How Near The Rapture
By Terry James
"How near do you think the rapture might
be?" This or similar questions issue from people, both believers in
Christ and nonbelievers. The queries come during question-and-answer
sessions at prophecy conferences, and from interviewers such as my
History Channel interviewer last June during filming for a series of
documentaries on prophecy (The Nostrodamus Effect).
Foreboding feelings
Despite innate skepticism, even within believers,
one senses that there flows just beneath the surface of decorum in
posing the question a visceral trepidation that there will be such a
thing as "the rapture." While those who attend prophecy conferences and
secular media types seem genuinely to want an opinion on how near the
rapture is, there is almost zero interest in that great event within
Christ's church in general. This singular reality is, by itself, a
factor worth examination while contemplating the question: "How near do
you think the rapture might be?" More about that in due course.
Strange goings-on
To begin considering matters involved, the
question can't be adequately entertained to any degree of understanding
without analyzing our strange times—this bordering-on-bizarre generation
that Jesus himself was most likely prophesying in the Olivet Discourse
and other places in Scripture.
America presently has a collective nervous twitch.
Worry about the diseased economy is the instigator of the societal
surface spasms. Uncertainty about what direction—and how quickly—will be
movement into the changes President Barack Obama promised and is trying
to deliver has, rather than put minds at ease, caused a form of national
schizophrenia. The schism separates Americans in crucial areas of
politics and morality, which are in most aspects inextricably linked.
Those divisions threaten to raise the national
temperature to a fever pitch. There is a sense that, as radio talk-show
host Glenn Beck says, a powerful crisis event lurks in the immediate
future. It will be the crisis, Beck believes, that will cause government
to snap its voracious, all-consuming, lust-to control jaws shut on
liberty.
So, it is more than a matter of curiosity that
leads me to think upon the many issues and events swirling about this
generation that seem almost certainly of biblically prophetic
significance. This, while there is the obvious disconnect of the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the most part, from those foreboding
issues and events that are everywhere we look.
Money worries and changing national/world order
Pocketbook issues almost always lead the way with
the adult American citizen. This is a fact, whether talking about those
who produce income or those who don't. And, therein lies much of the
division in America today. The great political—and cultural—schism, like
it or not, is provably engendered and perpetuated by those who work, pay
taxes, and contribute to the nation's economic progress, versus those
who don't work, but receive the taxpayer-funded largesse of growing
government that is devoted to taking care of and growing exponentially
its voter base from cradle to grave. This is not to say
society—particularly private charity—should neglect the truly needy,
those who can't work because of physical or mental incapacity.
Cynical? If so, it is cynicism steeped in provable
statistics, the presentation of which isn't the thrust of this essay.
Such thought—at least in a general sense—is necessary, however, in order
to understand the role the riches of this fallen world play in setting
up today's prophetic alignment and the nearness of the rapture.
Control/power the goal
The wallet issue that is front and center—that is
most intensely focused on—is the “healthcare for everyone” debate.
Universal coverage so that no person will go without healthcare is the
proclaimed great concern the politicians parade before the sycophantic
mainstream media microphones and cameras. But, in the cabals of
behind-the-scenes power politics, it is ever-increasing governmental
control—not equitable health care for all Americans—that many within
government seek. Congressional leaders, as we know, have not been
leading the way en masse to give everyone the same premium healthcare
system they themselves enjoy.
Control, then, is the operative word in thinking
on the question: "How near might be the rapture?" Control of economy, of
monetary matters, is the thrust that impels human leaderships within
government toward the time of absolute power that will corrupt
absolutely. The Antichrist regime is the ultimate government that lurks
in the dark haze of the prophetic future.
In the twinkling?
Glenn Beck, although I'm convinced he hasn't a
clue of what will be the true paradigm shift that will fling open the
gate to enslavement, is on the mark in sensing that there hovers an
unprecedented moment of crisis somewhere just ahead. That crisis just
might be created on Planet Earth in the twinkling of an eye,
as-a-matter-of-fact!
The Rapture will, with unbelievable swiftness,
sweep everyone left behind on earth into its vortex of soul-rending
calamity.
Love of money Key to Satan's Scheme
"It's the economy, stupid!" is the infamous slogan
spewed first by Democrat operative James Carville as a rallying cry for
Bill Clinton's presidential bid. The declaration was picked up and
echoed, seemingly with glee, by mainstream news pundits and other media
types. The electorate's almost total absorption with money matters, as
those matters affect their day-to-day lives, continues to plague
attempts at bringing about consensus in America that we come together as
one mind, one people.
Money is the central point of interest, but it is
also the societal element that most widely separates we the people.
Therein lies the nucleus of the problem for Lucifer's plot to usurp the
throne of God. He knows it isn't possible to usurp the heavenly throne,
but he observably has a blueprint for ruling on earth. Jerusalem and Mt.
Moriah are his ultimate objectives in this regard, but more about that
later.
Humanism is at the heart of Satan's plot for
achieving the installment of his man, Antichrist, on that earthly
throne. He will succeed in doing so for a very brief time. To accomplish
this, economy is the ingredient within the human condition that must be
brought into governance under Lucifer's authority in order to close the
great schism that monetary chaos has produced and continues to
perpetuate. The chasm must be breached--not in order to make life better
for humanity, but to give Satan a system of buying and selling that will
enslave ALL mankind.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich
and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in
their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the
mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation
13:16-17).
To avoid any misunderstanding, I am not saying
that the people and their obsession with pocketbook issues is a good
thing in order to throw the proverbial monkey wrench into Satan's plans
to rule on earth. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil,
the Bible tells us, and Americans are obsessed, probably more than any
civilization that has ever existed, with money and the deadly
materialism with which it infects this generation. Point is,
economy--monetary intrigues--will power the engine of humanistic drive
from this point forward, as never before. Anyone with any sensibility to
look at what has been happening over the past months with regard to the
economic dynamics shaping things in America and the world should be able
to know that doing business has forever changed. The economy of the
United States continues to be deliberately dismantled--and I believe it
is being supernaturally accomplished--by forces determined to
restructure the world for setting up the ten-kingdom governance
prophesied for the time just before Christ's return to planet earth.
"And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten
kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings
one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power
and strength unto the beast" (Revelation 17:12-13).
One world economic order
In considering the question of "How near might be
the Rapture?" I view the rush toward one-world economy almost the
equivalent in order of importance to Israel being front and center on
the end-times stage. A flood of other end-times-type issues only
slightly less consequential than those two mentioned rage through this
generation. It is difficult to prioritize them for purposes of
determining their order of importance in looking at how near might be
Christ's call to the church as prophesied in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 and
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. I believe, however, that one prophetic symptom
of our day has developed that stands out as being almost equivalent to
Israel and the drive for one-world economic order in pointing to the
nearness of the Tribulation hour: The mesmerized church.
Church deluded
Despite the claims that the church--all
blood-bought believers in Christ for salvation--is rising to meet the
challenges of this troubled age, one is hard-pressed to document any
such massive movement. It seems just the opposite. Anti-God movements
are on the grow, aided and abetted by news and entertainment media.
Rather than opposing things going on that run counter to God's Word,
there has developed entertainment-oriented, mega-church organizations
that do their best to emulate the world's glitz and glamour. They teach
and preach a feel-good, do-good pabulum that surely makes the Lord of
heaven want to wretch. As a matter of fact, God said it would be just
this way as the time of Christ's return nears: "And unto the angel of
the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the
faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know
thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or
hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will
spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:14-16).
Antichrist spirit pandemic
The Antichrist spirit is alive and infecting
everything in todays world system. No big surprise, right? But the
demonstrable fact that it is alive and well at this very moment within
so-called Christian church organizations across America is a staggering
reality to consider.
Here's what John the apostle, through divine
inspiration, had to say two thousand years ago:
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone
out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not
of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard
that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John
4:1–3)
End times church sickens God
The Laodicean church is symbolized as the church
that will at the very end of the Church Age (Age of Grace) literally
make the God of all creation sick at His stomach. The Lord describes
through John that organization's true character, and why He is sickened:
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need
of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked. (Revelation 3:17)
Jesus spoke to the very things that mark the
Laodicean church in foretelling the end of the age. The prophecy is
prominent—is, as a matter of fact, the very first characteristic Jesus
lists in His Olivet Discourse for the time just before His return: And
as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him
privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall
be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the [age]? And Jesus
answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many
shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
(Matthew 24:3-5)
Only one who denies that God's Word is truth can
miss the importance of the Lord's words here. Jesus is speaking to the
deception that will be tied up in false teachings and false prophesying
at the time just before He returns. Please understand that I'm not
meaning next that all large, even mega-churches, are evil. Some still
adhere to Bible truth in their preaching and teaching. However, the
"if-we-can't-beat-'em-we-will-join-'em" false religionists of recent
years have expropriated the church’s personnel and presented a
compromised message before the senses of the glitz-mad American public.
The tactic has worked. The mega-church super-complexes under whose roofs
the masses continue to swell mark this generation, almost certainly, as
the Laodicean church. I believe these church entities are organizations
or multiple level of organizations filled not with the Holy Spirit, but
with the spirit of antichrist.
A primary tactic chosen by most of these
organizations to draw the masses is to give people an entertainment
spectacle every time they sit in the plush theater pews. Nothing wrong
with being physically comfortable while sitting, but to be always
spiritually comfortable sitting under preaching and teaching that should
point to the more abundant life conviction of the Holy Spirit is
devastating to the soul. The compromise is in the "Let's talk about it,"
feel-good, do-good message of "God loves you, and would never condemn
you to a hell, which in any case, doesn't exist." God DOES love us—so
much so that He sent His only Son, Jesus the Christ, to die as the
once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sin in which we are otherwise lost
forever.
The thesis-antithesis-synthesis psychobabble
theologizing—“Let's talk about it" compromise—is proof that these
organizations of religiosity deny that Jesus Christ is the only way to
salvation—to reconciliation with God the Father. They are of the
Antichrist spirit. These believe they are indeed “rich, and increased
with goods, and think they have need of nothing; and know not that they
are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,” in God's
holy view.
True Church's wilful ignorance breaking God's
Heart
Troubling as these unredeemed type of churches are
in these fleeting days of this age, the overt, deliberate ignorance of
things of God's prophetic Word in those true Christian churches who
still adhere to Jesus as the only Way must be heart-wrenching to the
Lord of heaven. Most Christians are without any understanding of the
times in which we find ourselves.
To those who study the times in light of Bible
prophecy, the seminaries, pastors, teachers, and Christians in the pews
of America are observably, for the most part, happily ignorant of the
astonishing fact that Israel is being put in the position of Zechariah
12:1-3—that the Jewish state is being forced toward a peace from which
will come Antichrist and the Tribulation.
Christians by and large have no idea that the
European Union is shaping to be the matrix out of which Antichrist will
come, that the Russian/Iranian/Turkey/other nation alignment is
configuring for the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39.
Today's church can't discern that powerful
spiritual as well as geopolitical dynamics are forcing the economies of
America and the world into a one-world mold that will eventuate in the
ten-kingdom rearrangement of Revelation 17:12-13. They don't see that we
are in the "perilous times" of Paul's forewarning in 2 Timothy, chapter
3. They don't understand that this nation and the world are filled with
the spirit of Antichrist, and that God's judgment and wrath must be
near.
As they go through their routines of life,
Christians today are doing anything and everything except heeding the
words of forewarning of our Lord: “And what I say unto one, I say unto
all, watch" (Mark 13:37). He said also: "For when you see all these
things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for
your redemption draweth near" (Luke 21:28).
A Big Surprise coming!
Jesus said one thing more. He forewarned that a
great many believers will be caught by surprise at the time of His
return in the Rapture: "Be ye also ready, for in an hour ye think not,
the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:44).
Seems to me we are in such a "think not" time at
present.
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