By Jason Charles on 5/19/2011 (13 years 202 days ago) Theology & Religion
According to the 'math' of Harold Camping's prophecy and numerological calculations based on his reading of the Bible, Christians everywhere need to drop what they are doing and prepare themselves to be whisked away to be with their Lord Jesus Christ at 6pm on Saturday May 21, 2011.
As followers post billboards and radio ads, and mainstream media pick's up on his efforts to publicize this event a few points need to be made in the wake of his latest prediction.
The first point is, he said the same thing back in 1994 which failed to come true, the 2nd is that no amount of math, and reading will allow anyone man on this Earth to predict the coming of the Lord. Jesus himself clearly stated if you read through the passages in Matthew 24 that his return will be like a "Thief in the Night" and that no one knows the day but God. The timing is His, and His alone.
Granted that compared to 1994 we have come a lot farther along, and the 'Signs of the Times' are literally all around us. We see the Middle East being prepped for World War III, weather anomalies and earthquakes seem to be on the rise, the Mark of the Beast and biometric tracking technology is literally only one large scaled terrorist attack away from full implementation. It is little wonder there is mass hysteria surrounding this perdiction.
In an effort to avoid confusion surrounding the 'rapture' controversy we will avoid all the Pre, Mid, Post Tribulation speculation mumbo jumbo that has been fictionalized and speculated on by countless authors and self proclaimed prophets that dominates the 'rapture' landscape and zero in on a few key points that no one seems to pick up on when it comes to this debate.
The State of the Church is the CENTRAL issue when discussing the Rapture
The Bible talks about each individual professing Christian as the literal physical 'Body of Christ' left here on Earth in the absence of our Lord. The Apostle Paul in Romans speaks to this fact in Rom. 12:15
"So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."
Each one of us are like the cells, organs, and appendages of a physical body each having a different function, but working together, utilizing our specific gifting to minister to the needs of our fellow man and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his absence. This task is exactly what Christ charged us with when he Himself was translated up into Heaven in the beginning verses of Act 1:6-8
"When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
We see that Christ, having been removed from this Earth left a physical part of himself, or vessels in the form of His disciples on this Earth to fulfill what has been termed the 'Great Commission' via the power of the Holy Spirit.
The love Christ has for His disciples and the future 'Body of Christ' as the church began to grow and spread throughout the world through each century is paramount to this issue of the rapture. In fact Paul likens Christ's love for the church as a 'Great Mystery' in Ephesians 5:25 equating it to the Love a husband has for his wife.
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
The mystery that Paul speaks of here is profound, and basically this. At a certain time the Father(God) will present the church(us) to Christ in the same way a father presents a bride to her future husband, and that we are to wash the bride in the Word keeping her clean and with out blemish until that time. Now going back to Acts 1:10-11 we see two angels telling the disciples how this union between Christ and His beloved Bride the church will occur,
"And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
This union or the meeting of Christ in the clouds is described by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18 as a massively visual event the whole world will see.
"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 shall rise first: 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."
This event or union between Christ and his bride the church body is how we get the concept of the rapture, and you can see clearly the timing of this event is God's alone and is determined as to how 'clean' or without 'blemish' the church body is as we approach the end of days. So the Pre/Mid/Post Tribulation rapture speculations is nonsense on it's face, there is no amount of math on this planet that can prepare the church for this event, and it is foolish to believe that it can be otherwise.
Would God present a whore to His one and only son to wed?
Think about it for a second, who in the Bible has escaped death? There is Enoch and Elijah all who were translated to heaven because they were deemed pure, righteous and exceedingly faithful to God and his Laws. Enoch in Genesis 5:24,
"And Enoch walked with God and he [was] not; for God took him."
and Elijah in,
"And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, [there appeared] a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."
The truth is that being translated by God to heaven is a reward for our faith and righteousness nothing less, does the church today really deserve such a reward?
Looking at the church especially here in America and the western world, can we honestly say that it is without blemish? The church is in a sorry state, multiple denominations, pedophilia scandals, massive financial waste in the way of multimillion dollar buildings, conforming to the world through music and media, its members cheer the killings of millions of Muslims in unjustifiable war, and it waters down the Truth of the Bible every Sunday as to not to offend the world. The Bride of Christ has been despoiled by the world and is unworthy of the reward of a rapture.
The reality of the situation is God would never dishonor His only son through the 'Rapture' union with the bride in the condition it is today. If anything it needs to be chastised, cleansed and purified. It needs to go through tribulation and persecution in-order to rid itself of the evil and corruption. Ask yourself as you ponder this question over the next few days, did God spare the prophets, disciples and even Jesus himself? The answer is no he didn't, forget about the rapture and focus on purifying the Bride of Christ.
Repent!
We need to call the church to repentance until that task is accomplished plan on being persecuted by the New World Order and the devil during these times. The church is to preserve goodness in this world like salt and light, but instead it has turned from it's true love and mission like an adulteress would abandoned here husband.
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