Rapture questions

 Rapture questions

By Richard P. Joseph

3/17/2022

I wrote an article in October 2018 entitled “Why was a Rapture Necessary”.  In this article I would like to discuss the ongoing question of whether or not there was a rapture.  Preterists have an ongoing discussion about whether a rapture actually took place or if it is more of a spiritual rapture from law based to Holy Spirit based living.  I, at this time, prefer a physical rapture.  This physical rapture actually paves the way for a spiritual shift in things giving both views a type of legitimacy.  In this short article I would like to take a quick walk through Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians and document my position on it.

The two epistles to the Thessalonians are laced with eschatological passages.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a recording of what Paul taught them personally!  Unfortunately we don't have one so that leaves us to infer what the church actually asked Paul, of course, in context, of the rest of scripture.  

In 1 Thessalonians 1;10 Paul says;

and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

This passage can go either way.  Paul is telling them that at the parousia, Jesus will deliver them from the wrath to come.  The wrath was something that was to follow the Tribulation.  The Tribulation was a 3 ½ year period where Christians would suffer at the direction of the Jews and Romans.  The wrath is the payback that the unbelieving Jews will have by the hands of the Romans.   Since the rapture, apparently described by Josephus [Wars 6.299 (6.5.3)], happened exactly between the two events, it gives credence to the physical rapture.  To me, if the “rapture” event was to just relieve Christians from their current persecutions, then the rapture event would be after the fall of Jerusalem, not before.  

In 2:19 Paul talks about them being in the “presence” of the Lord at the Parousia.  

For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? 

This, being in the presence of the Lord, makes me think that they will be in the presence of the Lord.  It is not just talking about being filled with the Holy Spirit and living for the Lord, it seems to be indicating that they will actually be with the Lord in his heavenly realm.  Keep in mind that in Revelation new crowds of people show up in heaven allegedly at this very time.  I do not believe it is simply talking about a new lease on life down here, I really do believe that those people were raptured, creating a clean delineation point in history between the inspired world versus the uninspired world.  The consolation for the uninspired world is that we now are guided by the Holy Spirit.

1 Thes 3:13 again talks about them being in the presence of the Lord. 

 so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

1 Thes 4:14 Jesus is going to “bring” with him those that have already died.  This is because Hades is emptied at the rapture.

 

 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who [c]sleep in Jesus.

In 4:15 Paul lets them know that the living will by no means precede those that have passed.  If the living wasn’t going anywhere then what does this verse mean?  In other words, where are the dead going that the living is also going, but after?  

 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 [d]asleep

4:16-17 says that the dead and living will end up in the same place.  It never talked about the dead coming back to earth at this point, it only talks about them being taken up to meet the lord in the air.  There is no mention of those that are staying behind.  

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. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

5:3 is like saying “There is no escaping from dungeons and dragons”!  

 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 

If the living saints were going to stay then this verse would make no sense except it might get their enemies off their backs.  But the following verses assure the saints that they have no part in the wrath.  I personally have a hard time imagining any of the apostles all of the sudden losing their inspiration and living the rest of their lives in a dumbed down state of being.  Since none of them write after AD 64, let alone even appear in the historical record, it lends itself to the possibility that they were raptured.  This view makes the most sense.  I don’t believe that they were merely “elevated” to the next level of spiritual consciousness, nay, if they stayed around they would have actually been “demoted” to a lower state.  I therefore, at this time, believe a physical rapture took place creating a definite point in history between the old world and the new world.  The rapture was the beginning mark of the 3 ½ year long parousia which culminated in AD 70.    After this point, all Christians rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance and truth.  There are no more personal gifts.  If a miracle takes place, it is by the hand of the Holy Spirit, not us.  We can pray and act and be confident that we are now living in the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ.  We are currently living in his kingdom while on this earth and our soul will continue after we depart our fleshly body.  Either way, we are with the Lord. 

Here we go again

 Here We Go Again!

By Richard P. Joseph

1/30/2022

Revelation 9: 10 They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. 

I have to admit that if I were to join the crowd I could come up with a very good “end of the world” scenario using our current global crisis.  All of the ingredients are right.  We have megalomaniacs running around attempting to inject the entire seven billion humans on earth with a gene changing poison that would torment men worldwide.  The plot is actually true and fully diabolical.  But is this the end of the world?  

If scripture is taken out of context and time markers are completely ignored then the covid scam could easily seem to fulfill many of the images given in the book of Revelation.  But I heard this story before; many times before and it won’t be the last time.  Actually I believe that those evil people that are perpetuating this plague on the earth use the same methods that were historically used.  There is nothing new here really.  For example, the NAZIS used outright lying propaganda to control the masses and silenced anyone who disagreed or told the truth.  Since the new NAZIS, the Democratic Party, is using the same exact methods, does that mean that we are fulfilling what happened during WWII?  No, it does not mean that.  It only means that we are fulfilling our current evil proclivities using the same methods.  The results will be similar may I suggest, but this is not 1945, it is 2022.  The book of Revelation was written in about AD63 and was completely fulfilled by AD70.  There is nothing left to be fulfilled from that prophecy.  Just because some of the evil methods are being used by today’s current atheists doesn’t mean that it is the fulfillment of Revelation.  It would be wiser to use our current situation to create a great awakening but instead the pundits are trying to assign it to something that will never happen, “the end of the world”.  Revelation, and all associated eschatological prophecies, were a prediction of “the end of the Jewish age”, not the end of the “world”.  In fact there really isn’t any scripture that predicts the end of the physical world.  The end of Judaism was the focus of what Jesus preached, never the end of the world.  Judaism fell in the year AD 70 and the Mosaic economy with it.  Jesus became the fulfillment of all prophecy and thus we are now living in what is labeled “the age to come”.  There is no end to the Christian age, it is eternal.  

So, even though we are now living in catastrophic times, our focus should be to awaken and educate the people to what is really happening.  This should be a time of unparalleled evangelism but instead people are preaching the end of the world.  Let’s take this great opportunity to reach the uneducated and bring them into the fold of Christ.  Then, and only then, can we win this battle. 

Are You the One?

 Are you the one?

By Richard P. Joseph

12/11/2021

    I wrote in another article how John the Baptist preached that the messiah would come in wrath and judgement.  John’s warnings included statements like; “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”, “ And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees.”,  “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit [a]and fire.”  “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

    As you can see, you won’t hear this stuff in most churches as it is an affront to the sissyfied Jesus that most pastors preach about.  Jesus is no more than a peace loving hippie according to modern seminary thought.  The real Jesus, however, is loving and yet just.  His love is what led him to die for our sins but his justice has avenged his holy name.  This brings up another point about John the Baptist. 

    When John was in prison and near his end, he sent two of his disciples to Jesus asking him;  “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”   There are many people who have commented on this as to why John would ask such a question.  Did not God confirm that this was the coming one when John saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus and a voice from heaven exclaiming that this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased?  In light of the disciples' ignorance, even after three years with the man, were still in the dark as to how Jesus’ mission would be rolled out.

    In Matthew 16;20 Peter takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke him saying  ]“Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”  It was clear that Peter and the apostles still did not have a clear view of how the mission of Jesus would be accomplished.  In John 14:8 Phillip was astonished when Jesus had to inform him that he was God in human form.  I, therefore, deduce that John the Baptist was in the same boat as the disciples.  John knew that it was the end of the age and that judgement was coming.  When he saw Jesus performing miracles of love and compassion, he was probably a little bit confused and therefore was wondering if Jesus was the one to pour out this wrath that he was preaching about or not.  It turns out that John had the message correctly but he just did not understand exactly how and when it would occur.  It turns out that Jesus did completely pour out the wrath of God on Jerusalem and executed judgement on the faithless but this was to take place in its proper sequence.  Jesus performed his acts of love and healing to prove who he was so that there would be no excuses when the wrath did come.  He gave Jerusalem every opportunity to repent and believe, then the judgement took place.  Jesus began his ministry around AD 30, was executed by the unbelieving Jews 3 ½ years later.  The disciples then continued the mission for another 30 plus years then the wrath came.  First the Christians had to endure tribulation to seal the deal then a rapture occurred which emptied Hades out and took up any remaining disciple into the realm of God then the wrath was poured out on Jerusalem for 3 ½ years culminating in the destruction of the temple and the end of the Mosaic economy in AD 70.  Thus John the Baptist was correct in all he said except for the simple fact that he did not have the entire sequence given to him.  That is why Jesus told his disciples that no man knows the exact time or day that the parousia would occur and for good reason.  

   

   

WOKE!

 WOKE!

By Richard P. Joseph

4/16/2021

Every person born on this earth is born under the sin of Adam.  In other words, we are in a condemned state of being which was made clear by Jesus.  

John 3:18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

The word “already” is telling because that puts us all in a condemned state of being until we are born again by believing in Jesus Christ.  

 John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 

Men love the darkness and will choose it every time unless the Holy Spirit resides in them.  Those that have been born again have been pulled out of that darkness and into YHWH's marvelous light.  We have left the world of evil and hopelessness and have entered the glory of Jesus Christ.  This has prompted men to write creeds such as the Nicene Creed etc.  

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

and of all that is, seen and unseen…..

There is a new creed going around today.  People are so proud that they put signs of it on their front lawns to let the world know that they are “woke” or in other words “born again of Satan”.  These people have been moved from bad to worse.  From lost to hopeless.  From ignorant to pure evil.  From off- base to debase.  From bad to perverted.  From free to communist and from dim to dark.   And unfortunately most of the world and businesses have fully embraced this new darkness.  

This is just one example of a creed that says loud and clear that they have rejected Jesus Christ and love the darkness.  Some other signs go into more detail but this is sufficient to see that they are communist, anarchist, homosexual, murderers, atheist, and lost.  And they are proud of it.  They are WOKE!  And worse yet most churches go right along with them.  That is why I quit going to church.  I belong to the church of Jesus Christ and get ill when I attempt to go to a local woke church.  

I only write this article to show the sad state of affairs on earth.   Satan is a defeated foe that has been thrown into the lake of fire yet we have lost souls flocking to Satan’s doctrine.  The woke philosophy demands that Christians be silenced and punished.  Jesus left us as the light of the world and yet we have put that light under a bushel and most are afraid to even let someone know it's there.  Our cowardice is shameful and hurtful.  We must repent of our shameful behavior and once again put that lamp on top of the table where it belongs and stand up for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gangster from New York

The Gangster from New York

By Richard P. Joseph

2/16/2021

Many people have seen the movie Schindler’s List and if you haven’t seen it, you should see it.  The movie was superb and gave a great visual of Nazism and of repentance and even heroism.  The book, however, gives a little more detail.  In the book there is a story that is not brought out in the movie but has impacted me greatly in understanding evil and one’s compromise with it.  The book tells of an event that occurred that taught me a very important lesson when dealing with evil.  

This evil presented itself when the NAZI SS brought in a group of rabbis and told them to spit on their holy books such as the Torah.  But not to just spit on them, they must drool spit on them in a dramatic fashion or else they would be shot.  They commenced to perform the best they could in order to not get shot.  They spit on the very scripture that supposedly gave them their very existence in life.  Then a Jewish street gangster was brought in and they told him the same thing.  The gangster, much like the Samaritan, had other thoughts though.  He simply refused to spit on the scriptures.  He was already accustomed to threats and lies and traitorous behavior, he knew the results of compromise and cowardice.  The SS,  outraged, did what they did best; they shot the gangster; then shot the rabbis.

Jesus told a story similar to this in Matthew 21:28-30.  

28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?”

They said to Him, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.

While the Rabbis said yes to God, it was the gangster that actually did the will of the father.  

In like manner I have voted for many “Christian” politicians and they all said yes but when it came to doing the will of the father they were complete disappointments.  Then in 2016 we elected a gangster type playboy from New York as our president.  Donald Trump, a successful business man with a long history of involvement in Hollywood, beauty pageant dealings, and many other worldly adventures, now took on the mantle of President of the United States.  Trust me, he was not my choice in the primaries but I pinched my nose and voted for him in the General election being that I would never vote for the opposing communist/NAZI party.  To tell you that I was pleasantly surprised by President Trump would be a massive understatement.  Deep inside this man of the world were the seeds of holiness that were planted long ago by his grandparents back in Ireland.  When the media asked Mr. Trump to spit on the bible and bow before Dagon, he held his chin up high and refused.  Not only did he refuse to spit on God’s word, he actually fought to uphold the spirit of the Word better than any of those weak “Christians” that I have ever voted for in the past.  The man had balls of steel.  He was akin to Judas Maccabaeus.  He stood up like an oak tree and would not budge.  He called the media exactly what they were, “fake news”, right to their faces and began heckling them with slogans such as “merry Christmas” and many other in-your-face Christian type slogans.  He fought abortion better than anyone else that came before him and at least tried to remove sexual perverts from the military.  His support for faith based operations was second to none in the modern era and he really did try to Make America Great Again.  The Democrats and the rest of the God haters all went apoplectic.  Never in my life have I seen the left wing lose their minds like I have now.   As we all are now experiencing their rage, I am full of joy in my heart that God reigns.  Yes, we have to deal with our current situation but nothing can ever take my joy away that Jesus Christ reigns.  They have run Trump out of town on a rail and are pursuing in an attempt to utterly destroy the man and his followers.  So let the war begin, but I still have a smile on my face put there by the gangster from New York!

Revised edition below, 4 years later    (2/27/2025)

    Well they did it, the communist Democrats executed a successful coup of the American government in 2020 with, of course, the help of weak cowards in the Republican party.  I won't waste time explaining the carnage that was swept in and utterly decimated our economy, our military, our schools, our borders, our morals and everything in-between.  It is so bad now that even some Democrats are waking up.  The country actually needed someone like Joe Biden to help them see how bad it can get when atheist communists run the country.  The result, a landslide victory for Donald Trump to accept a second term in the White House.  My real question is this; is this a result of faithful Christians in America or not?  In the end, it is, but at the same time it is also a stern rebuke on the same.  It appears that Donald Trump's Christian faith is something that developed later in life rather than early.  It also appears that his faith is real and it also appears that God called him in somewhat of the same way God called the Apostle Paul.  God needed Paul, a strong headed legalistic Jew, to do something extra ordinary and Paul had not much choice in the matter as Jesus knocked him to the ground and blinded him in order to convince him to the right way.  I think God called Trump, a billionaire playboy, to do something extra ordinary and Trump had no choice in the matter and accepted the terms.  Even two assassins, multiple court cases, an onslaught by the media and multiple frivolous lawsuits couldn't deter him.   He is, in my opinion, the most effective Christian president in our history.  Even if he isn't the most dedicated and scholarly Christian president, he is the most effective.  He has now assembled the most productive cabinet known to the United States of America.  This cabinet is made up of Christians, Hindus, agnostics and probably some other stuff that I don't know about.  My next question is; why not all Christians?  The short answer; because most Christians simply will not obey God.  They are weak cowards that don't understand that being a Christian is a bold and courageous lifestyle.  Since God ultimately sets up governments and takes them down, God did this.  This is where the rebuke comes in.  God has to use non-Christians to do what Christians fail to do.  We have been voting for "Christian" politicians for our entire lives and what do we get?  Abortion, inflation, transgender ideology, oppression, invasion, tax robbery, child molesters, forced vaccination, economic depression, social discord, communism, cancel culture, and complete social entropy.  That sounds a lot like what Jesus described that would be outside the kingdom of God.

Revelation 21   8 But the cowardly, [e]unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”     

Maybe it's time to redefine what a Christian really is.  The one thing he isn't is a sissy coward.  It is almost as if we need to learn from Trump's cabinet how to become a bold and effective force for the kingdom of God.  America is a Christian nation and we are in desperate need of strong Christian men to lead us in our future.  If you fit Revelation 21:8, please stay home, but if you are a worrier like David and Peter then step up, we need you.  Our future depends on it!

Eat and Run

 Eat and Run

By Richard P. Joseph   

    2/11/2021

    In Exodus 12:11 God tells Israel to get ready to “eat and run”.

“ And thus you shall eat it: [c]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.”

According to today's modern interpretation that scripture means that we should eat our meals with bags packed ready to leave Egypt at any moment.  Right?  Why not?  

    Jesus gave the disciples similar instructions.  In Matthew 24:17-18 Jesus tells them to “eat and run”.  

17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 

Those that were in Judea were to flee and run when they saw the signs that Jesus described.  So, my question is this; if the modern interpretation for this verse means that thousands of years later they were to eat and run then why not interpret the first Passover the same way?  Why would God keep his promise to Moses but not to Peter?  If Moses really thought that their deliverance was nigh at hand then why wouldn’t Peter think the same thing?  Why would God tell Moses the truth but fool Peter?

    All of those are legitimate questions.  It is quite obvious that all of the New Testament writers believed Jesus as they wrote using imminent language such that they believed the end was at hand.  History bears out that they were correct.  In fact there is more history confirming the destruction of the temple and the sacking of Israel than there is of the exodus of Israel from Egypt.  Josephus left us a first hand documentation of it.  With so much knowledge of the “end of the age”, how is it possible to get the wrong interpretation of it?  It may be because we have a “me” based view of the bible but that was not so in ancient Israel.  Israel had a “God” based view of scripture.  With the me based view we always see God as our magical genie.  It is about our health and wealth.  It is about “I, me, mine” to quote George Harrison (the Beatle).  When you have a me based view you are 100% sure to get an inaccurate interpretation of scripture.  Although we do benefit from God’s plan, the scripture is really focused on God, not us.  We must learn to interpret scripture from an ancient point of view and with God as the focus point.  We must never add or detract from scripture, we are just to believe it as written and to what audience it was written to and understand the time statements according to their vantage point, not ours.

    The only thing “eat and run” does for me is give me indigestion.  However, for the first century Jew, it meant life.  It meant the escape from bondage.  It meant that destruction was about to befall those that disobeyed and failed to believe.  If they believed, then we need to also. Amen.

144,000

 144,000

12/14/2020

By Richard P. Joseph

I have been listening to Pastor David Curtis going through the book of Romans and enjoy his cunning insight.  Paul uses several chapters to describe what true Israel really is.  It appears that true Israel are all those who are in Christ regardless of whether they are Jew or Gentile.  Paul makes it clear that not all Israel is Israel.  The true Jewish Israelites are those that have accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is only a remnant, not the entire Jewish nation.  

The nation of Israel as a whole rejected the messiah.  In Matthew 23 Jesus pairs the current Jewish leadership with all the past leaders who murdered the messengers of God.  

Mat 31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt.  

Jesus told them plainly that their house would be left to them desolate.  As AD70 approached, every word of Christ came true.  The Jews continued murdering the apostles and followers of Chrst and then they brought on their own demise by taking on the Roman army.  But what about the faithful Jews.  

John tells us in the book of Revelation that the remnant was indeed saved.  

Rev 14:1 Then I looked, and behold, [a]a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, [b]having His Father’s name written on their foreheads.

I believe that this 144,000 is the assurance of what Paul was telling us about “all Israel shall be saved”.  This number is obviously 12,000 X 12.  Twelve is the number of Jewish tribes and to multiply it gives it a fulfilled number of sorts.  This is reminiscent of when Jesus told the apostles to forgive 70 X 7 times.  It is not a real number but a meaningful number.  In other words there is no limit to forgiveness.   I believe John here is telling us that the faithful remnant of Israel is saved (in a continuing effect).  They are singing a new song that the unfaithful cannot learn.  They have received the promise that God gave to Israel that the others will not receive.  They are the first fruits of Israel in the new kingdom.  There is no real pure national ethnic Israel today.  The church is the real Israel.