked according to their conscience regardless of the cost, and they were volunteers. No one paid them millions of dollars to do this investigation. Over 150 million people have seen the evidence of election fraud. Biden is now polling at less than 50% approval among Democrats! An honest poll might find that 75% of Americans do not trust him and think he is a liar. That is huge, if they had uncovered election fraud on November 6th people would have thought it was Trump and that would have divided the nation. But over the last four months as more and more is revealed about Biden and his administration people have been able to wake up to the fraud. 6% of those who voted for him said they wouldn’t had they known about the Hunter Biden scandal. How about those who are seeing the border crisis and voted to stop the “human rights abuses” at the border, no doubt they are regretting that vote now. What about those who thought that electing Biden would cause the riots and protests to stop? How about those who are alarmed at what is happening in Israel, or Taiwan? How about the small business owners who are being destroyed by his policies, or those on Wall street seeing the inflation and realizing the world is going to abandon the US dollar for cryptocurrency? His first national address to the country got less than a third of the viewers that Trump’s first address did. All of these things help convince people that the claim that Biden got 11 million more votes than Obama is absurd.

Still others like Bill Maher that were a mouthpiece for liberals have become repulsed at “cancel culture” and censorship. Many of our minorities have been solidly Democrat but they came from socialist regimes like Cuba and Venezuela. They are alarmed at what is happening and realize they saw the same thing in the countries they fled.

This is a populous uprising, even those who were convinced that it was a “cult of personality” now realize that is not true. Trump has been virtually nonexistent these last four months and yet the movement is stronger and stronger every day. CNN’s ratings are dropping by 40 even 60% while Steve Bannon and Dan Bongino are seeing their ratings skyrocket. The top five rated news and opinion shows are on FOX. Companies that bowed to “cancel culture” saw their sales plummet. The NBA has been exposed as hypocrites condemning the US while bowing to the CCP.

Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube have tried to censor what people say. As a result they have lost millions of users and new platforms like Gab, Rumble, and FrankSpeech have risen up to replace them.

16 And Jehovah their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people; for [they shall be as] the stones of a crown, lifted up upon his land.

This is a reference to the rapture at the end of the age.

17 For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Corn shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maidens.

This is a reference to the word of God. At the end of the age there will be “new wine” just as the Lord’s ministry at the beginning of the age was “new wine”. Notice, you can’t put the new wine into old wine skins. The Lord shut down the church meetings prior to this, because this new wine would have burst the wine skins. The pastors are all kept in that pit without water, afraid to say anything that would threaten their tax exempt status. The new wine skins are in cyber space and are in rallies in the street.