And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

1 John 2:28

“Partial rapture” is an uncomfortable possibility, generally rejected by our “prophecy experts” and seen as manifest judgmentalism. “You’re just trying to scare people.  Jesus never gave a list of requirements for the rapture. He just said you must be a believer. The rapture is our ‘blessed hope’ and it’s for every Christian,” they protest. Well, yes and maybe. Let’s take a deeper look at this.

And I want to say at the outset that I am also somewhat uncomfortable with the “partial rapture” position, though less than I used to be. But we can’t simply ignore the explicit texts that deal with it, or the admonitions in scripture that suggest it. So let’s try to be honest and see what the scripture says. And as always, feel free to leave a comment.

Jesus set the bar really low for the rapture. He gave just ONE requirement:

Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

Rev. 3:10 NKJV (emphasis added)

Those who keep His command to persevere may claim the promise. So the next question is, “what does ‘persevere’ mean?” Can it be measured or quantified? Who decides how much “perseverance” is necessary, since we all slip up? Well, without being silly, let me suggest that if someone said, “give me a definition of ‘perseverance’ or you will be shot at sunrise” you would be able to come up with a very satisfactory definition. Continue, maintain, uphold, persist, abide, remain … lots of ideas come up and all will work.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 NKJV (emphasis added)

The New Testament is replete with expansion on this. As John wrote:

But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

1 John 2:27 NKJV (emphases added)

This takes away the “ignorance card.” The tenor of the passage is that we are to abide in Christ, and “ignorance is no excuse.” We all know this stuff.

I believe that the rapture IS for all believers. Jesus does not divide His body into “prime believers” and a “not quite good enough” group. He loves us all, we were ALL unworthy, He paid for ALL of our sins, and we ALL have a blessed hope. So, if it’s for all of us, then who decides who goes and who stays?

WE do. Surprised? Take another look at the top scripture quoted in this post. John said “ashamed before Him at His coming.” The trumpet sounds and every believer hears it. The heavens are opened – the doorway to the Throne of God is visible. Jesus stands at the door in all His glory, and His blazing holiness lights up all of creation. A booming voice commands, “Come up here!” And then what?

Some Christians, for whom Jesus Christ is their consuming passion, will eagerly obey the command and, literally, fly to Him. But what about those believers who have spent their lives in carnality? Those who have saving faith, but have not been transformed by the renewing of their minds, have not been conformed to the image of Christ, have not abided in Him, have not “persevered”?

What about them? John suggests they will “shrink back.” They will choose to not go. THEY – not you, me or Jesus – will choose. In a sense, they make that choice every time they turn on the TV. They have sown their lives with habits that leave Jesus out. Their names are written in His book, but their lives — up to this point anyway — have been squandered. They can’t bear to look at Him; they are totally engulfed by their own shame.

The Greek word John uses for “ashamed” is aischynō (pronounced ice WHO know) and it means “to disfigure, to dishonor, to suffuse with shame, make ashamed, be ashamed.” BlueLetterBible suggests “that we may not in shame shrink from him” which may be a literal, or perhaps idiomatic translation (they don’t say). I can imagine the disfigured facial expression of someone who stands ashamed or acutely embarrassed when His Savior calls him and he’s unprepared for the meeting.

No, on second thought, I really can’t. And I really don’t want to try.

The definition of aischynō also includes “to dishonor.” Does that not jump out at you? If not, please re-read A Fuller Dignity and decide for yourself how this may pertain to rapture-readiness.

But God, Who is rich in mercy, still does not abandon them (our God truly is AWESOME!). They get the “crash course” this time. “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Rev. 2:10) Welcome to Smyrna/Thyatira – a remnant of the end-time church that will go through some “great tribulation” (Rev. 2:22). But it’s short, the choice is clear and binary, and the rewards are astonishing.

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Rev. 20:4 NKJV

This is how things WILL play out for some.

In my previous post of Aug 20th entitled Adamantine Hearts I closed with three questions. The third question was “we clearly DO see believers on the earth after the rapture. Who are they?” I believe this is the answer to that question. These are “the rest of her offspring,” (Rev. 12:17), the saints who are overcome, (Rev. 13:7), those who “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12), and the victorious ones in Rev.15:2. My point is that these saints who are killed after the rapture were saved before the rapture. After the rapture, we see no repentance or lost people being saved.

There is a gospel proclamation after the rapture:

Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth — to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people — saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”

Rev. 14:6-7 NKJV (emphasis added)

This is the “everlasting gospel” and not a message of salvation. It appears to be chronologically and conceptually connected to the “second woe” described in Rev. 11:13 where the survivors of a massive earthquake “were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

Final note: many of the “prophecy experts” teach that the blessed hope in Titus 2:13 is the rapture and, specifically, our deliverance from the so-called “seven year tribulation period” which is NOT seven years long. Once again, the “experts” are off target. Our blessed hope is to be with Jesus Christ forever. Our hope is not an event; it’s a Person. A focus on the event takes our eyes off Christ and puts the focus on our comfort. Those who, for whatever reason, choose to be left behind do not lose their blessed hope.

“Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.”

Psalm 2:3

I thought I was going to make the case that the so-called “end times revival” after the rapture was logistically impossible. Actually, it isn’t.  God has done many “logistically impossible” things. 

The reason there will be no revival is not because of God’s unwillingness or the difficulty in effecting salvation, but because the recalcitrant hearts of those unbelievers who are left behind will not be changed when the church leaves. They will still want to have nothing to do with God, repentance, or reconciliation. Those in rebellion against God during these last days before the rapture will remain rebellious after we leave. There will be no remorse, and your “left behind” letters will not find receptive hearts. 

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

2 Thess. 2:9-12

This is simple, plain scripture in context. This is what Paul told the Thessalonians about the coming of the Dragon. The “lawless one” and his associates will work “signs, and lying wonders” before a world filled with “those who perish,” and Paul wrote that “they may ALL be condemned.” Why?? We need not speculate: 1) they did not believe the truth, and 2) they had pleasure in unrighteousness.

I don’t know how God could have inspired any writer to make it any clearer. God removes from the earth those who love and trust Him, and the rest (excluding those who exercise the aischynō option) are condemned. They don’t get a “second chance” and even a third, fourth or fifth “chance” would not make any difference.

We see disease and famine on the near horizon.  We’ve just had over a year of government-inflicted lockdowns, business shutdowns and the rest.  Now inflation is gearing up to unbelievable levels, the stores could be empty in the foreseeable future, gas could hit $10 or more per gallon before it’s completely unavailable.

We’ve been told that a novel strain of corona virus is lurking in the air and on every horizontal surface, and it could strike you down and kill you at any time. And many people believe it! They are wearing their masks (even without mandates), social-distancing, avoiding large social gatherings and the rest. It’s like a global make-believe leper colony. But are people repenting?  Is escalating misery making people more open to the gospel?

And if not now, then why would we expect it in the future as life becomes even more painful?

In fact, people will blame God, curse God, turn from Him and refuse to repent.  Hearts will become even harder.   Explicit scripture bears this out:

But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.

They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.

Rev. 9:20-21, Rev. 16:9, 11 NKJV emphasis added

There is not a single verse in Revelation saying anyone repented or turned to God or relented from evil. Not one. So a “task force” of 144 MILLION could not win this hard-hearted crowd.  They have rejected the truth.  God will send a strong delusion that they may believe a lie.  He will give them what they ask for, and when they don’t like the results, they will curse God and refuse to repent.

That’s fallen human nature.

You may be wondering, “but then what about those 144,000 Jews? If they are not global evangelists, then what do they do?” Besides them being sealed, all we know about them is in the first five verses of Rev. 14:

Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth.

These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.

Rev. 14:1-5 NKJV (emphasis added)

They sing before the Throne of God, and they follow the Lamb wherever He goes. That’s it.

Three questions remain. First, if there is no “tribulation revival” then why are so many “prophecy experts” insisting that there is? Second, who makes up the “great multitude” in Revelation 7:9? And finally, we clearly DO see believers on the earth after the rapture. Who are they?

Stay tuned.

There seems to be general agreement in the eschatosphere (the “prophecy community”) that Satan will be on the earth and very busy right after the rapture. Rev. 12:1-6 appears to be a highly symbolic but nevertheless chronologically accurate description of events at the time of the rapture. There is a harpazo in verse 5, and then “the woman” – with much speculation about her identity – flees into the wilderness for 1,260 days to escape the dragon’s persecution. This is a 3½-year period beginning shortly after the rapture.

John’s narrative is interrupted to give some back-story on this dragon, how Satan and his angels are cast down to the earth, and that he has “great wrath because he knows that he has a short time.” With that bit of illumination, John resumes the narrative with this Dragon persecuting the woman. She flies to the wilderness – the place prepared for her – for “a time and times and half a time,” the 3½-years noted above. This appears to be the beginning of the “tribulation period” so-called, though the term is rarely defined with any precision. For our purposes, let’s simply agree that the hardships visited on the planet will escalate in frequency and intensity from the harpazo until the Dragon is destroyed.

As life on earth is becoming increasingly unpleasant, Satan is making war against “the rest of her offspring” – some (at present) unidentified group of people living on earth after the rapture who “keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17). The two most likely possibilities for the identity of this group are 1) people who were saved before the rapture but got “left behind,” or 2) people who got saved after the rapture.

Satan will give his power, his throne, and great authority to someone designated “the beast.” This beast then receives what appears to be a mortal head wound and miraculously (or so it appears) recovers. Speculation abounds, but scripture gives no additional information. But the end result is that this “beast” becomes an object of worship, the dragon is given authority to continue (or “make war”) for 42 months, and his authority is “over every tribe, tongue, and nation.” None of this is conjecture; it’s all written in Rev. 13:1-14 which I encourage you to read.

At this point, we know from scripture that this Beast is perceived to be invincible, he has become an object of worship, he has global authority, and he has declared war against all who will not worship him. Since resistance is futile (Rev. 13:4) it can reasonably be assumed that he has control over the planet, including supply chains, highways, food supplies, energy, air transportation, communications, public facilities and all the rest. He will have this control and authority, granted by God, for 42 months (Rev. 13:5). 42 months is, again, 1,260 days – not necessarily the exact same time period as above, but a lot of overlap.

It is into this arena that our 144,000 sealed “witnesses” (in quotes because they are never identified in scripture as witnesses, evangelists, or anything similar) are going to go, and win “a great multitude which no one could number“ to Christ. Unless, in addition to them being sealed by God, we also assume they have supernatural powers, they would have to be extremely effective evangelists in an extremely hostile environment. In addition, these prospective “new converts” must be reached QUICKLY, because those without the mark can’t get groceries.

One thing needs to be remembered here: the power to save is in the GOSPEL, not in the presentation. We need to disabuse ourselves of the notion that they would be successful soul-winners because of their verbal skills, or that you may be ineffective in evangelism because of your own rhetorical deficiencies. In selling cars or anything else, verbal strength is essential. But not in evangelism. The power of the gospel is released by the faith of the hearer. The skill of the messenger is essentially irrelevant.

I hope I have honestly represented the logistic challenges. Despite these difficulties, it would still be possible for a great multitude to be saved if those to be won were hungry for truth, eager for redemption, passionate for reconciliation with God, and undeterred by the immediate and painful consequences of their conversion. Today, as you have no doubt noticed, people generally are NOT. Will this change after the rapture? The scriptures offer a clear answer to this question.

Is a post-rapture harvest mathematically reasonable?

Presumably, every believer is removed from the earth at the time of the rapture. Then, as the popular narrative goes, God seals and commissions 144,000 Jews to evangelize those remaining on the earth. Their efforts are so successful that a “great multitude which no one could number” is saved. Is this reasonable?

At first blush, it may make perfect sense. Why not? God’s in the redemption business, and is unwilling that any should perish. He has been saving people since Noah entered the ark. 144,000 sealed, empowered and divinely-protected Jewish evangelists should certainly be up to the task. And “the Bible says ….”

Well actually, the Bible says no such thing. This narrative, though widely believed and uncritically accepted, is “problematic” to be charitable. I want to explore this narrative on several levels to demonstrate those problems.

Let’s start by crunching a few numbers to get an idea of what is entailed. What, exactly, do these global evangelists have to do? How many people have to be saved to reach the target?

That’s a good question, because we don’t really have a number. Since it’s a “great multitude which no one could number” the best we can do is find some heavenly multitude that we CAN number, and assume it’s more than that. We find just what we’re looking for in Revelation, chapter 5:

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,

Rev. 5:11

Ten thousand times ten thousand is 100 million.  Thousands of thousands is non-specific, with the number of “thousands” ranging from 1 – 9.  So at most it’s another hundred million, and the largest “countable” number is probably 150 million plus or minus fifty million. For this speculation, let’s say 150 million is countable, and that’s the upper limit. Any number greater than that is an amount “which no one could number.”

As we know from numerous examples in scripture – and it’s common sense, especially in a hostile world – evangelists work in pairs. So the 144,000 becomes 72,000 two-man teams. If we divide the minimum target size by the number of evangelistic teams, we see that each team wins 2,083 people at least during this campaign.

So how long do they have? Again, we don’t know. Since it’s about 3 ½ years from the ascent of The AntiChrist to his destruction, let’s be charitable again and give our teams 1,260 days. This means each team makes three converts every two days.

That does not seem unrealistic today, since we have internet, TV, radio, stadium events and the like. But after the rapture, as we will explore in subsequent discussions, none of these options will exist. When “The Dragon” comes on the scene, he will take over the world’s technology and resources. A one-world religious system will be set up, and those choosing not to “participate” will be killed. So this must necessarily be one-on-one evangelism for the most part.

In addition, in the world today, new converts make new converts. Pastor Charlie shares the gospel, and Fred becomes a believer. Then Fred tells Mike and Mike becomes a believer. Mike tells his wife and children and they become believers.

But in the post-rapture world, where believing in Christ is a capital offense and Alexa and Siri are everywhere, Fred’s lifespan gets a LOT shorter when he becomes a believer. Pastor Charlie may have divine protection, but that’s it. The explicit testimony in Revelation is that those with the testimony of Jesus are hunted down and killed.

It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Rev. 13:7 NKJV

So we have 72,000 evangelistic teams sent out into the world, and each team is successful in leading at least ten people to saving faith every week for over three years, and these people realize that they are getting a death sentence by becoming converts.

Even without the death sentence part, this does not seem to match evangelistic efforts of the past century. But this is not the only thing that is unrealistic. When we explore what the Bible has to say about the world after the rapture, and also the kind of people these 144,000 will allegedly be trying to win to Christ, you may begin to wonder how anyone could believe the narrative in the first place.

I can’t let this go, and I don’t know why.

Why should we care about what’s going to happen (or not happen) after the rapture?   I don’t really know.  I’d like to move on to something else, but God’s Spirit seems to be nudging me back to this topic. Perhaps this topic doesn’t interest you. I understand.  On the other hand, there may be some significant nuggets of truth to be discovered.  Maybe we can discover them together.

There is a narrative, tenaciously embraced and uncritically promoted by many prophecy teachers, that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between the sealing of 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel (Rev. 7:4-8) and the “great multitude … standing before the throne and before the Lamb” in Rev. 4:9.  This relationship is not stated in scripture, but is inferred by the structure of the Biblical narrative.  The widely-held belief seems to be that after the rapture, God will commission 144,000 Jews as global evangelists who will go into the world with the gospel, and as a result of their evangelistic efforts, an innumerable multitude from those people left on earth will believe and be saved.

I find this narrative to be unsupported by scripture, and extremely problematic in its practical impact.

I’m not building a straw man argument; I think this is a fair statement of the doctrine.  In Things To Come (1958) Dwight Pentecost asserted that God was sending the 144,000 sealed Jews “as special representatives to the nations in place of the witness of the church”  so this is not a new idea.  In The Late, Great Planet Earth (1969), Hal Lindsey referred to this group as “144,000 Jewish Billy Grahams.”  Lee Brainard of Soothkeep, after reading Then Comes the Harvest, took exception to my conclusion that there would be no “second harvest” after the rapture. He recently wrote, “The New Covenant harvest includes both the church saints of this age and the Jewish saints (and proselytes) of the seventieth week. The seventieth week will finish what was well started in this age.” None of these men offered scriptural support for their assertions.

Doctrines shape what we understand about God, and about how we should live.  Obviously, correct doctrine is critically important.  True doctrine gives us an accurate picture of God, His desires, His judgments and His will.  False doctrine gives a distorted or incorrect understanding of these things.  I think this is generally true of all doctrine, not just eschatology.  What you think God is like, what you think the future will be like, what the options are, and what’s expected of us as Christians – all of these things are important, and God has given us written guidance.  It really behooves us to “be Berean” and study these things out, rather than slothfully allowing “the experts” to tell us what to believe.

I am not writing to assault anyone’s character, but I will admit that it grieves me deeply when men and women who purport to be Christian leaders refuse to examine these things. That is between them and God.

I started writing this up, and it got really long really fast.  So I’m breaking it into three pieces:  1) whether a post-rapture harvest is mathematically reasonable, 2) how the scriptures describe the state of the world after the rapture, and 3) how the scriptures describe the people who will remain on earth after the rapture.  When we put these three pieces together, I think we can expect to have a clear answer to the question:  “Will 144,000 Jewish evangelists win a great multitude of people to Christ after the rapture?“

Let’s get started.

It happened so quickly I could not take a picture. We were returning to Raleigh after a weekend fun-and-research trip to Highlands North Carolina and were near Morganton. What I saw was a huge billboard, erected by a local church, boldly proclaiming “Jesus Is the Answer to All Your Problems.” Less than two hours later, I saw a similar billboard proclaiming “The Bible Has All the Answers.“

Really?

Jesus claimed to be the exclusive way to reconciliation with God. It does not disparage Jesus or the Bible to assert, as I do, that Jesus never claimed to be the answer to your problems. Anyone who has been a Christian for more than about a week knows that problems do not instantly evaporate when one submits to the Lordship of Christ. Sometimes your current problems are replaced with bigger ones. Sometimes it’s hard to be a Christian. Overcoming sin, the flesh, the devil and the constant bombardment of pressures from the world and the world system involves problems.

Turning to the Bible may not help. Again, if you’ve been a Christian for a while, you may be really struggling with some issues, and the Bible seems vague or ambiguous. You pray and nothing happens. You ask fellow-believers or your pastor and get platitudes or conflicting advice, or maybe a blank stare. “Just have more faith,” they counsel. That’s helpful? His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. But specific answers to our problems? Often not.

I am probably not writing anything new, and it isn’t surprising to me that in this bumper-sticker generation, people would latch onto some pithy little slogan, or offer Jesus, faith, or church participation as the magic key that unlocks a door to a satisfying and stress-free life. But presumably somewhere in a church hierarchy between the exuberant youth evangelist who conceives of this billboard, and the trustee who writes the check, there should be SOMEONE who says, “wait a minute. That’s not true.“

Because it ISN’T true. If it were true, seminary training and all the rest would be unnecessary. The Bible says of itself that it is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished for every good work.” That’s why God gave us scriptures. Jesus NEVER promised to solve all of anyone’s problems. He said His yoke is easy and His burden is light, but there’s still a yoke and a burden.

Once again, we need to be crystal clear on what our message is. We are Christ’s ambassadors and we are not here to market the services of a heavenly bell-hop who comes to solve our problems, undo the consequences of our mistakes, or make us rich, safe and comfortable. Our message is essentially RECONCILIATION. Maybe some of the folks at What-Ever Church in Morganton know that. Maybe – probably – their sign is just a marketing ploy. I don’t know. But no doubt we meet folks every day who were sucked into Churchianity by similar ploys, and concluded that “well, I tried Christianity and it didn’t work for me.” Not really. They heard a toxic sermon, or read a toxic tract, and said a little prayer …. and their problems did not budge. They were effectively immunized against the gospel.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With the World

Woe betide these folks who are out marketing Jesus. For you, dear reader, your message is that in Jesus Christ, complete reconciliation with God is now freely available. For those who want reconciliation with their Creator, forgiveness, a new nature, and all the other lavish blessings that God is eager to provide, this is sufficient. For those who want someone to fix their problems, try a therapist, Oprah, Joel Osteen, or a trip to Disneyland.

Taking the Gospel Seriously

I am not writing to be either entertaining or uncharitable. This is Laodicea, where cheap grace abounds. We have leaders in the Christian community who are lying in the name of the Lord. We have a gospel centered on man, and a message that submitting to Jesus as Lord is optional, and contempt for His Lordship is acceptable. We have an outrageous “second chance” gospel, alleging that those who reject Christ before the rapture can still be saved when the “144,000 witnesses” come on the scene. Some of our highly visible leaders assert there are other ways to God besides going through Christ. Some seem to think sodomy is okay.

We also have Twitter-Christianity, where Biblical truth is reduced to half-truth, ambiguity, and frivolity – a sound-bite or two, or a brief phrase with no context offered to the public as a purported authoritative statement about Jesus Christ or His word.

This is serious, and this should serve as a warning for US. For those with discernment and the self-control to study the Word and dial back on TV and social media, there is wisdom and illumination regarding the leaders in Christendom who are betraying us, as well as this miasma of spiritual-sounding deception swirling through our culture. God will send a strong delusion to those who refuse the love of the truth.

We have been warned.

I started my research on “dignity” for reasons I will present shortly. Most of the search engine hits concerned “human dignity”; that is, the dignity that all humans possess because all men are made in God’s image. Interestingly, most of the sites were Catholic.

I don’t dispute that every human is an image-bearer and, by virtue of design, has inherent dignity. This is increasingly difficult to believe, as our global descent into madness continues. Seeing what some people have willingly done to themselves leads me toward the conclusion that some people really don’t like their Creator, and want to deface or obliterate His image if at all possible. “All who hate Me love death,” and so forth (Proverbs 8:36).

That is human dignity and the daily self-inflicted assaults thereon, but I have something else in mind. We, as humans, have one level of dignity, but as children of the King, we have another:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-7 (emphasis added)

The dignity of sitting together in the heavenly places in Christ far exceeds the dignity of being an earth-dweller made in God’s image. And this is a dignity we possess NOW. In God’s mind – in ultimate, bedrock REALITY (which is really the only place that matters) we are already raised and already seated. It is a spiritual reality, not a wish, hope, or dream.

Paul repeats this:

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

Colossians 1:13

The Greek word for “conveyed” is methistēmi and it is not a change in status. It is a change in location.

Dignity is not thinking of oneself as being better than others. I’m not persuaded that it’s connected with reputation, either. Rather, it seems most like valuing your honor. The things that are beneath your dignity are those things that are dishonorable.

Suppose you are in a grocery store, you pay for your purchases, and you discover that the cashier accidentally gave you $5 extra with your change. Of course, you give it back. Why? Because you are an honorable person and stealing is beneath your dignity. You are unwilling to sell your honor for five bucks.

Or five million. Your HONOR is simply not for sale, and not negotiable.

The Christian community may be recovering the sense of honor, generally shared by all people, but particularly enjoyed by those in Christ. Bindi Marc explores this (30-minute video).

It was this graphic that inclined me toward exploring this whole area. Everything in the world system is directed toward outward attractiveness: “dress for success” and “fake it till you make it” and so forth. I need not waste your time unpacking this statement. The question I am asking myself is, am I living in the world, to fulfill the lusts thereof, or am I seated in the heavenly places in Christ? Is attractiveness more important than honor? What things do I eschew simply because they are beneath my dignity?

A few years ago, I had a young man knock on my door. He looked rather like this:

I am used to people coming through the neighborhood and asking if I would hire them to clean my gutters and so forth, and I thought at first that this was what he had in mind. But he surprised me when he said, “I’m a financial advisor with Edward Jones and I’m looking for new clients.” I recall trying to share the gospel with him, but his uncle was in the ministry or something. Jesus is coming soon, but he really wasn’t interested. I was not interested in allowing him to manage my investments.

But the young man pictured above is not an investment advisor. His name is Steiger and he is a youth evangelist. He wants to mobilize the young and win the world for Christ. He seems to be trying to trade dignity for credibility. Or something. He says “we need to become relevant,” and I suppose this is the best way he knows to do it.

We Are Going to See the King

We in the end-times church, and especially in the eschatosphere are being badly distracted by the world, and by our “shepherds” who are emphasizing “being in the know” instead of being ready to go. Yes, we’re to be aware of what’s going on in the world, but being aware does not mean being consumed. I’ve seen a few – QUITE a few – Christian programs directed toward Bible prophecy, and virtually all of them are concerned with either 1) justifying their model of how they think “the tribulation” will play out, or 2) mapping current events to the scriptures, or 3) promoting their magazines, DVDs, prophecy conferences and YouTube channels. FEW talk about what kind of people we should be in order to give King Jesus the bride He deserves.

Maybe that’s okay. After all, we should have a pretty good idea this late in the game of what kind of people we should be. It’s not a knowledge issue at this point; it’s what we’re doing about it. We are going to see Jesus face-to-face. What ARE we doing about it?

I am grieved by our global descent into madness. Hopefully you are also, as it’s a bulwark of safety:

Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

To the others He said in my hearing, “Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.”

Ezekiel 9:3-6 NKJV (emphasis added)

In Ezekiel’s day, it was those who were sighing and crying over the abominations in Jerusalem who were marked out for preservation, and it appears that it did not take the man with the inkhorn very long at all to identify and mark the small remnant that would be preserved. You also notice, consistent with Peter’s comment in 1 Peter 4:17, that judgment began in the “house of God.” That the temple courts would be filled with the slain strongly suggests there was a LOT of wickedness among the religious folks (and religious leaders) of that day. Maybe – just maybe – like today.

The list of sins of the ancient Israelites was a long one, but God seemed to center His indictment on one core issue – a root from which most of the subsequent malfeasance sprang. God wanted a separated people, totally committed to Him, upon whom He could lavish Himself. They betrayed His commitment to them and became like the world. They abandoned His ways and followed in the ways of the Gentiles. They squandered their honor and abandoned the dignity God had given them.

I won’t post the passage here, but I urge you to open your Bible and read Ezekiel chapter 16. God found Jerusalem dumped as an outcast – abandoned, naked, bloody and loathed. He spoke life to this helpless infant, raised her up and lavished Himself on her. He swore an oath to her, entered into a covenant with her, and elevated her to royalty.

Even if you’ve never read Ezekiel, that should sound very familiar, because this is exactly what He has done for you. If you are in Christ, God has bestowed His Royal Dignity on you. Each of us has been exalted. This is not to feed our pride, but to engender the deepest possible gratitude, and foster the deepest possible loyalty. We show that gratitude by treasuring the honor He has bestowed on us, and by living in the world as sons and daughters of God.

It’s now incumbent on us, during the few moments that remain between now and our departure, to be aware of and carefully avoid ANYTHING that is dishonorable, or that is beneath our dignity as His bride.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Ephesians 5:6-8 NKJV (emphasis added)

You are a child of God. What’s beneath your dignity?

“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest‘? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

John 4:35 NKJV

The harvest motif is common in scripture, as you are probably aware. In an agrarian society, with the calendar and the feasts of the Lord anchored to crops, planting and harvest, the parables and teachings using farming concepts as models made the lessons clear to the hearers.

Maybe for some of us, who think (I guess) that food comes from grocery stores rather than fields, some of these concepts might be a bit more challenging. But when Jesus spoke, it was commonly understood that there was planting, growth, and then a harvest. It was a cycle, happened like that every year. Simple and understandable.

There is a special harvest constraint written into the law, a constraint with which all Israelites were very familiar. In both Leviticus 19:9 and Leviticus 23:22, they were told to leave the gleanings. They were not allowed to pass over the field a second time and gather what was missed on the first pass. Every Jew knew this.

‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.’ ”

Leviticus 23:22 NKJV

In Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus told a parable with which we’re all familiar. He explains it to His disciples beginning in verse 37. The field is the world, the sons of the kingdom are sown into the world, and then the crop is tainted by the devil, who sows tares among the wheat. So far, so good. This is explicitly linked to the “end of the age” in verse 40, so it’s no abuse of scripture to view this through an eschatological lens. And what follows is, I believe, often overlooked.

First, “all things that offend” are gathered out of the kingdom. We are seeing this now: the enemies of Christ are being bound up in the wickedness of this world. Notice, they are “bound” but not yet destroyed. THEN comes the harvest. In verse 30 the sequence is clear: the tares are bound, and then the field is harvested, and then the tares are destroyed. This completes the cycle.

The one thing that is forbidden is to go back into the field a second time and harvest what was missed. That is left for the stranger. This is another reason I have a HUGE problem with the idea that the “great multitude” mentioned in Rev. 7:9 is saved after the rapture.

The harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels. John describes this in Revelation 14:14-20. In this account, the wheat is harvested and kept, while the grapes go into the winepress of God’s wrath. The first harvest, I would posit, is the gathering of the righteous. Wheat is an earlier crop, harvested in the summer. Following that is “grapes” and it takes little imagination to see how this maps to the battle of Armageddon. The point is that there is just one wheat harvest. What remains is left for Satan. God’s law prohibits the reapers from going back into the field (“the field is the world”) and harvesting a second time. We never see that in scripture, nor does it appear in any parables or prophetic passages.

Today, Matthew 9:38 is relevant: the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. But we know from John 9:4 that “the night is coming when no man can work.” That “night” is nearly upon us, and I really doubt that God would send 144,000 evangelists into His field at night to effect a second harvest, OR that the first harvest was so poorly executed that “a great multitude which no one could number” (Rev. 7:9) remained after the first harvest was completed.

There is a bittersweet truth to this. As we see in Revelation 12:17, the Dragon makes war with “the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” These are the left-behind believers. It is granted to the Dragon not only to make war with the saints, but to overcome them (Rev. 13:7). That is to say, they are the gleanings left for the “stranger.” But though they die, those who are faithful unto death receive the crown of life (Rev. 2:10) and also are subsequently seen on the Sea of Glass (Rev. 15:2), receiving a promise from God that they will reign with Christ (Rev. 20:4).

It may appear that I’m playing “Bible hop-scotch” or cherry-picking verses regardless of context, and you noble Bereans are strongly encouraged to challenge my conclusions and then search the scriptures to see whether these things are true, or are at least reasonably consistent with what God has revealed. It won’t hurt my feelings if you post a contrary opinion or conclusion in the comments below. Just do your homework first.

I’m trying to be nice. You don’t have to agree with what follows, and that’s really okay. It appears that someone(s) – maybe Hal Lindsey but probably his predecessors – came up with an end-times narrative which is parroted back and forth in the eschatosphere and has now pretty much become “settled eschatology.” I think this popular narrative is fatally flawed. I’m sometimes treated as being either stupid or inappropriately audacious for even questioning it. But that’s what we Bereans are supposed to do. I hope some of our eschatological luminaries find this post (by God’s grace, they may) and will explore my conclusions.

In Revelation 13 there is an extended, detailed and unambiguous narrative describing the activities in Jerusalem during the Beast’s reign:

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.

And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

Rev. 13:11-15 NKJV (emphasis added)

Jerusalem will come under the authority of The Dragon/Beast very soon after the rapture. There will be an image of this Beast that is animated and is an object of worship. This is not, by any stretch, a form of worship that is pleasing to God. This is in place during the first half of Daniel’s 70th week. Verses 5-8 give further context and make it clear that this is abominable and idolatrous worship. Those few remaining saints are being hunted down and executed. Anyone who will not worship the Beast is killed. I’m not making this up. Revelation 13:15 is clear and unambiguous on this point. God wants us to know this, so He wrote it down.

Now, with this in mind, go back and re-read Daniel 9:27

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”

Daniel 9:27 NKJV (emphasis added)

We see that “he” (clearly referring to Messiah the prince in the previous two verses) confirms a covenant, and the same “He” brings an end to sacrifice and offering in the middle of the final ‘week.’ In view of Revelation 13 we should have a VERY clear picture of what sort of “sacrifice and offering” is ended.

What else does the plain text of scripture tell us about events in the middle of the ‘week’? Just this:

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them, and they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here,” and they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.
In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Rev. 11:3, 7, 8, 11-13 NKJV (emphasis added)

The most coherent flow of events I see, based on these fairly clear passages of scripture, is that the world will be dominated by a religious system centered on the worship of the Beast and his image in Jerusalem. This worship will start very shortly after the rapture, and will continue while the Beast is in power in Jerusalem. The Beast will be the “god of the earth” (see Rev. 11:4) and will be constantly confronted and opposed by the two witnesses that God raises up and protects.

When Jesus departed (Acts 1:1-11) two attending angels told the disciples that Jesus would return “in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” We’ve embraced this promise for 2,000 years, and its fulfillment is described by Zechariah:

Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as He fights in the day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south.

Zechariah 14:3-4 NKJV (emphasis added)

This sounds to me like a seismic event, one which creates a large valley suitable as a container for blood up to the horses bridles (Rev. 14:20), adequate for the destruction of a tenth of the city, and also quite possibly the event suggested by Isaiah 2:2 when the mountain of the Lord’s house is exalted above the hills. A furlong is about 660 feet, so the length of Armageddon’s resulting pool of blood is about 200 miles. For some idea of this distance, it is about 45 miles from Jerusalem to Amman, Jordan, and 175 to Turaif:

I understand the popular narrative diverges at several point from what I’ve presented here, and my purpose is to offer an alternative to the extremely problematic “popular narrative.” That narrative is that 1) the Jews re-institute Mosaic worship practices and old testament law in a rebuilt Jewish Temple, 2) God is pleased with their efforts, 3) an AntiChrist “seven year peace treaty” permits this Jewish activity, 4) after 3 1/2 years the AntiChrist renegs on his agreement, presents himself as God and defiles the Temple, 5) and with this blatant and egregious display of blasphemy, the Jews finally “get it” and flee from Jerusalem, 6) triggering 3 1/2 years of “great tribulation.”

Sadly, the fanciful and imaginative “prophecy experts” have wandered far from the plain language of the text. The Beast is the object of worship for 42 months, and he and his kingdom are tormented by these two divinely-protected witnesses. Then He – our Lord and Savior and conquering King – puts an end to sacrifice and offering; that is, He crushes this abomination in His city. If we’re talking about “sacrifice and offering” to The Dragon, I leave it to your imagination as to what that might be. But we see from the text that a great earthquake destroys a tenth of the city. We also see that the survivors give glory to God.

My hope is that all you Bereans out there will do your own homework. Read the Biblical texts for yourself and come to your own studied conclusions. And feel free to leave comments below.

For me to make the statement that “America is under God’s judgment” may not be particularly impactful, considering the source. For Paul Washer and John MacArthur (and no doubt many others) to make this assertion takes the discussion to a more serious level. They do so here: America Is Under God’s Judgment – (about 7 minutes). This statement raises three questions: 1) is it true? 2) what are the implications? and 3) what should we do about it?

Is it true?

Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it.

Ezekiel 14:13 NKJV

How does the United States measure up? A rhetorical question, one might think. God sets this expectation for any land that manifests persistent unfaithfulness. In 1962 the U.S. Supreme Court kicked God out of the public schools. We were, of course, free to defy the Court, but we by-and-large went along with this obscene decision – the first of many – and as we can see, it’s been downhill for the U.S. ever since. We have been unfaithful to God and our unfaithfulness has been persistent. We have earned God’s judgment.

What are the implications?

We can properly infer that God will send famine. He says that He will cut off man and beast. In Ezekiel, he lists His four severe judgments, and we can see all four on the near horizon:

For thus says the Lord GOD: “How much more it shall be when I send My four severe judgments on Jerusalem—the sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence—to cut off man and beast from it?

Ezekiel 14:21 NKJV

The country is now being run by women, children, sexual perverts, transvestites, and thugs. Clearly, we have been “given over.” National recovery is now impossible. We should expect escalating harassment and persecution, directly proportional to the level at which our Christianity is manifested in the world.

What should we do about it?

What can we do about it? I’m not persuaded that our divine “marching orders” have changed all that much, though this should clarify our expectations. We are still called to be salt and light, we are still to be prepared to give an answer to those who ask us the reason for the hope that is within us, we should certainly have clarity on what that hope IS, and we should all continue to strive to grow up in all things in Christ, to abide in Him and grow in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and the other characteristics of the fruit of God’s Spirit. We should continue in our role as ambassadors for Christ, telling all who will listen that in Christ, complete reconciliation with God is still available.

We should NOT expect that we can change the direction of the country by voting for the “right guys.” That is simply expecting a “political messiah” to fix what’s wrong, and it’s probably idolatry. False christs and false messiahs will continue to offer peace, security, and all the other stuff they always promise but cannot produce. Our problems are not political or economic – they are spiritual. We are living in an overt Christ-rejecting country. “We have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” This was Stalin’s legacy, and it will be our epitaph.

Sadly, we should also not expect appropriate leadership from most professional church leaders. Seminaries and Bible colleges were targeted a long time ago because they are centers of influence. We are seeing more and more formerly trusted pastors and Christian authors who are abandoning the historic Christian faith and accepting wickedness. “Those who hold the doctrine of Balaam” (Rev. 2:14) and “that women Jezebel” (Rev. 2:20) have been very busy in the American churches. We were warned. All cowards will have their part in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 21:8). There is a lot of cowardice in American pulpits.

Finally, we should rejoice and be thankful. This world is not our home; we’re still strangers and pilgrims here, with a heavenly hope and an expectation based on our Divine Sonship and our status as the Bride of Christ.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thess. 5:16-18 NKJV (emphasis added)

Jesus has given us a conditional promise: that if we keep His command to persevere, He also will keep us from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world. That hour is almost here.

Persevere.