We Wait For The Rapture
One tradition teaches that Paul’s writings may simply indicate that The Rapture is a number specific event, not a date specific one. It will come, as Paul indicates, when the full number of Gentiles has come in. The phrase full number is taken from a nautical term that described the number of soldiers and sailors that had to be on board before a ship could set sail. As soon as the full number was accounted for, the ship could leave.
Another tradition teaches that the fullness of the Gentiles means that total maturity has been achieved. Today, both the Jews (Romans 11:25) and the Gentiles (1 Corinthians 13:9-12) are blinded in part. Once that partial blindness is gone, maturity is fully realized.
The Rapture is not dependent upon any specific prophecy being fulfilled except that each moed must be fulfilled to the tee. It comes on a day and hour that no one knows. It therefore comes at Yom Teruah, since Shavuot has already been fulfilled.
Avoiding The Tribulation and Eternal Damnation
Exercise whatever time you have to repent and trust Yeshua for your eternal salvation. Do not test Yahweh’s patience and wait too long. Three immediate steps must be taken to insure that you do miss The Rapture, that blessed hope when Yeshua shouts (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18), or worse yet, spend eternity in the Lake of Fire experiencing eternal damnation for failing to accept him as your Lord and Savior:
• Repent – Admit that you have sinned and that you are indeed a sinner.
• Pray – Ask Yeshua to be your Lord and Savior.
• Be Redeemed – Allow yourself to be baptized in the name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit and accept the gift of Yeshua’s salvation, redemption, blessing and comfort.
What’s In Store
The Bride of Yeshua, his true Church, will some day be raptured to be with him in Heaven. At that time, life will get incrementally worse for all who have been left behind:
• All who then place their trust in Yeshua can expect to be martyred for their newfound trust in him.
• A peace treaty will be signed with Israel, once the Antichrist has been revealed, but the treaty will only last three and one-half years before the Antichrist breaks it.
• All out war will break out as Satan, through his Antichrist, attempts to totally eliminate both the Jews and any new believers in Yeshua.
• A final battle will take place in Israel at which time Yeshua will return and personally end the conflict.
• All that survive the seven years of tribulation who have trusted Yeshua for salvation will be welcomed into his millennium reign. Those who have not will immediately die.
• A final judgment at the end of the Millennial Reign (thousand years) will occur at the Great White Throne, at which time all those who have rejected Yeshua will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.
My Prayer For You
Revelation 6:9 – “When Yeshua broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of Yeshua and for being faithful in their testimony.”
It is my hope that you will finally place your trust in Yeshua and continue to look forward to our blessed hope. It is still possible to be taken out of the wrath to come, to minimize the possibility that you will be martyred. However, one can only be raptured through faith in Yeshua.
Those who fail to place their faith in Yeshua prior to The Rapture will suffer all or part of the tribulation period, and the souls of those new believers who are martyred during that seven year period will then be taken to Heaven. They will also receive new bodies in which to be servants to those who are born during Yeshua’s thousand year reign, the millennium.
What Do We Do While We Wait?
2 Peter 3:9 – “Yahweh is not slow about keeping his promises as some people think, but is patient toward you because he wants everyone to turn from sin and come to repentance.”
Hebrews 11:1 – “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Many of you have had great hope that Yeshua Ha’Mashiach would have called his Bride home during the previous year’s Shavuot (Pentecost) or Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashanah) celebrations, that you would have risen up into the clouds to be with him forever during one of these moedim or celebrations. The moedim or Divine Appointment images of The Rapture had fully captured your soul and you awaited that day with all of your hope and faith, wishing it had become fact, not hope. If it is yet to come – do not stop hoping for that blessed event – the day and hour will transpire. Scripture guarantees it.
So, what are we to do while we wait for our Lord and Savior, Yeshua, to appear, if he has not yet done so?
Watch And Be Ready
Mark 13:33 . . . “Be careful! Always be ready, because you don’t know when that day and hour will be.”
Pray And Be Ready:
Luke 21:36 . . . “Be ready all the time. Pray that you will be strong enough to escape all these things that will happen and that you will be able to stand before the Son of Man, Yeshua.”
Purify Oneself:
1 John 3:2-3 . . . “We know that when Yeshua comes again, we will be like him, because we will see him as he really is. Yeshua is pure, and all who have this hope in him keep themselves pure like Yeshua.”
Abide In Yeshua:
1 John 2:28 . . . “Live in Yeshua, trust in him, have faith in him so that when he comes back, you can be without fear and not be ashamed in his presence.”
Look For His Coming:
Hebrews 9:28 – “He will come a second time, not to offer himself for sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”
Even More Importantly:
Matthew 6:9-13 – “You, therefore, pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven! May your Name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us the food we need today. Forgive us what we have done wrong, as we too have forgiven those who have wronged us. And do not lead us into hard testing, but keep us safe from the Evil One. For kingship, power and glory are yours forever. Amen’.”
Have you ever considered the Lord’s Prayer to be a prayer asking Yahweh /Yeshua to keep you from the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, from the Tribulation Period? If not, then perhaps you should:
Temptation / Testing
Matthew 6:13 – “Do not lead us into temptation.”
Luke 11:4 – “Do not lead us into temptation.”
This the most common translation of Matthew’s and Luke’s scriptures, translated this way by the ASV, DNT, ESV, HCSB, HNV, KJV, NET, NKJV, and NASB Bibles, to name a few. I like the Complete Jewish Bible which translates it this way: “into a time of hard testing”, or the New Revised Standard which translates it as: “to the time of trial”.
All of these are valid translations of the Greek word peirasmos [G3986], and the NET footnotes also acknowledges that it may be translated: “into a time of testing.” Many consider this part of the prayer to be only a request to be kept from sin, but it is more accurately a request to be kept from a time of testing or trial.
The question, then to ask, is: “When is the time of temptation, testing, or trial?”. And scripture answers this quite well – “For that day will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth. Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man” – Luke 21:35-36. When that day comes, Yahweh promises: “I will keep you from the time of trial coming upon the whole world to put the people living on earth to the test” – Revelation 3:10.
Evil / Evil One
Matthew 6:13 – “Keep us safe from evil.”
Again, this is a common translation of Matthew’s and Luke’s scriptures, translated this way by the ESV, KJV, CEV, DNT, and NASB Bibles. There are many more translations, however, that translate it more accurately this way: “Keep us safe from the Evil One“. ASV, CJB, HCSB, HNV, NCV, NET, NKJV, NLT, and NRSV.
All of these are valid translations of the Greek word [G4190]. Interesting to note that the newest translation of the KJV also now translates it Evil One! The word poneros, most generally translated evil, can be a specific and personified reference to the devil, Satan, as it is in this verse written as tou poneros. Tou poneros is used the same way in Matthew 5:39.
Conclusions
Luke 21:36 –“Pray that you will have the strength to escape all the things that will happen and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man.”
2 Timothy 4:18 – “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom.”
The Lord’s Prayer is definitely a prayer asking Yahweh / Yeshua to keep a person from a Time Of Trial that keeps that person safe from the Evil One.
While this can be applied to daily occurrences, it most definitely can and should be seen as an urgent request to be kept from the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, the Tribulation Period, which Yahweh promises to do (Revelation 3:10).
Matthew 24:42 – “So stay alert, because you don’t know on what day your Lord will come.”
Until that time, we are to stay alert, anxiously awaiting his appearing. This warning is repeated many times in Matthew 24:42; Matthew 25:13; Mark 13:33; Luke 12:40; and 1 Thessalonians 5:6.
Rapture Party 