BOOKLET II

Mysteries and Facts of Historic Proportions

Written by leaders of the online media.
and Put together by Editor Kenneth Pranzo.

Astrology, its basis, validity and accuracy
Interestingly enough there are about 10,000 people who work fulltime in astrology in the United States and 200,000 working part time (from the book “Psychic Forces” by John Weldon and Clifford Wilson). The Babylonians took astrology seriously in 3000 B.C. The ancients believed that the power of the constellations affected the lives of humans. Early Greek Zodiacs had thirteen signs including the Pleiades.
Contemporary astrology uses twelve constellations, which are known as the Zodiac. They are Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Gemini the Twins, Cancer the Crab, Leo the Lion, Virgo the Virgin, Libra the Balance, Scorpio the Scorpion, Sagittarius the Archer, Capricorn the Goat, Aquarius the Water Bearer and Pisces the Fish.
There are two major schools in astrology. “Siderial” astrology deals with the constellation in which the sun is located at the moment of birth and “Tropical” astrology handles a thirty degree slice of the zodiac or a sector. The latter “Tropical” sector astrology was developed for convenience because, “constellations such as Virgo, which bulges beyond the confines of that allotted 30 degrees, and Libra, which occupies only half the allotted area, created a situation in which mythical figures were hanging over everywhere, and so someone had to ‘draw the line’ Some constellations are barely within the traditional 16-degree-wide-band of the zodiac, while the Man-Killing-a-Snake-or Dragon” is on the zodiac, but not used” (Quoting the book “Flim-Flam” by James Randi, Chapter 4 “Into the Air, Junior Birdmen”).
Some of the principal arguments arguing against the validity of astrology include the following:
Within the profession of astrology “Siderial” and “Tropical” astrology are at odds with one another.
There are two hundred and fifty billion stars in our own galaxy and over one hundred billion galaxies twirling about in space. Therefore the are 25,000,000,000,000,0000,0000,0000 stars in space which could mold a person’s personality, affect his or her likes and dislikes, and predetermine his or her personality, direction in life … That’s what astrology would have you believe!
Because of their distance in light years we are seeing the light of some stars which no longer exist. They may have imploded or exploded thousands if not millions of years ago. Is it fair to say one of these stars determine one’s personality at birth?
Pursuant to astrology each person is influenced by a wide array of signs, but primarily by one’s birth sign and one’s ascendant, the sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. There are also one’s moon sign, career sign, and various house signs. In other words a human being is an amalgam of all the signs of the zodiac!
Different astrological magazines show totally different horoscopes for the same sign on the same day. There is no consistency in the field of astrology.
Why should the sign at the moment at birth prevail? Why shouldn’t the sign at the moment of conception?
It would seem that the physician’s body as he assists at childbirth exerts a greater gravitational influence on a baby being born than the entire gravitational field of the planet Mars (James Randi op.cit.).
Astronomers tell us the constellations have shifted from where they were 2,000 years ago. Each sign in relation to the earth has moved thirty degrees to the west. Instead of being an Aquarian you may find you are a Capricorn!
The Bible warns us in Deuteronomy 4:19, “Beware, lest you lift your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.” In Deuteronomy 17:2-3 doing “evil in the sight of the Lord your God” is identified as worshiping other gods “or the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host.”
Worshiping the sun or the moon is the same as making oneself dependent on them and turning to them for direction and guidance, after all if you believe in astrology you also believe that the heavenly bodies direct your life.
This author knows of an Eastern guru who has his followers, for a hefty fee, obtain astrological charts from his resident astrologers. If the astrological charts are not favorable, you can pay additional money to the guru for a “karmic adjustment.” The guru has done very well for himself and has found no shortage of devotees willing to part with their money.
The bottom line with astrology is that it fails to stand reasoned analysis. Why create needless worries and apprehension from a belief system that fails to meet the test of common sense? Why create false expectations?
As this website clearly proves there is an Intelligent Designer outside time and space. Why put yourself in bondage to an aspect of the Creation when one can worship the Creator of the Universe? Why honor the pot when one can honor the potter? Why give glory to the software when one can honor its Designer?

Nostradamus, the man and his predictions, past and future put to the test
“So why are you trying to find out the future by consulting witches and mediums? Don’t listen to their whisperings and mutterings. Can the living find out the future from the dead? Why not ask your God?” (Isaiah 8:19).

Nostradamus was an occult prophet who lived from 1503 to 1566. Michel de Nostredame (or Notredame) was born in St. Remy, France to a family of Jews who became Catholics. Although it is reported in several prominent publications he took a medical degree at the University of Montpelier, Peter Lemesurier in his excellent book “The Unknown Nostradamus” documents that while Nostradamus applied for entrance at the University of Montepelier in 1529, Guillaume Rondelet, the student registrar, denied him enrolment in the student body for being a “quack.” There is absolutely no record of his re-admission.
Having been denied admission he set to wander the highways and byways of Europe as a apothecary in search of medical knowledge. When the plague struck Aix en Provence in 1546 the local doctors undoubtedly fled in panic. The celebrated Toulouse doctor Augier Ferrier, a Montpellier alumnus, counseled his fellow doctors, “Get out fast, stay well away, come back late.”
According to Lemsurier, “And since the only reputable doctor who could be relied upon to stay and fight the pestilence was still engaged in Marseille, and either couldn’t or wouldn’t come, the only thing left to do was to invite his second-in-command. If the organ-grinder refused to perform, there was nothing for it but to settle for the monkey.”
Aix in June 1546 hired “Micheou de Nostredame” to fight the plague. Nostradamus concocted some rose-pills for repelling the plague. He later admitted that none of his methods worked and that even his rose-pills were only a prophylactic. His wife and son tragically died of the plague.
The prophet Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes, “That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done, so there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). As with most of human history the 15th and first part of the 16th century were rife with climatic, economic, political and religious events. Europe’s “Little Ice Age,” was in full swing in the 1520’s and crops were devastated, the plague ravaged towns and cities, the rulers of Europe were continually waging war with one another, Soleiman the Magnificent with his superbly trained Janissary armies were sweeping into southeast Europe from Ottoman Turkey up to the very gates of Vienna.
Darkly viewing the future, the public developed an unsatiable appetite for books on prophecies. One of the most successful was the “Mirabilis liber” of 1522 which was undoubtedly read by and inspired Nostradamus and which in many ways is a paraphrase of Biblical prophecy (John’s Book of Revelation: the two prophets confronting AntiChrist, Ezekiel 38-39:Gog of the land of Magog and Gog’s allies attack Israel, Joel 2: the perfectly trained northern army): Here is a sample quote:
“In the very midst of this calm there shall suddenly emerge from the north with Gog and Magog, a nation that shall make the whole world tremble. Horrified, all men shall hide themselves in the mountains and among the rocks in order to flee their presence. They are not of the race of Japheth. The plague of the North, they shall devour human flesh and snakes, women and little children.”
By contrast the Bible in Ezekiel 38: 2-9(NASB), which is possibly an Armageddon or pre-Armageddon end time scenario (some speculate seven or even three and a half years prior to the Battle of Armageddon) reads:
“Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. And I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords; Persia, Ethiopia, and Put with them, and all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops – many peoples with you. Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them. And you will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.’”
The prophet Ezekiel is prophesying an invasion of Israel, whose people had been scattered to the nations and regathered in the “latter days”. The confederation is headed by Gog who comes from the “remotest parts of the north” (Ezekiel 39:2). Many of the countries named are recognizable. In brief God divinely intervenes through a great earthquake, pestilence, torrential rain, fire, brimstone and by sowing internal discord in the ranks of the invaders. The invading army is annihilated (Ezekiel 3-6, NASB):
“And I shall strike your bow from your left hand, and dash down your arrows from your right hand. You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops, and the peoples who are with you; I shall give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken, declares the Lord God. And I shall send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety (possibly a worldwide nuclear exchange); and they will know that I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel 39:14-15 informs us men will be appointed to pass through the land for seven months to search the land and put markers by the bones. Special buriers, perhaps a radioactive “decontamination team”, will then bury the dead in the valley of Hamon-gog.
Undoubtedly Nostradamus, being of Jewish heritage, was familiar with the prophecies of the Old Testament. Because people were willing to pay good money to know the future, especially to know next year’s weather, two or three dozen almanacs were being published each year in Europe, many of them Biblically based.
Nostradamus entered into this lucrative profession and published his first almanac.
For Nostradamus, the approach in prophesying was:
Do not be specific enough to be proved wrong. Be vague and cryptic.
Write in such a way as the reader will believe you know something, even if it’s nothing, and are hinting darkly at something you will not say. This increases the “aura of mystery” and makes your prophecies “portentous”.
Predict on subjects with a high likelihood of occurring: war, pestilence, weather events, political intrigue, death of high profile individuals, accidents … and of course prophesy them in a cryptic manner.
If you make enough prophecies, a few will come true per the law of averages or “if you throw enough mud on the wall, some of it will stick.” In his “Prognostication” for 1554 Nostradamus had 149 new prophecies. He would later have over 300 prophecies a year.
For credibility purposes throw in a few “ex-post-facto” prophecies. With time the gullible will forget that you weren’t prophesying but retelling history. The ignorant won’t know the difference.
Resurrect some of your failed prophecies. History tends to repeat itself and you might “get lucky.”Forty years after Nostradamus published his first “Almanac” his faithful latter-day secretary, Chavigny, was unable to identify any prophecy as having been specifically fulfilled. He offered the lame excuse, “he really meant some other year.” In 1553 Nostradamus published two “Almanachs” which were significantly different (perhaps like reading your horoscope for the same day in two different astrological magazines). It was not uncommon for Nostradamus to recycle some of his prophecies in later publications.
It is interesting to note that in Old Testament times a prophet of God was one who was one hundred percent correct. The penalty for not being 100% right was stoning. In New Testament times prophecy is a “gift of the spirit.” The true spirit of prophecy is inspired and quickened by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. God, being outside the time dimension does not lie and sees the beginning and end of human history from an extra dimensional perspective.
Only true prophets of God, who are given supernatural insights into the future by God Himself, are infallible. In light of this absolute standard, Nostradamus’s prophesies are presumption (Deuteronomy 18:22).
Nostradamus based his predictions on astrology and admitted consulting the planetary charts. Planetary charts are written in the belief that heaveny bodies influence human affairs, a wild improbability per the previous analysis of astrology. Therefore Nostradamus’s works are individual speculation (intuitive forecasting) and being astrologically based also occultic. Nostradamus was engaged in speculation, charlatanism (see below), and occultism.
The speculation rests on the irrational assumption that similar events in human history will reoccur in the future, as far as hundreds of years from now, when the same planetary alignment (the planets would again be in the same signs) reoccurs. Something very similar to Hannibal’s invasion of Spain and Mediterranean coastal Europe would reoccur, per Nostradamus, when the same planetary alignment was again in evidence in the future.
All Nostradamus had to do is look up the positions of the planets at the time of the former historical events and then use a readily available published book of planetary tables, such as the “Alphonsine Tables” of Jean de Murs available to the public since the fourteenth century or the ninth century “De Magnis Coniunctibus”, frequently quoted by him, and then with the aid of planetary tables determine when similar patterns would happen again in the future. More often however Nostradamus simply stated what the planetary positions had been and let the reader figure out the future timings (of the reoccurring events) because these situations involved significant positions of harder to chart inner planets.
No great divinatory skills were needed for this. The “Astronomicum Caesareum” came with a set of “disc-type paper computers” to make the job easier for putative astrologers. We often picture Nostradamus as wearing a conical hat adorned with new moons staring in the late night into the swirling mists of a crystal ball. But this does not appear to be the case. Professional astrologers in his day assailed his obvious astrological incompetence.
The reality was that Nostradamus was not much of an astrologer. Nearly every one of the horoscopes he cast for wealthy individuals contained per Peter Lemesurier (op.cit.) one significant error and “about half would contain whole rafts of them”. Because of this Nostradamus expected his clients to have their astrological charts already drawn by expert astrologers prior to seeing him. One may wonder why anyone bothered to see Nostradamus in the first place! Maybe this is similar to getting a “second opinion” after having seen your own doctor, just in case. The problem here is your own doctor is more skilled than the “second opinion”.
Regardless, Nostradamus had hit upon the winning formula of projecting into the future past events. If events reoccur then you can have a plethora of prophecies, recycled historical events: comets, famines, plagues, locusts, persecution of the Church, fires, court intrigue, wars, victories, defeats, treason, naval battles, monsters appearing, earthquakes, rapes, Popes fleeing, rapes, serpents rising out of North Africa etc… In one year he generated over 300 prophecies! Nostradamus became to prophecy what Henry Ford was to the automobile. He published three “Almanachs” in 1557 and another two in 1558. .
Immediately foreseeable events also qualified as prophecies. For example for February 1554 Nostradamus predicted two popes would die. That did not happen until the following year. If the popes are old and in poor health their death, sooner or later, is foreseeable. This is similar to prophesying today “There will be terrors in the Middle East (Proche Orient) this year.” It doesn’t take a prophet to conclude this is inevitable. Historically the Middle East has always been a bed of turmoil, but for that matter so has the entire planet.
In 1555 Nostradamus started claiming he was divinely inspired, thereby giving his prophecies unimpeachable authority.
Nostradamus covered his bases by saying the “Dieu est sur tous les asters” (“God is above all the stars”). Therefore if his predictions didn’t come true, the inference is God has simply changed his mind. The burden for the realization of a prophecy was not on Nostradamus but on God. Naturally one can conclude that Nostradamus might have believed he had a private line to God, which nobody else did (the representation of every quack prophet and some “charismatic” evangelists).
The Bible in Deuteronomy clearly cautions, “There shall not be found among you anyone … who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). Undoubtedly even a mass production prophet such as Nostradamus falls under this Biblical ban.
The “Chronique Lyonnaise” attributed in summer 1555 Nostradamus with the ability to practice “chiromancy (palmistry), mathematics, and astrology”. It is interesting to note that Laurent Videl in his 1558 writing criticizing Nostradamus accused him of swindling 10 crowns (approximately $900 today) on the way to the King’s Court from a woman in Lyon by giving her a worthless prescription which didn’t work. Subsequently when the woman cried out “Give me back my ten crowns, for your prescription is no good” Nostradamus “like a shameless charlatan …. said ‘It’s all right’”and refused to give her back her ten crowns.
As a result of his prophecies he was consulted by Catherine de Medicis, queen of Henry II of France (in a similar fashion as the gullible Queen Alexandra of All the Russias fell prey to Rasputin), and became physician to King Charles IX in 1560. He also became a member of the intellectual circle of Julius Caesar Scaliger. The latter bitterly broke the relationship accusing Nostradamus of being an “inane,vile scoundrel”, a disseminator of “falsities”, and a “criminal beggar”.
Folklore says that Queen Catherine de Medicis asked Nostradamus to conduct a séance for her in her beautiful castle of Chaumont. Her husband, Henry II, had just died and she wanted to know the fate of her sons, the Valois royal line. Nostradamus directed the séance. By staring into a “magic mirror” the “angel” (from a Christian perspective a demonic entity impersonating an angel) Anael (nonexistent in the Bible) was invoked.
In the magic mirror she saw her sons. Francis II, recently crowned, appeared and walked around once in an imaginary room seen in the mirror. Then Charles appeared, who succeeded Francis as king, and he walked around fourteen times and disappeared. Finally Henry III of France appeared in the mirror and circled the room fifteen times. Each tour around the room represented a year of power. Francis II did not live long and was succeeded by his brothers for fourteen and fifteen year reigns respectively..
In view of Nostradamus’s track record of cryptic and convoluted prophecies and the precision and accuracy of the “magic mirror” prophecies it is doubtful the séance occurred. Nostradamus denied consulting “familiar spirits” Demons who impersonate the dead; the dead cannot communicate with the living, which is the whole purpose of a séance. He complained of his critics who:
“are quick to blame and to speak ill of me and say that such pronouncements come from a familiar demon… Which is a thing assuredly as alien as the truth as they themselves are for certain far from reason or good judgment, having their minds deranged by envy and ignorance.”
Perhaps the most famous of the Renaissance astrological treatises are the “centuries”of Nostradamus, first published in 1555. Each “centuries” was a group of 100 rhymed prophetic quatrains. Nostradamus won lasting fame in 1559 when King Henry II of France died in a manner supposedly predicted in the “Centuries” as follows:
THE DEATH OF HENRY II
Le lyon jeune le vieux surmontera,
En champ bellique par singulier duelle:
Dans caige d’or les yeux luy creuera,
Deux classes vne, puis mourir, mort cruelle.
“The young lion will overcome the old one,
On the field of battle in single combat:
He will burst his eyes in a cage of gold,
Two fleets one, then to die, a cruel death.”In the summer of 1559 the daughter of Henry II married Philip II of Spain and Marguerite, the sister of Henry II, married the Duke of Savoy. Part of the “double wedding” celebrations included jousting. Henry rode against Gabriel de Lorges, Comte de Montgomery, but failed to unseat him and tried again. Montgomery’s lance shattered as the two jousters collided and a splinter entered Henry’s helmet, pierced his skull above his right eye, and penetrated his brain. Henry collapsed and ten days later died.
Does the above quatrain prophesy the death of Henry, as many claim? In his introduction to the second section of the Centuries on March 14, 1557 Nostradamus drafted a lengthy and fawning epistle to Henry II which runs as follows: “Ever since my long-clouded face first presented itself before the infinite deity of your majesty, O most Christian and most victorious king, I have remained perpetually dazzled by that sight, not ceasing to honor and worship appropriately that date when I presented myself… I was seized with this singular desire to be transported suddenly from my long-beclouded obscurity to the illuminating presence of the first Monarch of the Universe….” (source “The Mask of Nostradamus by James Randi).
There is no evidence in this Epistle written two years before Henry II’s death that Nostradamus foresaw the imminent death of his “most Christian and most victorious king”. Had the epistle been prophesying the death of Henry II, one would believe that Nostradamus would have warned Henry.
Montgomery was younger than Henry but only a few years so “The young lion will overcome the old one” is not significant.
James Randi in his expositive book “The Mask of Nostradamus” points out that the French have never used the lion as a symbol of monarchy. Their animal symbol was the fighting cock.
With respect to the second line of the quatrain, “On the field of battle in single combat,” a joust is not a “field of battle” but more of a contest. Serious injuries were not expected to occur. Furthermore if one insists that a joust is a battle, Henry’s death was not the result of a “single” combat. Henry failed to unseat Montgomery in the first sally, Henry asked for another try. Montgomery deferred to his king’s request. There was, therefore, a “second” combat.
“He will burst his eyes in a cage of gold” does not reflect Henry’s fate as neither of his eyes was burst. Montgomery’s lance pierced Henry’s skull above the king’s right eye.
Gold is soft and does not afford protection. Jousting helmets were not made of gold except for decorative overlays or attached emblems.
The last verse “Two fleets one, then to die, a cruel death” aren’t really relevant to the demise of Henry II, except that his death was cruel or perhaps more accurately “tragic” as cruelty implies that intent from a perpetrator, which was not the case here. Montgomery’s injury was the result of accident not intent.
ADOLF HITLER 2-24
Bestes farouches de faim fleuues tranner,
Plus part du champ encontre Hister sera.
En caige de fer le grand sera treisner,
Quand rien enfant de Germain obseruera.
Beasts mad with hunger will swim across rivers,
Most of the army will be against the Lower Danube.
The great one will be dragged in an iron cage,
When the child brother will observe nothing.This is another one of Nostradamus’s cryptic prophecies which can be applied to a variety of situations. Henry C. Roberts in “The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus” believes this quatrain is a prediction of the fate of Adolf Hitler. He interprets the “iron cage” as the bunker in Berlin where Hitler died. A concrete bunker is more a “concrete cage” with rebars than an “iron cage”.
Classically trained commentators on Nostradamus are fully aware that in Roman times the lower portion of the Danube River is known as “Ister” or “Hister,” and is referred to as such on Roman maps.
Many writers have interpreted the last line of the quatrain to read “Quand Rin enfant Germain observera,” or “When the German Child will see the Rhine,” however “rien” in French means nothing, not “Rhine” and “enfant de Germain” from the 12th to the 16th century meant “brother” or “near relative” (James Randi, op.cit.)
Hitler and Goebbles attempted to make capital of this possible prophecy. Hitler was aware that “Hister” was Latin for the lower Danube but also believed the quatrain had a double meaning and applied to him.
One can only wonder why, as its context is not very flattering. The next line talks about the “great one” being dragged in an iron cage.
All this speculation however over what Nostradamus meant by the word Hister is a moot issue. The “greatest” seer of the Renaissance lays the matter to rest himself in his prediction for November 1554 which reads:
“A very learned man in the last quarter (of the moon), while walking along the river Hister, also called Danube, the ground subsiding, in the said river shall be lost” (Source: “The Unknown Nostradamus” op.cit. Page 68).
He did not mean “Hitler”. He meant “Danube”!
WORLD WAR III QUATRAINS
Many have interpreted the following verses as applicable to the advent of the Third World War, an attack upon New York City. Cinq et quarante degres ciel bruslera
Feu approcher de la grand cite neufve
Instand grand flame esparse sautera VI.97
The sky will burn at 45 degrees.
Fire approaches the great new city.
Immediately huge, scattered flame leaps up ….Thousands of Americans were killed by the vicious crashing of two airliners into the World Trade Center in September 2001 killing innocent civilians including women and children. At the time many said, “Nostradamus predicted this”.The verses above however do not apply to “911” as New York is at 40.6 or 40.7 degrees latitude, the sky did not explode on fire, and huge flames did not immediately leap up. Nostradamus only mentioned America once, if that was his intent, in quatrain X.66, which has nothing to do with VI.97.
There is a town at 45 degrees north latitude named Villeneuve-sur-Lot in southwestern France which better fits the bill. Ville neuve in French literally means “new city”. Some have argued that Nostradamus meant 40.5 degrees when he stated “cinq et quarante”, however this argument fails as the decimal system did not exist in Nostradamus’s day.
L’an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois,
Du ciel viendra un grand Roi deffraieur
Rescusciter le grand Roi de’Angolmois
Avant que Mars regner par bonhneur X.72In the book “Norstradamus, 1555 and Beyond” Erika Cheetham offers the translation of this quatrain as:
“In the year 1999 and seven months from the sky will come the Great King of Terror. He will bring back the Great King of the Mongols. But before and this war reigns unrestrained.”
In the book “The Secrets of Nostradamus: A Radical New Interpretation of the Master’s Prophecies” David Ovason offers the following translation:
“The year one thousand nine hundreds ninety nine seven months
From the sky will come a King of alarm
To bring back to life the great King of Angoulmois,
Before after Mars to reign by good fortune.”
Maintaining that Nostradamus was “an initiate, working on behalf of a sixteenth century arcane school,” Ovason analyzes the verse in terms of the Green Language which “has been used widely in occult literature.”
Ovason informs us that Angoulmois comes straight from the arcane Green Language and concludes: “It is evident, therefore, that Nostradamus is disguising the name of the planetary archangel Michael in the pseudo-epigraphic Roy d’Angoulmois.”
With respect to the verse “Du ciel viendra un grand Roy d’effrayeur” or “From the sky will come a great King of alarm” Ovason points out that while “effrayeur” means alarmist or frightener, “defrayer” means to amuse or entertain.
The quatrain’s “1999” per occultic analysis, according to Ovason, “could very be related to A.D. 2087.”
As with everything else concerning Nostradamus, things are very likely not what they seem. Furthermore, the variance of opinion in the interpretation of this quatrain represents a great dilemma with everything Nostradamus wrote. The quatrains are so cryptic that different writers interpret them differently. There are nearly as many interpretations as they are interpreters. People are trying to see something in them that is not there.
The quatrain XXV has been interpreted as the commencement of jihad:Le prince Arabe Mars, Sol, Venus, Lyon,
Regne d’Eglife par mer fuccombera;
Devers la Perfe bi en pres d’un million,
Bifance, Egptee, ver. ferp. inuadera
The Arab Price Mars, Sun, Venus, Leo.
The Rule of the Church will succumb by sea:
Towards Persia very nearly a million men,
The true serpent will invade Byzantium and EgyptThe planetary alignment we are told represents August 1998. The language has nothing to do with “jihad” but appears to concern an Arab ruler who fields an army of a million men and attacks Persia or present day Iran. He then apparently attacks Byzantium and Egypt. “Byzantium” does not exist anymore but is Moslem Turkey. If this were jihad there would be no reason to attack Turkey or Egypt, which are already Moslem.
During the Iraqi Iran war in the late 1980’s in which Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against the human wave attacks of the Ayatollah’s Iranians there were about a million casualties and a million men were involved in combat on both sides but this has nothing to do with a planetary alignment in 1998 or an invasion of Byzantium and Egypt.
With respect to the Church succumbing by sea, the Church, which is the body of the people of Christ, is no longer a political power to succumb by military action. The Church is severely weakened by moral compromise in these latter days where good is called evil and evil is called good, but there is no apparent danger from the sea. Nostradamus may have been projecting into the far future danger from the Pirates of Tartary which terrorized the Mediterranean during his time.
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Bible Prophecy Verses Nostradamus
The Bible, unlike Nostradamus’s vague speculations, is very specific and depicts a much more detailed World War III type of scenario. The “day of the Lord”, possibly World War III, in Isaiah 13 is associated with the oracle concerning Babylon, which was situated in present day Iraq. According to Isaiah the Lord of hosts will muster an army for battle from a far country, from the “farthest horizons” as “His instruments of indignation, to destroy the whole land”.

The present political factionalism and instability in Iraq with its proximity to the world’s largest oil reserves may eventually lead to a world war, a nuclear exchange, where “every man’s heart will melt”, and “they will look at one another in astonishment, their faces aflame”. What is described in Isaiah 13 is of cataclysmic proportions as “the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light”, perhaps a “nuclear winter”, and mortal man will be “scarcer than pure gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir”. Isaiah prophesies that God, “shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place.” The men assembled in the land of Babylon will “each turn to his own people, and each flee to his own land”.
This latter day scenario ends with Isaiah 13:16. In Isaiah 13:17 Isaiah, who prophesied from approximately 739 B.C. to 681 B.C., gives a prophecy which was fulfilled at least one hundred and forty years after Isaiah made it, the destruction of Babylon by the Medes. This occurred in 539 B.C. when Cyrus, king of the Medo Persians, captured Babylon. Babylon was believed to be impregnable because of its huge walls. The city was so vast that food could be produced in the agricultural land contained within its walls. The Euphrates River flowed through the city. Cyrus is said to have stationed his army where the river entered the city and where it left. He then diverted the upstream flow of the river temporarily by deepening the canals into the Euphrates Valley.. Cyrus’s troops under the leadership of Gobryas entered Babylon by way of the drained riverbed unopposed. The inhabitants of Babylon, dissatisfied with the reign of Nabonidus and Belshazzar, sued for peace and were granted it.
The prophet Jeremiah also prophesied the destruction of Babylon by the “kings of the Medes” (Jeremiah 51: 27-32). Jeremiah was called to his prophetic office in 626 B.C. and prophesied for forty two years.
Compare the cryptic and hard to interpret prophecies of Nostradamus with those of the Bible. The Bible has over three hundred prophecies concerning the Messiah, which Jesus fulfilled, many of which were completely beyond His control such as: His place of birth (Micah 5:2), the time of His birth (Daniel 9:25; Genesis 49:10), the manner of His birth (Isaiah 7:14), His betrayal (Psalms 41:9, Zechariah 11:12, 11:13b), the manner of his death (Psalms 22:16), people’s reactions (mocking, spitting, staring, etc…) (Isaiah 50:6, Micah 5:1, Psalms 22:7,8, Isaiah 53:3, Psalms 69:8, Psalms 118:22, Psalms 69:4, Isaiah 49:7, Psalms 38:11, Psalms 22:7, Psalms 109:25, Psalms 22:17), piercing (Zechariah 12:10, Psalms 22:16) and burial (Isaiah 53:9). These were prophecies made hundreds of years before his birth. For example the prophecies regarding his crucifixion (Psalm 22:16, Zechariah 12:10, Isaiah 53:5-6) were made several hundred years before the Romans introduced this form of punishment into the Middle East. Stoning was the preferred form of punishment prior to the Roman presence in the Middle East.
Rather than repeating other sections of this website concerning Bible prophecies please refer to Section 5 of this website entitled “Powerful Evidence ForThe Deity of Christ” and read the subsections “Prophecy Fulfilled” and the “Prophetic Odds”. Also refer to Section 7 of this website entitled “Other Landscapes” and refer to the subsection “The Testimony of Fulfilled Prophecy”.

The Antichrist
One of the benefits of living in the twenty first century is to look back at the popular Nostradamus books of the late twentieth century and laugh at their unrealized doomsday prophecies. The King of the Mongols who was supposed to appear in 1999 never appeared.
Similarly we never heard of Jeane Dixon’s “Child of the East,” who she saw as the “actual person of the AntiChrist.” He was supposed to have been born around 1962 and we should have heard from him when he was twenty-nine or thirty years old.
So when it comes to prophecy are we in a predicament where the blind lead the blind? The Bible offers us the only answer. “Why not ask your God?” (Isaiah 8:19). Why consult the mediums and the wizards who whisper and mutter? Why consult “prophets” who when it comes to accuracy have a nonexistent track record and in case of Nostradamus do not offer a single clear, fulfilled prophecy.
He is said to have predicted his own death. In this prediction he was right, except he said he would die in November 1567 and he died July 1566. At the time of his prediction he was severely suffering from edema (fluid accumulation in the connecting tissue), gout, and arthritis so prophesying his own end may not be such a feat.
Authors have claimed finding prophecies in Nostradamus regarding “AntiChirst” types and applied them both to Napoleon and Adolf Hitler. He also had “AntiChrist” types from North Africa including the “mighty Camel” from Fez (VI.80, V.68 and VII.34) who would invade Europe and be repulsed. Under careful scrutiny these prophecies are so vague that they tell us little, or, as already discussed, they may be future projections of past historical events.
The frightening thing about Adolf Hitler, who some have called the “Anti-man”, was that he was very normal, per his personal secretary. The Anti-Man loved children and small animals who did not pose a threat and who he could control. He railed at phantom enemies, stirring the German masses into rampaging frenzy against neighboring countries and defenseless minorities, yet at the same time he ate plain vegetarian food and loved to watch Hollywood movies. It is reported that further east Stalin would take an intermission break, go to a courtyard, watch a firing squad mow down a line of his supposed “enemies”, and return in good humor to watch the second half of a movie.
How despicable can man be … as despicable as he can visualize with his mind. The guillotine operators in the French revolution, dripping with their victims’ blood, in high spirits, would take a break to eat bread and cheese and drink wine. The Gestapo troopers in some of the Baltic States marveled at how savagely the local populations massacred the Jews. When the Twin Towers in New York were still burning, incinerating innocent civilians, many cheered around the world. As with Cain, humans are evil, bloody, and sinful.
Despite our condition God loves us. Two thousand years ago the God of the Universe incarnated as a man to die on a cross that whoever believes in Him and on Him is washed clean by the blood He shed on Calvary, thereby providing a sacrifice for our sins. In modern language the Judge Himself leaves his bench, goes to the clerk, and pays for your speeding ticket.
If you accept Christ by asking Him into your heart (just ask “Come in Jesus, take charge of my life. Forgive me for all the bad things which I have done and lead me and guide me from this day on”) you are transformed into a new creature, or at least a creature that is “saved by the skin of your teeth,” as all Christians are, including Billy Graham and the Pope. Only God is without sin.
That is why God Himself had to incarnate as a man to take away man’s sin. But for the death of Jesus Christ we cannot have a personal relationship with the God of the Universe and God’s great blessings, including the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, spiritual peace, God’s personal direction in our lives, joy, abundant life, eternal life, blessings in health and business, bringing the light of God into a dark world.
What does all this have to do with the AntiChrist? The AntiChrist will merely be a man without the ennobling characteristics of God. He could even be a Christian who has forsaken his God for a “mess of potage”, for worldly power and ambition . He could be a New Ager who believes “he” is God, or a worshiper of another “god”. He will certainly be a ruthless politician, a wolf in sheep’s clothes. The reality is any man without God is potentially an AntiChrist.
The Bible gives us abundant information on the AntiChrist. Here are just a few of the verses many agree concern this unsavory and eternally damned individual (items in parentheses are author’s interpretations):
“The king (AntiChrist) will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all. Instead of them, he will honor a god of fortresses (military force ?), a god unknown to his fathers he will honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts.
“He will attack the mightiest fortresses (making him a world conqueror) with the help of a foreign god and will greatly honor those who acknowledge him (he will reward those who fawn over him). He will make them rulers over many people and will distribute the land at a price” (New International, Daniel 11:36-39).
Unlike the prophecies of Nostradamus who throws us a bone with little gristle on it, the prophecies of Daniel, inspired by the Spirit of God, are extensive and well fleshed out.
In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions which included a fourth beast, “dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and trampled down the remainder (the lion with the wings of an eagle, generally interpreted by Bible scholars as the Babylonian Empire), the bear with three ribs in its mouth (Medo-Persian Empire) and the leopard with four wings and four heads (Grecian Empire)) with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.”
“While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one (the AntiChrist), came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it (AntiChrist attacking three of his neighbors); and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts (a loudmouth like Adolf Hitler compared to whom Napoleon was mild mannered)” (Daniel 7:7-8). In Daniel 7:20 we are told the “little horn” had grown into a horn which “was larger in appearance that its associates.”
A horn in ancient times was a symbol of strength and power. Here the little horn or power has attacked three other horns (“three of them fell”) and grown larger.
“I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints (followers of Christ) and overpowering them until the Ancient of Days (the Return of the King, Jesus the Christ) came, and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom” (Daniel 7:22).
The followers of Christ are saved by direct divine intervention. We see in Revelation that AntiChrist and his false prophet are thrown into the Lake of Fire by God’s angels (Revelation 19:20).
“I kept looking until thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him. The court sat, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7: 9-10).
The Ancient of Days is further described in Revelation (NASB,1:13-18):
“And in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. And in His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I (John the Apostle) saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man (so would you). And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last’” (the Alpha and the Omega and also the “son of man”).
Returning to Daniel’s vision, Daniel’s spirit was distressed and he approached one of those who was standing by and asked him the meaning of the vision.
“Thus he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth (a world Empire) and tread it down and crush it.
As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.
And he will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law (contravening God’s law with what is “politically correct”); and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time (generally interpreted as 3.5 years).
But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him’” (Daniel 7:23-27).
The Apostle Paul in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians counsels first century Christians that prior to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the apostasy comes first, followed by the “man of lawlessness” or the “son of destruction”(2 Thessalonians 2:3). He is described as one who exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship and that he seats himself in the temple of God displaying himself as being God.
The AntiChrist will believe he is God and act accordingly. He will be endowed with supernatural power, “coming in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders” (2 Thess. 2:9). He will be a type of miracle working godless politician in control of the whole world:
“And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, evrey one, whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (Revelation 13:8).
The AntiChrist is also referred to in revelation as the “beast.” We are told in Revelation 13 of a beast which comes out of the sea whose power comes from the dragon, Satan. The beast has ten horns and seven heads (three were destroyed, see above). One of the heads, the little horn who becomes the Big Horn (Daniel above), is slain and the fatal wound “from the sword” (Revelation 13:14) is miraculously healed.
In Revelation 17:7 the angel tells the Apostle John this same beast was alive but is not now, but he will return from the bottomless pit and then go to eternal destruction. The angel may be referring to a reconstituted Roman Empire or a reconstituted Third Reich ruled by a modern day Nero or Adolf Hitler.
The AntiChrist may very well be possessed by the same demonic principality as one of these historical butchers. He will suffer a fatal head wound and then suddenly revive. Perhaps at that point the demonic spirit occupies the lifeless body and animates it once again.
The whole earth is amazed and follows the beast. For 42 months the beast is given power and authority. The beast blasphemes God and makes war with the saints, who he overcomes.
The Beast gains authority over every “tribe and people and tongue and nation”.

The Mark of the Beast ~ 666
The beast has a companion, also empowered by the dragon, a second beast which has two horns like a lamb, speaks like a dragon. He may come as a lamb, soft spoken and silky, yet really be a wolf in disguise.
He is also referred to as the “false prophet” and makes fire fall down from heaven to earth. He makes an image of the first beast that was healed, which speaks. This second beast makes all the inhabitants of the earth worship the first beast and his image and “causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead and he provides that no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six” (Revelation 13:16-18).
In view of computers, microchip implants, GPS, an agenda toward national databanks on individuals precipitated by the “war on terror”, a real or fabricated scarcity of natural resources such as energy, socialized health programs, a trend away from the nation state and toward regional trading and political blocks which can be subsequently agglomerated, a global dictatorship could very easily be in the offing.
This will be a much more pervasive dictatorship than any in history, whose technology of control already exists. If you were forced to have a chip implanted in your hand or forehead on which were recorded all your personal history, financial information, medical drugs you require and through GPS your every movement could be tracked, you would be living in a high tech Auschwitz. In those days the Nazis used tattoos.
Unfortunately this is what the Bible prophesies prior to the return of Jesus Christ. If you are diabetic and you don’t toe the line you don’t get your insulin, you go into a diabetic coma, and you die.
For those who like to go with the “path of least resistance” and take the mark (the chip) God does not give you an easy way out. One of the bowls of judgment is “a loathsome and malignant sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image” (Revelation 16:2).
There will be plenty of advance warning to the entire human race about the consequences of accepting the “mark”:
God will send one of his angels to proclaim to the entire planet, “If any one worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” If the choice is being able to shop in a supermarket and/or filling your tank with gas by scanning your mark or fleeing in the hinterland unmarked, you better choose the latter.
In World War II in Poland the Jews who fled into the forests, many joining the resistance to the Nazi occupiers, had a much higher survival rate than those who went peacefully to concentration camps.
With respect to the mark there is no middle ground, no straddling the line, no room for opportunists. You are damned if you accept the mark and blessed if you don’t.
Accepting the mark will somehow be tied to the worship of the AntiChrist who is also called the beast and in the Old Testament is referred to as the “Assyrian.”

The King of Kings
With respect to the AntiChrist’s end the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament tells us, “The Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man, and a sword not of man will devour him. So he will not escape the sword” (Isaiah 31:8).
In the New Testament the Book of Revelation tells us Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, returns with the armies of heaven, “and from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, and on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:15-16).
The beast and the false prophet are seized and are thrown in the lake of fire, a fitting end for the most evil tyrants in human history. Christ will then judge the nations and rule them with a rod of iron and with Ultimate Fairness. This will usher the yearned for Millennium.
“The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food” (Isaiah 65:25).

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Rapture, when?
In view of the tremendous interest in Biblical prophecy since the tragedy of September 11, 2001 in New York, the war in Iraq, the recent mega hurricanes in the Caribbean and the great earthquake in Pakistan, this article explores the fascinating area of Biblical prophecy for a period of history we may very well be living in, the end times.
We will first examine whether a Pre-Tribulation Rapture is Biblical with a detailed analysis of the arguments for a pre-tribulation rapture and compare them to those for a post-tribulation rapture. The fictional “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins a few years ago exposed millions of readers to the Pre-Tribulation Rapture world view. Is this perspective substantiated by the teachings of Jesus, Luke, Matthew, Mark, Paul, the Book of Revelation and the Old Testament prophets or is it a hopeful myth?
In connection with the Rapture such topics as when will Jesus return, the apostasy, the mark of the beast, the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, will the Church escape the tribulation, who are the “saints” and the “elect”, the issue of God’s wrath, Noah and Lot, the seven Churches in Revelation will all be looked at.
THE RAPTURE, SCRIPTURAL OR DELUSIONAL MYTH?
As tensions once again increase in the Middle East and the never ending turmoil of that cradle of civilization and birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and Islam spreads to the very shores of the United States, American evangelicals search the Bible to see if current world events correlate with Bible prophecy and if we are close to the time when Jesus the Christ will return, bring about world peace through divine intervention (by ruling “with a rod of iron”) and usher the millennium.
Of particular interest to many evangelicals is whether true believers of Jesus Christ will be removed, the PRE TRIBULATION RAPTURE, before that seven year period of God’s judgment upon the earth known as the “Great Tribulation,” a period when an entrepreneurial, evil world tyrant, a wolf in sheep’s clothes, the Antichrist, will require all to have a “mark” on people’s right hand or their forehead in order to buy or sell (Revelation 13:16) and require all to worship his statue, a time when nation will rise against nation culminating in the great battle of Armageddon between the Kings of the East and the Antichrist and his armies, a time of great natural cataclysms when “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn (as their evil ways will be come to an abrupt end ), and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory (Matthew 24:29-30).
For Christians TRUTH is revealed in the Bible, which consists of 66 books written over 1500 years by more than 40 human authors from three continents in three languages but containing one Integrated Message System with similar ideas, themes, concepts and structure. The argument can be made that it is clear that man did not write the Bible because the Bible teaches principles which are foreign to man’s unredeemed nature. The New Testament for example represents Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God. Jesus gave us unduplicated supernatural miracles such as healing the sick, multiplying a few fish and loaves of bread to feed thousands, raising the dead, stilling a storm, delivering those in demonic bondage. But he also taught us such divine principles as turning the other cheek, forgiving those who hurt you, blessing those who curse you, principles which are contrary to man’s nature which are “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, “I don’t get mad, I get even,” “make my day” etc…
The Bible is also a book of prophecy. A major proof that the Bible was supernaturally inspired is that it contains hundreds of prophecies which have been fulfilled (see Section IV “Powerful Evidence For The Deity of Christ” under “Prophecy Fulfilled” and “The Prophetic Odds”) many which will yet be fulfilled. The Bible is the inerrant Word of God. All the prophecies in the Bible will be fulfilled. Human beings are errant. Mistakes are made by errant humans in interpreting prophecy, in trying to “put God in a box”, in misinterpreting the “signs of the times” and in being “fast of the trigger”. With respect to the second coming Jesus said no man knows the time or the hour but only the Father knows.

Chapter II

In view of the tremendous interest in Biblical prophecy since the tragedy of September 11, 2001 in New York, the war in Iraq, the recent mega hurricanes in the Caribbean and the great earthquake in Pakistan, this article explores the fascinating area of Biblical prophecy for a period of history we may very well be living in, the end times.
We will first examine whether a Pre-Tribulation Rapture is Biblical with a detailed analysis of the arguments for a pre-tribulation rapture and compare them to those for a post-tribulation rapture. The fictional “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins a few years ago exposed millions of readers to the Pre-Tribulation Rapture world view. Is this perspective substantiated by the teachings of Jesus, Luke, Matthew, Mark, Paul, the Book of Revelation and the Old Testament prophets or is it a hopeful myth?
In connection with the Rapture such topics as when will Jesus return, the apostasy, the mark of the beast, the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, will the Church escape the tribulation, who are the “saints” and the “elect”, the issue of God’s wrath, Noah and Lot, the seven Churches in Revelation will all be looked at.
THE RAPTURE, SCRIPTURAL OR DELUSIONAL MYTH?
As tensions once again increase in the Middle East and the never ending turmoil of that cradle of civilization and birthplace of Judaism, Christianity and Islam spreads to the very shores of the United States, American evangelicals search the Bible to see if current world events correlate with Bible prophecy and if we are close to the time when Jesus the Christ will return, bring about world peace through divine intervention (by ruling “with a rod of iron”) and usher the millennium.
Of particular interest to many evangelicals is whether true believers of Jesus Christ will be removed, the PRE TRIBULATION RAPTURE, before that seven year period of God’s judgment upon the earth known as ” the Great Tribulation “, a period when an entrepreneurial, evil world tyrant, a wolf in sheep’s clothes, the Antichrist, will require all to have a “mark” on people’s right hand or their forehead in order to buy or sell (Revelation 13:16) and require all to worship his statue, a time when nation will rise against nation culminating in the great battle of Armageddon between the Kings of the East and the Antichrist and his armies, a time of great natural cataclysms when
“the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn (as their evil ways will be come to an abrupt end ), and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory (Matthew 24:29-30).
For Christians TRUTH is revealed in the Bible, which consists of 66 books written over 1500 years by more than 40 human authors from three continents in three languages but containing one Integrated Message System with similar ideas, themes, concepts and structure. The argument can be made that it is clear that man did not write the Bible because the Bible teaches principles which are foreign to man’s unredeemed nature. The New Testament for example represents Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God. Jesus gave us unduplicated supernatural miracles such as healing the sick, multiplying a few fish and loaves of bread to feed thousands, raising the dead, stilling a storm, delivering those in demonic bondage. But he also taught us such divine principles as turning the other cheek, forgiving those who hurt you, blessing those who curse you, principles which are contrary to man’s nature which are “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, “I don’t get mad, I get even,” “make my day” etc…
The Bible is also a book of prophecy. A major proof that the Bible was supernaturally inspired is that it contains hundreds of prophecies which have been fulfilled (see “Powerful Evidence For The Deity of Christ” under “Prophecy Fulfilled” and “The Prophetic Odds”) many which will yet be fulfilled. The Bible is the inerrant Word of God. All the prophecies in the Bible will be fulfilled. Human beings are errant. Mistakes are made by errant humans in interpreting prophecy, in trying to “put God in a box”, in misinterpreting the “signs of the times” and in being “fast of the trigger”. With respect to the second coming Jesus said no man knows the time or the hour but only the Father knows.
A RAPTURE IS BIBLICAL:
All Christians believe in a Rapture because the Bible is clear that a rapture will occur because “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29), “He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other (Matthew 24:31).”
Clearly here there is a taking away by God’s angels of the elect after the “tribulation of those days”. The argument can be made that the elect are the followers of Jesus Christ who have survived the cataclysms of the Great Tribulation. Those espousing a pretribulation Rapture will argue that the Church has been removed and the “elect” referred to in this verse are those who have come to Christ during the Great Tribulation after the Church is removed prior to the commencement of the Great Tribulation. It is interesting to note here that some Bible scholars believe the Great Tribulation does not consist of the entire seven years but the last three and a half years of this seven year period, the last “week” of Daniel.
THE DEBATE IS WHEN WILL THE RAPTURE OCCUR?
“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that NOAH ENTERED THE ARK, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there shall be two men in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you be ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will (Matthew 24:37-44).” This will occur “immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29).
“Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. (1Thessalonians 5:1-7).
THE APOSTASY MUST COME FIRST:
With respect to when the “day of the Lord” will arrive, Paul writes to the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2: 2-15):
“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God” (2 Thessalonians 2: 3-4).
He were should note that Paul is referring to the AntiChrist. There is no shortage of candidates for this job in the political arena. There are many men, including many former Bible believing Christians, who have sold their birthright for political power and wealth. The allure of the world was too much for them and they have sacrificed the laws of God for the adulation of fallen men, making themselves “gods” with a small “g”. Actually many politicians are scrambling at this time in history for the “privilege” (eternal damnation) of holding the title of AntiChrist. What the Word of God considers sacrosanct such as traditional marriage, a code of ethics based on the Commandments and the overriding Commandment “that you love one another”, the sanctity of life is mocked. Viable fetuses are aborted while child molesters and murderers are released from crowded prisons to commit more atrocities. Through meditation, chanting and humanism men “turn within” looking for God in all the wrong places.
“And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be revealed who the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2: 6-8).
Some have tried to argue that it is the Holy Spirit embodied in the Church who is the restraining influence to the rise of the man of lawlessness and that when the Church is “raptured” this evil world ruler will appear.
Paul refers to a person “he who now restrains” as the restrainer, undoubtedly the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. There is no reason however for the Church to be raptured for the man of lawlessness to appear. God in his sovereign will can take His spirit “out of the way”. This doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit will be removed but the Holy Spirit’s restraining function may cease. There will be a major apostasy, a turning away from God, even within the Church as there will be a great deception. In Matthew 24:24 we are told, “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”
Referring to the man of lawlessness Paul tells us: “that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved, and for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thess. 2: 9-12).
There will be a great “falling away” and the Holy Spirit will be quenched. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, will certainly not be removed, but because God allows man to choose to sin for a period of time, God will allow man and woman to reap the consequences of their evil choices. As one sows so shall he reap. The Church does not have to be “raptured” for the man of perdition to appear, but it does have to be defiled and compromised.
In many instances the Church in the West has embraced the morals of the world. Europe, once a light to the nations, is now a pit of darkness and immorality. Societal restraints are largely cultural, the vestiges of a Christian culture. Young people long for a moral core but all they’re offered from their elders is moral relativism. The continent of Luther, Wesley and Calvin has wholeheartedly embraced humanism and New Age (see “Detractors From The Simplicity of Salvation”). Providentially missionaries now come from Africa and parts of Asia to preach the gospel in Europe.
North America is certainly not a vestial virgin. Flaunting God’s Word “Christian” denominations institutionalize alternative lifestyles by wholeheartedly accepting them. The movie industry in too many instances exports “the filth of her fornications” and violence to the four corners of the earth corrupting the human race. “Christians”, even evangelicals and fundamentalists, have the same percentage of parishioners engaged in adultery and fornication as nonChristians. Business ethics among Christians are as reprehensible as those “in the world”. The divorce rate is as dismal as those “in the world”. Where’s the Church? If the Church is “the salt of the earth” there certainly is not much salt around to keep the meat from spoiling. It’s been said that if God does not judge us he would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. This is the “Church” which expects to be raptured?
Yet throughout the West there remain and regularly rise strong Bible based churches composed of committed individuals who do their best to live righteously and bring up their children according to the moral code of the Bible. These people try to keep their families from the greed, violence, lust, exploitation and self deification of the world. Where it is darkest their light shines the brightest. These people are the true servants of the Living God who face a relentless attack to undermine everything they stand for. Despite their weaknesses they are covered by the Blood of the Lamb and are the true salt of the earth.
THE MARK OF THE BEAST - 666
The Church has always thrived in periods of persecution, because that’s when the men are separated from the boys and the wheat from the chaff. According to the Book of Revelation the AntiChirst will force everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, “which is the name of the beast or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16). Very likely this “mark” will represent an implanted biochip of the type used to track animals (dogs, mountain lions, bears, whales).
Somehow worshiping the AntiChrist (the embodiment of Satan) will entail accepting this implant as a form of submission to his system. Although Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego refused to worship the golden image Nebuchadnezzar set up on the plain of Dura and were willing to be cast into the furnace of blazing fire (Daniel 3) many modern “Christians” including evangelicals won’t think twice about taking the AntiChrist’s “mark”. We will simply rationalize that this is just a momentary inconvenience we’ll have to go through prior to filling our SUV with gas and going waterskiing on the lake. After all, what’s the big deal? The rapture hasn’t happened yet so this can’t really be the “mark”. It’s just a technological “convenience”.
Revelation 14: 9-12 argues that accepting the mark is a BIG DEAL and a one way ticket to an eternal barbeque in which you will serve as the roast – FOREVER: “Anyone worshiping the Beast from the sea and his statue and accepting his mark on the forehead or the hand, must drink the wine of the anger of God; it is poured out undiluted into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. The smoke of their torture rises forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they worshiped the Beast and his statue, and have been tattoed with the code of his name.”
So perhaps you should take a minute or two of quiet reflection before you accept that little biochip or mark. There are major consequences if you do, much greater than not being able to go waterskiing, buying a chocolate cake, or for that matter the latest sequel to that exciting Christian fiction series on the “rapture” and not heeding the warning of doing so.
Paul admonishes the Church, “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us,” (2 Thess. 2: 15).
2 Thess. 2:13: “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.” Those who stand fast in these perilous times and believe in Christ are covered by his blood and have eternal salvation.
More information on the Mark of the Beast, 666 on the Nostradamus Page/Mark of the Beast~666.
WHICH EVENT WILL COME LIKE A “THIEF IN THE NIGHT”?:
To answer this question all we have to do is read 1 Thessalonians 14-18:
“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 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, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (THE RAPTURE) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
Therefore a) the bodily resurrection of the dead and b) a snatching, a catching up, a rapture will occur on the “day of the Lord”, which will come like a “thief in the night”. It will come a time when a false peace will exist. It is not clear whether this will be a false Middle East or worldwide peace. The language used “we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord” may be indicative of those who are alive and remain after a trial, those who have survived an ordeal, a remnant.
The coming of the Son of Man will be just like in the days of Noah when Noah and his family were taken away before the flood struck and the rest went into a watery grave.
Jesus draws an analogy in Matthew 24:38 to the “days of Noah” just before the flood. People were eating, drinking, marrying. In other words life was proceeding normally, except that the days of Noah were exceedingly evil.
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.’” (Genesis 6:5-7).
Likewise prior to the Great Tribulation (“For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created, until now, and never shall” (Mark 13:19)) men and women will have grown exceedingly degenerate and evil.
As to the exact time when all this will occur Jesus states: “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Mark 13:32).
THE END TIMES AS PORTRAYED BY THE LORD IN MATTHEW, MARK AND LUKE (quotes from the American Standard Version):
Matthew 24:1-44 And Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way; and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. But he answered and said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat on the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled: for these things must come to pass; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places. But all these things are the beginning of travail. Then shall they deliver you up unto tribulation, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all the nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many stumble, and shall deliver up one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. And because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. But he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come. When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that readeth understand), then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains: let him that is on the housetop not go down to take out things that are in his house: and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak. But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a sabbath: for then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness; go not forth: Behold, he is in the inner chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and puts forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh; even so ye also, when ye see all these things, know ye that he is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only. And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. Then shall two man be in the field; one is taken, and one is left: two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left. Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your Lord cometh. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken through. Therefore be ye also ready; for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.
Mark 13:1-37 And as he went forth out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Teacher, behold, what manner of stones and what manner of buildings! And Jesus said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left here one stone upon another, which shall not be thrown down. And as he sat on the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when these things are all about to be accomplished? And Jesus began to say unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray. Many shall come in my name, saying, I am he; and shall lead many astray. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be not troubled: these things must needs come to pass; but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there shall be earthquakes in divers places; there shall be famines: these things are the beginning of travail. But take ye heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in synagogues shall ye be beaten; and before governors and kings shall ye stand for my sake, for a testimony unto them. And the gospel must first be preached unto all the nations. And when they lead you to judgment, and deliver you up, be not anxious beforehand what ye shall speak: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye; for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child; and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. But when ye see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not (let him that readeth understand), then let them that are in Judea flee unto the mountains: and let him that is on the housetop not go down, nor enter in, to take anything out his house: and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak. But woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! And pray ye that it be not in the winter. For those days shall be tribulation, such as there hath not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never shall be. And except the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom he chose, he shortened the days. And then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ; or, Lo, there; believe it not: for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show signs and wonders, that they may lead astray, if possible, the elect. But take ye heed: behold, I have told you all things beforehand. But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send forth the angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh; even so ye also, when ye see these things coming to pass, know ye that he is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, until all these things be accomplished. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
Luke 21:5-36 And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and offerings, he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in which there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And they asked him, saying, Teacher, when therefore shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when these things are about to come to pass? And he said, Take heed that ye be not led astray: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am he; and, The time is at hand: go ye not after them. And when ye shall hear of wars and tumults, be not terrified: for these things must needs come to pass first; but the end is not immediately. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be great earthquakes, and in divers places famines and pestilences; and there shall be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they shall lay their hands on you, and shall persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. It shall turn out unto you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate beforehand how to answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to withstand or to gainsay. But ye shall be delivered up even by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. And not a hair of your head shall perish. In your patience ye shall win your souls. But when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand. Then let them that are in Judaea flee unto the mountains; and let them that are in the midst of her depart out; and let not them that are in the country enter therein. For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! for there shall be great distress upon the land, and wrath unto this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all the nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable: Behold the fig tree, and all the trees: when they now shoot forth, ye see it and know of your own selves that the summer is now nigh. Even so ye also, when ye see these things coming to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all things be accomplished. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But take heed to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a snare: for so shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the earth. But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
WILL THE CHURCH ESCAPE TRIBULATION?
In all the preceding three sections from the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke Jesus is addressing his disciples. Luke 20:45, not quoted above, tells us Jesus is speaking to his disciples as well. The disciples are the founders and comprise the first members of the Church. Pretribulationists will argue that when Jesus is addressing the disciples here he is addressing national Israel, but this notion is farfetched.
In Matthew 24:9-12, after the appearance of false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, famines and earthquakes, what Jesus calls “the beginning of birth pangs”, Jesus tells his disciples: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and will kill you, and will be hated by all nations on account of My name. And at that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.” (NASB). He furthermore tells his disciples “But the one who endures to the end, it is he who shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13).
Note Jesus informs his disciples they will go through tribulation. The gospel of Matthew (Matthew 24:3) states that Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives when the disciples came to him privately asking what will be the sign of His coming and of the end of the age. Jesus then instructs them about what will happen prior to His return including the appearance of false Christs, wars and rumours of wars, famines, earthquakes and that they will be delivered up to tribulation and be killed. Again, “they” refers to the disciples, who are the founders of the Church. He is telling the disciples if they endure to the end and not fall away they will be saved.
To this argument pretribulationists will quote Matthew 16:18, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (King James). They will argue that Satan, represented by Antichrist and his world police state, will not prevail against the Church because the Church will have been raptured. If so, referring to the little horn with a big mouth, the Antichrist, why does Daniel prophesy, “And he will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One” indicating resistance by the saints to a boastful, evil, manipulative man who will change times and laws. Daniel informs us the worn out saints will be given into his hand “until a time and times and the dividing of time” (Daniel 7:25).
The Book of Revelation provides a running account of what occurs in heaven and judgment comes upon the earth. Of the martyred saints, Revelation 6:11 states, “And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also.” Revelation 20:4 states, “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who have been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” These verses indicate the “saints” will resist the lawless agenda of the Antichrist including his mark without which they will not be able to buy or sell and his desire to be worshiped as God. These saints undoubtedly will not be in a position to engage in physical combat against the police and military forces of the Antichrist, but they will engage in passive resistance and undoubtedly speak out against a degenerate moral agenda. For that they will be persecuted and martyred. The true Church has always thrived on persecution.
As the martyred saints come back to life and reign with Christ over the earth for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4). Jesus Himself makes quick work of the Antichrist and the false prophet: “And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat upon the horse (Jesus the Christ), and against His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast (perhaps a computer biochip containing such data as your personal history, education, beliefs, medical information, possessions and allowing you to be tracked by global positioning satellites???) and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone” (Revelation 19:19-20).
The victory of the saints is made clear in Daniel 7:27, “Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.” That victory, as on the cross, comes through Christ’s intercession and not by the works (in this case opposition to the Antichrist) of the saints. Clearly the gates of hell do not prevail against the Church.
WHO ARE THE “SAINTS”? CHRISTIANS, JEWS OR BOTH?
In Matthew 24:22 Jesus says that unless these days are cut short, no life would be saved. However, for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.
Pretribulationists will argue that the Church will not go through the Great Tribulation and that the “saints” are not the Church but Jews who accept Christ after the Church is raptured or those who accept Christ after the rapture.
There is plenty of Biblical authority that the Jews will turn back to their true Messiah, Jesus the Christ (Joshua). The principal authority is Jesus Himself:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gather her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, “BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!” (Matthew 23:37-39).
Jesus is prophesying that at some future time the children of Jerusalem, the Jews, will bless Him and thereby accept Him. Then they will see Him.
Paul tells us in Romans 11:25- 27.
“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. AND THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.’”
Paul clearly informs us that “all Israel will be saved” and uses verses from Isaiah (59:20-21) as his authority. He states that the branches of the olive tree which were broken off (Israel) will be grafted back in with the wild branch which was grafted in (the Church). He also cautions the wild branch not to be conceited (verse 20) or it “also will be cut off” (verse 22). The branches which were cut off will be grafted back in “for the sake of the fathers” (verse 2 and because God’s “gifts and the calling of God” to the branches which were cut off are “irrevocable” (verse 29). Since the “calling of God” is irresistible this grafting back into the olive tree is assured. Both will partake of the “rich root of the olive tree” (verse 17).
As part of this grafting process to the branches which were broken, God seals one hundred and forty four thousand, twelve thousand from each tribe of Israel during the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7:3- for special ministry.
The prophet Zechariah (12:2-3) prophesies of the end times “I will make Jerusalem and Judah like a cup of poison to all the nearby nations that send their armies to surround Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be a heavy stone burdening the world. And though all the nations of the earth unite in an attempt to move her, they will be all crushed.”
He continues with this Armageddon scenario: “The Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal line will be as God, like the Angel of the Lord who goes before them! For my plan is to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”
“Then I will pour out the spirit of grace and prayer on all the people of Jerusalem, and they will look on him they pierced, and mourn for him as for an only son, and grieve bitterly for him as for an oldest child who died” (Zech. 8-11). Jesus is “him they pierced” on a cross. The Roman soldiers did the piercing but the Pharisees manipulated his murder with their spiteful accusations.
God also sends two powerful witnesses to preach to the whole world (Revelation 11:3-12) including the Jews:
“And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive tree and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if any one desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies; and if any one would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed. These have the power to shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.”
After their ministry is finished, the beast that comes out of the abyss will make war with them, overcome them, and kill them. Their bodies will like in the street of the great city “which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified” (Revelation 11:8). They will then be resurrected after three and a half days and ascend to heaven in a cloud.
Pretribulationists (“Pretribbers”) generally like to restrict the ministry of these two witnesses to Israel but this does not appear to be the case from the language used even though they may die “where their Lord was crucified” in Jerusalem. The word “may” is used as this is a “mystical” great city.
Do the “saints” referred to in Matthew, Luke, and Mark not include the Church but only the Jews grafted back into the tree during the Tribulation as well as those who come to Christ after the rapture?
Pretribulationists will argue that in Matthew 24 Jesus addresses “Jerusalem’s children” and that the Church was not formed until the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The gospel of Matthew tells us Jesus was talking to the apostles privately. Granted the apostles were Jerusalem’s children but they were also His apostles and as such His Church. Even if the Church was founded on the day of Pentecost, Jesus is prescient and saw in the apostles His Church. The argument that Jesus was not referring to His Church when he addressed His apostles but was referring to national Israel and therefore that Israel and not the Church will endure the Great Tribulation holds little substance.
He very clearly told them “they will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you” (Matthew 24:9), “when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say” (Mark 13:11), “they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake” (Luke 21:12). For those who view the Word of God as inerrant, authoritative and reliable, to argue that you is not referring to the apostles as the Church but to Israel is a misinterpretation of scripture.
Very clearly both the Church and Israel will go through the Great Tribulation.
THE CHURCH
The apostle John relates in Revelation 7:9: “I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands.”
One of the elders informs John, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). Pretribulationists will intepret this verse as a vision of the raptured church, but another interpretation is that these are those, “who had come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name” (Revalation 15:2), and “the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand” (Revelation 20:4). We are told that this great multitude are the ones who “come out” of the Great Tribulation. We are not told how they’ve “come out.”
One could argue that the Church is referred to in Revelation 7:14 as their robes have been rendered white by the blood of the Lamb, meaning that they’ve gained eternal life not by their own righteousness but by having their sins covered by the blood Christ shed on the cross for each person’s sins. Incidentally, if you have not accepted God’s provision for eternal life in your life you can do so by simply repeating this prayer, “Jesus I want you to come into my life, forgive me for my sins, I accept the blood you shed for me on the cross, and ask you now to come into my life and take charge.”
On the other hand we are told in Revelation 7:14 that these are the ones who COME OUT of the Great Tribulation, meaning they had to be in it to leave it. Perhaps they went through part of it or all of it but the language states they were in it.
Perhaps those referred to in Revelation 7:14 can be distinguished from those referred to in Revelation 20:4 because the latter were “beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years,” while martyrdom is not referred to the “great multitude” of Revelation 7:14. Scripture isn’t clear however if these two groups are one and the same.
One should note here that Revelation 20:4 disproves the doctrine of “soul sleep” or a sleep after death prior to resurrection and judgment. John saw the souls of the martyrs in heaven just prior to when “they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” In 2nd Corinthians 5: 7-8 Paul further supports this point, “For we walk by faith, not by sight – we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” To be absent from the body is to be with the Lord, not sleeping in a state of unconsciousness.
Jesus says to Martha in John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Walter Martin in his book “Kingdom of the Cults”, states, “The Greek is extremely powerful in verse 26, for our Lord deliberately used the double negative, a construction which intensifies with great emphasis that to which it is applied. Jesus could not grammatically have been more emphatic in stating that the believer, who is alive both physically and spiritually, can never experience loss of communion or fellowship as a spiritual entity, though his body may ‘become’ dead.” (Chapter entitled “The Puzzle of Seventh Day Adventists”, subsection “The Sleep of the Soul and the Destruction of the Wicked”).
NOT APPOINTED UNTO WRATH
A favorite verse for pretribulationists is 1 Thessalonians 5:9 in which Paul states, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is an end time verse as Paul refers to “the times and epochs” (verse 1) and in verse 2: “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night” and in verse 4: “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief.”
Those who believe in a posttribulation rapture do not see any clues of a rapture here but mainly an emphasis on an imminent arrival of the “day of the Lord” which will happen suddenly, as a thief in the night.
Those who believe in a pretribulation rapture will interpret the preceding as follows: Paul is clearly discussing end times. He urges the Church to be alert and sober. He’s saying the Church is not destined to wrath when the day of the Lord comes. The Great Tribulation, also referred to as the “day of the Lord”, will be the time of God’s great wrath. Therefore, the church will be removed out of wrath’s way.
Revelation 6:15-17 states: “And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”
In his book “The Rapture Question” John Walvoord states: “The character of the judgments which will fall is such that they will affect everyone-famine, pestilence, sword, earthquake, stars falling from heaven. The only way one could be kept from that day of wrath would be to be delivered beforehand. The same context in 1 Thessalonians 5 also affirms that the believer will not be overtaken by the day of destruction like a thief in the night and that the believer is not to be included with the children of darkness (verse 4) who are doomed for destruction. Instead of being appointed to wrath and sudden destruction as children of darkness, believers are declared to be appointed to salvation and to living together with him.”
In 1Thessalonians 1:9-10 Paul relates how the church of the Thessalonians, “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, who He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
A greater wrath for a human being than the Great Tribulation is an eternity without God as a result of sin, which Paul could be referring to here (see, “Detractors From The Simplicity of Salvation” under the subsection “A Place Called Heaven – The Reward of Salvation”).
Those who don’t believe in the pretribulation rapture will agree that we are not destined for wrath per 1 Thessalonians 5:9 as per John 3:36: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” They’ll argue that 1 Thessalonians 5:9 does not mean the Church won’t go through the Great Tribulation and that such an interpretation is too broad and attenuated. The argument can be made that Paul is merely urging believers to stay on the “straight and narrow” and not give in to immorality and dissipation of the latter days prior to the day of the Lord, a time when good will be called evil and evil will be called good. Nowhere in Paul’s text is the removal of the church stated or implied.
1 Thessalonians 5: 23: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” may give some comfort to those who believe in a pretribulation rapture as the argument could be made, “How can your body be preserved complete through the Great Tribulation when most of humanity is destroyed?” On the other hand those who believe in a post tribulation rapture can argue that we’re talking here about a sanctification process, a trial by fire, through the Great Tribulation and if one endures one will face Jesus Christ without blame at the end of the Tribulation.
PRAY THAT YOU MAY HAVE THE STRENGTH TO ESCAPE
Jesus in Luke 21 (above in its entirety) when discussing the last days to his disciples (verses 9-11) tells them, “Keep on the alert at all times, praying in order that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Jesus like Paul is urging Christians to be alert and refers to strength for an escape. In light of the pervasiveness of the cataclysms in store an “escape” in this context could very well be a “snatching” or “rapture”. This verse could mean a physical escape rather than a rapture as no man can have enough strength to rapture himself. Jesus could also be referring here to a spiritual “strength” which comes from being empowered by the Holy Spirit through the experience of being “born again” which involves accepting Christ as your personal savior and having a personal relationship with the God of the Universe through Him, the second person of the Trinity (see, “The Simplicity of God’s Plan For Eternal Life” - “The Importance of the Trinity” and “Scriptural Proof of The Trinity”, also see “The Spiritual Road” - “Being Born Again” and “Powerful Evidence For the Deity of Christ” - “Establishing A Relationship With God”).
Interestingly enough the persecution of believers occurs prior to the appearance of false Christs (verse 8), wars (verse 9), earthquakes, plagues, famines, terrors and great signs from heaven (verse 11). Luke 21:12 makes this clear, “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.” The Great Tribulation will be a just God’s response to man’s pervasive evil in the latter days. True Christians will stand against this evil and be persecuted. They will be thrown in prisons and sentenced before kings and governors (as Paul was). Just before God brings judgment could it be He will remove his people by snatching them away?
NOAH AND LOT
Scripture has many illustrations of individuals who walked by faith who were delivered from the visitations of judgment which overtook the unbelieving. The Lord told Noah, “You alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time” (Genesis 7:1) and spared him and his family from the flood.
Lot is called a righteous man in 2 Peter 2:6-9.
“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority” (2 Peter 2: 4-10).
Genesis 18 tells us that the Lord and two men (angels) appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre. Abraham serves them a meal. The Lord tells Abraham that Sarah, who was old and past childbearing, would have a son in a year. Sarah laughed for she was afraid and the Lord answered, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14) (Editor’s note: Similarly a “Rapture” of the Church is not too difficult for the Lord. The issue is, is the Rapture backed by scriptural authority?).
After the meal the men rise up and look down toward Sodom. Abraham walks with them to send them off. The ensuing takes place (Genesis 18: 17-33) per the American Standard Version of the Bible:
Genesis 18:17-33. “And Jehovah said, Shall I hide from Abraham that which I do; seeing that Abraham had surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And Jehovah said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before Jehovah. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou consume the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure (translated “What if”) there are fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked; that be far from thee: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? And Jehovah said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes: peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, I will not destroy it, if I find there forty and five. And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for the forty’s sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the twenty’s sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake. And Jehovah went his way, as soon as he had left off communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.”
Abraham’s questioning of the Lord gives us a good insight into the Lord’s merciful nature. The Lord would not destroy Sodom if fifty righteous individuals remain in Sodom or for forty five righteous individuals remaining, or for forty righteous, for thirty righteous, for twenty or for ten. In Genesis 19:21-22 the angel of the Lord agrees to Lot’s request to flee to the small town of Zoar, telling Lot, “Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” The angel cannot destroy Sodom until Lot and his family arrive to Zoar.
This passage offers hope for a pretribulation rapture but not authority for one as it does not concern the end times.
MESSAGE TO THE CHURCHES
In the Book of Revelation the apostle John addresses the end times. With respect to the second coming of Jesus John declares, “BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and EVERY EYE WILL SEE HIM, EVEN THOSE WHO PIERCED HIM; AND ALL THE TRIBES OF THE EARTH WILL MOURN OVER HIM” (Revelation 1:7).”
Postribulationists will argue that this verse only addresses only one coming of Christ, a coming in which every eye will see Him. Pretribulationists will argue that there are actually two comings, this one and a prior coming for the rapture when Jesus will come as “a thief in the night”. To the “thief in the night” position Postribulationists will argue that Jesus only comes once, he comes suddenly, unexpectedly and as such comes as a “thief in the night”. In other word Jesus’s coming as “a thief in the night” cannot be interpreted as two comings, but simply the manner in which He comes.
Postribulationists will use the following verses to substantiate that the Church does go through the Great Tribulation:
To the Church of Ephesus: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God” (Revelation 2: 7). What Jesus is calling “overcoming” here for Postribulationists is the trials of the Great Tribulation, including resisting the numbering program of the AntiChrist, the lies of the false Christs, the deceptions of the age etc…
To the Church of Smyrna: “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). God has always tested his followers and the Great Tribulation will not be an exception.
To the Church of Pergamum: “To him who overcomes, to him will I give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receive it” (Revelation 2:17). Here the term “overcome” implies “overcoming” a trial to Postribulationists, the trials of the Great Tribulation.
To the Church of Thyatira: “Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS” (Revelation 2:26). Here Jesus is talking about overcoming and persevering, doing his work, until the END. There is not a hint of a “removal” or “rapture” before the end.
To the Church of Sardis: “But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white; for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels” (Revelation 3:4-5). Again Jesus is using the word “overcoming.” No mention is made to a “rapture” prior to the time of testing. In fact for those who do not “overcome” He offers hot coals and the fires of hell associated with “erasing” their name from the book of life.
To the Church of Philadelphia: A favorite verse for those who hold to a pretribulation rapture is the message to the Church of Philadelphia which states: “Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10). Rapture advocates will argue that the “hour of testing” is the Great Tribulation. A better interpretation of this verse could be that these Christians will be kept from the hour of testing, because they know the Word of God and have obeyed it. They will not be tempted during the time of testing and therefore will not succumb to the testing. For them this time of tribulation will not be a test to their faith as they will be well anchored in the Word. Nevertheless their physical bodies will be sorely tried.
The problem with the Pretribulation interpretation comes from the following two verses: “I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, in order that no one take your crown” (Revelation 3:11). If you have been raptured and in the presence of Jesus in the heaven lies why would you have to “hold fast” so that no one take your crown? How could anyone take your crown once you’re in heaven? In heaven to use legalese your rights will have “vested”.
Furthermore Revelation 3:12 reads: “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it any more; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” Again “overcome” what? The time of testing.
To the Church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:21): “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on his throne.” This is indeed a powerful argument against the rapture as Jesus is urging us to overcome as he overcame. Jesus’s overcoming was by being nailed on a cross! This verse certainly doesn’t give support to a painless, instantaneous, convenient and easy “rapture” in which your clothes, glasses, dental fillings and maybe a wedding ring will be left behind! In Revelation 3:18 Jesus advises us: “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire.” The Great Tribulation is a judgment of fire, just like the flood was a judgment of water. Revelation 3:19 tells us why the Church will go through the Great Tribulation: “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent.”
The argument is made by pretribulationists that while the Church is mentioned nineteen times in the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation it isn’t mentioned once as being on earth from Chapters 4 to 19 when God pours out his wrath. The counterargument is that in His message to the churches Jesus is consistent about “overcoming”, “holding fast until He comes”, “persevering”, “being faithful unto death”, “not fearing” and “being faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life.” The Church will very well be in the process of resisting and being decimated on earth until it reappears gloriously as a body in heaven, “coming out” of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7:9) through a baptism of fire.
RAPTURE CONCLUSION
Revelation 14:9-12 after describing the eternal punishment of those who worship the Beast and his mark encourages God’s people “to endure patiently every trial and persecution, for they (YOU) are his saints who remain firm to the end in obedience to his commands and trust in Jesus” (Living Bible v. 12).
Paul in First Corinthians 15:51,52 tells us, “Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and the mortal must put on immortality.”
Pretribulationists believe in two comings of Christ and will use the above verse as their authority. Posttribulationists will argue that the dead will be raised at the time of Christ’s return and Christ only returns after the Great Tribulation. He does not come back twice. Their authori