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calmG plz go check ur email. I have replied you now. Sorry it came late. I have been offline since.

Cooloooooooo

jiggaz:
Morning

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Yooooi

Ooomm

Hoooo

Hello

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Janeyinspires:
I am,now.Been away here.

alright...welcome back

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jiggaz:
morning

gooooo

Morning

marttol:
someone should please teach me what i need to know or do,if i am engaging in warfare prayers...like do i need fasting?,do i need to pray it aggressively or silently?...do i need to maintain total holiness...PLEASE SOMEONE SHOULD ENLIGHTEN ME...
GOD BLESS YOU.

please read this thread --->>> >> https://www.nairaland.com/3530677/spiritual-warfare-joseph-prince#62451201

It's long but it answers your question perfectly and you will gain so much from it. Bless you.

Morning

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

In 51 AD, almost 20 years after the Resurrection, the Apostle Paul became the first to reveal the incredible secret that would become known as the Rapture of the Church. He did this in his earliest written communication, his first letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thes. 4:16-17), repeating it four years later in a letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15:51).

From Thessalonians we know that at the Rapture, the dead in Christ will rise first to be followed immediately by believers who are left and still alive. Concerning living believers, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians explains that in the twinkling of an eye, we’ll be changed from mortal to immortal, bypassing death altogether. Either way, in less than an instant we’ll all arrive together in Heaven.

As an aside, those who dispute this doctrine claim that the word rapture doesn’t appear in the English translation of either of Paul’s letters cited above (nor anywhere else in scripture for that matter) and of course they’re correct. The original Greek word Paul used to describe the rapture in 1 Thes. 4:17 is harpazo, usually rendered “caught up” in English translations.

Because of the growing dominance of the Roman Empire in Biblical times, Latin was fast replacing Greek as the world’s common language and so about 400 AD the Bible was translated from Hebrew and Greek into Latin. Harpazo became raptus, the Latin root of the English word rapture. It means “the transporting of a person from one place to another, especially to heaven.” So it’s the Latin version that gave the event its name. Our current English translations are taken directly from the earlier Greek texts, and that’s why the word rapture doesn’t appear in them.

Why The Delay?
But why didn’t the Lord announce the whole issue of salvation for the Gentiles including the Rapture of the Church during his time here? Two reasons. First, Israel had to receive a bona fide offer of the Kingdom. His commitment to them was clear. The first time He sent the disciples out to minister, He told them, “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. (Matt. 10:5) And later when the disciples asked Him to respond to a Gentile woman whose daughter needed healing, He at first declined saying, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” (Matt. 15:23-24) Before He could expand His ministry to the Gentiles, He had to fulfill His promise to Israel.

So just as he had offered reconciliation to the Amorites in Abraham’s time, knowing in advance that they would reject Him, (Gen. 15:16) the Lord extended His offer of a Kingdom to Israel. And of course Israel did reject His offer by attributing the power behind His miracles to Satan, (Matt. 12:22-37) and eventually accusing Him of blasphemy (Matt. 26:65). This rejection was confirmed to them in the parable of the tenants (Matt. 21:13-44). But the pre-determined order of first the Jew then the Gentile (Rom. 1:16) had to be observed. (Prophetic Scriptures tell us Israel will get another chance, and the next time they’ll accept.)

Second, knowing before history began that the Jews would reject Him the first time, the Lord had always planned to extend His offer of salvation to the Gentiles, and that meant something really dramatic had to happen. Gentiles were even worse sinners than Jews, who at least made periodic attempts to obey. But for 4000 years the Lord had demonstrated through His people that no level of excellence in human behavior could ever meet His requirements for salvation. And even with the most complex religious system ever devised, the most expensive house of worship ever built, the most detail conscious people ever created, and the most aggressive sacrifice of innocent blood ever undertaken, the final score at the end of the Dispensation of Law was zero souls saved through religious works. (Rom. 3:20)

At Least Somebody’s Listening
Well, He didn’t convince them but He did convince Satan, who believed that eventually all of humanity would wind up with him in the lost column of the ledger, Jew and Gentile alike. Surely then the Lord would have to rescind his judgment against Satan (Isaiah 14:16-21). After all, was he any worse than sinful mankind? Hadn’t they also rebelled, tried to set up their own kingdoms, and even tried to become their own God? The God Who is Love couldn’t stand by and let all his precious children go to hell just to punish Satan, could He? And if He bent the rules for them, He’d have to bend for Satan.

Surprise, Surprise
But no one knew what the Lord had cooked up to solve this problem. Having known from the beginning that we couldn’t save ourselves by our works, He had determined in advance that He would save us by our faith. That meant someone qualified to do so would have to step up and pay the penalty for our sins for us. Then God could promise us that if we accepted this substitution in faith, we would be saved.

Of course the only One qualified to do this for us was God Himself. So He did. He Who had no sin was made a sin offering for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21) And as a special blessing for “believing though we have not seen” (John 20:29) He even went so far as to make His Church a separate classification of humanity, (Ephe. 2:15) giving us a pre-imminent place in His Kingdom, and promising to take us out of this world to be with Him forever in a secret, sudden departure we now call the Rapture. And though we can look back and see hints of His plan all through the Old Testament, (Isaiah 49:6 for example) neither Satan, the leaders of Israel, nor even the Lord’s closest disciples realized that His death on the cross was intended to accomplish all this.

“None of the rulers of this age understood it,” Paul wrote, “For if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” (1 Cor. 2: Implicit in the phrase “rulers of this age” is a reference to Satan, whom Paul called “the god of this age” in 2 Cor. 4:4. If Satan had known that his efforts to defeat the Lord by killing Him would result in his own total defeat, he would have done anything he could to prevent it.

I’ve Got A Secret
For these reasons the Rapture of a largely Gentile Church had to be kept secret. It was part of God’s secret wisdom, Paul said, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began (1 Cor 2:7). Paul was not authorized to reveal this until nearly 20 years after the Lord’s death, when it was too late for anyone to do anything about it, but it’s what he meant when he wrote to the Colossians, “And having disarmed the powers and authorities (by paying the penalty for our sins) He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Col. 2:15).

(It’s easy to forget that up until Peter’s vision and subsequent visit to the home of Cornelius detailed in Acts 10, most believers had come from among the Jews. The acceptance of Gentiles into the Church didn’t become official policy until the council at Jerusalem 13 years after that in Acts 15.)

What was to have been Satan’s great victory has resulted in his total defeat. Now the only ones on his side of the ledger will be those who choose to be there by rejecting God’s offer of pardon. Their choice relieves God of the responsibility. He still grieves over them, but can’t override their sovereign right to choose their own destiny. And since they’ve chosen to join him, Satan can’t use them as leverage to get a better deal for himself.

In Closing …
The enormity of God’s Gift of Grace, made available to Jew and Gentile alike and sealed with the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, is something so unbelievable that neither Paul nor any other Apostle was ever able to adequately describe it. The best Paul could do was to borrow a passage from Isaiah, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Amen to that.

And so one day soon, with no prior warning and at a time when the world least expects Him, the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (1 Thes. 4:16-17) There is no precedent condition, nothing that must happen first, except that if you want to be included you have to give your heart to Him who’s coming before the trumpet call sounds. Better do it right away, for if you listen carefully you can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah. 06-13-04


https://gracethrufaith.com/end-times-prophecy/the-end-times-according-to-jesus-part-4-why-didnt-the-lord-mention-the-rapture/#more-182

Cool

Xxxx

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (Matt 24:36-41)

Don’t let this passage confuse you, like it has so many others. Note that the first sentence reads, “No one knows about that day or hour.” Plenty of people on Earth at the End of the Age will know when the Lord is due to return. Remember, both the kick-off event and duration of the Great Tribulation are clearly and unmistakably described. On the day when the Antichrist stands in the Temple and declares that he’s God, they’ll just have to count off 1260 days and look up into the sky. First, they’ll see the Sun and Moon turn dark and stars fall out of the sky. (Matt 24:29) That’s the signal that the Great Tribulation has ended. Then the Lord’s sign will appear in the sky. (Matt. 24:30) And finally, they’ll see the Lord Himself coming in the clouds in power and glory. But the period of time required for this sequence to unfold is anybody’s guess, and that’s what this passage says.

Also, the Lord compared the time of His return to the time of Noah, so we should expect to find similar circumstances leading up to these two events. And we do. Both involve worldwide judgments that occur at a time when most people are caught unaware. Although in both cases the people of Earth are given repeated warnings of what’s coming, those warnings are ignored by almost everyone. In the case of the Great Flood, judgment came in the form of rain, which fell on the Earth for 40 days and 40 nights. In the case of the Great Tribulation 21 separate judgment events unfold over a 3 ½ year period. This is why although only eight people survived the Flood, the Lord warned that the Great Tribulation would be the worst time of judgment in human history.

Here’s where the second hint of a body of believers in Heaven awaiting His return appears, and this one’s even more vague than the first one, back in Matt. 24:31. You see, both the Great Flood and the Great Tribulation have three components: judgment, preservation through judgment, and escape from judgment. In the Days of Noah, the unbelievers were judged, Noah’s family was preserved through the judgment, and Enoch escaped it altogether. At the End of the Age, unbelievers are judged, the remnant of Israel is preserved through the judgment, and the Church escapes from judgment.

Now let’s consider those words taken and left in Matt. 24:40-41 a little more closely. The Greek word translated taken literally means received, and the one translated left means put away. They refer to the disposition of those remaining alive on Earth when the Lord returns—the Tribulation Survivors. Those who’ve become believers will be received into the Kingdom, and those who haven’t will be put away into the place prepared for the devil and his angels. Folks who try to find the Rapture of the Church in these words are simply looking in the wrong place.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matt. 24:42-44)

This warning is given primarily to those Tribulation Survivors who are not believers. As I stated above, once the Great Tribulation begins, all believers on Earth will know when it will end. The sequence of events that follow is also clear. The only thing they won’t know is the exact day and hour of His Coming.

No, this warning is to the undecided, who aren’t counting up the prophecies being fulfilled around them, and don’t realize that if they waver too long, they’ll be taken by surprise and miss their last chance at salvation. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll be only too aware of the massive disruptions to their lives caused by the End Times judgments. They just won’t understand what’s behind it all. Remember, confusion and deception will be the order of the day.

Think about the analogy of the thief. As the Lord returns unexpectedly (like a thief), He’ll be breaking into a place the enemy thinks belongs to him and his followers. “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil 3:19-20) He won’t be coming as a thief in the night as far as believers are concerned, stealthily breaking into their world. They’ll be eagerly watching and impatiently waiting, counting the days, praying for His coming, longing for Him to take them home to be with Him forever.

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 24:45-51)

The worst punishment is reserved for those in charge, heads of organized religions who, instead of “feeding” their flocks with the Bread of Life and encouraging them with the promise of His return, confuse and deceive them with false doctrines, and deny the validity of God’s prophetic Word. By their actions, they demonstrate the depravity of their own souls, showing themselves to be devoid of the Holy Spirit and worthy of punishment. Knowingly or not, they’re infiltrators from the enemy’s camp, like tares among the wheat.

Having forsaken the truth, they no longer watch for the Lord’s return, ignoring the obvious fulfillment of prophecy all around them and ridiculing those whose child-like faith sustains them. These “Christian Atheists” as they sometimes call themselves, are worse than the enemy because they look and talk like friends. They’re like the one John describes as appearing to have the authority of the Lamb but who speaks the words of the Dragon (Rev. 13:11). They will be also be assigned to the place prepared for the devil and his angels.

But the Lord will elevate to a place of authority in His Kingdom those who keep the word of God through the intense hardship and persecution of the times, and teach sound doctrine to the flocks entrusted to them. Just as some among the common folk alive when the Lord returns will be received into the Kingdom with honors, while others are put away in everlasting shame and contempt, so it will be with their leaders.

In chapter 25, Matthew recounts two parables, the Ten Bridesmaids and the Talents, and a warning to Tribulation Survivors, the Sheep and Goat judgment. In all three, the emphasis is on separating the faithful from the unfaithful following the Lord’s return. The faithful will be received with honors into His Kingdom, while the unfaithful are left out to be judged. Since all three include a reference to time that places them in the aftermath of His 2nd coming, the entire chapter expands on the “taken and left” statement of Matt. 24:40-41.

Because there’s been so much confusion, let’s make this perfectly clear. Of all the views on the timing of the Rapture of the Church, none place it after the 2nd coming. But look how clearly that time frame is indicated in each portion of Matt. 25. Backing up a little to establish the order, we read;

“Immediately after the distress of those days,” signs in the Heavens after the end of the Great Tribulation (Matt 24:29)

“At that time,” His appearance in the sky after the end of the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:30)

“No one knows about that day,” the day of the 2nd Coming, after the Tribulation (Matt: 24:36)

“At that time,” connecting the parable of the ten virgins to the 2nd Coming (Matt 25:1)

“Again,” referring to the same time frame in beginning the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14)

“When the Son of Man comes in all His Glory,” beginning the Sheep and Goat judgment which describes the judgment of Tribulation Survivors after the 2nd Coming (Matt 25:31).

As you see, they all occur chronologically after the Tribulation and 2nd Coming, and all describe the situation on Earth following the Lord’s return. Therefore none of them can be used to describe the Rapture or any other aspect of the Church. The Church Age ends with the Rapture and that occurs before the Second Coming.

It’s clear that the only questions the Lord answered in the Olivet Discourse are the three the disciples asked. “When will these things happen? What will be the sign of your Coming and of the End of the Age?” Having chosen to delay the announcement of the Rapture of the Church until nearly 20 years after His resurrection, the Lord neither taught it to His disciples nor, as we’ve seen, did He address it in the Olivet Discourse. No, the Olivet Discourse was a summary of Jewish Eschatology given to Jews in Israel, not intended for the Church.

So in coming to the end of our commentary, we’re left with one big unanswered question. Why didn’t the Lord teach something as important as the Doctrine of the Rapture to his disciples somewhere else in the Gospels? Obviously, there’s a good reason, and I’ll explain it next time. That way we’ll keep something intended exclusively for the Church separate from this very Jewish passage of Scripture we call the Olivet Discourse. In the meantime, if you listen closely, you can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah.


https://gracethrufaith.com/end-times-prophecy/the-end-times-according-to-jesus-part-3/

Hai