Why this Saturday is NOT going to be what MANY are claiming
I have seen MANY blogs, Facebook memes and posts and YouTube videos about 9/23/17 allegedly being the day we all get Raptured out of here. Yet Paul said…
1 Thess. 4:15 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 (or precede) them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE >> FIRST << : 17 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 have two questions for all the 9/23 Pre-Tribbers:
1) Paul CLEARLY stated that the dead in Christ must rise FIRST. So, when is the FIRST Resurrection?
The details can be found in Revelation 20…
Revelation 20:
1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
NOTE: This does not happen until AFTER the Tribulation and just before the Millennial (thousand year) Reign of Christ.
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
These are clearly those saints who suffered under the Beast’s persecution during the Tribulation period. So, again, we are in a POST Trib mode here.
5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Revelation 20:1-5 CLEARLY states that the FIRST Resurrection is AFTER the Tribulation and AFTER Satan is bound and just prior to the Millennial Reign beginning. Paul CLEARLY said we would NOT get “caught up” until AFFFFFFFFTER this stuff happens. After. After. After! Why people can’t see this – why I never could for nearly 40 years of my life – is beyond me. If words actually mean things, the text tells you exactly what happens and when.
2) Paul said we would be “caught up” to meet Yeshua in the clouds. When will Christ be in the clouds?
Yeshua told us Himself…
So, Yeshua told us exactly when He would be in the clouds and when He would “gather together” His people. And Paul agrees…
OK. Paul clearly warned us NOT to be deceived concerning our “gathering together” unto Christ. He gave us more to go by when he CLEARLY stated that it will NOT happen until AFTER there is a great apostasy FIRST {Note: “falling away” does NOT mean departing to the clouds}. And this will PRECEDE the revealing of the Beast/Antichrist/man of sin.
STOP! Where does the Beast/Antichrist/man of sin come from?
Question: Has the Bottomless Pit been opened yet??
That would be a great big, massively huge NNNNNnnnnnope. It doesn’t open until the 5th Trumpet Judgment (see Revelation 9). We haven’t even had the 1st Trumpet, nor a fair number of Seals yet. So regardless of what CERN or any other human agency is doing right now, we’ve still got a ways left to go until this event happens. Indeed, quite a bit must precede the 5th Trumpet and the opening of the Abyss.
Paul continues…
We already know the Beast has NOT yet ascended out of the Bottomless Pit, but even if he did, he has NOT yet done what Paul stated above in verse 4. This is the Abomination of Desolation event that even the most die-hard Pre-Trib Rapture Dispensationalists would generally agree is a MID-Trib event!
In summary…
Scripture quite clearly teaches against any notion of a “secret” Pre-Trib Rapture event in the clouds. As clearly seen in the above Scriptures, there will be NO RAPTURE/gathering together to Yeshua in the clouds until:
A) AFTER the Beast comes out of the Bottomless Pit (at the 5th Trumpet).
B) AFTER the Beast commits the Abomination of Desolation.
C) AFTER Christians are beheaded by the Beast.
D) AFTER Satan is bound for his thousand year judgement.
E) AFTER the “Tribulation of those days,” when Yeshua said He would be in the clouds to gather us together unto Him.
F) AFTER the “dead in Christ rise FIRST” – at the First Resurrection.
So, unless time is seriously compressed and a TON of stuff happens in less than 48 hours, sorry guys but the “blessed hope” many are seeking this Saturday is going to be yet another big, fat, blasted nope.
While interesting, it should be noted the “Revelation 12 sign” that is allegedly lining up on 9/23, has ALREADY happened – when Yeshua was born on 9/11/3 BC.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she brought forth a MAN CHILD, who was to RULE ALL NATIONS WITH A ROD OF IRON: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
Myself and many others have done teachings on the 9/11/3 BC birth. You can even use Stellarium to see the alignment for yourself (note: the software reckons 3BC as -2). Here is a clip from one of the lectures I’ve given on the subject:
Revelation 12 clearly describes a “man child” being birthed. Some are trying to say this represents the “body of Christ” that is the “Church” of today, that’s going to get “caught up” (Raptured) this weekend. Yet, the “Church” is consistently described as a BRIDE – i.e. FEMALE. So, that doesn’t work. But let’s go with the assumption that it is talking about the current “body of Christ” known as Believers/the Church. If you are going to assign Revelation 12 to today, then you would have to deny that the “body of Christ/Church” has been in existence for thousands of years and rather admit that it will only be born this coming Saturday (9/23), which is an utterly ridiculous notion.
Furthermore, if you are going to say the “man child” is the Church, which is going to be “birthed” this weekend, then who is the woman? Israel? Mary? The Vatican? Nothing works for a modern context.
We also see in Revelation 12 that the “man child” is going to rule the nations with an iron rod. But that’s in Yeshua’s job description, not ours!
So again, absolutely nothing about this 9/23 deal aligns with any notion of a Rapture of the Church.
Now, some say it won’t be the Rapture, but it will be the kick-off to the Tribulation beginning. I have serious doubts about this idea as well, but that would require a lot more writing than I intended to do with this post.
Suffice it to say, we’re all going to still be here on 9/24. I know MANY feel differently and have regularly “rebuked me” for questioning and doubting their “calculations” and “prophecies” concerning this issue, but I posted the following on my Facebook page earlier this week with no takers:
There’s still a few more days for all of you 9/23-ers to sell all your stuff and deposit the money into a checking account. You are either committed to your dogmatic belief or not. So, get to it. Chop-chop. Get off Facebook and start piling the stuff up in your yard and driveway for sale. Sell it all at rock bottom prices if you have to. You’re not going to need it – assuming you are right – so clear it all out. Everything must go. No need to keep it. Just get the money into the bank and then write me a check for the grand total post-dated 9/24.
It’s a win-win deal. If you are right (as you dogmatically believe you are now), then you win all the way around – nothing lost on your end and nothing gained on mine. But if you are wrong I win and well… you’ll get the perfect opportunity to seriously rethink your eschatology, which ultimately will save you from future losses and disappointments (which itself would prove to be a very valuable lesson, hence ultimately a win for you too).
So, enough talk on Facebook. Let’s get down to who really believes what they are saying here. Ready? Set? Go!
If you firmly disagree with me on this and are absolutely convinced that 9/23/17 is the date of the Rapture (in spite of all the Scriptures posted above that refute such a notion), then please, by all means, put your money where your mouth is. If you are going to rebuke me, then sell all you have and write me a check to prove your convictions are as firm as they appear in all your ranting and ravings on social media and finger pointing against those who question/doubt you.
Oh and by the way… this isn’t the first time we’ve gotten all excited about the date Sept. 23rd…
So again, for the reasons stated in that video and more, I believe we have quite a bit more time left.
Happy to be wrong, but don’t believe I am.
- Rob Skiba
It is, no doubt,not going to be the day of “rapture,” but I do believe it is going to be a date of significance in God’s timetable. How exactly it lines up will become known later. I do, however, believe God wants us to be paying attention to this date.
Not going to argue with you….but there is talks of an “invasion” on that date. You know…videos of two suns in The sky,and the return of the Annunaki. I believe they would try to fake it given the circumstances and timeline between the 1920’s till now.You know Admiral byrd, Antartica. Definitely a lot of narratives being pushed over what ever the real truth may be. With that being said its safe to say A lot of thought went into tomorrow.
There are several resurrections…
Church
———–
1. Christ himself
2. The born again christians
3. The the two witnesses
Other
————————–
1. Martyrs
2. Unbelievers
Also in Matthew 24: 29 when it says “Immediately AFTER the TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS” (Why would Jesus have to say “of those days” if He was referring to the tribulation of Jacobs 70th week, surely everyone would know what period he was referring to? I think its important to know that the word “tribulation” could also refer to general hard times happening around the end and not necessarily “Jacobs Trouble”.
I disagree. There is only ONE Resurrection for the righteous, which was recorded by several authors – it is THE Resurrection. Everyone who was raised from the dead in Scripture died again, except for our Savior, Who was called the “first fruits of THE Resurrection.” Contrary to the Enoch/Elijah view of the Two Witnesses, I believe they are among those who have already died (Yeshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel – compare Zechariah 3 – 5 with the description given in Revelation 11). So, all born again Christians, righteous before YHWH and martyred saints will partake in the FIRST Resurrection. The unbelievers won’t be raised until the Second Resurrection. And that’s all there is.
Rob, several verses say the rod will be given to somevto rule & reign with Yeshua:
1 Corinthians 6:2-3, Revelation 2:26-27…and Rev 3:10 says the church of Philadelphia will be kept from the hour of wrath. Forget opposing the traditions of men & do a bible word search on hidden/hide etc in the day of the Lord or trouble/wrath-lots in the prophets & Psalms -also check out why Chuck Missler & many others see only 3.5 years “Great Tribulation” in Revelation. I’m not arguing FOR pre-trib rapture, I’m suggesting we need to break this paradigm of yes/no, it’s not rolling out with a 7 yr trip & a day of the Lord at the (predictable) end. Also do a bible word search on “suddenly” in the Hebrew & Greek…love your books & work, Shalom!
Thanks Susan. Yes, I did quite a bit of study on the concept of “hidden/hiding away” back in 2011. See my Rapture Riddle blogs:
http://www.babylonrisingblog.com/RaptureRiddle.html
and
http://www.babylonrisingblog.com/RaptureRiddle2.html
Note: It’s been 6 years since writing those, so I’m not totally sure I’m still on the same page with all of that, but those were my thoughts at the time.
Hey Rob. Can give a quick summary or maybe one point on why you don’t beleive the the 9/23 sign may represent the beginning of the tribulation?
To keep it VERY SHORT, I’d say, based on the research I’ve done, it’s still a ways out because there is still wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too much left to happen.
There is a lot of problems with the churches theology these but I believe Dispensationalism is the main problem. My pastor and I were yelling at each other over this. The end of Mark says to watch. Let’s watch.
How can Revelation 12 be about Yeshua’s birth, if he had already been born, died and risen when John had the vision?
That would be a vision about the past, can that happen?
Revelation 1:18 says ‘I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,’.
Do you think Nasa or someone has put an extra star or wandering star to confuse us?
Thank you
I was wondering this as well…