Posted 7-3-00
Note: The date of discovery is interesting, also the constellation VELA is the sails of the ship ARGO.
Mk. 13:27 says, "And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven." It seems that the Tribulation saints are caught up while the elect that are already in Heaven are assembling for the most event-filled day ever. No other day is like it. It is referred to often in the OT as "that day."
There are first that will be last and last that will be first. The 144,000 Israelites seem to be part of the Bride, and they are part of the Pre-Wrath Rapture. Rev. 14:4,5 says that they are "virgins... firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb....without fault before the throne of God."
Job 5:24 shows we will "visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin" during what will probably turn out to be the most interesting 7 years of our life. I keep wondering if our trip to Earth to help set up the Millennial Government will be like a honeymoon trip. We have many things to learn. Agape
From the Report on the Year 2000 United Religions Summit Meeting By LeePenn@aol.com
"Which "spirit" owns the URI, Bishop? ยท As Rowan Fairgrove - a avowed Wiccan, and a long-time URI activist - reported in the URI discussion forum, the chant used at the start of the URI summit meeting was this: "Gathered in here in the mystery of the hour Gathered in one strong body Gathered here in our unity and power Spirit draw near." A theological analysis of this chant is left as an exercise for the reader."
This is copied from the URI web site:
"URI & UNESCO - Sign the Manifesto 2000! The United Religions Initiative and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) are partners in the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the Manifesto 2000 "
"I did some search on the Internet and discovered some amazing wording. In what seems to be a divinely directed irony and "God-incidence," Assad died on the very same day, June 10, that Syria surrendered to Israel and lost the Golan Heights. Here are words copied from a Web site about the Six-Day war: "June 10: Syria surrenders, after seeing Golan Heights come under Israeli control" (http://www.i-cias.com/e.o/sixdaywr.htm). As far as I know, the media news people have totally missed or ignored this fascinating connection."
This what they are in danger of if they don't repent and make sure there is no sin barrier between them and God. It has nothing to do with physical age. In Jesus' messages to the churches (believers) read the message to the Philadelphians. Philadelphia means brotherly love. They are not told to repent, because they already have. They have confessed their sins committed since accepting Christ and are therefore filled with the Holy Spirit. The "open door" is placed in front of them in Rev. 3:8. We need to be in that group. Those he will keep from the trial that is to come on all the Earth (Rev. 3:10).
They are the ones, out of all groups, that are WALKING WORTHY. In Eph. 4:1-6, Paul pleaded with believers, " I...BESEECH YOU that ye WALK WORTHY of the vocation wherewith ye are CALLED, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another IN LOVE; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of PEACE. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are CALLED in one hope of your calling; One Lord, ONE FAITH, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
They are in FELLOWSHIP with God. In I John 1-3-9, John said, " That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, he is faithful and just to FORGIVE us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
Now contrast Jesus' message to the Philadelphians with that to "THE CHURCH (i.e., believers) of the Laodiceans." They are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, lacking white raiment (the righteousnesses of saints), and are told to "REPENT." They have Christ's righteousness imputed to them to wipe out the sins committed before they accepted Christ. That will eventually get them into Heaven, but maybe not until the last trump, the Pre-Wrath Rapture. They need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, not quenching Him. Jesus loves them, but warns that "because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold not hot, I WILL SPUE THEE OUT OF MY MOUTH" (Rev. 3:16). If they don't wake up, they will be left behind at the Pre-Trib Rapture. They need to buy of the Lord gold, symbol of deity, i.e., the Holy Spirit. How do they get it? by confessing their sins. Rev. 3:29 says, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent." If they don't wake up, they will be chastened during the shortened Tribulation. We see in Rev. 7:14 that by the second Rapture, they have "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. All sins need to be under the blood of Christ. It is far better to do it now than to have to do it later anyway.
The two groups are seen in the parable of the 10 virgins. All are virgins whose sins were washed away when they accepted Christ. However, 5 have enough oil of the Holy Spirit to see them through the waiting period. Their lamps burn brightly. The foolish ones' lamps are sputtering. When the Bridegroom, Christ, comes, only the wise virgins go with him. They are the Bride of Christ.
Lu. 12:46 says, "The lord of that servant (the foolish one) will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder (lit., cut him off), and will appoint him his portion (the shortened Tribulation) with the UNBELIEVERS." Mt. 24:51 adds, "And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites (pretenders): there shall be WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH."
In the parable of the wedding feast, Mt. 22:11-14 says, " And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH. For many are CALLED, but few are CHOSEN."
Rev. 17:14 shows us what we need to be. Speaking of right after the Pre-Trib Rapture, it says, " the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are WITH HIM are CALLED, and CHOSEN, and FAITHFUL." Agape
> > "Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora." (M.F. Hammer, Proc. Nat'l Academy of Sci., 5-9-00.
In II Thess. 2:1, Paul makes it clear that he is starting this discussion with the coming of Christ at the Rapture, "our GATHERING TOGETHER unto him." It seems that someone had said that the Day of the Lord was already present. He needed to reassure them that this was not true. The millennial Day of the Lord won't come until after some other things take place. The first thing is the Rapture. We know from Mal. 4:5 that Elijah must come before the Day of the Lord begins too. It says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD." Elijah and Moses are the two witnesses that prophesy during the first 1260 days of the Tribulation. That comes before the Day of the Lord begins. In II Thess. 2:3, the KJV has "a falling away." The Greek word "apostasia" means departure, and was so translated in early Bibles, including The Geneva Bible, Tyndale's translation, Cranmer's version, The Great Bible, Breecher's Bible, Beza's translation and the Coverdale Bible. You can see this meaning in "apostacion," divorcement, as in separating and one person leaving the other. You can see it in "apospao," to draw away.
Here is the way I see it. II Thess. 2:1-9 (KJV) says, "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him (the Pre-Trib Rapture), That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ (i.e., Day of the Lord) is at hand (present, i.e., it is still future). Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (Day of the Lord) shall not come, except there come a falling away (apostasia, departure, i.e., the Rapture, 'the gathering together unto him') first (i.e., Pre-Trib), and that man of sin (the False Prophet) be revealed (at the beginning of the Tribulation, when he confirms the peace covenant), the son of perdition (i.e., Satan possessed, like Judas Iscariot, the other son of perdition); Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God (Mid-Trib, when comes to full power). Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth (the Holy Spirit in us is keeping him from being revealed while we are still here) that he might be revealed in his time (the Tribulation). For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he (the Holy Spirit) who now letteth will let (Old English for he who hindereth will hinder), until he be taken out of the way (when he takes us to Heaven at the Rapture). And then (after the salt of the Earth is gone) shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him (the False Prophet), whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" (Rev. 13:13,14).
> > in Matthew ch. 24 verses 30-31 state concerning the tribulation, that christ will gather his elect after that tribulation of the antichrist. How do you explain this in relation to the pre-tribulation rapture theory?
Mt. 24:15 starts with the middle of the Tribulation, when the Satan-possessed False Prophet sits in the temple "shewing himself that he is god." He also places an idol, "the abomination of desolation" at the temple. This second set of 1260 days is to be shortened for the elect's sake (v. 22), i.e., for the sake of the Tribulation saints who also have a Rapture to look forward to. The Pre-Wrath Rapture comes just before the Wrath of God hits Earth on the first day of the millennial Day of the Lord.
The first Rapture is as the days of Noah. No fire falls that day. The second Rapture is as the days of Lot. Fire falls that same day. Lu. 17:29 says, "But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." That prefigured the first day of the millennial Day of the Lord.
Mt. 24:31 is talking about that first day of the Millennium. It says, "he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of HEAVEN to the other." This is the day of the great assembly in Heaven. The day of the Coronation of Christ, the Marriage of the Lamb and the Judgment Seat of Christ. It is the Feast of Trumpets.
All the saints that were caught up to Heaven in the Pre-Trib Rapture have to be gathered "from one end of HEAVEN to the other." That is what Matthew 24:31 is talking about.
In Mark 13:27, we get another bit of information about this day. The Tribulation saints are also to be gathered from the Earth on this day. They too, are called to the great assembly. All the saints, great and small must be there to get their rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Rev. 11:18).
Mark 13:27 says, "And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the EARTH (the Tribulation saints in the Pre-Wrath Rapture) to the uttermost part of HEAVEN" (the ones that were caught up in the Pre-Trib Rapture). Agape
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Updated 7-3-00