THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY

The more pumped up the church becomes in its expectation of the imminent return of the Lord, the greater will be shock and disappointment when the pleasantries of American life are reduced to daily survival. The immanency of Messiah’s return has been poetically extolled by the secret rapturists as the “breath by breath motivation that has served the Christian church for centuries”. However, many ministers of today are blaming this false hope as the primary drug that has dulled the heart of action, the emotions of intensity, and the mind of sound reason.

Tim LaHaye is one of a million Christian ministers who have been led down the path of pre-tribulationism since childhood. I use this example from Dr. LaHaye’s book because no one would doubt his sincerity, but he has swallowed the hook of dispensational theology and took the whole line and sinker of the pre-tribulation rapture with it. That, however, is the church pew in which he and I were raised. He states:

“Down through the centuries Christians have lived… with an expectation.. in the next breath, the next blink of an eye, the next tick of the clock, the next rustle of the leaves, the next sigh, The Lord Jesus Christ could descend from heaven with a shout and call them home.”

Wait just a moment! Stop the world. Look at your own life, and the lives of your most dedicated. Christian friends. Do you know anyone on the planet that lives with this intense, moment-by-moment, immanency driven expectation? No, no one does. But it sounds very poetic, doesn’t it? You can only pull people’s legs with this circumlocution so many times before it wears thin. Ministers recognize it as a reliable, if not timeworn ending to an otherwise lackluster sermon. Congregants recognize it as an ineffective and overused attempt to motivate them.

Immanency theology causes serious Bible students to play redefinitional pogo stick with isolated sentences in Thessalonians, in order to get us out of here before the abomination of desolation. As we have clearly seen, Jesus indicated that the abomination of desolation will initiate the Great Tribulation, and that he will return after that takes place. I cannot say, as so many others do, “maybe he didn’t know what he was talking about”, or “he didn’t realize to whom he was speaking” when he answered John and Peter’s question about when he would return to take them to where Jesus said he was going to prepare a place.

Believers living a Christian life have the hope of the return, the resurrection out from among the dead, and eternal rewards to motivate them and provide focus for their endeavors. Our love for God and desire to please our Lord encourages us to labor for him out of love and to store our treasure in heaven, rather than to build temporal fortunes. Jesus never told us that he could return at any moment, and the Apostles never lived with this false concept. In any generation, Christians could have interpreted the signs of the times to believe that it could happen in their lifetime. Most of the history of the Christian church has seen their blood spilled for the witness of Jesus. Every generation has seen great tribulation (when you are the one being tortured, the “tribulation” doesn’t get any greater). However, Satan has not been cast down from the throne room of God, and the destroyer has not been revealed. Therefore, we know without any hesitation that we are at least a few bloody and violent years from the return of our Lord. What are we going to do with those years? Live for him? Or live to build an estate that will ultimately burned.

When John Huss was burning at the stake for his resolute stand on the Word of God, he was not feverishly scanning the horizon for Christ’s return at the next “blink of an eye”. As his melting fat met the flames, he sang hymns of praise to the Captain of his salvation, who would raise his cindered body from the grave at his future return.

Matthew had the promises of the Lord deeply etched in his mind as the King of Ethiopia staked his hands and feet to the ground. As the axe man poised his gleaming blade over Matthew’s neck, his expectation was not that in the next breath Jesus would return. He imminently expected to die as he shouted, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” Matthew lost consciousness as the blood drained from his severed head. In his expectation lived the resurrection of the just, at the last trumpet. Matthew had penned the words of his Lord, detailing the greatest tribulation that the world would ever see. He described the darkened atmosphere that would prevail before Jesus would return in all of his glory, just as the descriptions had come from Jesus’ lips. Matthew had no false hope. He lived with a sense of reality that drove him, as a faithful witness, to a martyr’s death. Matthew gave his all during the early rain. The latter rain is yet to come.

More and more ministers are awakening to the realization that the false hope of the imminent return of Christ has put their congregations to sleep. The opiated pew warmers have closed their eyes to the world, hoping that it will all be over before they experience any of the hardship that is part of the daily routine of their foreign brethren. They have a false hope that Jesus is legally bound to appear before the time when man’s and Satan’s wrath are escalated to the point of predominance over a fallen world. The lie of the imminent return of Messiah has put people to sleep, and now we are being told that the lie is good for us. We might have expected as much. The mystery of iniquity is already at work, just as Jesus foretold.

II Thessalonians 2:2, Do not be shaken up or troubled, thinking that the day of the Lord is imminent. Let no man deceive you by any means; because that day shall not come, except first there come the rebellious stand and the man of sin is revealed. The son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called by God, or is venerated; so that he, as God, sits in the temple of God, proclaiming that he is God.

Jesus will not return to gather his saints until after the abomination of desolation takes place. Period. It doesn’t matter how much you wrestle the scriptures, things are going to get extremely rough and you had better come to grips with the fact that if Jesus is your Lord; the resurrection is reality. You had better not be loving this life more than you love the Lord Jesus. You can wrestle isolated scriptures to say nearly anything that you want. However, there will be no resurrection of the Saints, and no gathering together before the last trumpet in the book of Revelation. You cannot take away the Church before the last trump and you cannot add resurrections at will to the book of Revelation. There are very stiff penalties for this kind of activity, and I don’t feel comfortable with ignorance as a defense.

Revelation 22:18, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.

There are only two resurrections to come. The first one will be at the last trump, the last one at the final judgment. That is it! When they happen, neither will be a secret. Every eye will see him and all those on the earth who have not made him their Lord will be in shock and sorrow. If every knee shall bow, why not now?

Earlier in the book we studied the Skandalidzo, the snares that are set to capture the prey in its own environment and habit patterns. We saw that a snare is set by watching the habit patterns of the intended victim. By observing where it feeds, where it goes for rest, you can learn the comfort zones of the beast you are attempting to capture. The snare is then set to catch it in its own habit patterns by a device that is well camouflaged and appears to be a harmless part of its comfortable environment. Let us consider the habit patterns of the modern church as they are revealed in the auspicious message of Jesus to the church of the Laodiceans:

Revelation 3:15, I know they works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.

Mediocrity, or living in the comfort zone, is the goal of most modern Christians. The desire to fit in with the world, not make waves, and not appear to be a religious fanatic for the sake of friendships or business, dries us more often than the desire to step out of our self-protective shells and give ourselves in love, as Jesus loved. Rather than laying up treasures in the kingdom of heaven, we find ourselves preoccupied with our treasures on the earth.

Revelation 3:17, Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.

We too readily accept the world’s measure of success. We are in control of our lives. We have a manageable God, and our church social structure works well for our personal goals. We do not view our personal prosperity in the same light that Jesus does, as filthy rags of temporal distractions from the true wealth.

Revelation 3:18, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.

Gold tried in the fire indicates the burning away of the things that are impure and have no eternal value. Volunteering for the furnace of the refiner to be purified is stepping way out of the comfort zone. Through the centuries, persecution has been the purifier of the Saints from without. During the upcoming tribulation, those who are practicing Christianity as a hobby will find a new hobby. The Lord purifies us for his service with adversity.

Revelation 3:19, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent.

Repentance is an individual thing, and so is rebuke and chastening by the Lord. People repent and turn to God individually. Nations do not. I suggest that we attempt to reach as many individuals as possible with the gospel of Jesus the Messiah. I will not waste my time trying to turn America back to God; but rather Americans back to God.

In 1776 Americans boldly declared to the world that, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal (in) that they are endowed by their Creator with absolute, inalienable rights”. America’s corridors of power have been taken over by atheist socialists who are dedicated to the destruction of our constitution, our sovereignty, and all vestiges of Christianity in our country. The fiery wrath of God is being stored up against those who have perverted the ways of righteousness and have murdered the innocent. I refuse to idolize the nation that we once had. America as we knew it is gone.

America was founded as a Christian nation and was declared so by the Supreme Court in 1892. Unfortunately, we are no longer a Christian society. Neither do the people of our land or our government servants believe in what originally constituted us as a nation: “That all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator…”. We have allowed deceptive or uneducated people to take the oath to protect and defend our constitution. They have no knowledge of, and do not even believe that there is a Creator, let alone that “certain (absolute) inalienable (un-revocable, God given) rights” that our Federal government was established to secure and protect for us as a people. Our “new” government and the socialists controlled Department of Re-education has replaced the true history of America’s Christian past with multicultural babbling. Those who wrestled control of the halls of power in our nation, have diligently worked to subvert the knowledge of God as our Creator and originator of rights.

The government is now the supreme giver and taker of rights. Ask any school child attending one of the federally funded public re-education centers. The official doctrine of the United States government is atheism, there is no God. Where there is no God, there are no God given rights, only “civil” rights granted by the mercies of the governing “guardians”.

Atheists live with astounding faith! They live with a hope that contradicts all that their senses tell them about the physical universe. They hope that the incomprehensible intricacies of our bodies, the marvels of mental reasoning, and the unknown property of life itself is the result of millions of years of aberrant chance mutations in a purely mechanical universe. Against the laws and verifiable facts of science, they hold to the scientifically untenable, mathematically impossible, geologically insupportable, philosophically unlivable, theologically inconceivable, and intellectually unsubstantiatable fairy tale of the evolutionary genesis of life. This is an act of extreme faith. A faith that transcends any found in the Christian world. To protect its religion from exposure to rational thinking, millions of people have, out of necessity, been executed by atheist run governments. Evolution is the religion of those who refuse to open their eyes to scientific facts and the cause of our one time existence in this universe – God Almighty.

Atheist/Socialists promoting the New World Order of international socialism are the “domestic enemies” that conquered our government and are polluting the minds of our children through the fallacious and deceptively presented theory of evolution. Educate yourself and your children before the ability to think for ourselves is lost forever to the New World Order. There is no time to let our children discover for themselves that “Santa Claus” does not really exist. Tell them plainly that evolution, atheism, and socialism/communism is pure totalitarian slavery.

It should not be a surprise that socialism is the form of government of the new atheist regime that now sits in Washington. An atheist cannot conceive of a limited constitutional republic based on absolute, God given rights. That was the form of government that our Christian forefathers designed for America. Our new government has removed any purpose and reason for life. They have replaced meaning with the constant, mindless entertainment and dumbing down of America through the mass media.

The voices of the prophets warn of the judgment of God that will come upon this nation for having forsaken him, carving out our own religious systems in which the Spirit of the living God cannot speak. It is over. Our only hope is in eternity with a just God, and in the coming of the Lord Jesus to pull us out of the coming carnage. Unfortunately, just as with Israel, when a nation is judged even the faithful get cut down in the crossfire and shredded by the shrapnel. There is no one who is “innocent” in this matter.

I heard a statement, which was attributed to Ruth Graham: “If God does not judge America, he will need to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!” There will be no apologies. This statement is in full agreement with the scriptures as well as the revelation visions of several modern prophets of God. David Wilkerson saw the great cities in America burning in an apocalyptic holocaust.

This vision and the visions of Henry Gruver and Romanian Pastor Dimitru Duduman, is about to be fulfilled. David Wilkerson detailed the coming judgments of God on America in his 1985 book, Set a Trumpet to thy Mouth. Dimitru Duduman warned of the impending desolation of America in his book, Through The Fire Without Burning. The Lord led me to both of these books after I had finished the second rough draft of this book. What the Lord revealed when he opened the book of Revelation to me, he had already shown years before to these, and other prophets of God. For me, however, I had to see it in the pages of the scripture before I would listen to anyone else. At the times that the opposition had been the greatest, the Lord put each of these books in front of my face to show me that he had shown me the future of America, and that I am indeed responsible to sound the alarm. America is going to be judged by the nuclear fist of Russia, soon. If you live through it, and are reading this book, get ready; the worst is yet to come. (See appendix III. The Modern Day Prophets Speak).

The snare of the mystery of iniquity is intact and waiting for the button to be pushed. Allow me to explain. The Fall Feasts of the Lord are the prophetic shadow pictures of the things that will transpire at the beginning of the seventh or Sabbath millennium. For several years I have been working with astronomers, chronologists, and mathematicians and Jewish scholars in the land of Israel, to correct the Biblical Hebrew Calendar. If our calculations are correct in determining the beginning of the seventh millennium as Aviv 1, 6001 on May 5, 2000, cataclysmic events around the corner will lead to the elimination of national sovereignty all over the globe. The initiation of this trouble will start in the land of Israel. The Philistines under the direction of Arafat will galvanize the Arab states against Israel in pursuit of statehood for the manufactured entity, “the Palestinian Authority”. Jerusalem is the prize that the Philistines will demand, but will not be awarded, regardless their threats and tantrums. True Israelites will not allow the covenant between God and Abraham to be tread upon. The terrorist attacks against the Jewish people will escalate and the countries round about Israel will begin to marshal their forces. When the Islamic terrorists step over the line, the nation of Israel will come down with the equivalent of millions of tons of TNT. The people of the earth will shake in uncontrollable fear. The inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem will stand up against the aggression and incinerate their enemies round about. Damascus will become a ruinous heap of radioactive rubble. When lions from the tribe of Judah, who invented nuclear weapons, become “like a torch among the sheaves” of their enemies – the United Nations will stand up in condemnation of their unsanctioned victory over their enemies. The world government will call for the full-scale invasion of Israel. The stage is fully set and the Feasts of the LORD will be fulfilled on his schedule – to the very day and hour. The “Covenant with Death” (Isaiah 28) that Israel entered into Tishri 1, 5994 (September 13, 1993) will be annulled by Tishri 1, 6001 (October 28, 2000 – corrected). The Arabs will escalate the conflict until Israel is forced to exercise the “Samson Option” which is to bring down the house around them with nuclear weapons. “Kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out” will be the only reasonable option. How long it will take to escalate to this point is uncertain, but we watch for the events that will initiate the intermediate fulfillment of the Fall Feasts of the LORD each year. The year that Judah incinerates her enemies, the stage will be set for the full-scale invasion to take place during the 10 days of Awe – Tishri 1, through Tishri 10. When this invasion occurs, there will be no hope for the salvation of Israel. Even Israel’s allies will be cut in shreds when the whole world is gathered against her. When all is lost, on Tishri 10, the Day of Atonement, God will fight for His people, God will be sanctified in the eyes of the nations when He incinerates the armies of Gog-Magog on the mountains of Israel. That day the Ark of the Covenant will be revealed. The Ark, which is the testimony that God put in the earth; the testimony that God gave his Son, will bear witness to all the people of Israel. The Day of Atonement depicts the national redemption of Israel. The covenant that was made as the blood of Messiah poured out of his side, down the earthquake crack, into the stone chamber that Jeremiah hid the Ark, and onto the west end of the Ark of the Covenant, will be confirmed with his people. The new covenant made at the time of “the anointing of the most holy” spoken by Daniel, will be confirmed by the Messiah. Gog-Magog will be turned back . Gog-Magog will be turned back and humiliated. A hook in their jaw will compel them to go up against “the land of unwalled villages to ‘my people of Israel’ who dwell peacefully in the midst of the land” to take a desperately needed spoil. America will be attacked.

When the invasion in Israel occurs, the ensuing chaos will result in an armed uprising as martial law is declared to restore order in America. After the “peace” agreement ends in nuclear holocaust, not just the Jews, but the remnant of the ten northern tribes of Israel will be brought back from the nations to which they have been scattered since the Assyrian and Roman exiles. Their eyes will be opened and they will return to the land of Israel after the Gog-Magog war. The cause of the exile of Israel, the “sins of Jereboam” – adopting pagan worship practices, will be exposed. When they repent, they will be brought back into the land of Israel. Judah, who did not recognize the time of their visitation by messiah will have their eyes opened and they too will return. This modern, but supernatural return will cause the Red Sea crossing to pale in memory. Those who return to the land will be as a migrating monarch butterfly, which, several generations removed from their ancestors, return to the same nesting fields that preceding generations inhabited. The returning seed of Abraham will “metamorphous” by the Spirit of God, having the Torah written in their hearts. They will want to obey the Law of the land of Israel. The enmity against the Torah and commandments will have been removed and they will walk by the Spirit into the promise of the latter rain outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Tishri 22, the day of the Siloam water oblation.

For the first three and one half years after the Ark is revealed and the Covenant that was made in Messiah’s blood confirmed, Israel will stand independent from the world government. The entire world will know that God has fought for Israel, and Israel will know her Messiah. But, the remaining nations will lose their sovereignty as the New World Order rises from the ashes to implement their global monetary, governmental, and religious systems to control the masses of humanity. On Aviv 10, three and one half years after the confirmation of the true covenant, the antichrist world leader will converge on Jerusalem, and occupy the most holy place on earth. The abomination of desolation will be accomplished as the man of sin sits upon the throne of God – the Ark of the Covenant – and proclaims himself to be God. The Destroyer will be revealed in the “midst of the week” of years that stretches from Tishri 10, the year the covenant is confirmed – until Tishri 10, seven years later. The man who ultimately sits at the helm of the New World Order is the Destroyer himself, the Wicked one whose coming is after the working of Satan.

Russia and her hoards of Islamic co-conspirators (Gog-Magog), who have been in preparation for decades, will launch against the United States while they are in the turmoil of martial law, as a result of the manufactured economic collapse of the world bankers and the shakedown in the Middle East, Russia will crush the last vestiges of the republic, and make way for the totalitarian phase of the New World Order. This wound unto death to the head of the beast system (Revelation 13:3) will result in the seventh world empire of the United States (which peoples came over from the collapsed Roman Empire) giving way to the eighth and final incarnation of the beast New World Order (Revelation 17:10,11).

The details of the sixth seal nuclear destruction are seen in the first four trumpets. This war will provide for the judgment of God on the nation that has forsaken him. The initial attack of short-range tactical nuclear submarines will knock out the coastal ports of the United States that have commercial and military significance. The totality of this coastal debris will be “as a great mountain” which will pollute the waters of the seas and knock out a third of the ports and a third of the ships. The retaliation for this act will result in the carnage that is detailed in the first four trumpets. (The modern battle gear pictured in Revelation is detailed in Appendix VI). Out of the smoke of this global thermonuclear war, will come the Destroyer. The focal point of the fifth trumpet is not to describe destructive power of the rotary wing aircraft of the New World Order, even though John was understandably awed by the spectacle. The focal point is the introduction of their “king” or commander. This is the first Woe! The Woe begins when Satan is taken out of his place in the heavens and cast down to the earth, having great wrath because he knows that he has but a short time. This revealing of the Wicked one will commence the worst tribulation and slaughter of human life that has ever, or will ever be. Except for the fact that man’s days on this earth will be shortened by the intervention of the Messiah, no one would remain alive.

This final phase of the Illuminist’s Luciferian World Order will seek to destroy the remnant of Israel and all those who have the testimony of Jesus the Messiah and keep the commandments of God. This group is already seriously understaffed. These Saints will be hated and betrayed by those Christians who compromise to save their skin and their own sense of dead denominational churchianity. The compromisers will be the haters and betrayers of Matthew 24:10.

Those Christians who believe that Jesus is legally obligated to come get them before there is any tribulation on earth, will be in shock. They will not trust the word of any preacher, preachers won’t trust themselves. People willing to do anything to survive and feed themselves and their family, will capitulate to the New World Order, which will be ruled by the Destroyer. They will worship and obey him as their messiah, the one who will promise peace to the earth, through total obedience to him. He will expunge the irrational social deviants who wait for another messiah, the Lord Jesus.

To the unlearned, this coming war will appear as if Armageddon has taken place. The sixth seal global thermal nuclear war and its devastating effects will plunge the world into an anarchist’s nightmare. With millions vaporized and the planet in chaos, it will be reasonable for untrained and scripturally illiterate western Gentile Christians to imagine that the resurrection has “already passed” and that they have been “left behind” to endure the wrath of God. The sky is dark at noonday. Out of the ashes of the war emerges “the prince that shall come” and the final phase of the New World Order.

The prince that sits on the throne will be none other than the son of destruction himself. He will appear to establish peace on the earth, enlisting the help of the religious leaders of the world to assist in building a new millennium of peace and good will toward men. To all but the elect of God, it will appear that after “Armageddon”, the “messiah” has appeared to take his throne. All of the world will worship him. This is when “the snare of the false Christ” will take its toll. Those few Saints that are aware of the snare will be wise. By preparing ahead and walking by the spirit, they will be able to do things that would make James Bond cringe in fear.

Daniel 11:32, the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help. And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white.

Daniel 12:3, And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.

You may well have said, “This sounds like some kind of conspiracy”. You would be correct. We clearly see from the pages of the Bible and from life itself, that it is bound in the heart of man to agree with others, to do evil for their corporate gain. Organized crime has existed since Satan rebelled and convinced other angels to do so. Conspiracies are commonly seen throughout the Bible. We read in the second Psalm verses 2 and 3.

“The Kings of the earth, and the rulers of the earth take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying “Let us break their constraints in pieces, and cast their restraints from us’.”

This is the specific conspiracy of which we are speaking. Reading the remainder of the second Psalm, we see that the Messiah himself will take revenge on these world conspirators by dashing them to pieces like a potters vessel. Do I feel compelled to pray for these conspirators? Yes, that this destruction will be swift and their plans to destroy us will be thwarted by the angels. When evil men act alone, they have little power. If there is no premeditation to do evil, there is very little chance of success by the wicked. It would have been very difficult for Hitler to murder millions of innocent Jews, had he not taken counsel together with others who were atheist evolutionists. It would have been very difficult to hide the cocaine smuggling operation in Mena, Arkansas, unless crooked politicians were able to conspire with other evil men to have eyewitnesses executed. The nature of Satan is to bribe those who would conspire with him to do evil. Since he is the overseer of the plan to subdue the world in a totalitarian New World Order, it is axiomatic that the plan will continue to move ahead as he planned from the beginning. His co-conspirators follow his plans for the payoff that they will receive from him. There is no disputing the fact. If Satan exists, conspiracy on a worldwide scale is inevitable. Conspiracy? Absolutely!

There is only one way to claim the promises of being the target of persecution. You must open your mouth! Not in obnoxious defiance, but in love. You must take a stand on one side or the other. There is no halfway, mediocre, fence sitting position that Jesus has ordained for the Saints. He did not come to make life peaceful. Jesus came to make a difference to set at variance, to bring a sword, and to separate the true heart from the façade.

It is disappointing to realize how deeply the false doctrine of the secret rapture has invaded the majority of Christian churches. I hope you will risk yourself, for the sake of your brothers and sisters, to expose them to the truth of God’s Word concerning the mystery of iniquity and the timing and nature of Messiah’s return. There will be great resistance and denial by your dearest friends. You will find very few people who enjoy being awakened, but many that are thankful after you wake them. You may get a harsh dose of hatred and betrayal, but you are in good company. They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.

Matthew 10:22, And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake; but he that endureth to the end shall be save. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

There is one scripture that has been isolated to support both the pre-tribulation and secret mid-tribulation rapture. It is found in the third chapter of Revelation. When I mention the secret mid tribulation rapture, I am addressing the teaching of those who understand that the prerequisite for the gathering together is the revealing of the Destroyer at the fifth trumpet, in the aftermath of the sixth seal nuclear war before the seventh and last trumpet. For this to be plausible, they generally insist that the abomination of desolation happens between the third and fifth seals, and the rapture occurs between the fourth and fifth seals. The rapture would also take place at a secret time between verses in the early part of Matthew 24. In other words, they are a “secret “ within a the time chronology. In this way the pre-tribulation rapture is also secret. It is not found in Matthew 24, since “this is addressed to Israel only, and must only refer to the Battle of Armageddon”. The Rapture is not found in the book of Revelation at all for some dispensationalists who insist that the book is not to be read, as it is addressed to some poor souls in the future who will have to go through tribulation from which the Saints have been raptured. Others say the rapture is alluded to when John is taken to the throne room of God to get the revelation about that which is to happen in the future.

In refutation to the above concepts that leave the book of Revelation in a raveled up mess, the abomination of desolation is the most time documented prophetic fact concerning the last days. The Destroyer is revealed when Satan is cast down to the earth 3 ½ years before Armageddon. It is Woe to the earth when he is cast out, which corresponds to the first woe on earth at the fifth trumpet. That is when the Destroyer himself is revealed as the commander in chef of the New World Order. We have seen that the first resurrection, when Messiah returns for his saints and the dead are raised and rewarded, occurs at the last trump in the book of Revelation and I Corinthians. All other interpretations of the events of the book of Revelation have to be reworked to fit those two major, irrefutable occurrences. I know from months of experience that it is a lot of work. It is also not a real pretty picture until the end, but it is the truth.

Now, let us look at the primary verse that both the pre and mid-tribulation rapturists use to support their claim to a secret rapture before the last trumpet.

Revelation 3:7, and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth, and no man openeth. I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.

In each message to an individual church, there is a reference to the things John saw in his vision of the resurrected Messiah. Each one has special significance. This message is referencing the keys of death and hell (the grave) over which Jesus alone has power.

Revelation 1:18, I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Jesus was alive, was dead, and is now alive forevermore. God raised his Son from the dead and gave him all authority in heaven and earth. Jesus has the keys to unlock death and the grave. What he locks, stays shut, and when he opens the grave all the power of Satan cannot stop him. As he was victorious over death, so he will make us victorious in him. David is now dead. He is in the grave. Jesus holds the key that will unlock his grave, and David his servant will come forth with a new body. David will reign with the Messiah in the day or millennium of the LORD. Before us is the same open door. We will escape the grave through the resurrection power and authority of Messiah.

Revelation 3:8b, Thou hast a little strength, and has kept my word, and has not denied my name. Because thou has kept the word of my endurance. I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

The condition is set; because you have kept (watched carefully and observed) my word, I will keep (watch over and guard) you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world.

Because they had carefully guarded, observed, and lived according to the commandments of God’s enduring Word, the Messiah will keep them out of temptation, not take them out of the world. Those who live godly in Messiah, will not endure the same temptations and bitter disappointments as those who have lived for the temporary pleasures of this world. The fleeting promises of peace and prosperity will only be dashed to pieces on the altars of idolatry, and turned into ashes as they are offered to the god of self. But because these have faithfully kept themselves from sin, they are not drawn away of their own lusts and enticed. They are kept by the hand of God.

I John 5:18, We know that whosoever is begotten of God does not practice sin; but he that is begotten, God keeps him, and that wicked one does not touch him.

John confirms the principle that if the Saints meet the conditions through their own self-discipline, God will guard and keep them out of temptation during a time when all of the world will be tried in the fire of adversity. Jesus will not take them out of the world, but will keep them out of temptation. Look again at Revelation 3:10:

“ I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”

The word ek is a preposition, which means out from and is described as a line drawn out from the center of a circle. This preposition has been used to give credence to the notion that we are to be taken out from this world before the tribulation that is pictured in this book takes place. However, we have seen in all other scriptures that we will be taken out before the seven bowls of the wrath of God are poured out. This word ek does not indicate that we will be taken out of this world, but that we will be guarded and kept out of evil and temptation. Jesus again repeats this desire in his prayer. John was again the penman for the Lord as he wrote:

John 17:14, I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the (ek) the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from (ek) the evil one.

It is clear that Jesus had no intention of taking us out of the world, but that we would be guarded from the evil one of the world, while still living in the world.

“They are not of (ek) the world, even as I am not of (ek) the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. As thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.

Jesus prays that we will be kept, holy and separated from the world and its evil, by the enduring word of truth. When we keep the Word, and keep ourselves out of (ek) sin, we are actively kept by the power of God. This prayer and promise is not to his twelve alone, but to all of us that believe until he returns from heaven at the last trump.

Only by disregarding the rest of the scriptures written by the same prophet on the same subject, can we manufacture an “out of this world, early secret rapture.” This is an excellent example of a time worn method of Bible “interpretation”. If a numbered sentence cannot be isolated to prove one’s theology, isolating a few words will work just as well. Either way is twisting the scriptures. Interestingly enough, “twisting” and “wickedness” are from the same root word. Let us look at what Paul tells us about ek and its relationship to temptation.

I Corinthians 10:13, There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of escape (ekbano), that ye may be able to endure.

Ekbano is the Greek ek, out from, and bano, to take in the hand. Amidst the tribulations in life we have the promise that God will always make ekbano. God will take us in his hand to keep us out of temptation, not take us out of the world. There is no precedent for God to take his people out of this world to avoid the spiritual and physical warfare that the mystery of iniquity wages against God and man. There is, however, a day coming in which the age of the goodness and longsuffering of God is going to come to a halt at the edge of the sword that divides the soul from the spirit and discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. The inanity will end. Just as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, God will send his angels to gather the just to safety, and the fire of God will rain down on those who have rejected his son (Luke 17:28,29).

Saints through the ages have been tortured to death for the witness of their Lord. Some have sung while flames roasted their body. Others had their skin peeled from their flesh, some with no evidence of discomfort. Others have cried in agony for death, but refused to recant and deny their Lord for the promise of no more pain. Others yet fell asleep, dying for no apparent reason to the dismay of the would-be torturers. The temptation, regardless of its intensity, comes with the promise that he will always make ekbano, a way out, by being taken into the palm of his hand that we will be able to endure whatever man or Satan throws at us. Jesus is your Lord. He will keep you in his hand. No one and no thing can separate you from his love for you, or his promise to be with you and keep you in the hour of temptation.

Revelation 3:11, Behold, I come quickly; hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.

If you have been teaching the secret rapture, I implore you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, stop. No matter how much theology you have invested, there will be deep remorse before his throne if you continue to set the snares for others. I was given the space to repent. It is now your decision. Unless shepherds dedicate themselves to the truth, the blood of the flock will be upon their heads.

Teaching the secret pre-tribulation rapture is the “Holy Grail” of the American prosperity gospel. You may be as sincere as I was, but I was still accomplice to the mystery of iniquity. The same is true for anyone who teaches that the rapture of the church is at any time other than when Jesus told his prophets Paul and John: At the last trump. To teach any other peace and safety gospel leaves your brothers and sisters unprepared emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually for a time that Jesus warned would be darker than any other time in the history of man.

The coming tribulation will bring mankind to the brink of destruction. As he promised, those days will be shortened for the elects’ sake, but not avoided. But God will ekbano. He will always make a way out. He will take us into the palm of his hand and we will be able to endure to the very end. We keep his Word and he will keep us. We, like father Abraham, look for a better resurrection.

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