CHAPTER SEVEN
EVERYBODY TALKN"BOUT HEAVN' AIN'T GOIN' THERE!
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE WHEN THE RAPTURE WILL TAKE PLACE?
That question has been asked of me several times by believers. The prevailing attitude within the Church is that if Jesus is coming, whenever he comes, we're going and that's that!
The Church has adopted that attitude because for centuries it has labored under the impression that initial salvation qualifies one for automatic entry into heaven. That is not the case. Israel was under the same impression after it was saved out of the land of Egypt.
Because God promised Canaan to Abraham centuries before Israel became a nation, those who came out of Egypt accepted the land of Canaan as a given. Under Moses, the nation reached Canaan a little over a year after their departure from Egypt. But en route to Canaan, they continually tempted God by not believing his word. They had what God called "an evil heart of unbelief." The writer to the Hebrews admonished his readers not to emulate the actions of Israel with the following words:
"Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear his voice,
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)" Heb. 3:7-11
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The word to-day appears five times in the third and fourth chapters of Hebrews. Whenever God repeats himself, he should be listened to with undivided attention. In the scripture, the "To-day" refers to a period of time when the grace of God is being extended. God expects his word to be believed when it is heard. In this case, he limits the time for his word to be believed.
God is patient and gracious, full of mercy and slow to anger. But he can be provoked beyond measure. That's what Israel had done to God. Every time God attempted
to prove them, they turned the tables on God and put him on trial. He indicted that congregation because they saw his works but never came to know his ways. God accused the people of having an unbelieving heart.
God has the power to save to the utmost. There is not one sin that you and I can commit that goes beyond God's saving ability except the sin of unbelief. God's hands of deliverance are tied when he is dealing with someone who does not believe his word.
In the tenth chapter of Romans Paul showed that faith in God is accomplished in the life of an individual if that person hears the word of the Lord. Further, in the letter to the Hebrews we are told that "without faith it is impossible to please God" Throughout history, God has been searching for the rare individual who will believe his word without accompanying signs. Because today's Church does not have an ear to hear the voice of the Spirit, it has little or no faith! Because it has very little faith, it is constantly looking for God to prove his word with a display of signs. God initiated signs as an aid for unbelief. Once it has been established that God is faithful to his spoken and written word, signs should no longer be necessary for believers.
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The message announcing the day of the Rapture is essentially a sign-less message because God has provided an abundance of scriptures announcing the day of his coming. Those signs covered earlier are gracious confirmations but they are meaningless without the scriptural foundation that allows us to know the date. But because the message has been given to a Church Age who no longer has an ear to hear what the Spirit has to say to it, much of the so-called believing Church will stumble at this message and lose the opportunity to be with the Lord forever! Mind you, the Church has no problem with the fact of his coming, the gagging part of the message is God's announcement of the day.
Hearing God's word is the ultimate duty and responsibility of every saint but this present Church age has turned a deaf ear to the word of God. By doing so, it has caused Christ to leave its sanctuary and take a position outside the door.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Rev. 3:20
For the same reason Jesus said he would "spue" this Church age out of his mouth.
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And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
And did all eat the same spiritual meat;And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." I Cor.10:1-6,11
Paul used the word all five times. His objective is to over-emphasize that Israel was saved with a common salvation. Just what does that mean?
There are many religions in the world and each of their individual members believes that theirs is the right religion. But in truth, God ordained only one religion, the one given to Israel. God has recognized only one group of people as his people: the nation of Israel. God never made a covenant with any other nation except Israel. If anyone had a right to claim that their religion is acceptable to God, the Israelite could. Yet, in spite of the fact that the entire nation was saved by the blood of the lamb in Egypt, they did not make it into the promised land. The children of Israel were not kept out of Canaan because of sin, they were barred because of their unbelief.
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and complaining. They had a history of not believing God. They provoked, tried, and proved God every time he opened his mouth. They were stiffnecked and rebellious. God endured their rebelliousness until they reached the border of the promised land. There, God did the unimaginable, he gave them a faith hurdle that he knew they would not jump and those who did not jump that hurdle did not enter Canaan.
In this final Church age, God has presented a faith hurdle for this Church to leap. The hurdle is the announcement of the day of his coming. That announcement has come forth against the backdrop of "no man knoweth." Those in the visible Church who do not belong to Christ are going to reject the message. They will rely on their past salvation experience to take them to heaven. However, God is making it quite clear that yesterday's faith is insufficient in meeting the promises of God for today.
No believer will be kept out of heaven because of sin. Your sins and my sins were paid for in full at Calvary. Since dying on the cross almost 2,000 years ago, Christ has never offered himself again as a sin offering for the world. Those of you who placed your faith in the efficacy of the blood of Jesus received remission of all of your sins, past present and future. While Jesus will not keep anyone out of heaven because of sin, he will keep this Church age out because of unbelief!
We are told to labor to enter into the rest of God. The Church has been preaching a message of works for a long time. Works do not work where salvation is concerned. The only work we can do to be saved is to work to enter by resting in the faith of the completed work of the cross. Any works of righteousness we do after we are saved are works performed because we are saved; works motivated by our love for God and prompted by the Holy Spirit within us. Those works will receive a reward in heaven but they are useless in gaining entry into heaven.
Over five hundred years after Israel came out of Babylon, John the Baptist came preaching about the kingdom of heaven as we referred to earlier saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus preached the same message. The Jews rejected the
kingdom message because it did not mesh with their worldly plans. Their rejection of the message and the kingdom broke Jesus' heart. Before his death, he wept over Jerusalem because it did not know the time of its visitation. The offer of the kingdom to the Jews was postponed and God instituted the Church.
Once God reveals the time of his appearing it is time then for the Church to make its calling and election sure. When Daniel discovered the time of their deliverance from Egypt, he began praying and taking care of spiritual business above everything else. Hebrews 9:28 tells us that Christ will appear a second time "to those who look for him."
Understand that going to heaven in the Rapture is not an automatic departure, it will be accomplished by believing the message of when he will come and then adjusting your life in eager anticipation of his arrival.
When you go on vacation you do not prepare to go on the day of departure. You save money, buy clothes for the trip, make travel arrangements, arrange for a house sitter to tend to the animals, plants, mail, etc. Much planning is involved. You don't just buy an airline ticket and forget all about the day. So it is with the Rapture.
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When God swore in his wrath that Israel would not enter into his rest, he wasn't just talking about the promised land, he was talking about eternal life also. Joshua led their children into Canaan but the scriptures state plainly that Joshua did not give them rest:
"For if Jesus (Joshua) had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. " Heb.4:8&9
We can learn much from the world itself in our effort to understand the importance of knowing the times of the end. In professional basketball and football games there is a "two-minute" announcement near the end of the game. At that time both the losing and winning teams make major adjustments in the game. In basketball, the offensive team has 24 seconds to shoot the ball. The losing team is not going to take its full 24 seconds because doing so would limit its number of scoring opportunities. The quicker it can shoot the ball, the better its chances are of winning the game. On the other hand, the winning team will use up as much of the twenty-four second clock as possible. In essence, the strategy of the game becomes paramount in the last two minutes. So should it be with the Church.
Some things should automatically cease to be important as we head into the final stretch. This is the time when the Church should "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Heb.12:1)
The balance of that passage admonishes us to take on the mind of Christ and lay hold to salvation.
In Israel, as the Jubile year grew closer the value of the property decreased. If an individual were to sell his property, he was restricted from charging as much for the
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One can immediately see the vast difference in the attitude of the member of the Church today by comparing it with the initial members of the Church in 31A.D. They, not knowing the date of his appearing, sold their houses, land and possessions. This Church age is so attached to this world that it cannot let its earthly treasures go, not even for a few months. Its heart is earth-bound because its treasures are here.
Why would a Church who is rich and in need of nothing even want to go to be with the Lord? Actually, there have always been two churches: the visible Church (the one recognized by the world,) and the invisible Church (the one recognized by God as his own true Church.) The invisible Church is actually much smaller than the visible Church. Many will be surprised to find that they are not going to be taken in the Rapture because they do not belong to Christ and are not members of his invisible Church.
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THE LAST GREAT REVIVAL
One of the hot topics in Church circles today is the great revival to come to the Church in these last days. Those who prophesy such are unaware that the last great revival of this Church Age began at the turn of the century when God poured out His Spirit at the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles in 1906. God stamped his signature on that revival with the sign of speaking in tongues.
Throughout the new testament God used the sign of tongues whenever He introduced the gospel to a new location. Unlike today's Pentecostal Church, the early Church did not make the sign of speaking in tongues a mandatory experience for salvation. Even the father of the Pentecostal movement, William Seymour, is on record declaring that "tongues are not the sign, they are a sign. The sign of the Holy Ghost is the manifestation of love towards one another."
Because the experience on Azusa Street was so much like the original Pentecost experience, it was labeled the "Pentecostal" movement. It also marked the beginning of the Loadicean Church Age and signaled the beginning of the end of the Church ages.
Here, I should interject a brief explanation of the "Church Age" to which I refer frequently in this chapter. The seven Churches of Revelation (Rev.1 -3) were actual congregations in Asia Minor during John's lifetime. Jesus instructed John to write letters to the angels (pastors) of each of those congregations. While they were literal churches they also represent seven stages of the Church and depict a progressive spiritual decline with each passing age from the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. until it is raptured in 1997.
Because the Laodicean Age is the seventh and last one, as the seventh it represents complete spiritual desolation, and is fit (according to the scripture Rev. 3:16)
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only to be vomited out of the mouth of Christ. This Church declares itself to be rich and needing no further truths from God! It is full of individuals who have long ago closed their ears to any additional truth from God's word.
Since the day of Pentecost, each subsequent church age was ushered in by a revival. Only the birth of the Church on the day of Pentecost and the last revival on Azusa Street were marked with an outpouring of tongues. None of the other five Church ages were ever referred to as the Pentecostal revival. The very name given to the Azusa Street revival is a sign that the Church dispensation has now come full circle. The next great revival to hit this world will be the saving of the Tribulation saints after the Church is gone. As far as the Church is concerned, it is harvest time. The time for massive new growth is over. This is the time for the existing fruit to become fully ripened.
Jesus told a parable about a certain man who invited guests to his supper (Luke l4). As the supper drew near, many who were invited began making excuses and did not attend. In his anger, the king commanded his servants to go into the highways and hedges and gather those who had not been invited to come to the supper.
The first invitation in that parable represents the invitation that was given to Israel: the second invitation represents that which was given to the Gentiles. The Gentile 's invitation is about to expire. In these last days the Gentiles who are on the guest list are now making excuses and losing their seats due to their complacency and their involvement with the affairs of this world.
There is another parable about laborers who were hired to begin working at the 11th hour (Matt. 20.) The Church should expect to see a different kind of believer in its closing (or 11th) hour. When someone is hired at the last hour of the day, paying them for the entire day is an act of extreme generosity.
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They cannot be expected to produce what would be produced by those who had been working for eleven hours. The best that can be expected from the late hirees is the accomplishment of a menial task. Only a few are hired at the eleventh hour.
In my city, Los Angeles, there are street corners where laborers assemble to be hired for the day. In the early morning hours the corners are full but by late afternoon only two or three can be found. The great revival is over for the Church, this is the hour of the stragglers.
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THE RAPTURE:
FOR THOSE WHO ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN
Listen to Paul's words:
"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
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. " I Thes.4:15&17
In both verses Paul included the word "remain." The word translated "remain" is not meno, defined as "to stay, abide, or continue," as used in Luke 10:7; John 15:11,17 and Hebrews 12:27 to list a few, but perileipo, which means "to leave all around i.e. (pass.) survive." The prefix peri is the base from which we get the word perimeter. Leipo means "to leave, i.e. (intrans. or pass.) to fail or be absent:-be destitute (wanting), lack. Taken together, we have the idea of survivors in the midst of or around those who have fallen.
Jesus stated that many are called but few are chosen. The number of those who have been called to be saints is great but not all of them have remained true to the voice of the Spirit who called them. Only those who have remained stedfast to the word of God by continuing in God's word will be taken up to heaven on the day of the
Rapture. Those who do not believe the facts supporting the date of that Rapture do not have to worry about going- they won't go.
I watched a recent television airing of highlights of the Christian Coalition's convention. It focused on the group's efforts to elect a conservative president in 1996. Seeing a group of Christians make a 1996 presidential election its priorit is a vivid portrayal of a body of so-called believers who have abandoned their initial calling.
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A passage in I Timothy 6:5 speaks of men being destitute of the truth. There the destitution lies in the fact that they teach and believe that "godliness is great gain "
Jesus indicted the Laodicean Church for saying that it is rich and has need of nothing. Paul taught that ''godliness with contentment is great gain. " This last Church age teaches just the opposite. The password today is "blessed." The blessed state centers on material prosperity with spiritual blessings being secondary. This is the richest Church age in the history of the Church but Jesus said it is "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," and to add insult to injury, he said that this Church age is unaware of its condition.
Just as it was in Jesus' day, there are those today who are following Jesus merely to satisfy their sensual appetites. As long as the fish and loaves are being multiplied, they will be there proclaiming their blessedness. If God did to them what e did to Job, took away all that they had, they would curse God to his face.
"But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;
And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
But I would have you without carefulness..."
I Cor.7:29-32
If God has given us a release date from the captivity of this world, every decision we make from that moment on should be geared towards leaving here. It would have been a contradiction of Noah's faith to preach about a flood to come on a certain day and then make
plans beyond that date. If you are planning to move a long distance the first thing to do would be to get rid of excess belongings.
As the Jubile year drew near, the price of the property diminished accordingly . That should teach us that as our Jubile draws near, our estimation of earth's values should be devalued. To say that we are leaving this earth while clinging to our possessions shows a heart of unbelief. Those survivors who remain will continue to act in faith in God's word even if their faith causes them to lose relationships and possessions on this side of eternity.
Outside pressure is the partner of true faith. Imagine how Noah looked to an unbelieving world as he preached a message of a rain judgment while he built a giant boat. Imagine how he looked as he sat in that boat for seven days before it actually rained (Gen.7:9).
Noah aced great pressure from the world and that is what we should expect as we make public our confession of Christ's arrival. But today, those who are alive and remain faithful to God's word, who love neither the world nor the things of the world will receive greater pressure from the Church than from the world. Believing in and ordering your life after the promise of Christ's return will cause you to be ostracized and possibly ridiculed by those 'believers' who are destitute of the truth of God's word.
For the record, I believe in eternal security but there is a line of fine print attached to the deal: active faith. Throughout Hebrews the writer reminds us that we will be saved if we hold fast our confidence and profession of faith steadfast until the end. It is time for us to live here as if we are leaving here in 1997.
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THE CHURCH'S PRAYER
Remember, the Jews were in slavery in Babylon for about 67 or 68 years before Daniel found the books indicating the length of time of their captivity . God opened this knowledge up to him just at the right time. God is doing the same thing today by announcing the date of the Rapture but few are looking and even fewer actually care. After his discovery, Daniel's first action was to pray to God, confessing his sins and the sins of the nation. He extolled the great judgements and righteousness of God. The following verse sums up his prayer and it should now be the prayer of a Church on the verge of deliverance.
"O Lord, hear: O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name." Dan. 8:19
Daniel prayed that God would not defer to do what he said he would do. This should be the Church's prayer also. The Church in general is praying a common prayer today but it is not the one they should be praying. The prayer today is the passage found in II Chronicles 7:14
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. "
Those who promote that prayer do so with a national interest in mind. That is not the prayer of the hour and should not be the prayer of true believers. It must be understood that this is the end for this age. The condition of our land and our government is itself a sign of
the times e are living in. This land of ours is not going to get better. It is time for the judgment of the Lord. The idea that we can pray or legislate a better world into existence is nonsense and non-spiritual.
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"Even so, come, Lord Jesus. "
That prayer concerns itself with the second coming but even there you will notice that is does not request that the world's rulers will turn to God or that the nations will repent and turn to the Lord. It is time for the Kingdom of God to come visibly on earth.
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GOD'S ETERNAL DESIRE:
DWELLING AMONG HIS SONS
I said earlier that harphazo, meaning: caught away, is mentioned five times in the New Testament. Throughout the bible the number "five" represents the grace of God. It is the dominant number used in the construction of the wilderness tabernacle whether it is used by itself or in multiples. There it is used repeatedly in both the measurements of the tent and the quantity of pieces that made up the tent.
After Adam sinned, only grace would allow God to continue a relationship with man. One song writer called God's grace 'Amazing.' It is amazing when we consider that grace is a gift of God, given to man so that God could be near him. The greatest desire of God expressed in the scriptures is that he might dwell in the midst of his people.
In the garden of Eden, God came down in the breeze of the day and met with Adam in fellowship. Those meetings were interrupted because of sin but God had and has a predetermined purpose for man and nothing will deter him from his objective. Far back in the dateless past, God decided to have his own personal sons. They would not be angels but men. I wonder if evolutionists will ever wake up to the fact that there is not a missing link as such, but that God created something entirely new when he made Adam. From Adam's species, God would establish eternal sons. Satan knows about those plans and ever since the garden of Eden he has been obsessed with thwarting them. But God never abandon his initial intent. When Adam sinned, God inaugurated grace which is unmerited favor.
The day Adam fell, God still came down to the garden at the regular time. When Adam was not there God called for him and when Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees of the garden God looked for them.
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them. God found them, removed Adam's temporary covering of fig leaves and covered them both in skins of animals that he himself sacrificed for them. God displayed this enormous amount of grace and mercy solely for the ultimate purpose of being able to dwell among his sons.
When the tabernacle was erected in the wilderness, it was placed in the middle of the camp, surrounded by four tribes on each side. They were his people and as much as possible, God created for Himself a way to be in their presence. His grace brought about the sacrificial system. Through blood sacrifices God could cover any separating sin and live among his people. Through the yearly sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, God bought himself another year to be in the presence of his people.
After the children of Israel became established in Canaan God allowed Solomon to build him a permanent house. God's response at the dedication showed that he accepted the Temple and was pleased to have a permanent place among his people.
In this day of grace, God has moved again. Even before the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, God had moved his dwelling place to the very hearts of his sons. He tore away the inaccessible veil of the Most Holy Place and placed his spirit within us. He freely calls us his children. He has so solidified our future that his Word records us as already being glorified, possessing heavenly bodies even though the Rapture has not yet occurred.
The 21st chapter of Revelation continues the final unfolding of the plans of God with respect to his sons:
"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" Rev.22:3
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To
read more current revelations from Pastor Steve, check out his book published
September of 2017 on Amazon.com
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