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SEVEN PROPHETIC PICTURES OF THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH

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        There is a possible advantage for the un-churched, untaught or even unsaved in reading the information in this Web site for the first time. This advantage is that for this person, he or she doesn’t have to unlearn anything. For most Christians, however, surfing this web site will bring forth revelations concerning the end times and rapture of the Church that will be miles away from any previous understanding.  

        The first effect of reading this material should be to run prayerfully back to the Bible (if  you're born again) to search the Scriptures to see if these things are so. [If you're not saved, quickly log on Join the Family of God.] Too many of us rely on other people to study the Scriptures for us—particularly when it relates to the study of Bible prophecy. If we want to have real understanding of any Bible subject, we must…study to show [ourselves] approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly diving the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). It comes no other way.

        For further consideration of the Chronological order of the Book of Revelation and of the rapture of the Church between the 5th and 6th seals, below are five prophetic pictures which can help anyone to receive the truth of the wisdom God has hidden in His Word, wisdom for all who will diligently and prayerfully seek Jesus as the Word of God (John 1:1).

        Whether or not you are a Christian, God wants to reveal to you the truth of the material presented in this Web site. Just ask Him in your own words to reveal Himself and His Word to you as you consider the material contained herein.

1. Zecharias Or Mary?

        In the first chapter of the book of Luke, the angel Gabriel brings a Word from God to both Zecharias and Mary concerning the supernatural birth of a child (Luke 1:5-20, 26-38). Zecharias didn’t believe the Word of the Lord spoken by the angel that his wife Elisabeth in her old age would give birth to a son to be called John [the Baptist].  He said [in the Taylor paraphrase], This cannot be! Show me a sign. The angel gave him one, Thou shalt be dumb!.

        Mary, on the other hand, when she was told she would conceive Jesus in her womb said, How can this be, seeing I know not a man? This was a perfectly legitimate question from a holy virgin girl engaged to be married, who could have been stoned to death for getting pregnant. She received more informationthe Holy Ghost shall come upon you…. Her response, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.

        Concerning whether and why the Church is not raptured until the middle of the Antichrist Covenant week of years (Dan. 9:27), each of us has two responses, This cannot be!, or How can this be? If we choose the first response, like Zecharias, we will be made dumb—God will not force any more information on us. If we choose Mary’s response, How can this be?, then, like Mary, God will give us more information concerning what the Glorious Church will experience during the first five seals of Revelation 6, and why. God will reveal to the unsaved that it is way past time to receive Jesus as Lord and be born again (John 3:1-21). For members of His Church, if we diligently seek Him, God will begin to reveal the details of how we are not only to overcome the wiles of the devil in these last and evil days, but how we are to prosper while all hell is breaking loose around us.

        Here are two exciting promises of God for members of the Church to contemplate in this regard: …the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just (Pro. 13:22); and, Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan…to come and worship before thy feet (Rev. 3:9). Why are they coming; and what are they worshipping?

2. When The Rocks Cry Out

    In this passage of Scripture, Jesus, the Word of God, sets a spiritual law into motion—that when there are none of His Blood-bought Covenant Church left in the earth to praise His Holy Name—that the rocks will cry out and say, Hallelujah, praise the Lord!  He has also told us how to discern from the Book of Revelation when the catching away or Rapture of His Church has just occurred between the fifth and sixth Seals of Revelation, Chapter 6. [How else would the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty men, every bondman, and every freeman know enough to cry out to the rocks to..."Fall on us, and hide us from...the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath has come..." except they know about the Lamb and they cannot find any Christians left on the earth: because we just left.]

Luke 19:35  And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.  36  And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.  37  And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples [the entire multitude of covenant-believers] began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice [unashamed] for all the mighty works that they had seen;  38  Saying, Blessed [be] the King [they know that their King will come in the name of the Lord] that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

 

 39  And some of the Pharisees [religious scoffers of Jesus’ day] from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.  40  And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out [the rocks will immediately praise the Lord when the Church is raptured].

 

Revelation  6:12  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood [Acts 2:20];  13  And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. {untimely figs: or, green figs} 

 

14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.  15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man [those who do not know Jesus as Savior in every race and walk of life], hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;  16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne [the know about the Father, because the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven has been preached throughout all the earth (Matt. 24:14), and from the wrath of the Lamb [they also know about Jesus, the Son: the slain and resurrected Lamb of God]:  17  For the great day of his wrath* is come [the only way these unsaved multitudes would know that the wrath of God has come is that the Church is missing from the earth]; and who shall be able to stand?

 

[*The first 3 ½ years of The Antichrist Covenant Week of Years is the Great Tribulation, lit. the tribulation the great (Rev. 7:14). Tribulation comes from Satan (2 Thes 1:4-6). The last 3 ½ years of The Antichrist Covenant Week overlaps Daniel’s 70th Week of Years in which the Wrath of God is poured our. Wrath comes from God.]

 

Romans 8:18  [Compare]  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [the tribulation that comes from Satan] [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us [changed to be conformed to the image of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:42-44; 51-52; 1 John 3:2].  19  For the earnest expectation of the creature [the natural creation of God] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God [the Rapture of the Church]

 

Romans 8:20  For the creature [creation] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope,  21  Because the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God [the earth will undergo a major renovation for the thousand-year reign of Jesus over the earth (Rev. 20:6)].  22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23  And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body [at the Rapture of the Churchwhen the rocks cry out!!].

 

1 Corinthians 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.  51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

 

l John 3:1  Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him [in a glorified body free from the forces of gravity]; for we shall see him as he is.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:16  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [proceed; to come before] them which are asleep [body sleep, not soul sleep].  16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ [the Anointed One] shall rise first:  17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up* together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

 

[#726, harpazo, to seize, carry off, grasp hastily, snatch up; catch (away, up), pluck, pull take (by force); to seize and overpower; to be seized from danger. It is from this word that we get the English word rapture. See Strong's Exhaustive Concordance #726 (Baker), as harpazo is used in Matt. 11:12; 13:19; John 6:15; Acts 8:39; 23:10; 2 Cor. 12:2, 4; 1 Thes. 4:17; Jude 23, Rev. 12:5. Paul was raptured (2 Cor. 12:2-4): very likely when he was stoned to death at Acts 14:19. The Church will be raptured (1 Thes 4:16); and the manchild of Rev. 12:5 [which cannot possibly be Jesus] will be raptured. Jesus. Enoch and Elijah were not raptured: because neither of these was "seized from any danger", but ascended into heaven...Jesus: to sit on His throne of Glory; Enoch and Elijah: to await their return as the two witnesses of Revelation 11:3.]

 

The Church is raptured between the 5th and 6th seals of the book of Revelation (see Rev. 6:12-17, Rev. 7:14, The Book of Revelation In Verse-By-Verse Outline; see also The Midst of the Feast, and The Body of Christ from Seven Prophetic Pictures of the Rapture)] 

3. The Midst of the Feast

        Here is a prophetic picture or composite drawing of the rapture of the Church, found in the 7th Chapter of John.

John 7:1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. 7:2 Now the Jew's feast of tabernacles was at hand. 7:3 His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. 7:4 For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. 7:5 For neither did his brethren believe in him.

 

        7:6 Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready. 7:7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. 7:8 Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast: for my time is not yet full come. 7:9 When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.

 

        7:10 But when his brethren were gone up [to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thes. 4:17)], then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret [the Rapture of the Church is a secrete event]. 7:11 Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? 7:12 And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people. 7:13 Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews. 7:14 Now about the midst of the feast [Jesus comes for His Church in the midst of the feast, or at midweek] Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.

        If you can receive it, hidden in this passage of Scripture is the timing of the rapture of the Church…in the midst of the feast, or at midweek of the Antichrist Covenant week of years (see Dan. 9:24-27). Read on.

4. Tribulation Verses Wrath

        The Church has a promise of God sworn in the blood of Jesus that it is delivered from the wrath of God to come (1 Thes. 1:10; Rom. 5:9), for God has not appointed it to wrath (1 Thes. 5:9). The very same Word of God, however, says that the Church is appointed to and will suffer much tribulation, persecution and affliction (Matt. 24:9 , Matt. 24:21, Matt. 24:29; 2 Cor. 1:4; 1 Thes. 3:3; 2 Thes. 1:4, 6; Rev. 7:14). Tribulation comes from Satan; wrath comes from God. The first the Church will experience, the second it will not.

5. The Body of Christ

        The body of Jesus experienced two distinct periods on the cross (Matt. 27:45): three hours of tribulation, and three hours of the wrath of God. In Jesus’ crucifixion Satan was in control (1 Cor. 2:8; Luke  22:53). When He was made to be sin, separated from the Father and the wrath of God was poured out on Him—God was in control (2 Cor. 5:21; Matt. 27:46). The wrath that Jesus experienced was so horrible that the earth was darkened so that man could not even look upon it (Matt. 27:45; Isa. 52:14). As was the body of Jesus, so shall be the body of Christ [the carrier of His Anointing].

        The Antichrist Covenant week of years is divided into 2 distinct periods: 3 ½ years of tribulation and 3 ½ years of the wrath of God. The great tribulation [literally: the tribulation, the great (Rev. 7:14)] is covered by the first 5 seals of the book of Revelation, Chapater 6 . The wrath of God covers 7 trumpet judgments, 3 woes, and 7 vials of wrath poured out over the ensuing 3 ½ years plus 75 days (Dan. 12:11-12).

        The 6th seal announces the Rapture of the Church. All of creation praises the Lordthe rocks cry out—when there is no man or woman left on the earth to sing and shout His praises (Rev. 6:12-17; Luke 19:37-40); Rom. 8:19-22). Sinners know the wrath of God has come because they can’t find any Christians (Rev. 6:16-17). The Glorious Church from every nation, kindred, people and tongue is seen for the first time in heaven in Revelation 7:9-14. It is delivered from the wrath of God to come—yet for all eternity it was proved to be an overcomer during its time of great tribulation. The Father has given the Church  the right to reign the vast universe with Jesus throughout all the ages to come.  Although God has promised this, like His promises of healing and prosperity, it has to be stood for by faith during this time of  maximum trial and testing.

6. A Prophetic Picture Of the Antichrist Covenant Week of Years (c/p. Dan. 9:24-27 )

        Here is both a natural and a prophetic event in the ministry of Jesus, which reflects both the power of His love for us, as well as the events of the Antichrist Covenant Week of Years—the last 7 years of this age: the Age of Grace.

John 6:16 - And when even was [now] come [the beginning of the Antichrist Covenant Week of Years (Dan. 9:24-27) on the earth is when, following the war of Ezekiel 38-39, Israel executes a 7-year peace treaty with Syria, which is led by a charismatic man of peace that by his charm has uprooted three nations in his rise to power; the purpose of which is to allow Israel’s restoration of temple worship on the temple mount; and the restoration of the Levitical priesthood and animal sacrifices], his disciples [the Church, which is still on the earth] went down unto the sea [bringing the Gospel to the nations]17  And entered into a ship [the ship of the Divine Protection of Grace, Power and Faith in executing the written Word of God that will be required to remain alive and prosper on the earth as Jesus opens the first five Seals of Revelation, Chapter 6], and went over the sea toward Capernaum.

And it was now dark [the Great Tribulation, lit. the tribulation the great—the first 3 ½ years of the Antichrist Covent Week of Years (Rev. 6:9-11; Rev. 7:14)], and Jesus was not come to them [the catching away or Rapture of the Church does not occur until the midst or middle of the week]18  And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew [the second through fifth Seals of Revelation 6; c/p Rev. 7:1]19  So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs [the Sea of Galilee at its widest point is 7 miles wide; five and twenty or thirty furlongs would be about half-way across the lake—or in a prophetic picture about 3 ½ years into the final 7 years of the age (at or about  midweek], they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.  20  But he saith unto them, It is I [I am]; be not afraid21  Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately (1 Cor.15:52) the ship was at the land [this ship levitated; the Church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thes. 4:17)] whither they went [the other side for the Church is heaven].

 

[See also: The Antichrist Revealed; Ezekiel 37-39 In Verse Outline]

7. The Offended Prophet

        There is something much worse that not receiving this message on the chronological order of the book of Revelation and the timing of the rapture of the Church, and that is to become offended at it. Jesus said of John the Baptist that there was no greater prophet ever born of a woman (Luke 7:29); but, because John became offended at Jesus for not freeing him from prison, he lost his life, ministry, and got his head cut off [c/p. Rev. 20:4]. 

Luke 7:19 And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 7:20 When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? 7:21 And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. 7:22 Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. 7:23 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

        When John baptized Jesus, he knew exactly who He was and what He was called of God to accomplish in the earth, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29). So why does John send his disciples to Jesus asking, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? What is John really saying? In the Taylor paraphrase, John is saying to Jesus:

Ugh, Reverend Jesus. Excuse me, but remember, I assisted you at your baptism and in getting your ministry started, and I’m now stuck in this prison for preaching your un-compromised Word of God [concerning the sex life of King Herod]. How about helping me get out of prison?

Jesus knew exactly what John was really saying, so instead of answering his disciples he proceeded to heal the sick, cast out devils, give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, and had just raised a boy from the dead (Luke 7:12-18). What was Jesus doing? He was trying to build John’s faith! 

        John knew that Jesus was the Anointed Messiah [the Christ] that was promised to come. The miracles He has performed were the very signs which proved this. What John didn’t understand, however, was that Jesus in His earthly ministry was not appointed to confront Roman civil authority.  In fact, in the four gospels there is not one recorded example of Him being anything but submitted to Roman rule. God was willing and even desirous of freeing John from prison, but John had to use his own faith to get out! Just imagine the power available to God with John the Baptist filled with the Holy Ghost and ministering to the early Church. But, John became offended at Jesus. God had a plan to free him, but he could only gain access to it through faith and prayer. His offense cost him his life and ministry. Faith will not work in the presence of offense, because faith works by love (Gal. 5:6). So, walk in love as you consider the material in this Web site.

How Do I Receive This Message?

        If through your own study you verify this message as being from God, preach it to others for the time is short. If you do not immediately receive this message of God’s revelation of the exact timing of the rapture of the Church—above all things don’t become offended at the message or the messenger. Jesus is returning for a Church without spot or wrinkle. What happens to the spots and wrinkles? They get killed! Do they loose their salvation? No—unless they reject Jesus. But, like John the Baptist, their lives and ministries will be cut short.

        Learn to live and walk by faith, with the Word of God as first place and final authority in your life. Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Truth (John 14:14). He has been sent by Jesus to guide His Church into all the truth (John 16:13). Jesus has also promised that everyone that asks shall receive, all who seek shall find, and to everyone who knocks it shall be opened to him (Luke 11:10). The Holy Spirit will reveal the truth of the revealed mysteries presented in this Web site if you continue to seek truth through a diligent searching of the Scriptures and prayer (1 Cor. 2:9-16; Jas. 1:5).

© 1997-2009 Walter J. Taylor, Walter James Taylor

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