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THE RAPTURE – PART 1

January 1, 2009

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UNVEILING THE MYSTERY OF THE PRE-MILLENNIAL RAPTURE

The 1st Resurrection, Catching Out of the Saved, or the Rapture – Part 1

Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, indicated he was going to unveil a mystery of the Old Testament that a lot of the Prophets wrote about, but whose writings were to be made clearer to later generations. Isaiah wrote about the mystery using terms which we, having a completed New Testament, can now comprehend more fully.

Isaiah 26:19 + I Corinthians 15:51,52 + I Thessalonians 4:16,17

[19] Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. [51] Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

[52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

[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.

Paul “showed” or “clarified” the “mystery,” but John tells us when it will be finished.

I Corinthians 15:51 + Revelation 10:7 + I Corinthians 15:52

[51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, [7] But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the pro-phets.

[52] In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

PAUL “SHOWED” THE MYSTERY – JOHN FINISHED IT!

Revelation 10:7 – But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

WHEN THE 7TH TRUMPET BLOWS THE SAVED WILL BE CAUGHT UP TO HEAVEN FOR JUDGMENT BY CHRIST, AND ALL THAT MAKE UP HIS SPIRITUAL REALM WILL STRETCH FROM ONE END OF HEAVEN TO THE OTHER.

FOR THE FIRST TIME ALL THE SAVED OF ALL THE AGES WILL BE IN HEAVEN.

Revelation 11:15,18 – And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. [18] And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

While the nations on earth are angry because of the seven vials of wrath that are being poured out following the blowing of the seventh trumpet,

the time of the dead, who have suddenly been resurrected for judgment before Christ, occurs in this heavenly scene of Revelation 11:18. While the saved are being judged for rewards in heaven, God’s seven vials of wrath are destroying those who are responsible for the destruction of morality on the earth. However you interpret this scripture it paints a heavenly scene where the resurrected dead are being judged for rewards in heaven, and it follows the blowing of the 7th trumpet. It has to be what Paul outlined in II Corinthians as describing Christ judging all the saved after the rapture.

II Corinthians 5:2,3,10 – For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: [3] If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

[10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

In Revelation 9:13 we read that the sixth trumpet has sounded, so we know that the next trumpet to sound will be the seventh in a series of seven.

Revelation 9:13 – And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

In the first verse of the following chapter we are introduced to a mighty angel from heaven with tremendous authority from heaven. He is an archangel and may well be the seventh angel who blows

the final trumpet in a series of seven.

Revelation 10:1 – And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

He has direct authority from God to speak for Him, and to give an oath in his name.

He then tells the reader that the time of the earthly church age of the Gentiles is about to end.

Revelation 10:5,6 – And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, [6] And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:

I cannot tell for sure in the Greek of verse seven whether he is referring to himself, or is merely telling us what will happen when the seventh angel blows his trumpet.

But, in either case, in this verse we are definitely informed that:

(1) The seventh angel has a voice.

(2) The seventh angel will one day blow his trumpet.

(3) When he blows it the mystery, surrounding the rapture of the saved, will be finished, as it was foretold by the Old and New Testament prophets.

Revelation10:7 – But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

I believe the voice of the archangel and the trump that is blown in II Thessalonians 4:16 is the same as found in Revelation 10:7 and 11:15.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 – 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:

Revelation 11:15 – And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

I also believe that the last trump of I Corinthians 15:52 is the last in a series of seven that is sounded in Revelation 11:15.

I Corinthians 15:52 – In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

And I am convinced that the dead in this verse are the dead in Christ who are resurrected to stand before Christ’s judgment seat in heaven to be judged for rewards and/or the lack of them.

Revelation 11:18 – And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

I do not anticipate going through the vials of God’s wrath that follow the blowing of the seventh trumpet.

Revelation 16:1 – And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

I Thessalonians 5:9 – For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

For a long time I kept silent on what I believed about the rapture, and went merrily around the world presenting lectures

on the geological upheavals the Bible indicated would occur during the last 3 and ½ years of the Tribulation Period, and the Five Signs of His Coming, and The Antichrist, and From Now to Armageddon. It was possible for me to do this series of four different lectures without telling people what I really believed about the rapture and Daniel’s 70 Weeks.

As long as I did this I could present what I believed would happen during the last 3 and ½ years of the Tribulation Period, the signs that would precede it, and what would happen during the blowing of the first six trumpets. In other words, I could present what I was convinced God’s children would soon experience. I was prince charming to many attending the lectures. I truly believe I did was I was supposed to do. I did not lie to people. I just did not address directly in DETAIL the rapture or Daniel’s 70 Weeks. Well, old prince charming has done what he was supposed to do and, since passing age 67 is now completing age 76, doing what he believes he is supposed to finish. In so doing he has been changed from a fast moving young prince into an old frog in a punch bowl.

I know that I must face Christ at His judgment seat, and I would much rather appear there as an old frog who told God’s people what he knew in his heart was going to happen to them, rather than showing up as a charming young prince who only told them what they wanted to hear.

Intense Gaza Battle Ready to End 2008

Events of December 30, 5:55 PM to 11:36 PM

Listed In THREE EXCERPTS From DEBKAfile Reports

Excerpt 1

Three Israelis killed, 32 injured

in 100 Hamas missile attacks

Monday

DEBKAfile Special Analysis

December 31, 2008, 5:55 PM (GMT+02:00)

On Day 3 of Israel’s Gaza operation, Dec. 29, Hamas hit back hard with volleys of rockets and missiles at points closer to central Israel than ever before. The three Israelis killed were IDF career officer, Sgt. Maj. Lutfi Nasr e-Din, 38, from Daliat Hacarmel, at Nahal Oz, a woman motorist, Irit Sheetrit, 39, mother of four, who sought shelter in the Ashdod bus terminus, 30 km from Gaza; and earlier in Ashkelon, Hani al-Mahdi, 27, a construction worker from the Bedouin Negev village of Ar’ur.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Monday, Hamas had recovered sufficiently from Israel’s air offensive to bring out its new Iranian Grad rockets to expand their range up to 40 km and launch them over the heads of the hundreds of Israel tanks, armored cars and artillery piled up outside the gates of Gaza and awaiting the order to move in.

At the Nahal Oz facility, in addition to the fatality, seven soldiers were injured, one critically, by incoming Palestinian mortar fire.

Hamas’ night barrage also struck Ashdod, Ofakim, Yavne (25 minutes drive from Tel Aviv), Netivot, Ashkelon, Sderot, Shear Hanegev. Ashkelon was battered day and night. The last round targeted school yards, kindergartens and bus stations. Ofakim, like Yavne, was hit for the first time by 3 missiles and suffered five injured.

Following this barrage, the Homeland Command extended the radius of schools that would not reopen Tuesday, Dec. 30, after the Hanukkah holiday from 20km to 30km. A quarter of a million Israelis are now on active missile alert around the clock.

Overnight, the Israeli air force pounded the Hamas-ruled government compound in Gaza City, hitting the prime minister’s office, and the foreign, finance and interior ministry buildings and Hamas command centers. The Palestinians report 10 people killed, raising their death toll in three days to 360.

All senior Hamas officials and commanders are ensconced safely in underground bunkers with their weapons caches.

Following this barrage, the Homeland Command extended the radius of schools that would not reopen Tuesday, Dec. 30, after the Hanukkah holiday from 20km to 30km. Beersheba, Gedera and Kiryat Gat are braced for attack.

A quarter of a million Israelis are now on active missile alert around the clock.

Overnight and early Tuesday, the Israeli air force pounded the Hamas-ruled government compound in Gaza City, hitting the prime minister’s office, and the foreign, finance and interior ministry buildings and Hamas command centers. The Palestinians report 10 people killed, raising their death toll in three days to 360. All senior Hamas officials and commanders are ensconced safely in underground bunkers with their arms caches.

They can only be dug out by special forces and armored units on the ground.

The crucial battle of Gaza is therefore still to come, as indicated by Israel’s deputy chief of staff Maj. Gen. Israel Harel, when he warned Monday that the hardest part of the campaign is still ahead.

Hamas tacticians pin their hopes on the overcast, rainy conditions forecast for the rest of the week to slow Israeli air attacks, delay an incursion, and further intensify their cross-border missile onslaught.

Homeland Front, police forces, 200 ambulances, 2 medical helicopters and hospitals are on alert around the clock at all targeted locations. Hospitals in central Israel are also on the ready.

Excerpt 2

Day 4 of Israeli operation: Israel military, Shin Bet deny recommending 48-hour truce

DEBKAfile Special Analysis

December 30, 2008, 7:33 PM (GMT+02:00)

According to earlier reports, Israeli leaders were considering a two-day truce proposal for which France is pressing. Tuesday night, Dec.

30, the IDF spokesman issued a strong denial of any such recommendation by the military or the Shin Bet.

As the rate of Hamas launchings climbed to 35 Tuesday night, Israel conducted a second round of air strikes against Hamas’ smuggling tunnels on the Philadelphi border with Egypt.

Egyptian locked the Rafah crossing.

In Hamas’ first public statement, a masked spokesman read out a “Jihad Letter, which said: “The sea of Gaza will run dry before Hamas surrenders” If Israeli attacks continued, he said Hamas would bring more Israeli towns under fire.

President Shimon Peres said Tuesday that the Gaza campaign would be hard and long. He praised the military’s precise adherence to its plan.

The quantity of hardware up Hamas’ sleeve provides a clue to how hard and long Israel’s operation against Hamas is likely to be.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Hamas still has some 6,000 missiles in its armory, of which some hundred are the high-grade Iran-made Grad Kayusha rockets.

Their range of up to 40 km enables them to target three-quarters of a million Israelis and five major southern towns.

This stock survives after Israel wiped out 45% of the Hamas missile arsenal and most of its heavy 120mm mortars in three days of massive air strikes.

At the firing level maintained by Hamas Monday, Dec. 29 – roughly 100 missiles and rockets hit Israeli locations – the Palestinian group can keep going for another 60 days – if its stocks remain hidden underground.

To alter this equation, the armored and infantry forces concentrated around the Gaza Strip will have to intervene.

The expected ground incursion had not happened by Tuesday evening, Dec. 30.

Hamas’ Monday barrage was a turning point in the conflict; it was then that the Palestinian terrorists began to rally from three days of harsh aerial punishment.

A repetition was threatened Tuesday night, using the cover of dark from Israel’s air strikes.

By evening 35 missiles had been fired against Sderot, Ashkelon, Netivot and the new locations of Kiryat Malachi, Beer Tuvia and Rahat, after Monday’s barrage left three Israelis dead and 32 injured.

An Israeli officer told DEBKAfile that even a small incursion of 1-2 km inside the Gaza Strip might ease the missile pressure on civilian towns and villages, by making Hamas units focus on self-defense instead of launching missiles.

On Day 3 of the conflict, Hamas overcame the havoc Israel’s electronic warfare wrought to its communications system by deploying runners using every means of transport, from bikes to donkeys, to maintain connections within their force.

Hamas’ most pressing problem now is morale.

The top level of Hamas, government heads and commanders, including their “chief of staff” Ahmed Jabari and chiefs of divisions, battalions and companies, are hunkered down in underground bunkers, afraid to surface for fear of being struck down by Israel bombers alerted by Shin Bet intelligence spotters. Resentment of this is growing in Hamas ranks, including the missile crews who operate in the open and whose numbers have swelled the death toll rising now to 365. Civilians are also bitter at being forced to house operatives and missiles and exposing themselves to collateral damage.

By the end of the Day 4 of the conflict, there was no sign of Hamas leaders breaking or seeking a truce. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert too said the first three days were only the first of many stages of the planned operation.

Excerpt 3

First rockets hit Beersheba, Israel calls up 2,500 more reservists

December 30, 2008, 11:36 PM (GMT+02:00)

This call-up order raises the number of reservists Israel has mobilized for the Gaza operation to 9,200. Beersheba, capital of the Negev and 40 km from Gaza, was attacked for the first time by two improved Grad rockets Tuesday night, Day 4 of the Israeli operation. One hit an empty nursery school. There were 34 shock victims hospitalized.

Beersheba is the largest town (250,000 population) and the most distant from Gaza ever to come under rocket attack.

Israeli artillery opened cross-border fire on potential rocket sites inside Gaza. Hamas kept up its missile and rocket attacks against an expanding circle of Israel towns, 35 by nightfall.

Israeli tank, infantry, armored and artillery units are massed outside the northern, central and southern Gaza Strip await

ing orders to go in. Tuesday, Dec. 30 – Day 4 of Israel’s Gaza offensive, Beersheba, capital of the Negev, was attacked for the first time by two missiles Tuesday night, one hit an empty nursery school. Israeli artillery opened cross-border fire on potential rocket sites inside Gaza.

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DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF 70 WEEKS – PART 10

Daniel 9:24-27

December 31, 2008

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THE 70 WEEKS OF DANIEL’S 9:24-27 PROPHECY – Part 10

The Summary to Parts 1 through 9

In the many years I have studied this subject, I have found it to be one of the most difficult prophecies I can be precisely accurate in expositing, and yet it is one of the easiest to interpret within prescribed limits. And so, after considering the many different ways of counting the time from “the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the prince” by many different men, which you have read in the previous eight updates, I freely admit there are only two things of which I am certain. After all the glitter and calculations have been considered, only these two conclusions can I consider to be valid without question, and I will state them later in this final Update of the series.

Daniel 9:24-27 – Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. [25] Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. [26] And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. [27] And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

The reasons one cannot be exactingly precise are numerous. The errors made in calendar adjustments between Oriental and Western calendars based on the movements of different astronomical movements of two different heavenly bodies, the actual birth date of Christ appearing to be 4 BC, assorted other shifts in time keeping by the ancients, and whether the years listed are supposed to be 360 or 365 and ¼ days, have combined to make it impossible to take an oath any one of the many sets of calculations is absolutely accurate. However, it is a situation that can be narrowed down to one of two proclamations issued to rebuild the city of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity, and a sufficiently accurate outcome by applying 360 day prophetic years to one, while applying 365 and ¼ days to the other proclamation, which have led me to say that one or the other must be correct.

Since I have described the calculations by B.H. Carroll and others, as applied to the third proclamation, which were based on 365 and ¼ days, please allow me to quote directly from a book by John Urquhart, who bases his calculations on proclamation number four, and uses 360 day prophetic years. The following quote is taken directly from “The Wonders of Prophecy,” by John Urquhart, Charles C. Cook, Fifth Edition.

BEGIN QUOTE FROM “THE WONDERS OF PROPHECY”

“That third edict has very generally been regarded as the decree ‘to restore and to build Jerusalem’ – a view in which I formerly concurred. But a closer examination of the terms of the edict does not support that conclusion. Those terms are most explicit. Ezra is empowered to convey the treasure contributed by the king and his counselors, from Babylon to Jerusalem, to receive other voluntary offerings, to expend the funds, and to appoint magistrates and judges. But there is no mention whatever of building and restoring Jerusalem; and, if that task had been assigned to Ezra, it would be hard indeed to explain why, in an edict fully transcribed and elaborately minute in regard to everything else, no reference whatever is made to that important undertaking. When we turn to the fourth degree, however, we meet for the first time, language which is in significant accord with the description of “the commandment spoken of by Daniel. Nehemiah tells us that, when Artaxerxes asked ‘For what dost thou make request,’ he replied: ‘If it please the king, and if thy servant hath found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldst send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may build it.” He also begged a letter to ‘Asaph, the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me.’ Here we have in explicit terms an authorization to Ezra to build the city of his fathers’ sepulchers; and the fourth decree is consequently ‘the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.’

To apply these results, we have first of all to inquire what those 483 years are.

Are they years in every respect like the years of our own calendar? There are clear indications in Scripture that the Hebrew month, like that of Babylonia and of Egypt, consisted of 30 days. The year consequently contained 360 days; multiplying those 483 years by 360 so as to find the entire number of days, we divide by 365.25 and so change them into calendar years. The result of this rough and ready, but sufficiently accurate, method is that 483 prophetic years are found to be equivalent to 476 years of our ordinary chronology of today.

We have to ask next to what special point in the past we have to stretch it onward into the future.

The narrative in Nehemiah furnishes a perfectly clear reply.

We are told that the concession was made ‘in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the King.’ He began his reign in the year 465 B.C. He was now in the twentieth year of his reign: in other words 19 years of his reign were completed and the 20th year was in progress. Deducting these 19 years from 465, we are brought to 446 B.C. – the year in which the edict was issued ‘to restore and to build Jerusalem.’

‘A word or two will now complete our demonstration. Applying the 476 years of the prediction to this point (446 years before the birth of our Lord) we find that they bring us down to that event and leave 30 years over.

That is the year 30 A.D. is specified as that of the Savior’s cutting off in his crucifixion. While everyone will feel how amazing that the year and the very month – the month Nisan – of our Lord’s death should have been fixed centuries beforehand, some may imagine that there is, nevertheless, a slight inaccuracy. We are told (Luke 3:23) that Jesus entered upon this ministry when he was about 30 years of age.

The year 30 A.D. would, therefore be the year when his ministry began, and not the

year of his crucifixion. But the Scripture is absolutely accurate. When the division between the time B.C. and the time A.D. was made, the year 1 A.D., was really the year 5 A.D.; and the year 10 the year 14 A.D.; and the year 30 the year 34 A.D. And thus the year 30 A.D. in our chronology was really the year of our Lord’s death. The chronology was in error, but there was no error in the Scripture; and that sacrifice, which will be remembered and celebrated throughout eternity, was offered at the appointed time.”

END OF QUOTE FROM “WONDERS OF PROPHECY”

What follows is my summary of Parts 1 through 9 of the 70 weeks – In the Agency there were times when reams of inf ormation, collected from all over the Soviet Union, would be piled on the desk of an analyst, day after day, week after week, perhaps month after month, and from it all he

or she was expected to present conclusions as to how it did, or did not, or might, or could, present a scenario that would of future benefit in confrontations with forces and peoples of other nations. In all analysis work there are times when one feels completely helpless because the evidence usually cannot be molded into a concrete pattern of certainty. I am thankful for my training as an analyst because, at times, there are things you can know FOR SURE, others of which you are reasonably certain, some that are fifty-fifty, a high percentage of those in the “definite maybe” category, and some that leave you setting all alone not having the foggiest idea what it all means, if anything.

Daniel 9:27 – And HE shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week HE shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations HE shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

So let me present to you two things that I know FOR SURE, and these two are quite enough to make my point, because more than 95 percent of the world’s prophetic teachers today are in complete disagreement with the two statements that follow. Ironically, the world’s prophetic teachers from the invention of

the printing press to 1740 did agree with them, and a vast majority considered the two statements to be true well into the beginning of the twentieth century. The beginning of the Great Evangelical Age in 1740, the beginning of the popularization of a pre-tribulation theory in 1827 by John Darby, and the publishing of the Scofield Bible in 1909 pushed the following two teachings into antiquity by the middle of the twentieth century. And the very popular twentieth century book, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which was followed by the “Left Behind” series of publications during the present century, has almost eliminated the possibility of anyone ever hearing these two conclusions or even knowing they once existed. But I AM SURE the following TWO conclusions are correct.

(1) The three HE’s in Daniel 9:27 are NOT a future antichrist.

(2) There are NOT 7 years of Daniel’s 70TH week waiting to be fulfilled.

I would say more than 95 percent of the prophetic teachers today are teaching that Daniel 9:27 represents the antichrist, and we are waiting for the entire last week of seven years to be fulfilled. In the previous nine updates I have listed a bevy of great Bible preachers who believed the two things listed above. I am acutely aware what I have presented has, and will continue to cause a wide variety of emotions among those who have taught, and do teach, that these two things are not true. But I ask those who have the most violent reaction – did you know what was taught before the teaching of Daniel 9:27 arose that has dominated the last 100 years of prophetic teaching – Did you know it before you starting teaching what you teach today? I had been exposed to the teaching of it as a youth in the forties by old Missionary Baptist preachers, but I did not know where it came from, or the history of it, until I studied it for myself. Have you ever studied it for yourself

? Please don’t attack the personal integrity of all those men of God prior to 1740, as well as the majority who held it into the early twentieth century, to prove your position. I attempt not to attack the personal integrity of any man’s character to prove any interpretation or point I am attempting to draw from the Scriptures, and diligently try to make my case on what I believe the Bible teaches. I spend a great deal more time asking myself why I teach it, what my real motive is in presenting it, and invariably I find myself asking myself – are you presenting it to please men or God, are you teaching what God wants them to hear or what they want to hear? I spend so much time in judging my own motives in teaching something that it does not leave me with much time to think about the motives of others.

However, I do not think I am out of line or out of God’s will to ask others to do the same. I concentrate on following Jesus as he leads me along the path he directs me to follow, which doesn’t leave me much time to think about what he has chosen for other men to do in his fields of labor.

John 21:21,22 – Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? [22] Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

One really does not have to go back before 1740 to find the teaching that the HE’s in Daniel 9:27 represent Christ. Here are just a few of many authors published after 1827 who were not swayed by the new teaching of the HE’s representing a future antichrist.

1. The Preacher’s Homiletic Commentary on Daniel by Robinson, Section XXXVI, “The Last Week and It’s Employment.”

2. The Layman’s Commentary on Daniel by Charles John Elliott. D.D.

3. An Interpretation of the English Bible by B.H. Carroll.

4. Halley’s 1927 Bible Commentary by Henry

H. Halley

5. The Prophecy of Daniel by Edward J. Young, 1949

6. Commentary on the Whole Bible by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

7. Great Prophecies of the Bible by Ralph Edward Woodrow, 1971

8. The Book of Daniel by Curtis Mitchell, 1 968

9. The Wonders of Prophecy by John Urquhart

10. The Seer of Babylon by Clarence H. Hewitt, 1948

11. The Pulpit Commentary, Volume 29, 1896

Have you ever gone back and checked to see what was taught before 1740

? Did God choose not to reveal the truth about Daniel 9:27 until after 1740

? Did he choose the Great Evangelical Movement as the time to reveal the truth about Daniel 9:27? Did he wait to popularize the truth of the Pre-Trib Rapture by John Darby in 1827? Did he wait to spread the Pre-Trib position across the country and world by Scofield in 1909? Certainly, the answer to all these questions is an individual matter between you and God. I have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ to answer for everything I have taught, so I persuade men of what I believe about the Second Coming of His Son. I would be a spiritual fool to do otherwise.

II Corinthians 5:10,11 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. [11] Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Colossians 3:23-25 – And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; [24] Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. [25] But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

I do not question your motives in what you teach or why you teach it, that is a very personal matter between you and God, and something you alone are capable of doing. I only know it is something God wants all of his children to do. I hope my motive for presenting this series is made manifest in your consciences.

IGOR M AKES

A PERSON WONDER!

CRAZY Things in Store 2010 to 2015,

We’re headed For Lots Of Great Unrest,

Political, Economic, And Domestic UNREST,

The only question is just how great it will Be,

And precisely when the chaos will reach its Max,

I don’t think Igor’s forecast breakup of U.S. is True,

But I do expect dollar to go haywire twixt 2010-2015!

Panarin’s U.S. breakup to four parts way out in left Field,

But I KNOW God’s II Timothy & Psalm 2 Are Both Very Real,

And I’m convinced before 2015 will both start to be Unsealed!

So it is wise U.S. troops are being trained to quell domestic Riots,

For in the last days things are certain to become lots more Perilous!

December 30, 2009

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

DARDANELLE MBC

II Timothy 3:1 – This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

II Timothy 3:12,13 – Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. [13] But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

Perhaps one of the reasons many of God’s children have not suffered persecution in this country is because they aren’t living godly in Christ Jesus. Perhaps they will suffer for not having done so in what Psalm 2 along with unbelievers. I believe this Psalm is likely to begin to be fulfilled visibly and physically among mankind at some point in time between 2010 and 2015. If you do not kiss the Son before his Second Advent it will be too late to kiss him

when he comes.

Psalm 2:1-12 – Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? [2] The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, [3] Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. [4] He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.

[5] Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. [6] Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. [7] I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. [8] Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. [9] Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. [10] Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. [11] Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. [12] Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

In oriental customs, to kiss the Son of the Father (Patriarch) was to honor both the Father and the Son.

John 5:39-41 – Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

[40] And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. [41] I receive not honour from men.

John 5:21-24 – For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. [22] For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: [23] That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. [24] Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

I urge you to heed God’s gracious warning – Whatever you are going to do with, about, or for Jesus, DO IT NOW!

Luke 21:33-35 – Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. [34] And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. [35] For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Romans 10:17 – So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10:13 – For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Acts 2:20,21 – The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: [21] And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Begin Excerpt 1 from Wall Street Journal

DECEMBER 29, 2008

As if Things Weren’t Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.

In Moscow, Igor Panarin’s Forecasts Are All the Rage;

America ‘Disintegrates’ in 2010

By ANDREW OSBORN

MOSCOW — For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument — that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. — very seriously. Now he’s found an eager audience: Russian state media.

Igor Panarin

In recent weeks, he’s been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. “It’s a record,” says Prof. Panarin. “But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger.”

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

But it’s his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin’s views also fit neatly with the Kremlin’s narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

“There’s a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur,” he says. “One could rejoice in that process,” he adds, poker-faced. “But if we’re talking reasonably, it’s not the best scenario — for Russia.” Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

In addition to increasing coverage in state media, which are tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Mr. Panarin’s ideas are now being widely discussed among local experts. He presented his theory at a recent roundtable discussion at the Foreign Ministry. The country’s top international relations school h as hosted him

as a keynote speaker. During an appearance on the state TV channel Rossiya, the station cut between his comments and TV footage of lines at soup kitchens and crowds of homeless people in the U.S. The professor has also been featured on the Kremlin’s English-language propaganda channel, Russia Today.

Mr. Panarin’s apocalyptic vision “reflects a very pronounced degree of anti-Americanism in Russia today,” says Vladimir Pozner, a prominent TV journalist in Russia. “It’s much stronger than it was in the Soviet Union.”

Mr. Pozner and other Russian commentators and experts on the U.S. dismiss Mr. Panarin’s predictions. “Crazy ideas are not usually discussed by serious people,” says Sergei Rogov, director of the government-run Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies, who thinks Mr. Panarin’s theories don’t hold water.

Mr. Panarin’s résumé includes many years in the Soviet KGB, an experience shared by other top Russian officials. His office, in downtown Moscow, shows his national pride, with pennants on the wall bearing the emblem of the FSB, the KGB’s successor agency. It is also full of statuettes of eagles; a double-headed eagle was the symbol of czarist Russia.

The professor says he began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency.

He says he did strategy forecasts for then-President Boris Yeltsin, adding that the details are “classified.”

In September 1998, he attended a conference in Linz, Austria, devoted to information warfare, the use of data to get an edge over a rival. It was there, in front of 400 fellow delegates, that he first presented his theory about the collapse of the U.S. in 2010.

“When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise,” he remembers. He says most in the audience were skeptical. “They didn’t believe me.”

At the end of the presentation, he says many delegates asked him to autograph copies of the map showing a dismembered U.S.

He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls “The Californian Republic,” and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of “The Texas Republic,” a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an “Atlantic America” that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Pr

of. Panarin calls “The Central North American Republic.” Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

“It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska; it was part of the Russian Empire for a long time.” A framed satellite image of the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia like a thread hangs from his office wall. “It’s not there for no reason,” he says with a sly grin.

Interest in his forecast revived this fall when he published an article in Izvestia, one of Russia’s biggest national dailies.

In it, he reiterated his theory, called U.S. foreign debt “a pyramid scheme,” and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington’s role as a global financial regulator.

Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama “can work miracles,” he wrote. “But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles.”

The article prompted a question about the White House’s reaction to Prof. Panarin’s forecast at a December news conference. “I’ll have to decline to comment,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said amid much laughter.

For Prof. Panarin, Ms. Perino’s response was significant. “The way the answer was phrased was an indication that my views are being listened to very carefully,” he says.

The professor says he’s convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right.

He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union — 15 years beforehand. “When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him,” says Prof. Panarin.

Begin Excerpt 2 from Jerusalem Post

Ashkenazi: ‘Difficult times’ await us

December 30, 2008

Yaacov Katz and JPost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

“Difficult times are awaiting us; I am sure we will overcome them as well,” IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said on the fourth day of Operation Cast Lead.

Speaking at a joint press conference Tuesday afternoon with President Shimon Peres, Ashkenazi praised the IDF and security forces participating in Operation Cast Lead, which he said was aimed at “creating a better reality for the residents of southern Israel.”

He also thanked the general Israeli public for supporting the operation, and expressed his appreciation of Israel’s southern residents, who are “living under constant threat” and providing important support to the operation, “which extends our endurance.”

Ashkenazi said he was “very pleased with the operation at this point.”

Earlier Tuesday afternoon during a tour of Ashkelon, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that military action against Hamas would continue until all the goals are met.

Barak said that the operation would intensify “as much as needed to meet the goals we set for ourselves; to bring quiet to the South.”

The operation also aims “to strike a severe blow to Hamas,” he said, “in order to bring about an end to firing and other operations against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.”

“We expect more difficult days ahead which will test civilians’ endurance,” he continued.

On Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met President Shimon Peres at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem and updated him on recent developments.

The prime minister said that the military action in Gaza over the past few days was the “first stage out of a series of measures that the cabinet has approved.”

Peres emphasized that Israel was not fighting against the Palestinian population but rather against a terror group that had “raised the banner of violence and undermined stability in the region.”

“There is no one in the world that understands why Hamas is continuing to fire rockets at Israel,” he continued. “The firing defies reason and logic, and it doesn’t stand a chance.”

The two met as Israel let some 100 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies from Jordan, Turkey and international aid groups into the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

In addition, five new ambulances given by Turkey were allowed into the Strip.

Overnight Monday, Olmert instructed the IDF to press ahead with the Gaza operation and not to set a time limit for its goals.

Following consultations at his home with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and other heads of the security establishment, Olmert stressed that Israel would strike Hamas with an “iron fist” but would treat Gaza civilians with “kid gloves” in its humanitarian effort.

During the meeting, security officials said that the IDF had given telephone warnings to some 90,000 Gazans living near Hamas facilities targeted by the IAF. They stressed that the sites were only bombed after civilians had left their homes.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin said that Hamas leaders, including its prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, had gone into hiding, much to the chagrin of Gaza residents. He also said there was a degree of satisfaction among Gaza civilians over the IDF operation against the terror group.

It was further stated that there was no extreme international pressure on Israel, and that world leaders had appreciated the restraint in the lead-up to the operation and were now demonstrating understanding for the military action.

The officials said that Hamas had already started pressing countries and international organizations in a bid for a cease-fire.

Begin Excerpt 3 from Jerusalem Post

Israeli leaders to discuss suspending Gaza op for 48 hours

December 30, 2008

Yaakov Katz, AP and jpost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Officials in the defense establishment have recommended to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to suspend military operations against Hamas in Gaza for 48 hours and during that time to review a number of possible ceasefire solutions for Operation Cast Lead.

Senior Israeli ministers were reportedly set to discuss the proposal Tuesday night.

According to reports, if the unilateral ceasefire were to fail, Israel would launch a ground offensive.

Olmert reportedly opposed suspending the operation while Defense Minister Ehud Barak was weighing the idea.

The recommendation, disclosed by defense sources on Tuesday evening, came after Barak spoke with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner earlier in the day.

The IDF issued a statement that it was not recommending a ceasefire.

The defense establishment is suggesting that Israel use the suspension of operations to carefully study Hamas’s intentions; whether the group was planning to escalate the violence by renewing attacks inside the country or whether it would opt to stop its rocket attacks against the South altogether.

It was possible that Operation Cast Lead, the massive bombardment of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip launched Saturday, had already made clear to Hamas that the “rules of the game” had changed and that Israel will no longer tolerate rocket fire against its civilians, the unnamed defense establishment officials said.

France, which suggested the temporary suspension of operations, was the first non-Arab country to call for Israel to halt the operation, its president calling using Israel’s use of force “disproportionate.”

According to security officials, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called Barak on Monday asks for a 48 hour “humanitarian suspension” of Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed over 300 Palestinians, mostly uniformed terrorists, so far.

Barak turned down Kouchner’s suggestion, saying there was no need for a humanitarian pause because the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza was open

for several hours every day.

On Tuesday Kouchner called again and reiterated his proposal, but this time Barak said he would check with the ‘triumvirate’ – the limited security forum comprised of Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Barak himself.

On Tuesday, Barak had good reason to reconsider Kouchner’s suggestion: Defense officials expressed skepticism that Hamas – a terror group that thrives on violence – would use the window of opportunity offered by Israel to recuperate after four days of punishing air strikes. Continued Hamas rocket attacks would then give Israel legitimacy for the second stage of the operation, which could include ground troops entering the Gaza Strip.

Furthermore, by agreeing to 48 hours of unilateral ceasefire, Israel would leave Hamas on edge as to when exactly it would launch the second phase of Operation Cast Lead.

Also, inclement weather is predicted for Wednesday and Thursday – not optimal conditions for either ground or air assaults.

Despite the IDF disclaimer earlier Tuesday there were different opinions within the security establishment, the officials said.

A Hamas spokesman said Tuesday evening that the Islamist terror group is conditioning a cease-fire on an opening of Gaza’s borders.

The spokesman, Mushir Masri, spoke after news broke of the Israeli defense officials’ recommendation.

Masri said an end to the fighting was not enough. He said that if Israel halted “the aggression and the blockade, then Hamas will study these suggestions.”

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DANIEL’S PROPHECY OF 70 WEEKS – PART 9

Daniel 9:24-27

December 30, 2008

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

THE 70 WEEKS OF DANIEL & THE RAPTURE POSITIONS!

The Movement and Men behind Today’s Rapture Teachings!

What do you believe about the rapture and the tribulation period?

Today, many of the believers on this earth have a fixed set of beliefs on the subject, but have never examined the movement or the men who brought in what they believe. I hope that, whatever you believe about the rapture, you will check out what I am presenting in this Update.

The Great Evangelical Movement began in the 1730’s, and John Wesley was the first great man associated with it when he was converted in 1738, coming out of

the Church of England to become a part of the movement. I have not been able to find the pre-tribulation rapture position presented in any printed publication from the invention of the printing press in 1455 to 1740. So how did this position come to be today�

�� s mo

st popular position on the rapture in relation to the tribulation period and initial appearance of the antichrist?

The first man who lived during this movement to introduce a similar teaching on the rapture was Morgan Edwards, who wrote an essay on it between 1742 and 1744, but said he taught it as early as 1740. Edwards was pastor in four churches after that in Ireland,

England, and America before the book was finally published in 1788.

The book was published in 1788 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In reality, Morgan’s book does not teach the rapture occurring before a seven year period made up of the seven years of Daniel’s 70th week, but rather a rapture that occurs 1260 days before Christ’s Second Advent, which really makes Morgan Edwards someone who would be labeled a “Mid-Tribber” today. So, the Evangelical Movement began in the 1730’s and he was the first man who began what led to

the popular rapture teachings of today. At the time Edwards wrote his book there was no teaching that the antichrist was the “HE” who would come and fulfill the covenant of the last week of Daniel 9:27. But there was a teaching that Christ had already fulfilled the first half the 70th week, which would have opened the door for a teaching the antichrist could come to close out the last half of the week, only to be destroyed by the Second Advent of Christ. This could explain why Edwards did not have his rapture occurring seven years before the Second Advent, but rather 1260 days before it. He placed the rapture 1260 days before the Millennial Reign, not 2520 days, as does the Pre-Trib position. Actually, the 1788 published book was more of an essay published in “book” format from what Edwards had written between 1742 and 1744. It is quite possible he simply used Revelation 12:6 as the 1260 days that was to follow his rapture.

Revelation 12:6 – 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.

I knew the Pre-Trib Rapture did not originate with John Darby or with Margaret McDonald, because I found traces of it among some of the “Brethren” in Ireland before 1827, so I waited until I could discover the origin of the traces. I found the origin in Morgan Edwards, who was ordained to the ministry in Cork, Ireland on June 1, 1757. Darby, McDonald, and Edwards all had their influence during the time of the Great Evangelical Movement that began in the 1730’s and thereafter swept its religious fever across the world. The religious zeal of the movement today is still going strong in organizations led by many strong leaders pumping huge financial assets into mass media activity. Millions of individual contributors send their offerings to provide funding for the leader and the organization he or she heads.

So, for all these reasons, I am going to give a brief history of Morgan Edwards, even though today he may well have believed the first three and one-half years of Daniel’s week had already been fulfilled by Jesus or Antiochus Epiphanes, which was what was taught by the vast majority of preachers at that time.

The clergyman, Morgan Edwards., was born May 9, 1722 in Trevethin parish, Wales. He was educated at Bristol College in England from 1742 to 1744 where he wrote the essay of his views on prophecy in his eschatology class, which was later published in Philadelphia in 1788 under a long title: “Two Academical Exercises on Subjects Bearing the following titles – Millennium, Last Novelities.” He was ordained to the ministry in Cork, Ireland on June 1, June 1757. He came to America in 1761 and became pastor of a Baptist church in Philadelphia. Morgan resigned from the church in 1770, and never pastored thereafter, but continued to travel widely as an evangelist and lecturer. He is credited as being the founder of Rhode Island College, which is known today as Brown University. He was active in obtaining funds for the permanent support of the institution, and was one of its fellows from 1764 until 1789. He died in Pencador, Delaware in 1795. Does published evidence exist that the Pre-Trib rapture position was taught before 1740? Could be! And I will keep looking for such publications. However, at this point, all evidence I have found indicates it came out of the Evangelical Movement that began in the 1730s, and that Morgan Edwards, who would be labeled as a “Mid-Tribber today”, was the father of it.

Morgan Edward’s new teaching did not initially gain acceptance when he began to teach it in 1740, but some 87 years later, and some 39 years after his essay was published in 1788 in America, and as the “Brethren” movement grew in the United Kingdom, John Darby began the process of popularizing a modified version of it across England in 1827. His greatest barrier to break through was history, because he knew it had not been taught before 1740. Darby wrote into the doctrinal platform of the “Brethren” one innovation which still marks the “first of the week” distinctive today – a resistance against the lack of evidence it was taught before 1740. In his book, “Prophecy and the Church,” Allis quotes Darby as having said: “I do not want history to tell me Nineveh or Babylon or Jerusalem is in the hands of the Gentiles. I do not admit history to be, in any sense, necessary to the understanding of prophecy.” Please read the last paragraph in this Blog for a fuller explanation as to why Darby would naturally have disliked what was historically taught before “The Great Evangelical Movement.”

The man, who brought what is known today as the Pre-Trib rapture to the forefront of nineteenth century prophetic teaching, was John Darby of England who, in 1827, led the initial period of its popularity rise in England and then in the United States. Both Morgan and Darby lived and taught in the first 100 years of the Great Evangelical Movement. This movement swept into America in the nineteenth century and began to change the prophetic teachings that came over with the settlers of the eighteenth century. It was a time of movements and men, and the local churches were caught up in its fever and prophetic teachings. Today we see the local churches relegated to obscurity – it is a time of great men and great movements on the mass media networks of the world – and they are offering their prophetic teachings on the great media. – Great men and great organizations and great ministries and great results, but the things they teach about the rapture and Daniel 9:27 were not printed before 1740, as far as I have found in my research.

Is what they teach on prophecy correct? It is your call! And every person should make up their own mind.

But very few ever study it out for themselves. They approach the Scriptures with pre-conceived ideas from these great evangelical men and mold the Scripture into what they were taught by them, rather than letting their own study of the Scriptures mold what they believe. This generation is a generation led by great religious organizations and the great religious men who lead them.

The age of the teachings of the first local churches is vanishing away. We have become individual followers of the teachings of individual men and women on the mass religious media, who teach and preach to what they believe to be a great universal, invisible church made up of all believers.

II Timothy 4:1-4 – I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; [2] Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. [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; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Now, just suppose that I find a published document, dated prior to 1740 that teaches a Pre-Trib position existed before 1740. Am I supposed to then cast out all the thousands of the teachings of those who lived from the time of the completion of the New Testament until 1740, and put all my faith in that one lone teaching of a Pre-Trib position, that none of them ever heard of, or even thought of? Again, the call is yours! But I implore you to at least consider what you have read, and to be prepared in case the Pre-Trib rapture position is not correct. Jesus is coming – that is certain!

When he is coming in regard to the tribulation period is not! So, I just get up every day hoping it will be the day of his coming. I have been advised by some I cannot do that if I am not a Pre-Tribber. Why not? I may not be correct about when I believe the rapture will occur in reference to the tribulation period. Is it not also possible you may not be correct in the position you hold? So, until the issue is finally settled by Jesus, why don’t we all teach what we believe about it, and do what Jesus said to do regarding his coming.

Mark 13:35-37 – Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: [36] Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. [37] And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

John Wesley, Morgan Edwards, and John Darby were three of the great men who lived during the first 100 years of what has come to be called The Great Evangelical Movement.

The first trickling out of the local churches in the United Kingdom began in the late 1730’s, and slowly increased thereafter. After 1827 the trickling became a great flood, with many pulling out of the local churches in England and across Europe into movements led by men. These movements accelerated the growth of the concept of a universal church made up of all believers. The great Evangelical Movement swept across the United States after 1827 and literally engulfed it after the publication of Scofield’s Bible in 1909. The prophecy teachings on the first of the week rapture, brought in by the Evangelical Movement, began to penetrate into local churches around the world quite noticeably after 1850, and within 100 years it virtually became a doctrinal position in many local churches, and some began to consider those who believed otherwise to be heretics. People did not have to come out of a local church into some movement to hear it. It had become the most popular teaching in the local churches by 1912. In fact many of the present local denominational and non-denominational churches came into existence during the Great Evangelical Movement, being organized by men who came out of this movement that began in the 1730’s.

One of the great men of the Great Evangelical Age, which is in full swing today, was Dr. Scofield, whose Bible with his footnotes was published in 1909 and became the most widely read in the world. It has influenced more men and women than any other Bible (with its own commentary) than can be realized this side of heaven. What and who influenced what you believe, and have you ever checked out what you believe about the rapture from a historical standpoint? The call as to what you believe is yours, not mine, nor any other man. But I most certainly do try to persuade men, and am acutely aware that I will stand before Jesus to give account of it. And I do indeed hope that my reason for doing this is made manifest to you.

II Corinthians 5:10,11 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. [11] Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Since I have mentioned Dr. Scofield in many of my Archive Prophecy Updates, I should at least give you a brief history of the man. Cyrus Ingersoll Scofield (1843 to 1921) was ordained in Dallas, Texas, October 1883, where he began his ministry as Pastor of the First Congregational Church. He produced the Scofield Reference Bible and the

Scofield Bible Correspondence Course. His Reference Bible was completed in 1907 and published in 1909. He is one of the “Christian Hero Trading Cards” (#2311) by Ed Reese.

Since I have made several references to John Nelson Darby in previous Updates, it would also be appropriate to include some information about his life. I have chosen to take this extract from the account given by William E. Cox, which follows:

BEGIN EXTRACT OF WILLIAM E. COX ACCOUNT

It is impossible to understand fully the dispensational view of eschatology apart from some history of its origin and main spokesmen. Biographers of John Darby refer to him as the father of modern dispensationalism.

Around 1825 many dissenting groups were beginning to pull away from the established churches in different parts of Europe. The three paramount centers seem to have been Dublin, Ireland, and Plymouth and Bristol in England. The leaders of this movement recognized the pen as being “mightier than the sword,” and turned out an abundance of literature publicizing their new beliefs. Darby referred to the church as “the Brethren.” The headquarters for the printing of the Brethren was in Plymouth. Thus, it followed naturally for this new denomination to be called Plymouth Brethren, and the name stuck.

Darby was not the founder of the Brethren movement, although he became its dominant leader and shaped its history. Even though there were many great names associated with the movement, they all were dwarfed, and his name continues in the minds of friend and foe alike. By 1830 he was in complete control of the movement and definitely shaped its dispensational doctrines. That his leadership was unshakable is evident from the fact that, although he made many bitter enemies among the founders of the movement, no man was able to unseat him. Many indeed tried, but themselves were forced either to buckle to Darby or leave the group.

The “father of modern dispensationalism” was born John Nelson Darby in Ireland, in the year 1800, and died in 1882. He was an honor student in Westminster and Trinity College, where he studied law. He was a successful lawyer until the age of twenty-seven, at which time he gave up his law practice to become a curate in the Church of England. He followed this profession until the time he joined the Brethren movement about 1827.

Darby’s biographers say he was eccentric, homely, crippled, and had a deformed face, yet that he possessed a magnetic personality and a keen organizing ability. The man was indefatigable, having been known to travel, it is said, for days while living on acorns. He came from a family background of education, culture, and social standing. He apparently was blessed with a keen mind. William Blair Neatby, who was critical of the movement headed by Darby, described him (A History of the Plymouth Brethren, p. 192) as follows:

‘No doubt Darby had many perfectly intelligible titles to success. His attainments were great and varied, apart from his classic and theological scholarship. He could write and speak in several modern languages, and translated the whole Bible into French and German.’

While convalescing from injuries received when his horse threw him, Darby was convinced of the authority of Scripture and the importance of prophetic teachings. He was especially impressed by the thirty-second chapter of Isaiah, which he referred to as describing “a state of things in no way established as yet.”

In spite of his belief in the authority of the Scriptures, Darby retained some of his old Anglican beliefs. For example, Neatby says of him (ibid., p. 63): “…Darby alone among the earlier Brethren remained a pedobaptist.”

Darby wrote into the doctrinal platform of the Brethren one innovation which still marks the dispensational school today. We refer to his disregard of and actual contempt for history. In his book, Prophecy and the Church, p. 26, Allis quotes Darby as having said:

‘I do not want history to tell me Nineveh or Babylon is ruined or Jerusalem is in the hands of the Gentiles. I do not admit history to be, in any sense, necessary to the understanding of prophecy.’

The Plymouth Brethren, when first organized, had two main distinctives: (1) theirs was an ecumenical movement, and (2) they sought to do away with an ordained clergy and anything which even resembled organization within the local church.

They were opposed to music or any type of ritual in the church service. Darby’s watchword, according to his biographers, was “the union of the children of God.” The Brethren frowned on ordination as constituting a man-made ministry, and the very word “Brethren” was an attempt to get away from denominationalism.

While the subject of the Lord’s second coming soon came to dominate the dispensational school, it scarcely entered into their thinking at the very first. Their two main starting ecumenicity, and looseness of organization-may be seen from the following quotations.

‘We should come together in all simplicity as disciples, not waiting on any pulpit or ministry, but trusting that the Lord would edify us together, by ministering as He pleased, and saw good from the midst of ourselves (Thomas S. Veitch, ‘The Brethren Movement’).’

‘That ordination of any kind to preach the Gospel is no requirement of Scripture (Neatby).’

Following his break with the Church of England and his joining the Brethren movement, Darby, along with the rest of the Brethren, claimed to have been given many “rediscovered truths.” These alleged truths supposedly had been taught by the apostles, then lost sight of. Even the great Reformers had not known of these doctrines. These “rediscovered truths” were, in fact, the direct opposite of all historic Christian teachings proclaimed by the Reformers and extant commentaries. Notice was given to the world at large that everyone should look on all previous post-apostolic teachings as false, and that only the “rediscovered truths” of the Brethren should be embraced.’

END EXTRACT FROM WILLIAM E.

COX ACCOUNT

I had been exposed to what I now believe about Daniel’s 70 weeks of years and the rapture as a young man. I lived in England from 1958 to 1961, which is the land of ancient books commenting about prophecy in countless old book stores and, if they have not diminished in number at the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge, they have thousands of them. After my retirement from the USAF Branch of the National Security Agency, I sat under teachers in the early seventies that I greatly admire. I could tell that two of them, through comments they casually made, knew about the pre-1740 teachings. While in Seminary I never argued with anything that was taught from entrance to graduation. I simply sat still and soaked in as much as I could. I was there to learn, and not to argue or teach – they were the teachers and I was the “teachee.” I still love and respect them all, both dead and living, and am hopeful I cause them no grief by what I teach about Daniel’s 70 Weeks and the rapture.

I suspect that two of them held positions at least similar to what I believe on the two aforementioned subjects, but may never know this side of heaven if that is true.

I kept waiting for some well-known respected man in our work to issue something about the pre-1740 teachings on the two subjects I have been addressing. I certainly did not want to be the Long Ranger. I am no different from other men – I want to be accepted and loved by the rest of my brethren, and I knew I would be rejected and spurned by many of them if I presented what you have just read in this Blog. So I waited, and waited, and waited, and then waited some more. All this time the Lord kept bothering me about not telling the brethren what I believed, but I knew what would happen if I did, and simply fought him off, with a promise of doing it in the future. I never lied about what I believed, I just refrained from teaching anything about the first three and one half years of peace, and only talked about what the antichrist would do during the last three and one years. I would run my laser pointer up and down across the horizontal length of Clarence Larkin’s two box diagrams, saying, “now that’s where the rapture will occur,” which usually got a laugh. In my books I had the rapture occurring after the opening of the sixth seal, because I really did not know when the seventh trumpet would actually sound in the juxtaposition of the seals and vials. At that time I was not satisfied in the way I had the seals, the trumpets, and the vials aligned and overlapped. I was never satisfied with parts of the diagrams I put in my second book, but did the best I could in making them as compatible as possible in my uncertainty of the seal, trumpet, and vial alignment. I did not come to what I believe to be the proper alignment until about 1992. I passed 70 years of age in 2002, and my conscience, in not revealing what I believed, was eaten down to the quick. I realized at that point I was going to give up and do it, because I knew I would have to face Christ at his judgment seat, and I was aware at age 70 my end was drawing very near. Well, now my conscience is clear with the Lord, and I hope my reason for issuing this 10 Part Series is also clear in your consciences.

II Corinthians 5:11 – Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

Tom McElmurry, Pastor, Dardanelle, Arkansas

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