Whenever we lose a loved we talk about them going to Heaven. Sometimes we may paraphrase by saying they've gone to a "better place" or to their "next life", but what does that really mean? Is it possible to know anything about Heaven now or will everything be new and completely different than Earth when we get there? Read on to find out!
Thanks to Brad from Revelation 12 Daily, several hundred people recently read my post The Story of the Tree Man on my website here under the Why HeavenlyPerspetives.org menu at the top of this page. I'm grateful to everyone who read it and especially to those who left inspiring comments under Brad's post. I originally documented the story back in 2000 shortly after it happened and I relayed the story in person to multiple Adult Sunday School classes at my church. However, it's been a rare occasion that I have spoken or written about the event after about 2001. It's nice to have another chance to share it with a new set of brothers and sisters in Christ!
I pray that none of you reading this post ever have the opportunity to know what it is like to lose a child. The phrase "gut-wrenching" sort of explains it, but in a massively understated way. It's way worse than simply gut-wrenching and infinitely worse than anything else I have ever experienced. There's no way to avoid the after-effects of the event. It is life changing. The important question is, how does a traumatic event like this change your life?
Apparently, millions of Americans watched or saw highlights of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the allegations made by Mrs. Christine Ford against Supreme Court Justice Nominee Brett Kavanaugh on September 27 and 28. Many people, including me, found these hearings disgusting, reprehensible, a major embarrassment to the citizens of our country. It's unbelievable how far we have sunk as a society in the U.S. This made for TV spectacle was abhorrent for both Judge Kavanaugh and Mrs. Ford. The only winners were the forces of darkness and evil in our country. We are definitely in End Times Can we still find inner peace despite the advances of darkness and evil? Let's discuss.
Assuming you follow any of the national news in the U.S. I am sure you heard the phrase "the narrative." Essentially the narrative is the storyline that a particular group of people wants you to believe. For example, if you are a Republican the narrative is that President Trump is doing great things for the country. If you are a Democrat the narrative is that President Trump is not only the worst president in the history of the country, by a large margin, but he is also a modern-day version of Adolph Hitler or Osama Bin Laden. Clearly, there's a large gap between the two firmly entrenched opinions. What in the world is going on here?
Something bizarre and maybe even prophetic happened on Friday, May 11 to the Maleficent Dragon in the Walt Disney World Festival of Fantasy Parade at the Magic Kingdom. As you can see in the picture here, it caught fire. Now the dragon is an elaborate parade float; a real, fire-breathing dragon. But it certainly not supposed to have fire like this! As you can see in the picture here and the video in this article below, the head of the dragon caught fire during the middle of the parade. Things like this just don't happen at Walt Disney World.
Why might this be prophetic? Read on and find out.
This post includes important spoilers for the movie Avengers Infinity War. Stop reading now if you don't want to know what happens in the movie. Keep reading if you want to know more about where the world is going and how late is the hour.
On Thursday, April 26 I went on a father daughter trip to see the movie Avengers Infinity War. We enjoy watching movies together and she had been looking forward to this one in particular. If you know much about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) then you know it is important to watch the closing credits in any Marvel movie. There are always one more more additional scenes included in the credits. Sometimes they are something funny, but most of the time these scenes provides clues to the direction of future MCU movies.
When the credits began to roll during the very somber end of the movie, virtually everyone in our theater moved stayed put. Thes stayed to see what clues the additional scenes would provide. There's only one additional scene in Avengers Infinity War and it does not occur until after all of the credits are shown. The scene contains an important clue that suggests how the Avengers will defeat there seemingly invincible enemy in their next movie, which is scheduled to be released in May 2019. From an MCU perspective it was good scene with the surprise reveal being that the coming hero who will save the day is Captain Marvel. But, that's not why I'm writing this post.
Now that we have celebrated the Resurrection at Easter (also the Feast of First Fruits on the Jewish calendar) let's get back to the topic at hand. That would be the Rapture. Whether it is on Ascension Day or sometime later considering everything going on in the world these days, together with the Revelation 12 warning sign last September, it surely looks like that the Rapture will occur sometime between the date of this post and Pentecost on May 20, 2018. Other blogs go into the details of why any particular date is a better candidate an another, so I won't repeat that here.
Let's do something different.
Let me start by saying this is a highly speculative article that I have written to spark consideration and discussion of a potential Ascension Day Rapture. I don't see any smoking-gun proof that Ascension Day is the date. What I do see is a considerable amount of convergence around the three different potential dates for Ascension Day. The topic of ascension surely sounds like Rapture, it is close to Israel's 70th birthday and it is 10 days before Pentecost.
But wait, did I hear you ask how there could be three potential dates for Ascension Day? Read on to find out!
Paul exclaims in 1 Corinthians 9:24 that we are to run the race as if to win.
1 Corinthians 9:24 (NASB)
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
But what exactly are we supposed to win and who are we competing against? Considering the lateness of the prophetic hour in which we live I think its important what we regularly remind ourselves who we are competing against and what need to do to win. Let me use the sport of Cycling as an analogy.
To me, Cycling is both an interesting example and an interesting contradiction of running the race as if to win. This is particularly true for an event like the 21-day Tour de France race that occurs every July. In order to win the race, individual riders must work together with competitors at certain times in the race. You can't win without working together with your competitors and you can't win without separating yourself from your competitors. The key to winning of to maintain the right relationship with the peloton.
What is the peloton?
The May 2017 post titled Exit Sign by Greg Lauer of A Little Strength has resonated with me or a while I only read it the first time in August or September but it stuck with me. I highly recommend it if you have not read it already.
Since then I have been noodling on the idea of how to evaluate the idea of biblical speculation vs the doctrine of imminence. According to Greg the definition of imminence is this:
Or, more precisely, at no point in time during the Church Age have we ever possessed or will we ever possess the revelation knowledge of Scripture required to confirm the exact date of the Rapture before it occurs, or the existence of a prophetic event that must precede it.
Here's how I interpret Greg’s statements:
Waiting for Jesus to return can be painful. For those who are being persecuted around the world for their faith the pain can be physical and mental. For those who are spiritually lost the waiting can be excruciating because they don't know what they are looking for or it doesn't seem like Jesus is answering their prayers. But I wanted to write today about another kind of painful waiting. That's the waiting of expectancy.
The minister at my church recently talked about the waiting that Mary did after Gabriel informed her of the Immaculate Conception but before Jesus was born.
Do you remember what happened at the end of Gabriel's visit?
After showing my new website to a very good friend of mine, he responded with two questions. He's a strong Christian brother with whom I enjoy exchanging banter between discussions about Jesus and other serious subjects. So when he asked me the questions I was tempted to respond with a smart aleck comment. But before I responded I thought for a moment and I decided that he had asked some great questions that were were worthy of a thoughtful, honest answer. Further, I thought maybe I should just go ahead and answer his question by posting the answer on my website.
So here's the first question, exactly as he wrote it to me:
Why do you want to know – or get as close to you can in knowing – the date or approximate timing of the Rapture?
Since it is relevant to this website, I thought maybe it worthy of answering publically.