Ramping Up To The Rapture!

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Matt. 24:36

Whenever someone quotes me the above verse as proof-text that we can’t know when the Lord’s return is near, my old knee-jerk reaction was to want to slap the non-dispensational nonsense out of their head.

But through the years I’ve learned to take a deep breath and be thankful they’re one of the few people willing to discuss Bible prophecies! Even if they have some stuff mixed up.

That Matthew verse is NOT written to you and me living in the Church Age. It was Jesus addressing the Jews during His time on earth, which was a different dispensation/time period.

When you break down that verse, it not only says that no human or angel knows the day and hour, but even Jesus Himself didn’t know the day or hour!

This was true when it was originally written, before the cross. However, later we see Jesus qualifying to receive all knowledge in Revelation 5. So it’s NOT a true statement today.

Today Believers live in the Church Age and have a lot of advantages. The main one being that the Holy Spirit of God lives IN every Believer from the time of conversion until they transition to heaven (Rom. 8:38-39). And the indwelling Holy Spirit is our illuminator of scripture.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. 1Cor. 2:12

So here’s a verse that WAS written to you and me living in this Church Age about watching the signs of the approaching Rapture:

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; 1Th. 5:4

So a solid, maturing Believer should clearly see the signs when the Rapture’s getting close. Granted we still won’t know the day or hour because that depends on where you are in the world—since there are always two days and different hours going on all over the earth.

And the signs that are given in scripture are primarily signs of God’s coming wrath in the 7-year Tribulation. God’s coming wrath on an unsuspecting earth is difficult to grasp.

Nevertheless, when we’re whisked away at the Rapture, it begins one horrific 7-year period when billions of people die from starvation, disease, plagues and drugs.

So from this we know that when God’s wrath is close, the Rapture is closer.

The Lord knew we would be watching the signs of the coming Tribulation. He knew we would see it getting closer and closer. So He also gave us a wonderful promise…sort of like a rainbow in the sky:

For God has not destined us for wrath… 1Th. 5:9

He wanted us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He will rescue us before His wrath.

…Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. 1Th. 1:10b

And He continued in 1Thessalonians with:

Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. 1Th. 5:11

So seeing the approaching horror at our doorstep just means we should be encouraged. It means we’re that much closer to something happening that has never happened before—millions disappearing in a nano-second.

The same thing happened at the time of Noah. It had never rained before the flood (Gen. 2:6). So despite Noah preaching for 120 years to repent and turn to God in order to miss the coming flood, people just couldn’t/wouldn’t believe it.

God said the time before Rapture would be “just like” the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, when God shut the door of the ark, the time to repent was over. After that it was too late to repent and get on the boat.

People today refuse to believe the Rapture will happen. When God finally does shut the door with the Rapture, it will be too late to escape unimaginable coming despair.

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