Summary of Bible references on the Rapture

2Corinthians 12:12-21 I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented

12 The signs that indicate a genuine apostle were performed among you fully and most patiently—signs and wonders and miracles.

There are a number of miracles reported in Acts concerning Paul that indicate he was a genuine apostle. This is why all these phony “super apostles” always claim to have performed miracles, it is a sign that God is with them.

13 For in what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches, except [for the fact] that I did not burden you [with my financial support]? Forgive me [for doing you] this injustice!

Can you imagine? They are attacking Paul for everything and anything. Arrogant, dismissive, condescending, insulting attacks. I hate to use the example of Trump again since it is getting overused but at the same time it has been given to us under God’s sovereignty. The attacks of him are ridiculous. I would listen to the news commuting to and from work and it was absurd. Turn on one station and whatever had happened you knew that their report was “orange man bad”. What exactly did he do that got people so upset? I asked this of someone recently and they mentioned that he doesn’t condemn white supremacists. I said yes he does, I heard him in the debate. They said no, years ago he said that “there were good people on both sides” referring to white supremacists that attacked others. So I listened to what he said and the whole quote was “there are good people on both sides, I am not referring to the white supremacists, they obviously are not”. So what then did he mean by “both sides”. The protests were over statues of historical figures whether or not they should be torn down. There are two sides to that debate. Anyway sorry for that aside, I just thought of it because he is not taking a salary, so like Paul he is not burdening us with his financial support. But that doesn’t stop people from thinking the worst.

14 Now for the third time I am ready to visit you.

This is the most distinctive thing about this epistle. Paul is not going to visit me for the third time. But the eschatology of the Lord’s return does teach the Lord will visit us three times. You have the first rapture of the bride, the second rapture of those christians who remain, and then at the end of the tribulation He visits Israel and saves them as a nation. At the beginning of the chapter he said fourteen years ago, that is fourteen years before this verse where the Lord is ready to visit the third time. Everyone’s question about the rapture is “when will it be” and yet he has written this book from the vantage point of the very end of the great tribulation after it has already taken place. Yes there is a basis from this chapter to teach pre tribulation rapture, mid tribulation rapture and post tribulation rapture.

I will not burden you [financially], because I do not want what is yours [not your money or your possessions], but you.

So they were wondering what was Paul’s motive if he wasn’t getting financial support from them. He wants to be able to present them with joy when the Lord returns.

For children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 But I will very gladly spend [my own resources] and be utterly spent for your souls. If I love you greatly, am I to be loved less [by you]? 16 But be that as it may, I did not burden you [with my support]. But [some say that] I was sly and took you by trickery. 17 Did I take advantage of you or make any money off you through any of the messengers I sent you? [Certainly not!] 18 I urged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? [No!] Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit and walk in the same steps? [Of course!]

This is a war. We are under attack. The enemy will throw everything he has against us. If no one is saying anything bad about someone then they are not on the front lines. I played football on some very muddy days. You would be covered in muck by the end because you were in the midst of the battle. Still there would be a couple of kids whose uniform was spotless, that was not a good thing, that meant they were spectators, not warriors. Being accused of something is not the same thing as being convicted of something.

19 All this time you have been thinking that we are [merely] defending ourselves to you. It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking [as one] in Christ; and everything, dearly beloved, is to strengthen you [spiritually].

Wonderful! He is giving us a full picture of what it is like to be on the battlefield. He is training us, strengthening us to fight with him.

20 For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you not to be as I wish,

when the Lord Jesus comes we will be on the battlefield. If you are in the first rapture you will choose to be on that battlefield. If you are in the second rapture you will have no choice because the first rapture took away all those fighting the battle with the Holy Spirit and restraining the evil one. You need to be trained and ready and the only way is to have the word of God inscribed on your hearts. This word inscribed on your hearts.

and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder; 21 I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and decadence which they formerly practiced.

How do you prepare for the rapture? Cleanse yourself from these things. Do you realize that “when it is” is completely irrelevant if you have not repented of impurity or if the Lord returns and finds you having temper tantrums and slandering others? Nothing is gained by telling you when it is if you don’t fix these things first. The Lord wants to return in joy and victory and He wants those who are bringing Him joy to also be joyful. But some will be sleeping, some will not be ready, some will not have cleansed themselves from impurity, some will be arrogant gossips, some will be humiliated at the Lord’s return.

The clock is ticking

America is past the Rubicon

This means that the die is cast and armed conflict with Russia and China is inevitable.

Just a reminder, it has been 31 years as of Dec 25th since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a great embarrassment to Putin. No doubt the US and others rejoicing was rubbing salt in his wounds.

The number 31 in Hebrew is one of the names of God and can mean any deity that people trust in which would include weapons of war.

The Lord says that He is God and there is no other. With that word "God" being equal to 31 in Hebrew. So then there are phony baloney gods and then there is the real God. Interestingly this 31 will fall on December 25th which illustrates this dichotomy of the real God and the false gods.

Isaiah 44:8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God [31] beside me? yea, there is no God [31]; I know not any.

2Corinthians 13:1-4 -- The New Testament ministry is 8 Days of Light

In chapter six Paul tells us the story of Hanukkah. This festival is a celebration of eight days of light and we see this light in the last eight chapters of 2 Corinthians. In chapter six we see the fair exchange. You exchange your life of service for an eternal salvation. But the key point in the rebellion of the Maccabees was to “come out from them and be separate”. Chapter seven we learn that we must heed our spirit and not walk by sight. In chapter eight we see the privilege of participating in God’s move. Satan would threaten us, but all he can do is to cast us out. If we have already come out and become separate there is nothing he can do to you. In chapter nine we get the historical viewpoint, the bird’s eye view of what is going on and realize “we don’t want to be on the wrong side of history”. In chapter ten we learn what it is to “weaponize free speech”. The enemy will insult and slander because he has no case. It turns out that the fact checkers working to censor material on Youtube are connected to Mainland China and financed at least in part by China. We cannot be ignorant of Satan’s devices if we are going to stand up for the Lord and bring in the Kingdom. But once you see through that device you can then see the counterfeit apostles, the pseudo apostles, and learn how to discern. Again, it all stands upon the word to “come out from them and be separate”. You can’t compromise your stand. Then in chapter twelve we see the Lord’s second coming and we see that there are three categories of saints. There are those who were able to receive the light in the previous chapters, they are raptured first to the third heavens. Then there are those who were stumbled by the counterfeit apostles and the weaponized speech. They will need to take a repeater class for about seven years. Finally the Lord comes a third time where we will all appear before the judgement for the things we have done.

1 This is the third time that I am visiting you. Every fact shall be sustained and confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

This will be conducted like any trial.

2 I have already warned those who have sinned in the past and all the rest as well, and I warn them now even though I am absent [from you] as I did when I was with you the second time, that if I come back I will not spare anyone, 3 since you seek [forensic] proof that Christ is speaking in and through me.

The basic principle is “with what judgement you judge you shall be judged”. Many are concerned about the judgement seat of Christ, what will it be like, what will it be based on. Simple, it will be just like the way you have judged others. Right now we are witnessing trials all over the country and the judgement is “bizarre”. We learn it is not simply about right and wrong, was the election stolen or not. No, it is based on did you file your complaint in time? One judge threw out a case because the person should have filed before the election. But before the election he could not have claimed any harm so therefore it would have been thrown out for that reason. The old catch 22, if you want to sue over election law you must do it before the election, but since you have not been harmed before the election you cannot sue then either. In other states they are seeking forensic audits of the voting machine. We also act like “voting machines” in making decisions like whether or not to be separate and come out from the midst. Was it a simple “God said this so amen” or do you use some complicated algorithm where you give greater weight to what you want than to what God says? The Lord also can do a forensic audit of your decision process.

He is not weak or ineffective in dealing with you, but powerful within you. 4 For even though He was crucified in weakness [yielding Himself], yet He lives [resurrected] by the power of God [His Father]. For we too are weak in Him [as He was humanly weak], yet we are alive and well [in fellowship] with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.

I’m not really sure if this is a word of encouragement or not. I think I’ll just view this as a fact. We have been warned. I really think the arrogance in those who attempted to steal this election was based on the idea that we would be weak and ineffective in dealing with them.

2Corinthians 13:5-14 Test and Evaluate Yourself

5 Test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are in the faith and living your lives as [committed] believers.

“Oh snap!” You know I never used this term till I came to this book. Many believers feign all kinds of angst and confusion about what does this mean to “test yourself” and yet when it comes to testing others they are pros. I watched this one woman who was an elected official accuse the witnesses of lying, demand that they be put under oath, doxed them and threatened them. Just apply that same zeal to testing yourself. In the previous chapter Paul talked about how they examined him, fine, do that to yourself. One person told me that one of the witnesses of fraud was not credible because she had a public breakup with her boyfriend. I asked if he was involved in the election? No. I asked if his new girlfriend was, no. I asked this person if we examined their life could we find an unpleasant breakup, and they told me “that is not relevant”.

Examine yourselves [not me]!

Amen.

Or do you not recognize this about yourselves [by an ongoing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit?

Burn! Two chapters we were talking about counterfeit apostles. Whenever we do that we always think we are talking about others, not us. Turn that light on your own heart, put yourself under the same interrogation lights that you just put the “counterfeit apostles” under.

6 But I hope you will acknowledge that we do not fail the test nor are we to be rejected.

Paul has thrown us a lifeline. If you acknowledge this you will grab it and pull yourself up out of this pit before the judgement.

7 But I pray to God that you may do nothing wrong. Not so that we [and our teaching] may appear to be approved, but that you may continue doing what is right, even though we [by comparison] may seem to have failed.

Many times we get upset that we were not given credit for something that worked. Drop it, if it worked and it made things better be thankful for that.

8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth [and the gospel—the good news of salvation]. 9 We are glad when we are weak [since God’s power comes freely through us], but you [by comparison] are strong. We also pray for this, that you be made complete [fully restored, growing and maturing in godly character and spirit—pleasing your heavenly Father by the life you live]. 10 For this reason I am writing these things while absent from you, so that when I come, I will not need to deal severely [with you], in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me [to be used] for building you up and not for tearing you down.

Paul is building us up with gold, silver and precious stones. When the Lord comes all our works will be tested with fire. Right now you can get a hint of what it means to have your faith tested by fire, but during the great tribulation it will be much easier to see. If you have been building with wood, hay and stubble you will suffer loss. That is not anyone’s goal. I worked construction and you discover something about concrete, when it hardens it expands. That means it will squeeze the wooden forms and make it very difficult to remove them. Once we were forming up a drain pipe that would connect to the culvert underground. We almost made the mistake of putting in forms that we would never be able to remove but then we caught it just in time. However, unlike Paul, the brother overseeing the work thought we would miss that and that it would be funny to see. Our solution was to realize we could walk into the culvert and pry this loose from inside. We were about a hundred yards from the opening. So this brother comes down to watch us take apart the forms and laugh at us, but we are talking with the brother down in the hole. He is stunned. We tell him that we left him down there all night (we didn’t). But I am sure that he enjoyed appearing weak while we appeared strong. That was a lot better than having to tear everything down.

11 Finally, believers, rejoice! Be made complete [be what you should be], be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace [enjoy the spiritual well-being experienced by believers who walk closely with God]; and the God of love and peace [the source of lovingkindness] will be with you.

That in a nutshell is what the New Testament ministry is all about. That we should be made complete, we should be comforted, like minded, live in peace.

12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All God’s people greet you. 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

"America your time is up, Church your time is up"

Now Through the Millennium 12/21/2022

https://rumble.com/v21q0qu-now-through-the-millennium-12212022.html

Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

I have read and heard the words of this prophecy a good number of times. At this point as I look back what the blessings?

1. Don't fear dying. Get the vision that dying in the Lord is blessed.

2. There is a blessing to those who watch for the Lord's coming

3. It is a blessing to be called to the marriage feast of the Lord. It is something to aspire to. All other honors are dust in the wind.

4. It is a blessing to take part in the first resurrection. It is something to aspire to. All other wealth and power is simply smoke and mirrors.

5. There is a blessing to keep the sayings of this book. They are like shiny armor against the attacks of the enemy.

6. There is a blessing to doing the Lord's commandments, forgiving others, watching for the Lord's coming, washing your robes in the blood of the lamb, etc. It gives you right to the tree of life.

However, these blessings do not include knowing the timeline of the end. Instead what you learn is there are many different teachers who may be excellent Bible expositors and yet they don't know the timeline.

Amos -- Two years before the rapture

1 The words of Amos,

Joel means that Jehovah, He is God. That is the point of the festival of Trumpets and that is the point of the book of Joel. Amos means “burden” and it is reasonable for anyone to hear what God is about to do and to then wonder what is the burden, what is the cause for this. It is the burden of sin.

one of the shepherds of Tekoa—

As a school teacher I also feel like a shepherd.

the vision he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

There is a distinction here between the people of God, some were of Judah and some were of Israel. My understanding of prophecy is similar to the golden ratio. I feel that you can look at a small event and see a big event in that. At the end of the age we know there will be a great earthquake and I am going to look at this prophecy as referring to a period 2 years before that earthquake, “the earthquake”. In the Bible every time there is a resurrection there is an earthquake and during the rapture the dead in Christ are raised first. There are some similarities. Uzziah the king is puffed up with pride, invades the priests office and enters the temple to burn incense. He becomes leprous and it is thought that this event provoked God to bring about this earthquake. Likewise, at the end of the age, in the middle of the last week the son of perdition goes into the temple and sets himself up as god. Jeroboam was involved in a civil war that split ten tribes of Israel from the two tribes of Judah. He also set up idols for the children or Israel to worship so that they would not be reunited again with Judah. Again, a nice image of the end of the age where the UN divides up the Earth into ten regions and they come up with Chrislam, a one world religion so that people would not return to Jesus.

Amos gets this vision while both of these kings, Uzziah and Jeroboam are ruling in Judah and Israel.

Interestingly we see this playing out in the US. Biden, like Uzziah, has set himself up as president illegitimately. He stole the election, he lied, cheated, was compromised with foreign powers, and violated laws and the US constitution to do this. Now he is covered head to toe with leprosy. He is openly mocked daily for "putting his paws on little girls", for "Hunter Biden's laptop", for "lying about the recession" and for bringing in one crisis after another whether it is inflation, the invasion at the border or a nuclear war with Russia.

Meanwhile Donald Trump is leading an insurrection which they do not call a revolution but rather a devolution. Either way we are getting close to where 80% of the country will follow Trump, like Jeroboam. Interestingly we are close to two years into this.

The election was stolen on Nov 6th, certified on December 17th and then sent to the Senate on January 6th.

These two, Biden and Trump, are very much according to the pattern of Uzziah and Jeroboam, however, if this earthquake and rapture does take place shortly it will set the stage for the AntiChrist who is even more like this. He will enter the rebuilt Temple just like Uzziah did and He will set up a kingdom with ten kings just like Jeroboam with the ten tribes of Israel.

Amos 1:2 He said: “The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers.”

This is where we left off in Joel:16 “The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem”. So what is future tense in Joel is now present tense in Amos. Joel gave us the global pandemic as a sign that the Day of the Lord was at hand. It is no longer at hand, it is here. Most commentaries focus on the historical and archaeological aspects of this prophecy. God will roar like a lion indicating His wrath and vengeance, and this will be from Jerusalem, the capital. At the time of Amos Israel was divided into the ten tribes and the two tribes. Today I see this division as the US and Israel. Imagine you were a shepherd on the hills at night and you heard the roaring of a lion, that is the picture that Amos is giving us here. There are two mountains of Carmel, one in Judah and one in Israel. These are beautiful, fruitful mountains where the rich and famous live. META and Amazon.com are both down 50% or more in stock value. That is what it means to "wither". CNN has withered, Twitter is under new management, WAPO has withered, we are watching the dwelling of the rich and powerful wither up. Also the pastures are drying up. CRT and Grooming in public and private schools is causing a massive decline in students. Colleges are also being exposed and seeing many reconsider sending their kids to elite schools which are simply reorientation camps.

I want to reflect on our sins that we need to repent of now, and this prophecy is stunningly relevant to today. This prophecy helps me run down the really big sins that we need be held accountable for. Censorship, Election theft, grooming of kids, CRT in the schools, getting rid of God from the schools, eliminating school prayer, abortion, the list goes on.

Amos 1:3-5 Judgement on the CIA

3 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not relent. Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth,

It is certain that this is referring to a cruel and barbarous way in which you treat your prisoners of war. In recent times I am aware that many countries are especially cruel with this and operate in a way that would be illegal in the US. Which is why US military intelligence often subcontracts out our interrogation to these countries. In the US we like to think of ourselves as more moral and more humane than these countries which use cruel forms of torture. Of course it was a shock to us to see what was happening at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and of course what was happening at Guantanamo Bay where we weren’t even observing Habeas Corpus. We were simply tossing them in jail and throwing away the key without so much as giving them a hearing or even admitting they were there.

4 I will send fire on the house of Hazael that will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.

On the one hand if you have supported Amnesty International you should be happy, on the other hand there should be an uneasy feeling that if the Lord is judging these 3rd world nations for this behavior, what happens when He gets to us?

As far as torture of political prisoners is concerned, this is what the CIA excels in. This is a judgement on the intelligence agencies of which the CIA is first and foremost.

5 I will break down the gate of Damascus; I will destroy the king who is in the Valley of Aven and the one who holds the scepter in Beth Eden. The people of Aram will go into exile to Kir,” says the Lord.

To break the bars of the CIA is to break the bar that they use to hold the door. It is like the scenes in the movies where the invading horde smashes through the gate of the city. The plain that the Syrians used for their idol worship was a rich and fertile plain. Likewise with the CIA. They get fat stacks from the US government and then on top of that they facilitate the drug trade and make fat stacks off of that as well. Their idols include drug trafficking and human trafficking. This is the worship of Moloch and Baal with human sacrifices. It is sad to think that the US has gotten mixed up and involved in this, but the headquarters of these Moloch and Baal worshippers today is in Ukraine and this is what the war in Ukraine is about and this is why the US is sending more than $100 billion to defend Ukraine. We have a promise from God that He will destroy this idol worship and their sins and all the evil they have done will result in their judgment from God.

Amos 1:6 Corporate Imperialism

6 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not relent. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom, 7 I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses. 8 I will destroy the king of Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon. I will turn my hand against Ekron, till the last of the Philistines are dead,” says the Sovereign Lord.

This sounds like imperialism. I did see something when I was in Taiwan. At the very same time that the cigarette companies were being exposed for having manipulated cigarettes as a drug to make the smokers addicted, at the exact same time that they were being sued and losing one of the largest cases in US history the US government was negotiating with Taiwan. The island of Taiwan needed F16s and AWACs to defend themselves, but as part of the trade the US government required that Taiwan sell American made cigarettes. At the very same time that they were putting laws in place to limit the sale of cigarettes in the US they were requiring smaller countries dependent on us for national security to buy them and sell them to their citizens. The US took captive whole communities and sold them to the cigarette companies.

We see this with the NBA and China and how all these Social Justice Warriors won't say one word against the slavery in China.

We see this with Apple computer using slave labor to make their phones.

They pretend to represent the people and to be "majority rules" but in reality they serve the interests of the rich". In the US opening the border only serves the interests of the rich.

Amos 1:9 Disregarding treaties of brotherhood

9 This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not relent. Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a treaty of brotherhood, 10 I will send fire on the walls of Tyre that will consume her fortresses.”

It isn’t hard to remember the US breaking treaties to sell entire communities. From 1778 to 1871, the United States government entered into more than 500 treaties with the Native American tribes; all of these treaties have since been violated in some way or outright broken by the US government.

After the Civil War slaves who were freed were supposed to receive land and a mule, but that treaty was not honored.

Recently the US has pulled out of the Trans Pacific Partnership, the Paris Agreement on climate change, threatened to end NAFTA, and of course the Iran nuclear agreement.

Then the US has disregarded many UN treaties of brotherhood: Kyoto Protocol, Rome Statute of the International court, 1998, Mine-Ban Treaty 1997, Comprehensive Nuclear-test ban treaty 1996, and Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989.