This post is just a quick response but in no way taking the place of my article regarding the Pre, Mid, Post Tribulation debate.
I have received many comments that I would like to address here. As you can imagine, many of those comments were negative in regards to “predicting” the rapture. First, I would like to say that if those commenting would have read through in detail, my post as well as listened to the broadcast, they would know that neither I nor my husband ever claimed to know for sure or be dogmatic about these dates.
The reason we created the spreadsheet, as mentioned, was to better understand what others were saying and the dates they were coming up with. Now, when we put the spreadsheet together, we found interesting info that I shared in the post. The main interest factor that I believed could be important, was that of the mid-point being the first day of spring and the day before the Sabbath based upon Matthew 24:20 “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day”.
When on the broadcast with Steve Coerper, I even mentioned that we came across this information by accident as it were. The reason we began the research was because we came across an article that spoke about the Leap Years which tied into info given in different places regarding some of F. M. Riley’s and Daniel Matson’s posts as well as a few others.
Now, in regards to those who are weary in watching for our Lord’s return for His Church… You must keep watch as we are commanded by our Lord. Those who give up their watch, He will come as a thief and it will not be a pretty sight.
To those who are slow to watch and quick to attack those watching, the Lord speaks of you for these last days.
Luke 12:45-47 But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Now, for those of you who still hold to “no one knowing the day or the hour” and that it will be as a thief in the night… Read this:
1 Thessalonians 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
The Lord only comes as a thief in the night to the wicked and foolish ones who are not watching. Those are they who loved not the Truth and therefore the Lord will send them strong delusion that they will believe the lie.
This also applies to those who believe the rapture to either not be at all or to be in another portion of time, like post-trib beliefs.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
So, what is the Truth in this matter and saved from what?
1 Thessalonians 5:8-10 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Some believe this is talking about just eternal salvation when we die, however that is not the case. This verse is talking about the time of God’s wrath, which is the Tribulation period on earth. We know this because it mentions “whether we WAKE or sleep”. Those who at this time are aWAKE are those of us still alive when He comes for us. Those who are aSLEEP are those who have died in Christ.
Here is another question, what is the Tribulation? The tribulation is the time frame when God’s wrath is poured out upon the world and the time of Jacob’s (Israel’s) trouble/tribulation as spoken of in Daniel.
Jesus took God’s wrath upon Himself FOR US so that we would not have to go through God’s wrath and could be united with Him for eternity.
All those who love the Lord and will love His appearing, are aching for Him to come and retrieve His Bride. We desire to be with Him more than anything. There is nothing here on this earth that outweighs that for us. However, we must not put our faith in dates per se but in the One who promised to come for us and bring us where He is. He is faithful to fulfill that promise at the appointed time.
There is nothing wrong with believers watching. Part of watching, involves researching everything that could even be a clue to our Lord’s soon return for us. Our Lord does nothing randomly. You cannot find one thing anywhere in the Word of God that was ever random. There is a certain number of those who will be / are the Church but it is the “appointed day” that determines everything. God has set a plan in motion that is perfectly laid out so that everything from the smallest detail to the largest will fit just right.
Though some may be coming to faith in Christ now, I believe that this time is more about weeding out the tares than adding wheat to the harvest. I also believe that watching is a way of weeding out the tares. In the book of Revelation, when we read the letters to the 7 churches… we see the Lord saying that it is those who endure to the end that will be saved. We also see to the church of Philadelphia that it is because they kept the word of His patience, He will keep them from the hour of temptation… (Revelation 3:10).
I for one, as many of you, know that it takes much patience and endurance to keep watch faithfully in these last hours. Do not give up hope, He is faithful and He is coming.
Now, even though I referenced dates of October 7, 8 and 9th… I began getting messages about being wrong, etc. on the early hours of the 8th. One thing you must also keep in mind when watching… that is that our salvation only takes a moment. In the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52-53), that is less than a second. It could be the very last second at the right day that it happens… If so, will you still be watching?
Also, know that whenever I come across interesting information regarding this topic, I will continue to post it. As many of you know, I have a lot of articles here regarding the rapture taking place on different feast days, etc. – as options.
For those of you who are true watchmen, do not let those who only call themselves believers take your crown.
Revelation 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
I do not believe it is an accident that this verse Revelation 3:11 comes right after Revelation 3:10 *quoted above*. Remember that the Lord knows how you are feeling. He knows the struggles you are facing. He knows you only have but a little strength left (Revelation 3:8). Hang in there, hold fast to the Truth. He is coming, very soon. Surround yourself with other believers and other watchmen, only witness to those who are mockers and naysayers. Do not let them take your crown.
Side Note: There is a forum which I do not belong to where someone has posted my article. I noticed that there are some there responding as it were directly to me. If you are on that site “godlikeproductions”, please know that I am not a member of that site. If you do have comments for me, please post them here so that I may be aware of them. Thank you.
Now, I will leave you with this…
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
This is a site dedicated to Christian studies of various subjects, which include: End Time Prophecy, Apostasy, Ministry, Missions and Current Events. You may notice that there are some other random topics here as well. This is because this was my first site and at the beginning, I wasn’t sure if it would be a personal site or otherwise… it turned out to be otherwise, therefore, I created other sites for my more personal entries. You can see those sites, which are listed below. Thank you for stopping by and I hope to hear from you. If there is anything that you would like for me to research, please feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to cover it. Thanks again and God bless!
Sincerely In Christ,
Alison
Truthoughts 
Regarding the Rapture Spreadsheet
Posted by truthoughts on October 9, 2010
This post is just a quick response but in no way taking the place of my article regarding the Pre, Mid, Post Tribulation debate.
I have received many comments that I would like to address here. As you can imagine, many of those comments were negative in regards to “predicting” the rapture. First, I would like to say that if those commenting would have read through in detail, my post as well as listened to the broadcast, they would know that neither I nor my husband ever claimed to know for sure or be dogmatic about these dates.
The reason we created the spreadsheet, as mentioned, was to better understand what others were saying and the dates they were coming up with. Now, when we put the spreadsheet together, we found interesting info that I shared in the post. The main interest factor that I believed could be important, was that of the mid-point being the first day of spring and the day before the Sabbath based upon Matthew 24:20 “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day”.
When on the broadcast with Steve Coerper, I even mentioned that we came across this information by accident as it were. The reason we began the research was because we came across an article that spoke about the Leap Years which tied into info given in different places regarding some of F. M. Riley’s and Daniel Matson’s posts as well as a few others.
Now, in regards to those who are weary in watching for our Lord’s return for His Church… You must keep watch as we are commanded by our Lord. Those who give up their watch, He will come as a thief and it will not be a pretty sight.
To those who are slow to watch and quick to attack those watching, the Lord speaks of you for these last days.
Luke 12:45-47 But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Now, for those of you who still hold to “no one knowing the day or the hour” and that it will be as a thief in the night… Read this:
1 Thessalonians 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
The Lord only comes as a thief in the night to the wicked and foolish ones who are not watching. Those are they who loved not the Truth and therefore the Lord will send them strong delusion that they will believe the lie.
This also applies to those who believe the rapture to either not be at all or to be in another portion of time, like post-trib beliefs.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
So, what is the Truth in this matter and saved from what?
1 Thessalonians 5:8-10 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Some believe this is talking about just eternal salvation when we die, however that is not the case. This verse is talking about the time of God’s wrath, which is the Tribulation period on earth. We know this because it mentions “whether we WAKE or sleep”. Those who at this time are aWAKE are those of us still alive when He comes for us. Those who are aSLEEP are those who have died in Christ.
Here is another question, what is the Tribulation? The tribulation is the time frame when God’s wrath is poured out upon the world and the time of Jacob’s (Israel’s) trouble/tribulation as spoken of in Daniel.
Jesus took God’s wrath upon Himself FOR US so that we would not have to go through God’s wrath and could be united with Him for eternity.
All those who love the Lord and will love His appearing, are aching for Him to come and retrieve His Bride. We desire to be with Him more than anything. There is nothing here on this earth that outweighs that for us. However, we must not put our faith in dates per se but in the One who promised to come for us and bring us where He is. He is faithful to fulfill that promise at the appointed time.
There is nothing wrong with believers watching. Part of watching, involves researching everything that could even be a clue to our Lord’s soon return for us. Our Lord does nothing randomly. You cannot find one thing anywhere in the Word of God that was ever random. There is a certain number of those who will be / are the Church but it is the “appointed day” that determines everything. God has set a plan in motion that is perfectly laid out so that everything from the smallest detail to the largest will fit just right.
Though some may be coming to faith in Christ now, I believe that this time is more about weeding out the tares than adding wheat to the harvest. I also believe that watching is a way of weeding out the tares. In the book of Revelation, when we read the letters to the 7 churches… we see the Lord saying that it is those who endure to the end that will be saved. We also see to the church of Philadelphia that it is because they kept the word of His patience, He will keep them from the hour of temptation… (Revelation 3:10).
I for one, as many of you, know that it takes much patience and endurance to keep watch faithfully in these last hours. Do not give up hope, He is faithful and He is coming.
Now, even though I referenced dates of October 7, 8 and 9th… I began getting messages about being wrong, etc. on the early hours of the 8th. One thing you must also keep in mind when watching… that is that our salvation only takes a moment. In the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:52-53), that is less than a second. It could be the very last second at the right day that it happens… If so, will you still be watching?
Also, know that whenever I come across interesting information regarding this topic, I will continue to post it. As many of you know, I have a lot of articles here regarding the rapture taking place on different feast days, etc. – as options.
For those of you who are true watchmen, do not let those who only call themselves believers take your crown.
Revelation 3:11 Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
I do not believe it is an accident that this verse Revelation 3:11 comes right after Revelation 3:10 *quoted above*. Remember that the Lord knows how you are feeling. He knows the struggles you are facing. He knows you only have but a little strength left (Revelation 3:8). Hang in there, hold fast to the Truth. He is coming, very soon. Surround yourself with other believers and other watchmen, only witness to those who are mockers and naysayers. Do not let them take your crown.
Side Note: There is a forum which I do not belong to where someone has posted my article. I noticed that there are some there responding as it were directly to me. If you are on that site “godlikeproductions”, please know that I am not a member of that site. If you do have comments for me, please post them here so that I may be aware of them. Thank you.
Now, I will leave you with this…
Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Posted in Church Rapture | Tagged: Alison Bowden, Bible Studies, Biblical Prophecy, christian life, Christianity, Comments, end times, eschatology, Fall Rapture, God Second Coming, Jesus, Jewish Feasts, Last Days, lord, Pre-Trib Rapture, Rapture, Rapture 2010, Rapture October 8 2010, Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah 2010, Steve Coerper, Theology, Truthouths, Watchmen | 8 Comments »