THE FIG TREE GENERATION

THE FIG TREE GENERATION

                There are some questions in life that just seem hard to answer. The rapture question is one of these. For instance, I am quite convinced that the rapture and the second coming of Christ are two separate events.  For instance in talking about the rapture (which simply means the resurrection and catching away of the saints) we find it described in 1Thess. 4:16, 17

                “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 to meet the Lord in the air and thus shall we always be with the Lord.”

                So at the rapture we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. But at the second coming of the Lord (AS described in Revelation 19:11-16) Jesus comes on a white horse. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean were following Him on white horses. This army in heaven is described in verse 8 as the saints who have been invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb and they are now following Him on white horses and he is returning to earth to smite the nations and to rule them with a rod of iron and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God almighty and He is called the King of kings and Lord of lords.” (Paraphrased)

                1Thess 3:13 agrees  that at the second coming Jesus will be coming WITH all His saints… not FOR them, but WITH them and again this is confirmed in Zechariah 14:5 where it says that :”The Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with Him.” And verse 4 says that on that day His feel will stand on the Mount of Olives which is in front of Jerusalem.

                Rev. 2:26 says that to those that overcome He will give them authority over the nations and He shall rule them with a rod of iron…and again in Rev. 5:10 it says “…Thou wast slain and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from ever tribe and tongue and people and nation. And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; AND THEY WILL REIGN UPON THE EARTH.”  And again in Revelation 20:4 it says that those who had been beheaded for their faith came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Then beginning in verse 2 and then 7 it says that Satan will be bound for a thousand years, verse 4 says that we reign with Jesus a thousand years and then verse 7 says that when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which ARE IN the four corners of the earth.

                Growing up I was taught that we would be in heaven for the 1000 years, but in the Messianic movement and pretty much universally among the churches, there is an understanding that we will spend that 1000 year millennial reign reigning with Christ here on earth and I see that the Bible supports this view.

                Clearly the Bible portrays a rapture where the saints are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, followed by a later second coming where the saints return with Christ to rule and reign with Him for 1000 years upon the earth. Satan will be bound during this time, but will be released at the end of the thousand years to once again tempt the nations over which the saints have been ruling with Christ.

                This much is quite clear to me from the Bible. The only question remaining is when will the rapture be? Is it pre-trib, or mid trib? The second coming is nailed down because He comes at the battle of Armageddon to defeat the enemy and to set foot on the Mt. of Olives to take up His millennial reign.

                But as for the timing of the Rapture even the prophets and other deeply respected prophetic teachers have a mixed message. The prophets that I mentioned in my post yesterday do not believe in pre trib rapture. They do believe in the rapture, but not pre trib and none of them say exactly when they believe it will happen. My personal opinion, derived  from studying Revelation chapters 14, 15, and 16 is that it comes just before the wrath of God is poured out, for in chapter 14 it shows the sickle harvest of the righteous followed immediately by the sickle harvest of the wicked. The righteous are taken to heaven as seen in chapter 15 where the saints are seen on the Sea of Glass., while the wicked are cast into the wine press of God’s wrath which is described in Revelation chapter 16.

                The prophets we listened to who spoke at the Lancaster Prophetic Conference are men that I respect greatly for they have many encounters with God and they are forerunners in demonstrating to us what God would have us all doing in the final harvest.

                Joel 2:28-32 describes this time of the great harvest. Peter quoted this passage on the Day of Pentecost, but it was not a complete match. Many of those signs did not happen at the first Pentecost, but I believe that the final harvest WILL fulfill all of Joel 2 and the harvest will come in amidst blood and fire and columns of smoke. Not only that but I believe that the blood moons of 2014 and 2015 were the signs that Joel mentioned that come BEFORE the great and terrible day of the Lord. I believe that these blood moons and other signs in the heavens that have occurred over the past 4 or 5 years are warning signs that we are entering into the final phase of God’s redemption. In other  words, just as Jesus said, we, the generation that saw the fig tree (Israel) come to life and put on leaves is the generation that will see all things fulfilled including the rapture and the coming of the Lord.

                And we must bear in mind what Paul said in 2 Thess. 2:4 that the Day of the Lord will not come until there come a specific falling away from the faith that will give rise to the antichrist.

                The prophets we listened to last week do not teach a pre-trib rapture as I said, but on the other hand we have two great prophecy teachers whom I respect very much that do teach a pre trib rapture. Perry Stone is a wonderful Prophecy teacher who connects Bible prophecy with the Feasts of Israel. I respect His teaching very much even though he teaches pre-trib rapture and if anyone can give a solid biblical background for it, it is Perry. He is a man of God for sure and he blesses me and everyone else who learns from him.

                Another greatly respected man of God is Dr. Jack van Impe. He has been preaching Bible prophecy for 60 years. He said that the Wall Street Journal a while back listed the nations that will be involved in WW3 and it is the exact same list of nations that Jack was preaching about 60 years ago. It’s in the Bible. Jack also believes in pre-trib rapture and he is a man that knows nearly the entire Bible by heart and can quote it chapter and verse from one end to the other verbatim.

                Jack is now 88 years old and he was on his death bed for a year. He was in a coma for about 6 weeks of that time and was given only a 20% chance of living. But the Lord woke him up and raised him up and told him that he had been chosen to be the world’s final prophet announcing the soon coming of the Lord and consequently Dr. van Impe has set up a worldwide network of stations and conveyances of all kinds to get the word out to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.

                I deeply respect all of these men of God and there are many more out there that are burning the candle at both ends to prepare the world for Christ’s soon coming. Why there are differences concerning the timing and nature of the coming of the Lord and the rapture I do not know or understand. Sadhu Selvarage said that he had encounters with the Lord while teaching the pre-trib rapture and the Lord said nothing to him about it for about 25 years. Then one day the Lord told him that they were all wrong about the rapture and that we would be here for the tribulation.

                What kind of conclusion can we reach when we face the inexplicable? My answer is that Jesus is far more centered upon the hearts of His people than He is with their various doctrines. After all, if He wanted to, He could sit down with the leaders of all denominations and tell them what they must believe and teach and He could bring the church together in unity. But we are not ready for that kind of unity yet.

                The pagan Christian church of the Dark Ages became a huge monolith that went around burning heretics and trying to enforce a singular doctrine upon all people, but that was not God’s plan at all. So He scattered the denominations even as He scattered the people at the tower of babel and He gave them each their own languages, so to speak and He sent them into all the earth to preach the Gospel. Our little differences have been mostly inconsequential and for now God has only winked at these differences.

                However something more serious is happening in our day. Many are departing from the faith and falling away and that means it is about time to bring judgment to the earth and to separate truth from error and wheat from tares. Paul warned us in 1 Tim. 4:1 saying: “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons…” and he goes on to describe various teachings that will come in. So as we see Protestants renouncing their protest and reuniting with the Vatican; and as we see the Vatican being taken over by Satan and we see churches left and right renouncing the fundamental doctrines of the faith, we realize that Paul’s prophecy is taking place right now. We are witnessing that specific falling away from the faith that will usher in the antichrist.

                It is one thing to have different interpretations about certain scriptures, and quite another thing to change scripture or abandon scripture in order to create a new monolith, especially one that is going to be run by Satan and His antichrist. There is a tipping point when a nation’s cup of iniquity is full and judgment comes when God gives the people what they want.

                When in the course of man’s spiritual evolution or devolution he reaches the tipping point of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the tipping point of Noah’s day; God steps in to rescue His people. Now, at what point God steps in we have examples and yet we don’t know exactly what point was reached, or what the nature of God’s rescue was.

                Sometimes God took His people out of the situation altogether and sometimes He took them through the situation. He took Israel out of Egypt, but He took the three Hebrews through the fire and He took Daniel through the Lion’s den. Then again early Christians had to endure persecution and violent deaths by fire and wild animals. He did not deliver them at all. They faced death and died for their faith and the Bible describes such a situation in the last days as well.

                What this tells us is that we must be ready to live, to die, to stand or to be taken out of here. In every eventuality our hearts must be faithful to the One. We must be faithful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ at all costs. WE need to be aware that if the tribulation comes and we still haven’t been rescued, many will then fall away from the faith. WE do NOT want to fall away from the faith, so we as Christians must be ready no matter what God’s choice is for us, whether to be removed or to go through these things.

                Even in our time people in other nations are suffering greatly for their faith. Surely many of them must feel like we are already in the tribulation. Our God given freedom here in America has only served to make us soft. We prefer doctrines that keep us away from the fight and out of harm’s way.

                So I am not ready or willing to give a definitive answer to the question of the rapture. I will say this: We must choose our prophets wisely and we must keep a firm grip on our Bibles. We need to work some of these things out before God based upon how He has dealt with His people in times past.  He won’t give us all of the answers before His own chosen time. Now we see through a glass darkly, but someday soon we will see Him face to face and then we will know the truth about all things.

                There are some things which we are not intended to make into doctrine. They are matters of the heart… issues we can only face if our hearts are right with God…tests for which we can only be faithful if we have built a legacy of obedience to the Word and to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

                The rules of marriage aren’t worth much unless there is genuine love. Without love, the rules will never bring forth life. So Jesus calls us to Himself and He calls us to love Him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love each other as we love ourselves.

                We are the fig tree generation. We are the last generation and somehow we need to get it right and getting it right means being conformed to the image of Christ Romans 8:29, 30 And we need to attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. We need to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:13, 15. And we should be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts so that we don’t grieve the Holy Spirit by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30.

                So there is only one form of unity that God is looking for and that is in the fullness of Jesus Christ and His Word… not in unity through compromise.

                We are the ones who saw Israel restored as a nation by the miraculous power of God and we are the generation that Jesus said would also see Him come. So, however it all comes about, we must be faithful. Our job is to take the Gospel of the kingdom to the whole world and then the end will come.