The Second Coming differs from the Harpazo 519-2 - 23 - 2

Always interesting to write on a familiar subject and compare today's and past thoughts.

According to “The Doctrine of Immanency” we can expect Jesus at any moment; there is nothing more required for the Rapture of the Church to occur. The Church will have been caught up to the Lord in the "Blessed Hope" before the Second Coming of Christ. There are many names for the Second Coming of Christ such as “Day of the Lord” and as “The Day of Vengeance of our God” in Isaiah 61:2.

Past leanings. “While the rapture can occur at any time, the Second Coming of Christ will be predictable once future events have set it in motion. The seven year tribulation starts with the signing of a covenant between the Anti-christ and Israel. Horrific as the first 3 1/2 years will be, the last half of the tribulation will be the time of Jacob's troubles with a Holocaust unlike anything ever occurring before.  The Second Coming of Christ will bring the tribulation to an end.”

While I want to believe that we, the Church, will be caught up before the start of the seven year Tribulation, I’m not so sure. Revelation 12 has the woman being pursued by the dragon while holding a baby. The baby ascends and the woman is transported to Petra to be protected during the three and a half years of Jacob's troubles. The baby is Jesus and the woman is the remnant of Israel. We, the Church, are the body of Christ so do we get caught up with Jesus, the Head of the Church? This strongly suggests a mid-tribulation rapture.

Pre-trib, mid-trib aside, we will not be here to go through all or half of the seven year tribulation which starts with the covenant between Israel and the Anti-Christ. A preview of the Second Coming of Christ is detailed in Isaiah 63:1-4 “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.”

Again, the Church will not go through wrath of God, the final three and a half years of the tribulation. Rather we will return with Jesus to witness Him “treadeth in the winefat” and more as He destroys the army of the son of perdition. Then a thousand year Millennium. And finally one last unsuccessful attempt by Satan to overthrow Jesus and the "New Heaven."

the three major viewpoints of the rapture of the Church: Pre-Tribulation, Mid-Tribulation and Post-Tribulation 544 - 8 - 6

Church (capital C) refers believers in the simple message of the Gospel.

Call it the Rapture, The Harpazo or the Blessed Hope, it will be the greatest event in a believers life. Jesus will call us home, what a wonderful day that will be. CM calls it “The most preposterous doctrine in Evangelical Christianity.” A preposterous doctrine with a scriptural bases.

1 Thessalonians 4:17, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught (G726) up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

G726 - harpazō - From a derivative of G138; to seize (in various applications): - catch (away, up), pluck, pull, take (by force).

Pre-Tribulation Rapture is Jesus coming for His Church before the start of the seven year tribulation and this view is in accordance with “The Doctrine of Imminency.” We can expect Jesus at any moment; there is nothing more required for the Rapture of the Church to occur. 

The Jewish Wedding is analogous to what will happen in the lead up to the rapture. Jesus, the bridegroom, ascended into his father's house to prepare a place for his bride, the Church, just as was done in biblical time. Just as the bride was to be ready as the bridegroom could come at any time, the Church should eagerly anticipate the coming of Jesus for his Church.

A Mid-Tribulation Rapture embraces the belief that the Church will be caught at the midpoint of the seven year tribulation before the start of the final three and half years known as the time of Jacob’s troubles.

A post-Tribulation rapture point of view claims that the church will go through the seven year Tribulation. We would meet ourselves in the clouds as Jesus calls us to him as He descended to earth.  We would be going up and coming down at the same time.  No, the Church will not go through the Tribulation!
Both the mid- trib rapture and a post-trip rapture point of view deny “The Doctrine of Imminency,” however….

While there are several Scriptures that imply that the Church will be removed prior to the Tribulation, I have a question concerning Revelation 12:5-6, “She gave birth to a son who was to rule all nations with an iron rod. And her child was snatched away from the dragon and was caught up to God and to his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where God had prepared a place to care for her for 1,260 days.”

The woman is Israel fleeing after the desecration of the Temple as the Son of Prediction breaks his covenant with Israel after 3 ½ years. The Son of the woman/Israel is Jesus and if His ascension to the Father represents the Church, could this be mid-trib rapture?

Regardless of my question concerning Revelation 12:5-6, I am still of the belief that the rapture of the church will take place before the start of the seven year tribulation. That said, does it mean that there’ll be no persecution of Christians prior to the start of the tribulation.

Christians are being imprisoned, tortured and murdered in many parts of the world. Evil as the jihadists have been over the years, there is a new group quickly developing that appears to be demonically possessed. Members of ISIS are murdering Christians and non-Christians alike. They also are murdering their fellow Muslims due to differing beliefs. While we in America have been relatively safe since 9/11, we live under the growing threat of jihadists within our country.

If the "Bene HaElohim" were fallen angels, who were the Nephilim? Discuss their role in Biblical history, Greek mythology, and the end times BIB 522 - 02-4

Man has long tried to explain these Nephilim/ hybrids as the off-springs of the gods of old seducing the women of earth. I took two years of Latin in high school and really enjoyed the myths of the gods and goddesses of the Romans. The Greeks had very similar myths of beings who were half men and half god. I found it to be interesting fiction or so I thought. Rather than legends of gods impregnating earth women it was the fallen angels who followed Satan.
 
Legends of the offspring’s of these unholy unions are told throughout the planet. The Nephilim had corrupted the earth with their hybrid off-spring. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them” (Gen. 6:5–7). Eight people survived the flood. We are told in Genesis 6:4 “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of the human beings and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” So the fallen angels were still spreading their progeny even after the flood wiped out all but eight people on the earth.

References are made to the Rephaites in Genesis 14 and in Numbers 13:33, “We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” There are additional references in the Old Testament, enough to prove that they were still around after the flood.
In my opinion there are Nephilim today that are often referred to as ETs. Years ago I thought that ETs and abductions were a bleed through from another dimension; that this occurred when people indulged in occult practices thus opening themselves to ETs and inviting dabduction. There are many rather consistence stories of abductions and being probed, the fallen ones experimenting with human DNA?

After the Harpazo the Antichrist and his false prophet will invent many scenarios to explain away the disappearance of millions of people. One likely explanation will be that those raptured were holding the rest of the world back from evolving to a higher dimension so they were taken out by some unnamed and imaginary spiritual force. Today many are very involved in the occult and ETs (Nephilim). I would expect that they would be receptive to this explanation.

PRO501 WK3 DQ#4 Will the Church go through the Great Tribulation? Defend your position.

There is the church lower case c, the building and the Church upper case, the believers in salvation through grace. These believers, and I count myself as one, will not go through the Great Tribulation. I also believe that the Church will not even go through the first half of the Tribulation.

The Seven churches of the Book of Revelation reflect a time-line of the churches.
1. Ephesus - The Apostolic Church
2. Smyrna - The Persecuted Church
3. Pergamos - The Married Church
4. Thyatira - The Medieval Church
5. Sardis – The Denominational l Church
6. Philadelphia – The Missionary Church
7. Laodicea - The Apostate Church

Thyatira is tied to “that woman Jezebel”. I’m reading “The Woman Rides the Beast: the Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days” written by Dave Hunt and referred to by Dr. Missler. It is both an interesting book and very controversial, so my kind of reading.

Many who call themselves Christians are in a modern day Laodicea church, lower case c. These are the churches that Jesus will spit out. 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Jude had much to say about the apostate church as well. We sure don’t want to be counted as a church member in a Laodicea church.

The Blessed Hope known as the Rapture, or Harpazo, involves Jesus coming for His Church in the clouds. The Second Coming is when Jesus actually comes to the earth to establish His kingdom. Those of us who believe that the Church will be removed prior to the seven-year period (the 70th Week) are known as pre-tribulationalists. References to the Rapture are found in John 14:1-3, 1 Thess. 4:13-18 and 1 Cor. 15:51-53. If the Church were to go through the seven year Tribulation, we would meet ourselves in the clouds as Jesus called us to him as He descended to earth. No, the Church will not go through the Tribulation!

The purpose of the "time of Jacob's trouble, the Great Tribulation is to drive Israel to return to God: Hosea 5:15, "I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”

Those left behind who become believers and survive the tribulation will be blessed with quite a sight. Matthew 24:30, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”