A rapture revolution

Rapture Revolution

By John Benjamin

I AM FOR HAVING A RAPTURE REVOLUTION! I think we should quit using this new word Satan invented to take people’s minds off the word “GATHERING!” -- THE “RESURRECTION” & “GATHERING UNTO CHRIST!” This is the term the earliest Christians used when speaking of this marvelous event. They didn’t use a word that isn’t even in the Bible – “rapture.”

It was a small side-line word first used in the Latin translations; and I’m not so sure it was even used by them. Just because St. Jerome translated “caught up” into “raptio” – why would people later suddenly start using the English version of that word – “rapture” – to describe the greater word used for centuries: “the gathering unto Christ?”

I’ll tell you why. As a wise commanding general, Satan sat back and looked down over time at what to do – and saw that, in order to put the church to sleep in the end time, like “Snow White” biting the poison apple, he was going to have to come up with a new word; a “cloudy-nebulous word” that he could then disassociate from the word GATHERING; and make it look like they are two separate events – 3½ or 7 years apart.

Yes, Satan knew he was going to have to cook up another word than the words “gathering unto Christ” that the early Church used to describe this great event – that he could then use to separate the two and make them appear as two different unrelated events. And, alas, along came “rapio,” or “raptio,” in St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate Edition; and there was the new word he needed!

This teaching has such a “strong-hold” on people! A stronghold of Satan! He has really “doused” the whole church with the biggest lie in its history – the Pre-tribulation Rapture belief. His goal is to knock out the church with one big “sucker-punch” when this lie doesn’t play itself out the way folks have been taught that it will.

Many will commit suicide, thinking they have been unworthy of the Lord’s “secret rapture” and have been left behind to suffer. When they begin to see preachers hauled off and beheaded for Jesus, the “great falling away” will begin in earnest. Also, I believe that the teaching of “Imminence” will bring the downfall and deaths of many before all is said and done! “Imminence” is a word that is frequently used in the Pre-Tribulation teaching: the idea that Jesus can come at “any time” and that there are no other prophecies that yet need to be fulfilled before He can return, when He Himself gave many “signs” to look for that would occur before His second coming and our subsequent “gathering”

unto Him to meet Him in the sky, with the last being “the darkening of the sun and moon” and what sound like “meteorite showers,” or “the stars falling from heaven.

I believe the people who have been steeped in “imminence:” the imminent return of Jesus, will be the ones Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24 who will come out of hiding to their deaths when the false prophets begin to declare, “He is in the desert; come forth to meet him!” “He is in the secret chambers!” “Come to our special secret meeting and go with us to heaven.”

These poor duped Christians will have been so steeped in this idea that the Lord can come at ANY TIME, that even though they see they were wrong on Jesus coming FIRST before the Antichrist, they will still think he will “come at any time;” and will be so distraught by that point because of all the hell of the tribulation, that they will JUMP at the first hearing of “Jesus having returned!”

Scriptures Compared and Interpreted All of the Pre-trib verses can be taken into the Post-trib position and interpreted to mean “kept” by the Lord from harm right here on earth until the gathering unto Christ to meet him in the heavens as Matthew 24:29-31 says.

But, they have no explanation for the verses that cannot fit into their doctrine from the Post-trib side.

Matthew 24:29-31 and Mark 13:24-27 make it plain that this “gathering unto Christ” doesn’t come until AFTER the tribulation; and the entire second chapter of II Thessalonians was written to make one specific point: that the “gathering unto Christ” (Verse 1) will NOT COME until the Antichrist comes FIRST and sits in the temple claiming to be God; and causes a great falling away from the Christian faith.

Somehow, the Pre-tribbers BLINDLY IGNORE the first five verses (especially verses 3 & 4 which call them “deceivers” because they teach it can come some other way). They blindly ignore the scriptures written in PLAIN BLACK AND WHITE; and misinterpret verse 7 in a “cloudy -nebulous way” to mean something it doesn’t say at all. It mentions nothing about a “catching away” or rapture; but merely says the “restraining force of God steps aside to let evil come forward.

If people would only look up Revelation 20:4-6 and see that the FIRST RESURRECTION spoken of there comes clearly AFTER the Antichrist’s cruel and oppressive reign – and persecution of the saints. You would think that they

would then see that the VERY SAME RESURRECTION spoken of in I Thessalonians 4:16-18 is part of this great “catching away,” or “catching up,” or “rapture” – and that this “catching away” of the Saints who are still alive comes AFTER the dead rise first in this glorious resurrection – not 3½ or 7 years before.

The living follow the dead – rising into the air to meet the Lord – TOGETHER. These two descriptions in scripture – that of the RESURRECTION (or raising of the dead) – and the rapture are clearly speaking of the SAME EVENT which comes AFTER the cruel reign of the Antichrist and the beheading of many saints on earth. These two areas of scripture have to be speaking of the SAME RESURRECTION; otherwise, the one in Revelation 20 could not be the same one! There can only be ONE – “FIRST” RESURRECTION! Satan hadn’t invented “new math” yet! Ha! There couldn’t be a “negative-one resurrection” 3½ or 7 years BEFORE a “positive-one resurrection!” Plainly, these two areas of scripture have to be talking about the SAME RESURRECTION. So, the “darling” passages used by the Pre-trib false teachers can be easily proven wrong – not only with this scriptural parallel, but with many others such as those spoken of in Matthew 24.

Both Matthew 24:29-31 and I Thessalonians 4:16-18 have the same three elements in them: (1) Jesus returns, (2) A great trumpet is blown, and (3) We rise to meet the Lord in the air. How can these people argue that the “gathering’ in Matthew 24 is somehow a different event than the one in I Thessalonians 4? This is spiritual blindness of the highest degree.

Tribulation and Wrath And, there’s more. Jesus said in John 15:17: “Father, I pray not that you should take them out of the world; but that you should KEEP them from the evil.” This is the same word “kept” that the Pre-tribbers use in quoting Revelation 3:10, where it says to the Philadelphian Church, “I will also KEEP thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” They think it means the rapture. Not so!

The tribulation and the wrath of God are two distinct and different periods – and things. The tribulation is when the Antichrist tries to stamp out anyone who refuses to worship him as God: primarily Christians and Jews. The wrath of God comes in TWO PHASES; and is the Lord’s punishment on the Antichrist and his beast-marked followers.

It starts with the blowing of the seven trumpets – which are judgments that fall on these people that try to wipe us out – while we are kept in the wilderness safely: kind of like in Egypt, the plagues fell only on the Egyptians; and not on the Hebrews who lived right next door! These tribulation trumpet plagues will fall only on the Antichrist and his followers for killing many of God’s saints; but then, at the blowing of the LAST TRUMPET, it says it signifies “the time of the dead” (in Christ) that they should be judged and rewarded for their faithfulness to the Lord.

This is the same judgment spoken of in Revelation 20 where the thrones are set and the saints are judged who were beheaded during the Antichrist’s reign. This is where the rapture occurs. Just as Paul said, “at the blowing of the LAST TRUMPET: the 7th trumpet.

Then, phase two goes into effect. After we are taken out in the rapture – or, as I prefer, “the gathering unto Christ,” then the 7 vials of the full WRATH OF GOD are poured out – and it’s not Mid-trib.

The tribulation period is the last 3½ years – or 1260 day period - of the last seven years. Then, when we are taken out at the blowing of the last trumpet, the wrath of God is poured out for that additional 30-day period spoken of in Daniel 12:9-13. The Antichrist is still in the temple; and the image also, or “transgression of desolation” at this time, gnawing his tongue for pain in the darkness! Then the Lord returns and destroys him; and Armageddon starts as the Lord’s Army goes over the whole earth for the next 45 days killing all who have the Mark of the Beast. That fills up the 1335 days of Daniel.

Armageddon isn’t over when the Lord kills the Antichrist and the False Prophet. That’s just the start of it – led valiantly by our Great God and King, as he leads his forces into battle riding his White Charger or Stallion. He leads the fray; and Joel 2 and Isaiah 13 begin as the Lord’s “mighty ones” or “Gibborrim” in the Hebrew language, meaning “Giants” begin to traverse the earth with blazing fire; and nothing escapes them. When they fall on the sword, they are not wounded. (That can only happen to Angels: not the Russian or Muslim army. Preachers have misinterpreted that.)

The Lord calls together the armies of the world to FIGHT. Then, he and his mighty “Gibborim” descend; and the faces of the great armies of the world and its inhabitants turn BLACK WITH FEAR at the very sight of them. They are Giant warriors, supernatural in strength and might. Joel 2 and Isaiah 13 are sister chapters. Most preachers have it all wrong. It’s God’s army. It even says that – and that they come “from the end of heaven” to fight the puny

armies of earthlings who are so stupid as to think they can take on God.

Sound Doctrine There’s the simple truth in PLAIN BLACK AND WHITE! That’s what we need to build doctrine on. Not cloudy, nebulous verses like II Thessalonians 2:7 about the “restraining force” being “taken out of the way,” while blindly ignoring the first five verses of that chapter that make in plain that THE ANTICHRIST COMES FIRST!?

Sound doctrine should be built on scriptures that cannot be taken any other way that what they are saying in PLAIN BLACK AND WHITE! This is the main difference between the doctrine of the Post-tribulation Rapture – as opposed to the Pre-tribulation Rapture. Most of their teachings are built on the SAND! … Cloudy, nebulous verses; not clear in their meaning that can be easily “twisted” to make up their bogus teaching!

The Grand Lie! As we approach the end, and I see the insidiousness of this errant teaching of Pre-Trib Rapture, I'm beginning to see the absolute HAVOC it is going to reap on God's unsuspecting Church. They always say, "Oh, let's not argue over a 'lesser-issue' like this." "Let's just stick to the things we can agree on..." --And on they go, "blathering away" with what I like to call "THE GRAND LIE," while we stand obediently in silence. WELL IT'S TIME TO STAND UP! This is probably the greatest lie satan has ever foisted upon the Church as a whole!

In the end it will have cost more lives and caused more people to fall away from the Christian faith, with some actually committing suicide when things do not turn out the way they've been taught they will, than any other attack on Christianity that has ever happened down through time. I think this lie is satan's BIG GUN! ...for the GRAND FINALE! He wants to knock out the Church with one big "sucker punch" right off the bat when he takes of that "halo" and puts on the "horns," as the abomination is placed in the temple and these poor men look on in shock!

You would think that the verses which call them DECEIVERS, like 2nd Thess 2:3,4 --WOULD SCARE THE DAYLIGHTS OUT OF THEM! This is spiritual

blindness of the highest order, and to the highest degree! These poor men will hang their heads in shame when we stand before the Lord, and they see the souls of those who were lost, with some having actually killed themselves, when things do not turn out the way they've been taught that they will.

You will find out, this is not some "small little side-line issue" that we "shouldn't argue about!" It is the exposing of the greatest lie that satan (sorry, I can't bring myself to capitalize his horrid name) --has ever foisted upon an unsuspecting Church-- to KNOCK THEM OUT WITH ONE GREAT BIG SUCKER PUNCH and cause as many as possible to commit suicide or go into deep depression and fall away from the Faith when things don't turn out the way they say that they should. IT'S A BIG DEAL FOLKS! Pre-Trib rapture is a BIG FAT LIE! It is purposely designed by satan to kill off and discourage as many Christians as possible when he's given "his day in the sun," by the Lord, just as he came before Him and asked to try Job of old! He's asked to 'sift' the whole end time Church to show God that no one will remain faithful to Him. WELL I GOT A BIG SURPRISE IN STORE FOR HIM! WE WIN IN THE END! THIS IS A HORRIBLE “DOCTRINE OF DEVILS,” AND ONE OF SATAN’S GREATEST PLANS -- THE LIE OF PRE-TRIB RAPTURE, and it entails THE GREATEST TEST AND TRIAL THE CRISTIAN CHURCH WILL HAVE EVER BEEN PRESENTED WITH! ...a lie so big that it will cause the greatest damage to the Lord’s Church of any of the terrible events that have ever happened to it in its history! Let’s do all we can to thwart it by studying the Scriptures deeply surrounding this subject and sharing them with our brethren before it’s too late!

-John Benjamin