THE ANASTASIS (RAPTURE)
 Coming for The Body of Christ

The anastasis, which means "exit resurrection" in the Greek, in the next prophecy to occur in human history. It could take place while you're reading this, or 100 years from now. There have been many generations since the cross that thought the Rapture would happen in their time, but alas, here we are.

The Church Age, which spans a period from the cross to, well, the Rapture, is an age of no prophecy. Instead we have historical trends to serve as sign posts, indicators that God has informed us of in order that we might be properly oriented to His plan for us.

This is why Church Age doctrine is called "the mystery" by several of the Apostles, and was never explained in the Old Testament. Everywhere in scripture the time line of prophecy came to the Church Age there is a gap where the mystery doctrine should be and the context skips ahead to the Tribulation, which will commence in the very hour that we are taken out of this world, assuming it will be this generation. There is an overwhelming number of circumstances that point to that likelihood, but I'll get to that presently.

Many Christians have the Rapture mixed up with the Second Advent, but they are two distinct events, the one preceding the second by approximately 7 years.

To understand why this future event will happen we first have to understand that God has divided time into well defined periods of time called "dispensations" in theology. The reigning criteria is different in each dispensation, and no two ever overlap.

The last dispensation, or age, was the Age of Israel, but it was never completed. There are seven more years remaining to be played out. Something called "intercalation" interrupted the Age of Israel, which means in simple terms that another age was inserted into God's plan before the former age was complete. This is a critical distinction, because you must remember that the rules which applied to the Jews in the Old Testament do not pertain to us. The cross changed all that, and we are in the Age of Grace rather than the Age of the Law.

Christ "fulfilled the law", was "the end of the law". This is what those phrases mean; He was the Lamb of God that the Jewish rituals symbolized in their system of sacrifices during the Levitical Priesthood.

The reason for the intercalation of The Church Age is one of Divine protocol. Let me explain;

Jesus Christ has three Royal Patents; That of God The Son, that of David's Greater Son (Jewish aristocracy), and a third as The King of Kings, which combines both His humanity and His Diety in One Person.

Each Patent has a Royal Family. As God, The Son's family are The Father and The Holy Spirit. As the Ruler of the Jews his family is the line of David, but there is no Royal Family yet for The King of Kings. We are that family, The Church. We are so called in several passages, the "Royal Family of God". The Jews, incidentally, are referred to in scripture as "the Family of God", and in another passage as "the meek who inherit the earth". Our abode will be Our Father's Kingdom, and we inherit the wealth of the Universe, co-heirs with Jesus Christ.

For many reasons I won't go into in detail at this time, it is neccessary to have the Royal Family complete before God's plan can progress beyond this point, and this is the reason for intercalation.

It also explains the Rapture, for God will remove His Royal Family before the last seven years of the Jewish Age commence. Thus, this extraordinary event we call the Rapture, more correctly termed the "exit resurrection", will bring to a close The Church Age and the Age of Israel will continue on under the same criteria that existed in Old Testament times. There are many distinctions between these ages, but again, I won't expand on those for the present.

This also explains why Christ does not appear to the world when He returns for us. This is a private event, a family matter. He will remain in the atmosphere, stellar space, and gather all of us, the living and the dead, and lead us to Heaven to await the Second Advent. We will be busy, however, for the Judgement Seat of Christ will take place during those seven years.

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and
the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

 1 Thes 4:16-17

Please note the unusual chain of events that mark this wonderful event. First the Herald, the Archangel Gabriel, will shout a command, followed by a trumpet call. This is a military procedure, and is clearly revealed as such in the original languages, which we might compare to the protocol of our cavalry in past years. When the troop was ordered to "scramble" they were given a verbal command, such as "Fall out!", followed by the bugle call "assembly".

So we will literally hear a loud voice issue a command, followed by an ear splitting bugle call, and we're outta here, pilgrims! The next we know we will be face to face with Jesus Christ and a phenomenon my Pastor calls "the Great Genuflect" will occur. So awesome will that moment be, so overwhelming, millions of us will fall to our knees and worship Our Lord.

Any good Pastor will make it a point to discourage anyone from assuming the Rapture is near. There are too many believers out there that hear something and go charging off into the boonies. My Pastor recalls one incident during his youth where he and his team mates, celebrating a victory, ran across a crowd of people gathered on a hilltop, dressed only in sheets, waiting for the Rapture. In the ensuing conversation he learned that their minister had told them the Rapture was happening that night and they had given their homes and material possessions away, even arranged for their pets to be cared for, before they gathered to be taken up.

So, to head off the cuckoo clocks a Pastor should be adamant about the fact that we don't know when the Rapture will occur.

The Word, on the other hand, encourages us to "watch anxiously" for His appearing, and offers the Rapture as a comfort to those who grieve over a loved one. In fact, there are a set of historical trends that are stated as the condition of the world just prior to the Rapture; These are;

- "Pharmakia", which alludes to widespread drug addition.

- "Bearing false witness", which refers to lying under oath in a court of law and can certainly be compared to our current practice of suing anyone for anything.

- "Licentiousness", which obviously refers to a society in which extra-marital sex and adultery are common.


Many other prevailing conditions must also be present in the world, however, and any student of the Word knows that every one of these is either in place, or in the process of shaping up; These include;

- The reformation of the Roman Empire (The European Economic Community)

- The existence of the nation Israel (since 1948)

- Instability in world politics

- A powerful religion based in Rome

- Widespread corruption

- Rebuilding of the Temple of Solomon (Blue prints already exist for this project)

- Rampant anti-semitism


There's bad news too, or you could consider it such, not that it will matter to us who are taken home, but the United States is not in the prophecy of the Tribulation. The great powers that gather at Armageddon do not include America. There is a likely reason for this fact, and it not only doesn't mean the Rapture is a long way off, but it adds further weight to the possibility that it's extremely close.

I believe that the United States, and possibly Britain, will be obliterated by a cataclysmic nuclear event. It isn't so much the sorry state of world politics at this time that leads me to this conclusion, but rather the manner in which God deals with man in the management of the Angelic Conflict.

What I mean is, it is God's habit to give Satan tremendous advantage in all he does. This is because, logically, when the final verdict comes down, Satan won't have a leg to stand on. God will not only reign supreme, but He will do so in spite of the fact that Satan had every feasible advantage, yet he failed.

When the Rapture takes place probably half the population of the United States and the British Isles, and possibly large segments of several other nations, will disappear...ZAP! Gone in an instant! You can imagine the chaos. Cars will careen off the highways, broadcasters will stop announcing, mothers will stop sucking, and so on. In keeping with His policy to give Satan an edge, I think God will disguise the Rapture with an earth shattering catastrophe, and apart from a natural disaster, a nuclear holocaust is the only event of the magnitude to veil such a mass disappearance.

Add to this fact that we have two very powerful enemies, both of whom will be in the Tribulation (China and Russia) that possess the weapons at this moment to nuke us out of existence.

And here's one final tid bit...Satan is a genius, and he would use the holocaust to convince the unbelievers left behind that the Baptism of Fire has occurred. This is an actual prophetical event, and it refers to the end of the Trib when God will remove only the unbelievers from earth and start the Millenium, the last 1,000 years of human history, with believers only, those who accepted Christ during the 7 year Tribulation.

So supposing we do go out in a nuclear orgy (if we go out at all), Satan would just jump ahead 7 years in order to convince those remaining on earth that THEY are the believers, and HE is Christ. Of course, I refer to The Beast.

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