What should we do to prepare for the rapture?
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Yes, because the four horsemen were the beginning of the great tribulation, which is only 3.5 years long, Lord Jesus even said that it would be shortened.
What do you mean "yet"?
Who told you that Jesus would establish an earthly kingdom?
Have another look at Revelations 20 and read everything that is to happen in the "thousand years".
V.2 Satan (who is now cast out of heaven) is to be "bound", ie limited.
V. 4 The SOULS of them that were beheaded sit on judgement thrones for the whole time.
John is in HEAVEN when he sees this.
They live and reign with Christ in heaven.
v.5 The rest of the dead remain asleep.
So you see that the book does not tell us that Jesus will abandon His exalted position to live on earth for that time.
Somebody just made that up.
Rev. 20 told me the Lord will return and reign on earth for 1000 years, the martyrs will rise from the dead and reign with Him, meanwhile Satan will be bound for 1000 years. Is Satan bound now? Do you really believe that he's bound, while he seems more active than ever?
And John was NOT in heaven, he remained in the island of Patmos the whole time. If he had gone to heaven, who wrote Revelation? The book does tell us of the Lord's glorious return in Rev 19.
White horse - Jesus in judgement, wears the crown.
Red horse - War angels, civil war in Jerusalem.
Black horse - represents famine, lamentations 5:10.
Pale horse - both damnation and death by sword, hunger, disease and wild beasts.
Greek word for "earth" - can mean the world, also can mean a region.
All these things happened shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem.
Revelations addresses the 7 churches of Asia Minor where John had preached, and covers things that would shortly come to pass after John was banished to Patmos (Revelations 1:1).
Search "shortly" in the whole Bible, and nowhere will you find a place where it represents a long time, particularly not 2000 years.
There is certainly foreshadowing of the future destruction of the world in these passages, but let's not overlook their actual fulfillment.
That is preterism, false doctrine. You're in denial of the Lord's physical and bodily return by spiritualizing the text.
Doesn't preterism teach that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ has already happened? I don't see where Beekeeper said such a thing.
No, it's preterism if you think the events from Rev. 4 and there on have already happened.
"Shortly" means "rapidly, speedly, suddenly", not "soon" or "imminent". Jesus compared his coming with lightning strike, is a lightning strike imminent at anytime? Or only is it expected when certain signs appear, such as dark clouds, lower temperature and gushing wind?
I am not sure which Bible version you are using, but nothing in the text of mine says that Jesus become an earthly king.
I understand that He will destroy the world when the right time comes.
Yes, john was at Patmos, but he was in the spirit, seeing visions from heaven.
Revelations already comes from a spiritual perspective, so it is "spiritualized" as it is written.
Revelations 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Revelations 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
Revelations 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Revelations 19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
Revelations 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
Revelations 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus.
Fair enough. That is why I started my post, "Doesn't preterism teach....." not "Preterism teaches."
I'm not sure which Jesus you're talking about. Destroy the world?
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (Jn. 3:17)
If he destroys the world - as in the whole planet Earth - what are the blessed meek going to inherit ? He destroys the human governments and sets up his his own. The bible goes from paradise lost to paradise restored.
Job's Three Friends and the Company Left Behind
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar spend most of the book of Job getting rebuked. God tells them plainly in Job 42:7 that they have not spoken of Him what is right. And yet — they are restored. Not because their arguments were correct, but because Job prays for them.These three men represent something real: genuine believers who hold correct foundational doctrine — they know God is just, they know sin has consequences, they know suffering has meaning — but who lack the finished, Galatians 2:20 revelation of Christ crucified in them. They require someone else's intercession because they haven't yet reached what that someone else has reached.
1 Corinthians 15:23 tells us the resurrection of the dead in Christ happens "every man in his own order" — the Greek word is tagmati, a military term for ranks or companies. Not one undifferentiated sweep, but an ordered sequence. Job, restored and interceding, pictures those Hebrews 12:23 calls "the spirits of just men made perfect." His three friends picture a later order — those described as "afterward they that are Christ's at his coming."
This is not a teaching that some believers are second-class. It's a teaching that spiritual maturity is real, that Scripture distinguishes between foundation and completion, and that the distinction has consequences for how the church age ends. Revelation 3:14-18 addresses a church — Laodicea — in exactly this condition: "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," yet simultaneously "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Christ doesn't reject them. He counsels them to buy gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eyesalve — remedies for a present deficiency, not descriptions of a finished condition.
Job's friends are not written off. They are written into the story as a picture of exactly this population: genuine believers who will need to be carried through, not lifted out — a picture worth understanding before we go further into who is raptured and who remains.
But the Bible tells us that the present earth will be destroyed:
NKJV 2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
2Pe 3:11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
2Pe 3:12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
2Pe 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
So the meek inherit some uninhabitable nuclear wasteland?
So either Peter is going against the rest of scripture or something else is meant.
2 Peter 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2 Peter 3:6, tells us that the first heavens and earth ended in judgment by water. The 'world that then was' is describing the perverted political system in the days of Noah that passed away.
2 Peter 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
The passing of the present heaven and earth is referring to the end of the social order which is the earth, and the end of the political or government order, which is the heavens, which will all be wiped out and come under the judgement of God, to make way for a new heaven and new earth, which is the Kingdom of God on this earth.
Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
So lets go back to 2 Peter 3:10
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
The word that I think is causing the confusion is the word "elements", the translation comes from the Greek word "stoicheion" which means something orderly in arrangement, in Hebrews 5:12 this same word is translated "principles" which makes the meaning clearer in my opinion. The accepted 'rules' or 'principles' will pass away.
Hebrews 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles (stoicheion) of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
When a New form of Government is put in place it is called a new order. When a new city is built on the ruins of an old city it is a new city - the bible tells us from cover to cover that paradise will be restored on earth. Just because you find verses in prophecy and you do not understand prophetic language does not mean your interpretation of those verses negates the rest of the bible.
Where did you get "some uninhabitable nuclear wasteland" from what I posted? God will create a new earth. Unless you imagine that new earth to be some uninhabitable nuclear wasteland, I don't see your point. As John Gill says in his commentary on Matthew 5:5 (the verse about the meek inheriting the earth):
"they shall inherit the earth; not the land of Canaan, though that may be alluded to; nor this world, at least in its present situation; for this is not the saints' rest and inheritance: but rather, the "new earth", which will be after this is burnt up; in which only such persons as are here described shall dwell; and who shall inherit it, by virtue of their being heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; whose is the earth, and the fulness thereof. "
