“More Rapture Truth”

     A “Word” from the Pastor…
                              
                   
                                     “More Rapture Truth”

            Good afternoon saints and friends and welcome to the biggest little church in Los Angeles.  The membership size is small but Oh, so large and the gospel message is served up in the biggest portions available anywhere west of the Mississippi.

For those who are new to this gathering of hearers of the word, we are a group of those who are looking for the coming of the Lord, an event commonly called The Rapture.  I am often reminded by some that the word ‘rapture’ is not found in the bible.  They are right!  But there is not a better word in our language that best describes the event.  The word itself means ‘catching away’ and that is exactly what will happen one day in the very near future. 

The first example of such an event is found in the Old Testament.  It happened to one of the early fathers named Enoch:

            “And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years.  And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”  Genesis 5:23 & 24

Put another way, Enoch was caught away.  He was on the earth one minute and then disappeared from off the face of the earth and from among the living.  The most important fact is that Enoch did not die.

Another example of a catching away is found in the story of the deliverance of Lot and his family from Sodom and Gomorrah.  This example brings out two major truths.  One, that such an event, the catching away, is not beyond the realm of reality, and, two, that the people of God do not and will not go through the tribulation.  God had dispensed angels to destroy the five cities of the plain but the angels could not carry out their orders until they first moved Lot and his family out of harm’s way. The same will happen to the people of God in the near future.  I have declared for some time that the scenario surrounding the rapture will echo that of the children of Israel’s exodus from Egypt.  The Israelites’ departure from Egypt was a night of terror.

Their adventure began when the cloud of Jehovah left Egypt going in the wrong direction.  Canaan was northeast from Egypt but the cloud of God led them on a southeast route.  That direction led them in the direction of the Red Sea.  Once they realized their plight they began accusing Moses of leading them into the wilderness to destroy them.  In the meantime, God went back to Pharaoh and reported that His people were at a dead end and that now would be an excellent opportunity to destroy them.  Remember, Pharaoh and much of his army had just lost their firstborn and they were itching for immediate revenge.  Part of the terror of the night for Israel was waiting in the dark listening to the hooves of the horses of the mightiest army in the world coming to destroy them.  The scriptures tell us that they overtook the Israelites, meaning that they caught up to them, waiting for daylight to come so they could annihilate them.  That’s when God did the unthinkable and the impossible and brought a strong wind and parted the Red Sea.  He really didn’t have to huff and puff like the wolf in the Three Little Pigs story but His word said he blew with his nostrils, through his nose if you please.  I believe their adventure, standing on the precipice of life and death, is a preview of our exodus from this earth.  The people of God will be put into an internment camp waiting for the god of this world to begin a mass execution; and then “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed” and caught away.  I continue to watch the increased building of public storage facilities and realizing how easily such buildings can be converted into prisons I can’t help but entertain the thought that their true purpose may have nothing to do with storing private possessions. (I have no scripture for those comments, they are my own thoughts.)

Again, if you are new here, we not only believe in the rapture of the church but also believe that the event is not a random date.  God is working from a calendar of events established in the Old Testament as His Feast days or Set Times.  The events of the Passover were not random but divinely ordained.  They were to select their lamb on the tenth day of the first month and kill the lamb on the fourteenth day of the same month.  When Christ became our Passover he had to meet the criteria set forth in the Law of Moses.  And he did, to the very jot and tittle.  God has revealed to us out of his word how that the week of his death contained two Sabbath days, the weekly Saturday Sabbath and the high Sabbath day of Passover itself.  Each Sabbath day required a preparation day.  Friday was the preparation day for the Saturday Sabbath and because the Passover Sabbath fell on Thursday in A.D. 31, Wednesday would have been the preparation day.  When the Israelites were killing their Passover lambs in the city of Jerusalem, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ was being slaughtered on the cross at the same time, thus fulfilling the requirements of the Law.  Jesus said he would be in the grave three days and three nights, fulfilling the ordeal of Jonah.  Again, the church has been duped by its adversary Satan by celebrating Good Friday as the crucifixion day and Easter Sunday morning as the time of the resurrection of Christ.  That period falls far short of the three days and three nights as prophesied by Jesus.  There are those who say it doesn’t make any difference what day Jesus died or what day he arose from the grave as long as he did die and arose.  I object to that ignoring of the facts of scripture!  The fact that Jesus and the scriptures point out these times means it makes an immense difference!  Jesus is the head of the church and because the church itself is the body of Christ, it would only seem reasonable for the body to rise or be raptured on the same day of the week as the day the head of the body arose.  You will find in the scriptures that some of the key celebrated days surrounding the week of Christ’s death must be adjusted by one day.  Christ did not make his triumphant entry on Palm Sunday.  Sunday would not play a role in the plan of God until after the resurrection of Christ when Christ presented himself as a wave offering to God.  The Law admonished us to “remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.”  God always performed his great works on the Seventh day, (the Sabbath) not the first day of the week.  On what other day would he work but His day?

Christ was selected as the Passover Lamb of Israel on the Sabbath day or the tenth day of the month.  He was killed in accordance with the demands of the law on the fourteenth day of the month or Wednesday.  He was buried just prior to 6:00 PM at the close of the preparation day, Wednesday.  Exactly three days and three nights later on Saturday just before 6:00 pm he arose from the dead.  You can be sure, that the rapture of the church, the body of Christ, will take place. Let God be true and every man a liar.