Have you ever noticed the same people who pontificate endlessly over the RAPTURE are usually the same people NOT feeding the hungry and helping the poor, needy and sick? ............................................................
I'm fairly certain the amount people concern themselves with such matters is the same amount they ignore the simple teachings of Jesus..............................................................I suppose these are the same people who drive around in traffic with stuffed animals glued to their car getting in everyone's way. When they are not driving around harrasing traffic they go on forums using them as personal billboard advertising and harassing anyone who asks them to stop............................................................Wouldn't it be better to just do what Jesus asked? .............That is if you are really following Jesus?
I do read what you post, just as I read what you say when you post it. If what you say doesn't match scripture, I'm not about to pretend that it does.
And you're right, everything I post isn't perfect, but I tread very cautiously, especially before stating something is doctrine. If I don't know, I have no problem saying I don't know.
If a doctrine is less than 200 years old and it comes from a teenage girl's vision, there's nothing that makes me want to instantly latch on to it, as many doctrines are false and in opposition to God's Word. In fact, we are warned in scripture of such things.
Heb 13:9 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
1 Tim 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
Seated with Christ and made alive together with him and seated in heavenly places IN Christ Jesus -Ephesians 2
There is your "rapture"
Not physical IMHO.
Thessalonians 4:13-18 is in the context of Christ's coming
All throughout the NT the verses speak of ONE second coming .Read Hosea 13 for starters (it speaks of Jerusalem destroyed which lines up with Matthew 24 from Jesus own lips ) Joel 2, Zechariah 14 (Day of the Lord - destruction of Jerusalem)
Zechariah lines up with Revelation when the saints are crying out under the alter for the Lord to take vengeance . He gives them white robes and says to wait a little while.
Then in Zechariah the saints are with him .
I remember Jesus telling the Pharisses that they had stoned the prophets from righteous Abel to Zechariah.
Jesus says to them THIS generation will be held accountable for it all. Luke 11:51
Zechariah 8 speaks of living waters ..
Revelation 22 River of life. There it also speaks of New Jerusalem that has the light of God in it. (Jesus is the light of man- Paul says we are the temple of God 1 Corinthians 3:16)
Interesting that the Mount of Olives was a place of ascension and decension. It was a place to complete his work of the restoration of the Kingdom. When his feet touched down on the Mount at the end of the age/second coming it was consummated. Later in the 1st century there was a road splitting the Mount of Olives in two from North to South.
See pic: https://hischarisisenough.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/img_4424.jpg
I think it was a reminder like the feast days are a memorial which testifes to Christ fulfilling them all.
**WE ARE ALL WAITING FOR THE NEW HEAVEN THE NEW EARTH AND THE ETERNAL NEW JERUSALEM**!!
Except the Preterists and KJVonly who believe in only an earthly kingdom which began in AD 70???
Hebrews 12:26-28: God says, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken--that is created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a *KINGDOM* that can not be shaken let us be thankful...for our God is a consuming fire!
2 Peter 3:10-13: But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will DISAPPEAR with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and *EVERYTHING* in it will be burned up {NIV}. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you {**CHURCH SAINTS*} wait eagerly for the Day of God to come. {NIV} That Day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise **WE** {Excluding the Preterists and the RC church} are looking forward to a New heavens and a New Earth, the home of righteousness.
I Corinthians 15:50--51: I declare to you brothers, that flesh and blood CANNOT INHERIT the *KINGDOM OF GOD*... Listen I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet."
John 18:36: Jesus says, "My *KINGDOM* is not of this world....But now, my Kingdom is from another place!!"
Matthew 25:31-34: Jesus says, "When the Son of Man comes in His glory , and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another..He will put the sheep on the right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, "Come you who are blessed of My Father, take your inheritance, the *KINGDOM* prepared for you!!"
**WE** ARE ALL WAITING FOR THE NEW EARTH, THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE HEAVENLY NEW JERUSALEM!!
Revelation 21:1-5: Then I saw a New heaven and a New Earth, for the {present} first heaven and first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the **NEW JERUSALEM**, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making **EVERYTHING NEW**!" Then He said, "Write this down, for these words are TRUSTWORTHY and TRUE!"
Hebrews 11:13-16: All these people {Abraham, Sarah Isaac, Jacob, Noah etc} were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were looking for a BETTER COUNTRY--a HEAVENLY ONE. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a *CITY* (The *NEW JERUSALEM*} for them!!
Galatians 4:25,26: Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the **JERUSALEM** that is **ABOVE** is free, and she is our MOTHER !!
The New Jerusaem is described in Revelation 21:9 to Revelation 22:5. The New Jerusalem will be 12,000 stadia long, high and wide as per Revelation 21:16. A stadia is 606 feet long which is the exact same length as the ancient Greek stadium. 606 feet times 12,000 equals 7,272,000 feet which is 1377 miles plus 1,440 feet. A mile is exactly 5,280 feet. {1377 times 5,280 feet equal 7,270,560 feet.} And so the New Jerusalem will be exactly 1377 miles plus 1,440 feet long, wide and high!!
Revelation 21:9-12,15-16,19,23,27; Revelation 22:1-6: The angel said to John, “Come, I will show you the Bride the Wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from from God It shone like the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel. It had a great high wall {1377 miles plus 1,440 feet HIGH!} with 12 gates, and with 12 angels at the gates.
The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the City, its gates and its walls. The City was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the City with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia {A Stadia is exactly 606 feet} in length, and as wide and high as it is long. {1377 miles plus 1,440 feet long, wide and high} The wall was made of Jasper, and the City of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone....... The great street of the City was of pure gold, like transparent glass...... Only those written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be able to enter the New Jerusalem!
Then the angel showed me the river of the Water of Life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb {Jesus} down the middle of the great street of the City. On each side of the river stood the Tree of Life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month... The throne of God and of the **LAMB** will be in the City, and his servants will serve Him. They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night!! They will not need the light of the lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign **FOR EVER AND EVER**. The angel said to me, “These words are TRUSTWORTHY and TRUE!!”
JESUS WILL WRITE ON US THE NAME OF THE CITY OF GOD THE **NEW JERUSALEM**!!
Revelation 2:18; 3:12,21: Jesus says, "To him who overcomes I will give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it... I will write on him the name of the City of My God, the **NEW JERUSALEM**, which is coming down out of heaven from My God....And I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne."
According to Revelation 22:3 the only 2 thrones in the **NEW JERUSALEM** will be the thrones of the **FATHER** and of the **LAMB** Jesus Christ.
The dictionary meaning of Rapture is a mystical experience in which the spirit is exalted to a knowledge of divine things.
The word Rapture is not found in Scripture, but it's a Biblical concept, which is that at the end of the age, Jesus returns and calls his people to him in the air. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, those who are dead are raised first, and then those who are still alive are caught up with the Lord Jesus in the air.
All Christians do not agree what will occur in the final events of this world’s history. Some of these events and their order of occurrence have simply not been made clear in the Bible. All Christians hold in common that Christ will ultimately return bodily, visibly, and gloriously to reign and rule with His resurrected and transformed saints forever. No matter what our ideas are, the DETAILS will be made known in God’s own time.
