RAPTURE – PART 22
THAT BLESSED HOPE
Titus 2:11-15, “For the grace of Yahweh that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great Mighty One and Savior Jesus Christ [JESUS 2.0 ADVENT], 14who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
15Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.”
Paul sets out our blessed hope in his letter to Titus. Notice that the blessed hope is the JESUS 2.0 ADVENT, Yeshua’s Second Coming!! We are to live right in this present Church Age, so that we’ll be counted worthy to escape Judgment Day at the JESUS 2.0 ADVENT, when Yeshua returns to EARTH to establish His Kingdom!! This is the essence of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Paul’s use of the word “appearing”, which means manifestation, brightness, or ADVENT, is the same Greek word he used in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 as the “brightness” of Yeshua’s coming [parousia, ADVENT] to destroy the Antichrist, Yeshua’s ADVENT OF HIS ADVENT, the JESUS 2.0 ADVENT!! That is literally what Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, the ADVENT of His ADVENT!! And I thought I had come up with a cool new phrase: JESUS 2.0 ADVENT. Paul beat me to it by a couple thousand years!! Maybe I should call His Second Coming His: ADVENT2 !?!
Now let’s move over to Yeshua’s Passion Week in Luke 20:34-38, “Yeshua answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead [JESUS 2.0 ADVENT], neither marry nor are given in marriage; 36nor can they die anymore [because we get an immortal body!!], for they are equal to the angels and are sons of Yahweh, being sons of the resurrection. 37But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised, when he called the Master ‘the Mighty One of Abraham, the Mighty One of Isaac, and the Mighty One of Jacob.’ 38For He is not the Mighty One of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.”” During Yeshua’s Passion Week questioning series, He taught that some believers will be counted worthy to attain to the Millennial Age. They will get there through the resurrection from the dead!! Yeshua was talking about Rapture/Resurrection Day, His JESUS 2.0 ADVENT.
AFTER the age of the Gentiles trampling Jerusalem is over, continuing on in Yeshua’s end-time Olivet Discourse we learn in Luke 21:25-28, “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming [currently, present tense happening] on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27Then [next in sequential timing of events] they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud [the sickle reaping scene in Revelation 14:14-16 at the JESUS 2.0 ADVENT] with power and great glory. 28Now when these things begin to happen [includes the JESUS 2.0 ADVENT], look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” I do not see a 7-year GAP between a rapture and Yeshua’s second coming. The true sequence will be Yeshua’s Second Coming, then a Rapture/Resurrection, then wrath poured out. This is the exact scene we see in Revelation 14:14ff!! Get the proper order, as Paul called it in 1 Cor. 15, and sequence of events in your head: Second Coming, Rapture/Resurrection, Judgment Day, and not a lot of time between the three events.
Yeshua continued in Luke 21:34-36, “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that [Judgment] Day come on you unexpectedly. 35For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
During the Olivet Discourse, Yeshua promises that some believers, chosen, elect of Yahweh, will escape all the evil during the Judgment Day scenario. Saints will be raptured just before the final Judgment of wicked mankind. As we see in verses 25-28 above, we’re ALREADY in the Tribulation and see the Son of Man appearing in the clouds!! Verses 25-28 above ALREADY presuppose a pre-wrath rapture, not a PRE-tribulation rapture, it’s ALREADY too late for a PRE-trib rapture. Look at the CONTEXT of verses 34-36; it’s JUDGMENT DAY!! And who is Yeshua talking TO? To His disciples, His believers, His saints, His elect, His chosen of Yahweh!!!! We will ESCAPE the wrath of Yahweh’s Judgment Day, but just a few days before, not a few years before!! Again, Yeshua is coming DOWN to earth, so WHEN you stand before Yeshua, it will be on earth, on the Mount of Olives or on the Temple Mount, NOT IN HEAVEN!! See Revelation 14:1, Zechariah 14:4, and Matthew 25:31ff. The marriage supper of the Lamb comes about 5 days after Judgment Day, on Tishri 15, the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, NOT 7 years BEFORE Judgment Day!
But, if you want to construe this passage as describing a PRE-tribulation Rapture/Resurrection, go ahead and do so, because that is more comforting to our souls than to think that we have to go through any of the Tribulation. Pre-tribulation rapturists should look at Tim McHyde’s teaching on the end times at: http://www.escapeallthesethings.com Tim has a great understanding of coming events. Tim teaches that the rapture occurs just before the last 7 bowls of Yahweh’s wrath are poured out, see Rev. 15 and 16. I tend to agree with Tim. You really have to wrest and twist the Scriptures to get a PRE-tribulation Rapture/Resurrection out of these passages.
Gene Benjamin II
October 20, 2012 CE
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