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.

Abstract


This document proposes that the six clauses of Daniel 9:24 describe seven sequential periods — "gears within gears" — rather than six facets of a single 490-year span. Working from independently anchored historical boundaries (the Second Temple's completion, Artaxerxes' wall decree, the 536 AD dust-veil event, Erasmus's Greek New Testament, Saddam Hussein's execution), the framework traces six completed sets running from 515 BC to 2006 AD, then proposes a seventh, open set — "anoint the Most Holy" — running 2006 to 2496.

This final set is read typologically against Solomon's building of the Temple and his own house: seven years for the Temple (mapped to the church age, 46–2006 AD), thirteen years for the palace (2006–2019, a period marked by concealment-based financial fraud — mortgage securitization, LIBOR, Madoff, offshore leaks), and the fourteen-day, two-part dedication (2019–2026 and 2026–2033, read as parallel constructions of a global financial-governance system — CBDCs, satellite infrastructure, AI compute, biometric ID, and autonomous military capability).

The central claim is that the true anointing of the Most Holy is spiritual and largely invisible to public record, while the observable news cycle during this period reflects only its earthly shadow — a counterfeit consecration built in imitation of the real one. All chronological and typological claims are flagged by tier and labeled where inference rather than direct evidence is used, per the falsifiability standard (2 Peter 1:20–21) applied throughout the broader manuscript.
 

The Holy Spirit Showed Me 3 DEADLY CALAMITIES That Will Destroy America In ONE HOUR​

 

My Nail Prints Tell a Story, a Lesson 7-18-26@6:19 PM Shared 7-19-26​

 
The following is from Steve Fletcher and his Youtube channel Steve Fletcher 222

A Biblical Warning About Failed PropheciesThe World Cup is over.

The final has been played. The trophy has been awarded.For months, Pastor Joshua from South Africa repeatedly claimed that the Rapture would occur before the end of the World Cup. First, the prediction centered on the Feast of Trumpets. When that did not happen, the timeline was extended. Then we were told there would be no World Cup. When the tournament began, the prediction changed again, claiming the trophy would never be awarded.Now the trophy has been awarded.This is exactly why Jesus warned us:“Take heed that no one deceives you… For many false prophets will arise and deceive many.” (Matthew 24:4, 11)God also gave Israel a clear test:“When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken.” (Deuteronomy 18:22)The issue is not whether someone is sincere. The issue is whether what they claimed in the name of God actually came to pass.Those who have followed Pastor Joshua’s predictions should prayerfully reconsider whether they are following the voice of Scripture or the voice of a man.Our confidence must never rest in personalities, ministries, YouTube channels, or sensational predictions. Our confidence must rest in Jesus Christ and His unchanging Word.The Bible commands us to watch. It commands us to discern. But it never tells us to follow those whose prophetic claims repeatedly fail.As we continue watching for the Lord’s return, let us do so with humility, discernment, and unwavering commitment to God’s Word—not to the latest prediction.Keep your eyes on Christ. Test every message by Scripture. Refuse to be led by failed prophecies.


Actually there is a lot of misunderstanding about false prophets and Steve here has added to that. So let's look at

Deuteronomy 18:20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. 21 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? 22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

This relates back to

Deuteronomy 13:1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, 2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;

The proof is not whether or not something comes to pass. If you allow that to be the "proof" then you open yourself up to scam artists and "magicians". Think about the movie "The Sting". They scammed the mark by having the thing "come to pass" a few times first. The proof of a false prophet is that their motive is to get you to "go after other gods and serve them". That is the real issue.

3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

God is testing you the way you might test gold to see if it is really gold. A genuine believer will not follow someone because of some sign or wonder, they'll follow someone who is themself following Jesus. This is what the Lord said when He said "My sheep know my voice".

4 Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

If someone is helping you to walk after the Lord your God and to fear Him and to keep His commandments and to obey His voice, then that is who the sheep will listen to, not to someone trying to get you to serve other gods.

5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

So consider Joshua. He didn't come out making a case from the Bible that the Lord would return on Feast of Trumpets and rapture His saints, his claim was that he had been told by the Lord this was the case. This is crucial, because if he is right he wants to use the fact that he was "right" as a basis to listen to him rather than the Lord. The false prophet says "I have a special message from the Lord, He spoke directly to me and said this and the proof is that this happened" therefore based on that thing happening he will then want you to "follow him" as he leads you to serve other gods.

This is backwards. A person speaking as a witness of the Lord Jesus will first cause you to strengthen your walk with the Lord. That is why you follow them. Now that person will come under attack from the enemy if they are a genuine servant of the Lord. All of the apostles were martyred, John is the only one who didn't actually die from martyrdom, but they tried to martyr him as well. So then God may then provide a few prophecies that are fulfilled as a seal to help those being swayed by the attacks of the enemy to see that yes, God is indeed speaking through this servant of His.

In brief we don't say "this person must be from God because this prophecy came true". Rather we say "this person must be from God because when they speak it causes me to seek the Lord Jesus, it causes me to pray more, it causes me to repent of my sins, it strengthens me to obey the Lord and put away evil, etc.
 
Matthew 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. 13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

For example, the context of this word is a sower went forth to sow. Suppose you begin a ministry and even though you are sowing a lot of word there is nothing to show for it. That indicates that the fowls are eating this up. Your prayer should focus on the fowls of the air. This could be demonic friends, influence from the Prince of the power of the air through TV, Music, and other areas. Simply letting the seed fall by the wayside is a very ineffective way of ministry. You need to "plant" the seed beneath the ground. A personal testimony, praying for a person, etc.

Now we can't see what is in a person's heart, but we can see if they are withering up when the sun gets hot. That reveals they don't have depth of roots due to hidden rocks in their heart. So then you should address that, let them know what will happen if they don't address those rocks in their stony heart. On the other hand we can see weeds and thorns and thistles. We can see a Christian who has season tickets to some sporting event or who always watches TV and refers to that or in one way or another is too buy with the cares of this world to get involved in ministry. You can let them know what the outcome will be, yes, you have the word of God growing in you but it won't bear fruit. All of these other activities may not be "sin" but they will choke the word so that you are not fruitful as Christian. You will see others bearing fruit, some 30 fold, some a hundred fold but your Christian life will be fruitless, and vain.

The parable helps us see what the issue is, what is in the heart, and what the future will be if that issue is not addressed.
 
What is the parable of the ten virgins really all about?

The groom's coming is the catalyst the parable needs to create urgency. But the gathering of the bride is not depicted. The most obvious point is that your readiness cannot be borrowed from someone else and if you are depending on others to keep you prepared you will be exposed at the Lord's coming as a foolish virgin. Not only so but your readiness will be tested by a surprise wake up call. This doesn't mean it has to be a surprise. The number 10 is not a complete number for the disciples, or apostles or gates to the New Jerusalem. Most if not all expositors say everyone fell asleep, but this ignores the problem with "ten virgins" instead of 12. We have two groups in this parable, the ten virgins are bridesmaids, and the ones crying out that the bridegroom cometh are friends of the bridegroom. In this parable consider everything that relates to the Feast of Trumpets, The sun is in Virgo during the Feast of Trumpets and so, the Revelation 12 sign is a "great sign in the heavens" that occurs during the Feast of Trumpets, the midnight cry maps cleanly with "the day of the awakening shout" which is a literal translation from Feast of Trumpets, and you need two witnesses to confirm the sighting of the sign that the new moon has been sighted, a sign in the heavens, which indicates that the Lord is coming. Not only so but you "neither know the day or the hour and therefore you need to watch" is also a direct reference to the Feast of Trumpets. So then who is crying out that "the bridegroom cometh?" It is the two witnesses on Feast of Trumpets, another reference to the Feast of Trumpets. "Watch therefore" is the conclusion of this parable. Probably the most ignored portion of the parable is who is crying "behold the bridegroom cometh"? I would argue that is the two witnesses on the Feast of Trumpets. When do you see the new moon? at night. When do you fall asleep? So anyone who takes the charge to watch seriously would immediately inquire about what we are watching for. The Feast of Trumpets every year is a dress rehearsal. We are watching for a sign in the heavens, not unlike the wise men when Jesus was born. The Revelation 12 sign is very clearly given to us as that sign and it occurs during the Feast of Trumpets. Many commentators have various theories about the midnight cry, but none have connected it to the Feast of Trumpets. The literal Hebrew word is "Yom Teruah" which means "Day of the awakening shout". That is a clear prophetic signal. Of all the commentators Matthew Henry is probably the best when he says "the midnight cry" is a reference to the Exodus in Egypt when the Passover took place and the first born were killed. But that is the Egyptians, the unbelievers, realizing after the fact. So yes, it is a midnight cry and yes, at the rapture there will be a midnight cry similar to the Egyptians, but that can't be the midnight cry in this parable. In Egypt the cry goes up after the event happens whereas in this parable the cry goes up as a warning that the event is coming. The sharpest word in the entire parable is "I know you not". This gives you the key to the locked door. A relationship with the Lord is far more useful than a Phd on eschatology.

This parable directly relates to the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. The foolish virgins need oil because their lamps have gone out. That is precisely what happens to the seeds sown on rocky ground without depth of root. In that parable it is our job to remove the rocks from our heart that prevent the roots from growing deep, and that without those roots the plants wither in the sun. In this parable we have to "buy the oil" for ourselves. The rock in the heart that needs to be removed is the idea that I can simply depend on others to supply the oil for me, which is what many Christians do when they expect the Pastor to give them a weekly supply of oil. In the parable of the sower the plant withers for lack of water, and in this parable the fire goes out because of lack of oil. Where does the oil come from? It comes from olive trees growing in the sun, but now we can use that oil to give us light in the night.

But this interpretation now creates a group called the "two witnesses" who are friends of the bridegroom, who do not sleep, rather they are watching for this sign and they give the shout when they see it. We saw this with John the Baptist. John 3:29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. Think of Enoch, he "walked with God". That means he was a friend of the bridegroom. Every Christian is a priest to God but there are different functions and orders in the priesthood. A bridesmaid is a servant of the bride. Meanwhile the groom also has his servants. The apostles were servants of the Lord, while a Sunday school teacher would be a "bridesmaid". Both belong to the Lord. The Sunday school teacher does not need to study eschatology, she doesn't need to know the Revelation 12 sign, her eyes can go blank when I talk about Daniel 9:24 referring to the church age. That doesn't mean she isn't a virgin, who is waiting for the Lord's return, who has been faithful to the Lord, who has a lamp with oil. Maybe she is, but she figures someone else will wake her up when the see the sign indicating the Lord's return. We each have our own function.
 
Matthew 24:36 tells us "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." After this we get the story of Noah, depicting Jesus in the ark with seven souls indicating the church as a whole. This is a picture of the church age building the ark, preaching the gospel, warning about the coming judgment, and then entering into the ark they have prepared and being delivered. He then talks about those in the field and those grinding grain at the mill, one is a close friend of His that He will take at His return and the other is divorced from Him at His return. You also see the faithful servants in the house of God and the evil servant who beats his fellow servants and eats and drinks with the drunken. These stories give us a picture of the church age and explain why some are left and some are taken at the end of the age. But Matthew 25 begins with a turn saying "then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened". When the Revelation 12 sign is seen and the witnesses begin to shout that the Lord is coming, then things change. The witnesses wake up the sleeping virgins who then discover if they have prepared fully for the Lord's return or not. That begins with a sign in the heavens on the Feast of Trumpets. The second story is about a man who goes on a long trip and then returns. That is what second Passover is about. That is when the two witnesses are killed and the Jews repent as a nation and get saved. The third story is about the sheep and goats, they do not inherit the kingdom that is before the creation of the world, but rather the kingdom that is from the creation of the world. These are the nations who are judged to be sheep and inherit a restored creation.
 
What is interesting about the parable of the Ten Virgins is that you can interpret the midnight cry as either the Revelation 12 sign or as Israel restarting the oblations and sacrifices on the Temple mount. The midnight torch lit parade can be seen as having taken place since 2017 leading to the rapture. But you could also see this happening during the tribulation. The Lord is not going to leave the believers orphans, He is going to go through the tribulation with them and you could see the 144,000 as those who are holding the torches during the dark night of the tribulation.

The Revelation 12 sign woke up many Christians, but at the same time there are many who are simply waiting to see "the temple rebuilt". What they don't understand is that a building does not need to be built for the oblations and sacrifices to be restarted, all that needs to happen is for the Tabernacle to be raised on the temple mount. We know they have this tent because they needed it to burn the red heifer to ashes on July 1, 2025. So then imagine the chaos if we learn at the end of August or beginning of September that Israel will restart the oblations and sacrifices on the temple mount this feast of trumpets? That would be a crazy wake up call. That is when millions of Christians will discover they aren't ready for the Lord's return.
 
Given all the Feast of Trumpets imagery in this short parable — the midnight cry announcing the bridegroom's arrival (Matt. 25:6) which is identical to the literal Hebrew for this feast which is "day of the awakening shout". The practice of looking for the new moon mirrors the unpredictable, watch-for-it onset of Rosh Hashanah; and the parable's own closing words, "ye know neither the day nor the hour" (Matt. 25:13), which reminds us of the well-known Jewish idiom for Trumpets as "no one knows the day or hour".

Because of this we cannot but notice the similarity between the "ten days of awe" from Feast of Trumpets to the Day of Atonement (day of judgement). We also can't help but notice that during the Feast of Trumpets the sun is supposed to be in Virgo, the Virgin, and the only female constellation in the ecliptic. That would indicate that "her torch is lit" though in reality if you check these years in some cases the sun was in Virgo, in some cases it wasn't, similar to the parable where some torches were lit and some weren't. That in turn forces us to realize that from the great sign in the heavens, the Revelation 12 sign of Virgo in 2017 we have had "ten Virgos where the torches were supposed to be lit" from 2017 to 2026. Because of all of this it is reasonable to read the locked door and the Lord's words to the five foolish virgins against this same backdrop. "I know you not" (Matt. 25:12) that follow Trumpets, the traditional window in which, according to Jewish tradition, the books are opened and each person's name is confirmed as written — or not — in the Book of Life. Read this way, the Lord's words function like a doorman checking a list at the entrance to the wedding feast: the five foolish virgins are turned away because the list was already fixed, and their names were not found on it.
 
Feast of Trumpets Imagery in the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25)
A tiered survey of correspondences between Matthew 25:1-13 and Rosh Hashanah / Days of Awe imagery.​

  • Direct (linguistic). "At midnight there was a cry made" (v.6) — matches Yom Teruah, "day of the shout/blast." Strong: kraugē (cry) overlaps functionally with teruah, the tightest lexical hook here.
  • Direct (idiom). "Ye know neither the day nor the hour" (v.13) — the rabbinic idiom for Rosh Hashanah, the only feast whose date depends on new-moon sighting, not calculation. Strong: a well-attested idiom, close enough to be more than coincidence.
  • Direct (structural). The bridegroom's delay, timing unknown to all (v.5) — mirrors the Sanhedrin awaiting witness testimony before proclaiming the feast. Strong contextually: the structure matches historical practice closely.
  • Inferential. Ten virgins (v.1) — the ten Days of Awe between Trumpets and Atonement; also read elsewhere as a ten-year window, 2017-2026. Moderate: Matthew gives no gloss on the number; the 2017-2026 reading stacks a second "ten" argument onto the same detail.
  • Inferential. Door shut; "I know you not" (v.10-12) — the Book of Life sealed at the Days of Awe, names confirmed or not. Moderate-strong: a natural extension, though Matthew doesn't use "book" language (contrast Rev. 20:12, Phil. 4:3).
  • Speculative. "Some were wise, some were foolish" (v.2-4) — read against the sun's position in Virgo across 2017-2026, i.e., "torch lit / not lit" years. Weak: not textual, but treated as relevant since the Revelation 12 sign (sun in Virgo) occurred during Trumpets.
  • Inferential (newer manuscript). Wise virgins have oil; foolish must buy it before the door shuts (v.3-4, 8-10) — read as an oil-firstfruits season opening in Elul, closing at Hanukkah, with the two witnesses supplying oil afterward. Weak-moderate: coherent within the document's system, but its own construct, not specified in the text.

Feast of Trumpets / 9-11-2026 References in "The Feast of Trumpets Convergence"​

Correspondences between the Feast of Trumpets and September 11, 2026, drawn from elsewhere in the manuscript.

  • Direct (astronomical sign). Revelation 12:1's "woman clothed with the sun... crown of twelve stars" (Sept 23, 2017) — occurred on Trumpets: sun in Virgo, moon at her feet, a twelve-point crown from Leo's nine stars plus Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Strong as an event — the document calls the full configuration rare, roughly once in six thousand years. The dating is solid; the theological weight (a countdown to 2026, Jupiter as the "manchild" caught up at age 8, paralleling King Josiah's crowning at eight) is the document's own inference.
  • Inferential (count). 2017 to Trumpets 2026 — read as ten years (Matthew 25), nine years (Hebrew calendar), or eight years (Gregorian, since Jupiter is still 8 on 9/11/2026). Weak-moderate: three different counts from one interval, acknowledged as different measurements rather than one figure.
  • Direct (prophetic idiom). Joel 2:1, 15's "blow the trumpet... solemn assembly" — applied to Israel's second Covid lockdown, the first repeat pandemic shutdown in its history, as a seven-year Shemitah marker to 2026. Moderate: a real calendar coincidence, but applying Joel's language to this specific event is the document's own choice.
  • Inferential (count). Daniel 9:25's "commandment to restore and build Jerusalem" — Suleiman's wall (1541) + 483 years (69 weeks), with 1542 as a sabbath year and 1543 starting the count, lands on Trumpets 2026. Weak-moderate: treats a 16th-century Ottoman wall, not the more conventional Persian-era decree, as the starting point.
  • Direct (idiom). Matthew 24:36's "day and hour knoweth no man" — the same Rosh Hashanah idiom as 25:13, framing Trumpets as the Olivet Discourse's reference point. Strong as an idiom match; its use to anchor the 2,520-day/2026 framework is an added inference.
  • Structural. The 2,520-day count (Dan. 7:25; 12:7, 11-12; Rev. 11:2-3; 12:6, 14; 13:5) — counted backward from an Aug 10, 2033 victory date to start Sept 16, 2026, five days after Trumpets, with the two witnesses beginning at Hanukkah. Weak-moderate: the day-count is textual, but the 2033 anchor and start-date choice are the document's own construction.
  • Direct (proof-text). 1 Thessalonians 5:3's "peace and safety... sudden destruction" — paired with the Samson/Dagon collapse, pointing to market disruption on or near Trumpets 2026. Moderate as a general proof-text; its date and magnitude are the document's own added, explicitly revisable layer.
  • Direct (feast sequence). 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23's "Christ the firstfruits... afterward they that are Christ's at his coming" — firstfruits as the first feast fulfilled, "at his coming" pointing specifically to Trumpets, the feast that announces the Lord's coming. Moderate: firstfruits-to-resurrection is well-established; pinning "at his coming" to Trumpets specifically is the document's extension.
  • Inferential. Two calves marked "7" on Trumpets 2014 — read via Pharaoh's dream as needing 5 years to mature, then 7 years of plenty (2019-2026) ending at Trumpets 2026. Weak: rests on a non-scriptural news anecdote plus an agricultural-maturity assumption.
  • Astronomical/typological. Jupiter's ecliptic circuit, exiting Virgo in 2017, entering Leo/Regulus on Sept 24, 2026 — read as confirming the sign's count, landing the day before Tabernacles. Moderate as astronomy; reading Jupiter as the crowned "Manchild" is the document's own typology.
  • Contextual. The Abraham Accords, Israel's second Covid lockdown, Iran's largest missile strike on Israel, and UN Palestinian-state recognition — all near Trumpets in successive years — a running list of events clustering near Trumpets, which the document says would be confirmed further if Israel resumes temple-mount sacrifices on 9/11/2026. Weak-moderate: real dates, but a selective list; a pattern-recognition argument, not a textual one.
  • Structural. 9/11/2026 falls on a Friday, as the crucifixion did — read as "Good Friday 2.0," with Sept 11 as the "crucifixion" point, Sept 15 as "resurrection," and Sept 16 as Antichrist's revealing. Weak: the weekday match is calendrically routine (about one year in seven); the crucifixion parallel is applied to that coincidence, not derived from a text naming 2026.
  • Direct (proof-text). Revelation 6:12-17's "great day of his wrath" — read as depicting the Trumpets 2026 moment from the perspective of those left behind. Moderate as general judgment language; its placement at Trumpets 2026 specifically is the document's own sequencing.
  • Direct (sequencing). 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 — the restrainer removed before the man of sin is revealed — used to place the rapture at Trumpets (Sept 11) and the Antichrist's reign starting five days later, Sept 16, 2026. Moderate as a sequencing principle; the specific gap and dates are the document's own construction.
  • Distinct witness. Esther 5-7's two banquets and "tomorrow, as the king hath said" (5:8) — read as a "day-for-25-years" count from 9/11/2001 to 9/11/2026, landing the reversal on Trumpets 2026. Weak: Esther contains no Trumpets reference; the link rests entirely on the 9/11 anniversary plus a non-standard stretching of a one-day interval to twenty-five years, which the document itself calls unusual.
 
Matthew 15:4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. 5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; 6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Lord Jesus we thank you for the godly men and women who founded this nation and established a godly heritage for us that you blessed mightily. We thank you that because of their worship of you and honoring your word the entire world could see the blessings that you have poured out on this nation. Lord Jesus when they came here there was no electricity, there was no built up cities with all the amenities that we now have. So Lord I pray that during the coming tribulation all your children who are left behind will come to appreciate the legacy and the example that these godly men and women left us.
 
Matthew 15:12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? 13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. 14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Lord Jesus we need leaders who are not blind, so we thank you for being the great shepherd and for providing us many shepherds who have led us properly. Thank you that the Bible is a light unto my path, thank you that you have promised not to leave us orphans. Thank you for this advice to "leave them alone" because it is not our job to root them up, but rather we pray to the Father and to You that these plants that the Father has not planted be rooted up.
 
18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

Lord Jesus we pray that your blood would wash our brain, wash our mind of all the evil, defiling thoughts. Wash our heart out, wash our mouth out, Lord we confess that we have consumed these defiling thoughts, we confess that the media is filled with these thoughts, and we pray that we could be washed, with the water in your word, and separated and sanctified unto you, cleansed from all defilement. Amen.
 
Why the apostasy is foolish

Proverbs 4:4 He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. 5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. 6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.


They didn't retain the words of God. They didn't keep His commandments. They assigned someone else to get wisdom and understanding, rather than doing it themselves. They have forgotten the lessons our father's learned, they have declined from the words of God's mouth, they have forsaken God's words.
 

The Timing of Babylon's Judgment: A Case for the Opening of the Seventieth Week​


Thesis​

The judgment of Babylon the Great (Revelation 17-18) occurs at or near the beginning of the seven-year Tribulation (the seventieth week of Daniel 9), not at its close. Babylon's fall functions as a catalyst that clears the field for the Beast's uncontested global authority, rather than a climactic event surviving the war, famine, and plague of the seven years only to fall just before Armageddon. This note lays out the convergent lines of evidence for that position, and then addresses the strongest objection: that Revelation 18's detailed destruction narrative comes structurally after earlier announcements of Babylon's fall.

I. The Case from Isaiah 13​

Isaiah 13 is formally an oracle against historical Babylon, but its own language exceeds that referent in two ways worth naming directly.

Global scope. Isaiah 13:11 — "I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible." A judgment on one ancient city-state is not naturally described as punishing "the world." This scope points beyond the 539 BC conquest by Cyrus.

Permanence exceeding history. Isaiah 13:19-20 — Babylon "shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah... it shall never be inhabited... neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there." Historically, Babylon declined gradually over centuries after Cyrus and continued to be inhabited in diminished form well into the Parthian period — it was not instantly and totally desolated. This gap between the text and the historical record keeps open, and arguably requires, a still-future, more complete fulfillment.

"Day of the LORD is at hand" (13:6). This oracle is explicitly set within Day-of-the-LORD language — the same register Revelation and the Olivet Discourse use for the culmination of the age (cf. Joel 2:30-31; Matthew 24:29). The judgment described is not a stand-alone historical footnote; it is bound to the broader eschatological judgment-complex.

Babylon at her peak, not her exhaustion. Verse 19 calls her "the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency" at the moment of her fall. Verse 11 has "the arrogancy of the proud" and "the haughtiness of the terrible" being brought low — pride and height are the precondition of the judgment, not the aftermath of years of attrition. A power described this way is at its zenith, not ground down by seven years of seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments. (Compare: no nation is described as "most proud" after a war of attrition — the U.S. after the Depression, or Japan after WWII, are not so described. Pride precedes collapse; it is not what remains after one.)
 

II. The Case from Jeremiah 50-51

Revelation 18 verbally echoes Jeremiah's Babylon oracles closely enough to establish intentional literary dependence:

Jeremiah 50-51Revelation 18
"My people, go ye out of the midst of her... deliver every man his soul" (51:45)"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins" (18:4)
"Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed" (51:8)Judgment comes "in one hour," "in one day" (18:8, 10, 17, 19)
"I am against thee, O thou most proud... thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee" (50:31-32)"God hath remembered her iniquities" (18:5)

The "most proud" language in 50:31 reinforces the Isaiah 13 point independently: pride, not exhaustion, is her posture at the moment of judgment.

Jeremiah 50:4 ties this oracle to a specific redemptive-historical moment:
"In those days, and in that time... the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God." This places Babylon's fall in proximity to Israel's national turning toward the Lord — a marker most futurist frameworks associate with events unfolding across the seventieth week, not confined to its final movement.
 

III. The Case from 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3​

"For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them... and they shall not escape."

This is the same sudden-and-unsuspected vocabulary cluster as Jeremiah's "suddenly fallen" and Revelation's "in one hour." Paul ties this directly to the onset of the Day of the Lord for a complacent, unsuspecting world. The "peace and safety" declaration is widely associated with the confirmation of the covenant that opens the seventieth week (Daniel 9:27). If that identification holds, it anchors sudden judgment — consistent with Babylon's described fall — to the opening of the seven years rather than its close.
 

IV. The Case from Luke 17:28-30 (Manner, Not Timing)​

Isaiah 13:19 compares Babylon's fall to the overthrow of Sodom. Jesus makes Sodom's destruction the explicit type for end-time judgment: "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot... even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed" (Luke 17:28-30). 2 Peter 2:6 and Jude 1:7 independently confirm this typology — three NT witnesses treating Sodom as the pattern for final judgment: sudden, total, from heaven, catching people mid-routine.
 

V. The Structural Case from Revelation Itself​

Revelation 14:8, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," appears in the sequence of angelic proclamations before the bowl judgments of chapter 16 are poured out. If this placement is taken at face value rather than dismissed as merely anticipatory, it suggests the fall itself belongs earlier in the timeline than its detailed narration in chapters 17-18 — with those later chapters functioning as a flashback, returning to narrate in full an event already announced. Revelation uses this device elsewhere: chapter 12 flashes back to Christ's birth and ascension well after the seventh trumpet has already sounded in chapter 11.

Revelation 18:7, "I sit a queen... and shall see no sorrow," has Babylon expressing undiminished confidence at the moment of her fall. This is difficult to reconcile with a Babylon that has just endured years of war, a third of the sea turned to blood, global famine, and the bowl plagues, and yet still boasts as though untouched. It is far more coherent as the posture of a power at its unbroken peak — consistent with Isaiah 13:19's "glory of kingdoms" and Jeremiah 50:31's "most proud."

Practical coherence. An early fall also resolves a structural problem: if Babylon fell late, she would need to endure the full weight of tribulation judgments while somehow remaining intact enough to be described as thriving, wealthy, and mourned by kings and merchants for her trade (18:11-19) — commerce that presupposes a functioning global economy, not one thirteen bowl-judgments deep into collapse. An early fall, by contrast, clears the field for the Beast's uncontested, exclusive economic-religious system (13:16-17) for the remainder of the seven years, which coheres with 13:7-8's description of total, undivided global worship.
 

VI. Addressing the Objection: Revelation 18's Narrative Position​

The objection: Revelation's detailed destruction of Babylon appears in chapters 17-18, following chapter 16's bowl judgments in the book's reading order. Doesn't that place the event late, not early?

The answer: Revelation is not uniformly chronological. It is well established that the book recapitulates — returning to expand on events already introduced rather than proceeding as a single continuous timeline. The clearest parallel is chapter 12: it opens with the birth of the man-child (Christ) and His ascension "caught up unto God, and to his throne" (12:5) — an event that occurred roughly six decades before John's writing — introduced well after the seventh trumpet has already sounded in 11:15. No reader takes this to mean Christ's birth chronologically follows the seventh trumpet; it is understood as a thematic flashback providing background to the persecution narrative that follows.

Revelation 17-18 functions the same way with respect to Babylon:

  1. 14:8 is the first proclamation — a brief, proleptic announcement of the fall, positioned early in the visionary sequence.
  2. 16:19 repeats the announcement under the seventh bowl — "great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath" — again brief, again declarative rather than narrative.
  3. Chapters 17-18 then pause the forward movement of the narrative to answer the question any careful reader would have after two short announcements: who is Babylon, and how does this happen? This is expansion and explanation of a previously announced event, not the introduction of a new, later one.

This reading is reinforced by the announcement formula itself: "is fallen, is fallen" (14:8) uses a Hebraic prophetic perfect — a declaration treated as accomplished fact even when narrated for emphasis before its full unfolding is shown (the same construction appears in Isaiah's oracles against nations, declaring judgments as complete before their historical execution). John is not telling us Babylon falls twice; he is announcing it once, briefly, then circling back later in the book to show the reader how.

What this does not resolve: Revelation nowhere assigns Babylon's fall a day-count comparable to the 1,260 days of the witnesses (11:3) or the 42 months of the beast's reign (13:5). The early-placement case rests on structural and internal-content evidence — the position of 14:8 relative to the bowls, and the "unbroken pride" language of 18:7 — not on a stated chronology. What we do know is that her judgment comes in one hour. The best and most fitting way to understand that is what happened to Sodom in the days of Lot. A cataclysmic event like a meteor could cause the total collapse of an empire in one hour, while the looting and plundering of it could still take years.