2018: The Year In Review

Unsealed ^ | 12/30/18 | Gary

[amessenger4god]

Greetings,

To the churches of God that are in the United States, Israel, the severed province of Judea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth; to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

- Romans 13:9–11

2018 is past and 2019 lies ahead. In light of the fact that it has been given to us by God to see the next year here on earth and to further testify to the world of the grace we have received, I wanted to write to you all to remind you of what we've already seen and I also wanted to write to you straight from the heart on several topics that have burdened me deeply. The days are very, very few.

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2018 in Review

We lived this past year with heightened expectation given all that happened in 2017—especially the literal, astronomical fulfillment of Revelation 12:1–2 on September 23rd—and the fact that Israel celebrated its 70th anniversary in May. In retrospect, many significant prophetic events occurred showing that even more was destined to happen in the lead up to the Church's departure. Here is a brief rundown from 2018:

January:

Other countries follow suit to move their embassies to Jerusalem

42 Jews prayed and worshipped openly on the Temple Mount

Turkish forces finally enter Syria (now three of the five modern countries in Ezekiel 38 that come against Israel are in Syria) and this happened on a day of particular prophetic significance

The "Humanity Star" was launched

The Super-Blue-Blood Moon


February:

Dow crashes 666 points and then three days later U.S. markets suffer their worst single day crash in U.S. history

Israel launches largest airstrikes in Syria since 1982

Billy Graham passes away at the age of 99 (many people have had dreams of the rapture happening not long after his passing)

The Sanhedrin begins minting Third Temple coins, which bear the image of Trump as a modern-day Cyrus

March:

The Jewish State Bill finally passed a key Knesset committee vote

Aaronic priests carry out a Passover sacrifice at the foot of the Temple Mount


April:

U.S. launches mass air strikes on Damascus following a chemical attack that left 78 dead

The Israeli flag flies on the Temple Mount for the first time in 50 years, and it was raised by Chinese Christians, signaling that the gospel has now gone around the world

Israel hosts a 70-hour long celebration of its 70th anniversary (on the Hebrew calendar) along a 70-mile long stretch of Israel's coast, in what was likely the largest celebration in the country's history

May:

Iran launches missile attacks against Israel leading to two massive waves of airstrikes in retaliation

The U.S. embassy opens in Jerusalem on the 70th anniversary of Israel's reestablishment as thousands storm the Gaza border

June:

President Erdogan of Turkey becomes dictator

Anthony Kennedy retires from SCOTUS (the deciding vote on social issues)

July:

The Jewish State Bill becomes permanent law, signaling the restoration of Israel's covenanted identity

The world witnesses the longest blood moon of the 21st century


August:

A plausible explanation for the next piece of the Revelation 12 Sign revealed


September:

Russia announces move of S-300 batteries to Damascus


October:

A very literal astronomical fulfillment of Revelation 12:3–4 occurs

Conservative evangelical Bolsonaro wins election in Brazil promising to move the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem


November:

Prosperity "prophets" proven wrong as Democrats sweep to power in Congress in historic U.S. midterms

Emmanuel Macron's 10-nation military alliance in Europe goes online


December:

The Yellow-Vest Movement explodes in Europe as Macron goes into hiding

Aaronic priests, in conjunction with the Sanhedrin, dedicate the main Third Temple altar and offer the daily oblation upon it (per Exodus 29), but the altar and menorah fires kept mysteriously going out!

Finally, Trump announces a sudden and unexpected removal of all U.S. forces from Syria, leaving Russia, Turkey, and Iran; not only does this leave three of the five bad actors in Ezekiel 38 to their own devices, but can you see any prophetic hint in this news? You know, like a "trump" signaling a sudden and unexpected removal of the good guys from the battlefield, leaving Israel's enemies free to attack?

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Theoretical Timelines in Light of the Revelation 12 Sign

With 2018 behind us it feels like we're entering the red zone, a period of roughly 2.5 years within which our Blessed Hope may come if all things are to be fulfilled (including Christ's second coming) by Israel's 80th birthday (2028; see Ps. 90:10). That may be far more than speculative conjecture if a solid biblical case can be made that the fig tree, is, in fact, a symbol of national Israel as I argue here. We should also keep in mind that there is scant biblical evidence one way or the other if a gap in time occurs between the rapture and the onset of Daniel's 70th Week. We should always live with the expectation and understanding that the Tribulation is "Christmas" and the rapture is "Thanksgiving". Since we're already seeing so many Christmas decorations pointing to the nearness of the Tribulation, how much closer must we be to Thanksgiving?

There are now only six Tribulation timelines that make any sense to me in light of dispensationalism, the Revelation 12 Sign, the reestablishment of Israel, and all the myriad of signs we've seen in the past several years. And since I know God's word is literal truth, there's little doubt in my mind that all this longing and expectation and all these God-given signs are proof-positive that we will see Christ with our own eyes very soon. These are the last several years. You will see it. Your children will see it. The apostles and earliest Christians longed to see these days and we are the ones to see it. As we wait these final days, weeks, and months, I'm reminded that Peter, Paul, Priscilla and Aquila, Timothy and Titus, James and John, Lydia, Mary, Martha, and many others have waited a far longer time.

And in terms of prophetic years of 360-days each (a counting of time used in Genesis, Daniel, and Revelation) all of these timelines occur more than 2,000 years after the beginning of the Church Age circa 33 AD.

Here are what I consider to be the final timelines with a few reasons given for each. These are separated into "red zone" and "terminal zone". We are now in the red zone and I believe the rapture will happen in this zone. That being said, if my understanding of "all these things fulfilled" or the length of a generation is off, then I would fully expect the rapture to occur in the terminal zone and no later.


RED ZONE

2019–2026

• The Revelation 12 Sign was a two-year warning (about the length of time of the Bethlehem Star events in 3–2 BC).
• There is little or no gap between the rapture and the 70th Week.
• The Trump-Kushner peace plan is intricately connected with the final confirmation of the covenant in Daniel 9:27 (which must be strengthened for seven years after we're gone).
• Revelation 12:1–2 in 2017; Revelation 12:3–4 in 2018; Revelation 12:5 in 2019? One year between each?
• The culmination of the Revelation 12:3–4 Sign in 2018 marked the roughly one-year warning rather than the Sign of the Woman.

2020–2027

• A very nice and even range on the Gregorian calendar used by virtually all Gentiles.
• Christ's return would be in the 80th year of the Mandate on Palestine.

2021–2028

• A possible seven years of plenty and seven years of famine template with 2014 marking the beginning phase (the first Blood Moon and global reemergence from the Great Recession).
• The Revelation 12 Sign thus occurs in the middle of the seven years of plenty and the heavenly signs occur roughly 3.5 years before their actual fulfillment.
• Christ returns in Israel's 80th year, which might also be exactly 2,000 years from Christ's declaration of Jubilee at the beginning of His ministry circa 28 AD.
• 2028 is the last possible year for "all things" to be fulfilled within one biblically-defined generation of the fig tree branch becoming tender (the reemergence of national Israel).

TERMINAL ZONE

2023–2030

• All of the events in Revelation 12 and the labor pains described in the Olivet Discourse would be fulfilled within 80 years of Israel's reestablishment, but not the second coming.
• The Tribulation would begin around Israel's 75th anniversary, an "average" generation between 70 and 80 years, and the age at which Abraham was when he departed from Haran to Canaan.
• While I don't personally find the evidence compelling, some have argued that 30 AD was a plausible year for the crucifixion, thus 2030 would be exactly 2,000 solar years later.

2024–2031

• The second seven years of plenty and seven years of famine template. 2017 and the Revelation 12 Sign would have then demarcated the beginning of the seven years of plenty and served as a seven year warning.
• The Great American Eclipse: Part II, which traverses the entire country again from the opposite angle. The two historic eclipses across the head Gentile nation highlight both the seven years of plenty, but also the subsequent judgment on all nations.
• Trump/Pence ("Trumpets") was inaugurated in January 2017, who brings God-given reprieve to the Church and world economy for a time (thus another reason 2017 could have been the beginning of seven years of plenty).
• 31 AD is seen by some as the date of the crucifixion.

2025/26–2032/33 "The Terminal Timeline"

• The last possible range in my view (now only six or seven years away!)
• 32 and 33 AD were the likeliest years of the crucifixion (33 if you favor a Friday crucifixion or 32 a Wednesday or Thursday). Thus one of those years will likely be the true 2,000 year delineator of the Church Age.
• It will begin when Israel is 77 or 78 years old (within a biblical generation) and conclude when Israel is 84 or 85.
• The Revelation 12 Sign may have been a seven-year warning of the rapture if there is a one or two year gap between the rapture and the Tribulation; or perhaps a more general mega-sign that the Day of the LORD is at hand and we're truly living in the final few years.

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Rightly Dividing (Again)

I wanted to do a full follow-up on Stephanie's excellent article on "Rightly Dividing," but as the time came to write it I instead felt a different conviction: not just to argue a side, but to discuss the Christian community's need to exemplify brotherly love and faithful devotion.

Is this topic important? Yes, if the gospel itself is called into question, but No, if all sides can properly define the gospel. For the most part (outside of the Hebrew Roots Movement within the prophecy community) both sides seem to be in agreement:

1. Christ died for our sins.

2. He rose again.

3. If we have genuine faith in Him, even without works, we will be saved.

We need, above all else, to love one another and extend fellowship even when views don't perfectly align.  If we can't do that then what good is our faith?  How will the world know who we are?

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

- John 13:35

No one is converted by wise words, perfect doctrine, or persuasive speech.  People are moved to faith when they see Christians living lovingly and authentically, testifying openly of their brokenness, and pursuing the lost with humility.

But on the topic at hand, I do want to express a few thoughts and concerns I have with some of those who have sided with Mid- or Post-Acts dispensationalism with militancy against their brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree:

1. Both sides desire to "rightly divide," which is why labels can do more harm than good. It isn't that those who disagree with E.W. Bullinger's unique views on dispensationalism want to muddy the waters and not rightly divide. Rather, we believe he wrongly divided in some particular ways, so we believe "rightly dividing" necessarily leads to traditional or classical dispensationalism. And a key division we make that differs from ultra-dispensationalism is that the Church began on Pentecost, not Mid- or Post-Acts.


2. Works were never the basis for salvation in a previous dispensation nor will they be the basis in the future. This is a major point I want to raise. You can argue both ways until you are blue in the face, but sola fide is a central theme found in Genesis all the way through Revelation. From Abraham whose faith was counted as righteousness, to David who broke the Law and did not pay its due penalty (death)—the multiple death-deserving lawbreaker whom God established an everlasting covenant with!; from righteous Abel who brought an acceptable blood sacrifice, to the High Priest Joshua whom God clothed in His own righteousness in Zechariah 3; and from the prostitute Rahab and the Gentile Namaan to the Prophet Habakkuk whose declaration "the just shall live by his faith" formed the very basis of Paul's explanation of salvation through faith alone in Romans.

Why was the Law given and why the focus on works in the Old Testament and the gospels? Here is the answer:

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

- Romans 3:19–20

• The Law only speaks to those under it.  It is holy and good and true, but we are not under it (Rom. 3:31; 6:14).
• It makes the whole world accountable to God, because its stringent requirements are such that not even one person will be declared righteous by obeying it.
• The Law makes us conscious of our sin.

To say that works are the basis of salvation in a previous dispensation or in a future dispensation is in effect to state that only Church Age Christians will be saved, because the Bible is repeatedly and emphatically clear that no one has or ever will be justified by works.  All are fallen.  None are good.  No one does right.  No one seeks God.

To say that those in the Old Testament (or those in the Tribulation or in the Millennial Kingdom) will be saved by works is to say that their situation is entirely, completely, unalterably hopeless.  It's shutting the door of salvation in their face.  No!  Salvation has only ever been on the basis of grace via the atoning sacrifice of God's Son.  See the gospel in Genesis 3–4 and Isaiah 53 in particular.

The gospel was declared to Adam and Eve beforehand in Genesis 3:15–16.  A blood sacrifice—the first death in creation—provided a sufficient covering for our first parents (Gen. 3:21).  This was the declaration of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world:

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

- Revelation 13:8

Why does Christ appear as a Lamb-as-if-slain in Revelation?  Because He was the Lamb slain in Genesis.  And in Genesis Adam and Eve lost their access to the Tree of Life, but in Revelation 22 we regain it.  And right in the middle of this Genesis to Revelation story is the incarnate Christ on the cross, who bore all of our sins in His body on the tree (1 Pt. 2:24; there's a little Peter for you, fyi!).

I'm saved because Christ died and rose again.

You're saved because Christ died and rose again.

And Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Rahab and Namaan; King Darius and King Nebuchadnezzar; all of these, if any, will be saved only because Christ died and rose again.

Again, why was the Law given?

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

- Isaiah 53:6

After the Fall in the Garden, no one would seek God.  No one would listen.  Everyone turned to his own way and in the end, our ways can only ever lead to death.  So the Law was given to condemn us.  Yes, you heard that correctly.  It finally made us realize that we are each accountable to God for our thoughts and behaviors and if we approach Him with labor He will accept nothing less than perfection.  It finally made us see that we need Him and this life and what our eyes see are not all there is.  We must turn back, repent (metanoia; which means to change your mind, convert), and place our faith in Him.  And only then can imperfect creatures such as we are become acceptable to a perfect God.

So regarding the Law: believe it, obey it, teach it.  It's true.  But do not, under any circumstances, look to it as the path to salvation.  That's not what it is and that's not why it was given.

Side note: I've touched on this many times before, but for those who argue that Acts 2 was not the initiation of the Church because of Peter's call to repentance, I would say that you misunderstand what repentance is.  The biblical word behind "repent" is contextual-based and has nothing to do with turning from sin or stopping sin.  God can repent (as the LXX Old Testament repeatedly shows us!).  Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.  To repent is simply to change your mind.  In other words, convert from unbelief to belief.  And when you repent unto Christ your sins are forgiven.  See here.


3. One of the consequences of Bullingerism for some is that it closes their eyes to the fact that the Old Testament is Messianic in nature (i.e. Christ-centric) and even prophetic of Christ's body, the Church, in places.  It also closes us off from many of the key points Christ made in the gospels and the lessons of grace in the synoptics and John.

Part of the problem is in how some ultra-dispensationalists understand musterion, that is, the mysteries of God.  For Paul declares both the gospel and the rapture to be newly-revealed mysteries, but that does not mean they were absent from God's word only until Paul wrote his epistles.  To the contrary, a musterion is a secret, mystic, or hidden thing, akin to something from a vision that is fleshed out or fully revealed later—to first century ears, "secret knowledge" that those with special spiritual insight could grasp.  Paul shows that mysteries first described in the Scriptures he used (i.e. the Old Testament) were now fully revealed in Christ.

For instance, you may have heard that because 1 Corinthians 15 reveals the rapture as a mystery, that it must necessarily have never been written about before.  That means no rapture in Isaiah 26 or 66 or Zephaniah 2.  No rapture anywhere in the gospels, etc.  But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Paul used the word musterion 21 times in his epistles and many of these usages refer to Christ, the gospel, salvation for the Gentiles, etc.  Each of these things were clearly referred to in the Old Testament.  The prophecies were clear.  Yet without the Holy Spirit to illuminate hearts and minds, men and women could never see the forest for the trees.

The Ethiopian eunuch was a perfect example.  He was reading Isaiah 53 for crying out loud, but it was a total mystery to him.  That is until Holy Spirit-indwelt Philip shows up to tell him what just went down in Jerusalem: "The Man you're reading about there in Isaiah, yeah, well, He just died and rose again not too long ago and I know a bunch of His buddies.  That's what Isaiah was talking about."

Yes, Christ and the gospel and the Church and the rapture were all mysteries at the onset of the Church Age, but they were mysteries previously described.  The prophets spoke of them.  But now that Christ has sent the Holy Spirit, these mysteries are fully revealed and we can understand them and more readily see in the Old Testament (and the gospels) where God was speaking about them.

I highly recommend this article on the topic of Jesus' message of sola fide found in the gospels, especially under the subsection "The Gospel According To Jesus."


4. Another major issue with Bullingerism is that it inevitably leads to a two-gospel view, in which the gospel to the Jews ("the gospel of the Kingdom") was a different path to salvation than the gospel of salvation or "the gospel of grace" that we know today.  I could write a whole article on this issue alone, but Stephanie addressed it well.  I simply want to point out that sometimes we attach meaning to a word that isn't there.  "Gospel," which comes from the Greek euangélion, is derived from Old English, and a more accurate modern translation would be akin to "good message" or "good news."  It is a generic term that can apply to many things, so there is no basis to assume that every "gospel" in Scripture is a different path to salvation.  Far be it from God.  Our gracious God never changes.

If I told you I had good news to share with you, would you automatically assume I was about to tell you how to make it to Heaven?  If not, why do many people assume a first century Greek-speaking audience would be any different?  The Bible mentions many "gospels" and only one of those gospels pertains to salvation: the gospel.  The good news of Christ's atoning sacrifice and resurrection.

It was gospel when Moses delivered a message to the Israelites that God had heard their cry.  It was gospel when King Hezekiah heard that God would deliver Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib.  It was gospel when the sick were told the Son of David was healing their countrymen in Galilee.  And it is gospel that God's Kingdom is to be imminently established on earth.  Glory to God!  But none of those gospels are the gospel—the good news of eternal salvation for sinners made possible by Christ's atoning death and resurrection.

The good news of the Kingdom isn't a different path to salvation.  It's simply the good news that God's Kingdom is coming to earth.  But the good news of salvation is that God is saving sinners from their sins through faith in Yeshua.  And this gospel of salvation that Paul preached, though it was prophesied in the Old Testament, was concealed for ages.  Yet though it was concealed, God's saving power through it applies to every believer in every age.  The good news is for us Gentiles, but also for the Jews.  There is no distinction.


5. Dispensationalism is true in the sense that God has operated in different administrative capacities in different eons and His focuses have changed (from our perspective) from age to age.  It is also true in the sense that the Church—which is composed of Jews and Gentiles (even today), not just Gentiles—has not and will not replace ethnic and national Israel.  But dispensationalism goes too far (and becomes what some call ultra- or hyper-dispensationalism) when it begins to teach that the underlying basis of salvation (Christ's atoning sacrifice and resurrection) changes with each age or that the Church is an exclusively Gentile entity.  Scripture is properly divided/handled in terms of dispensationalism when we recognize it is a theory that helps us understand God's seemingly different motives and administrative focuses from one age to the next; but Scripture is wrongly divided when dispensationalism teaches that God Himself changes from one age to the next.  God never changes.  And that's great news for everyone from Adam on.  Yahweh Himself is salvation!  Trust in Him and you can be saved!

Furthermore, dispensationalism is also true in that it teaches that the Church is a unique entity that will serve a unique eternal purpose.  It will be the first group of those who partake of the first resurrection to experience total redemption.  Jeff has an excellent series on this called Church of the Firstborn (read Part I, Part II, and Part III).


6. We all (myself included) need to be weary of intellectual legalism.  For all of my writing on the gospel and opposition to works-righteousness (behavior legalism, if you will), God has humbled me in regard to the gospel.

We all know exactly what the gospel is according to 1 Corinthians 15:

Christ died

For our sins

Was buried

Rose again

Appeared to many 

The gospel is the gospel.  It happened.  And it's the actual means through which God saves (regardless of the dispensation).  But there can be a sense in which, because of the full revelation of the gospel to the Church, we pride ourselves in our knowledge and ability to perfectly recite it.  And then we demand of others the same.  Sometimes we even add demands to it: A formal declaration of allegiance to sola fide, OSAS, TULIP, etc.  Each of those teachings are true (though I might differ slightly with the 'L' in TULIP), but to demand of others a perfect belief in everything pertaining to the gospel is to miss the point—the gospel is about what God has already done, not what we need to do.  God has been saving men and women through faith via Christ's atoning sacrifice and resurrection long before Luther and Calvin and will continue long after their works are forgotten.

Biblical faith is something of substance and conviction.  It's in the heart as much as the mind.  It isn't just something recited or memorized, but is rather something deeply believed that changes your outlook and values.  If you have that convicting faith, then even without any works you will be saved.  And there will be some like that (1 Cor. 3; Rom. 4:5).  But a convicting faith normatively shows some form of evidence, however paltry or hidden, thus James 2.

Let's never forget the simplicity of the gospel.  It's so simple a toddler can understand and believe it (my three year old son does!), yet so profound that it confounds the wisdom of those who are wise in their own eyes.  And this most simple of truths, that God loves us and has saved us, is a saving message to all who truly believe.

And this then is a segway into my final point...


7. While salvation has always been and will always be because of what our Lord Jesus did on the cross, we need to realize that some of the dispensational mechanics do change:

• The Church is uniquely gifted with the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit via the invisible spiritual baptism we undergo when we believe.
• This gift was not given before Pentecost in the previous eons and doesn't appear to be given during the Tribulation.
• For this reason, Tribulation Saints will only be saved by the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14), but their faith in His blood cannot be maintained by the indwelling Spirit.  Their faith must endure.  This is why two apparent works are added to faith in Revelation for those living through the Tribulation: 1. you must not worship the beast or its image, or 2. take its mark.  Will the mark of the beast be a form of mind control or DNA alteration that prevents faith?  Who knows, but one thing is clear, no one who takes the mark will repent (Rev. 9:20; 16:9, 11), which is why the principle of sola fide is not broken here.  Those who take the mark or worship the beast will not have faith (and if they think they do it certainly will not be the kind of convictional faith that saves).
• In previous dispensations when the gospel wasn't yet fully revealed, God demanded genuine faith in Him, but not a perfect articulation of what the Church now understands.  What saves was still very much what Christ did on the cross, but faith in that cross could not yet be realized.  So circumstances changed (Abraham believed in God's promise of offspring - Gen. 15:6; Job believed God would send a redeemer for him - Job 19:25–27; Rahab believed in the God of Israel - Josh. 2:8–11; David believed in God's forgiveness of sins - Ps. 32).  Thus those in the Old Testament with genuine faith were ultimately saved regardless of their trespasses of the Law, but all of those with unbelief were cut off and their sins were counted.

What then of those judged by deeds in Revelation 21?  This is the whole point.  Don't be judged by deeds because your ways only lead to death.  If it were even possible, you could only pass that final judgment without faith if you kept all of God's laws perfectly and perpetually.  Aside from our Lord Jesus Christ, exactly zero people qualify.  The first resurrection is good and the second, bad.  The first is unto life and the second unto death.  The first occurs before the second, obviously, but happens in stages (Christ, then the Church, then Old Testament and Tribulation Saints, and then, presumably Millennial Saints at some point during the Millennial Kingdom; see here).

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Imminence

This topic continues to come up and I'm sure it will until the very end.  Can we know the day of the rapture or is it completely unknowable?  More importantly, is Christ's appearing truly imminent?

I don't have much to say on this that hasn't already been said, but I will say this: I've seen extensive, systematic studies on this topic and the truth is that Scripture seems to support both sides.  There is a tension for a reason.  Why?  Perhaps because God, in His foreknowledge, knew that for 1,900+ years of the Church Age, generations of Christians would not live to see the rapture.  Yet the rapture is always imminent in a certain sense to every Christian, because even those who died in the first century were gathered to the LORD immediately—that is, their souls (perhaps in a similar fashion to the souls of the 5th Seal Martyrs who are gathered under the heavenly altar).  Thus the rapture is imminent to all of us.  The distance between us and Christ is only ever as long as our life in these fleshly bodies.  Scripture routinely speaks about the nearness of Christ's parousia and our being gathered to Him.  We are to eagerly anticipate this quickly approaching, but mysterious day.

But there is another theme in Scripture that is equally present: we are to watch and know the times.  How much can we know?  Well, we can see the Day approaching (Heb. 10:25); we will not be caught by surprise, because it will not be like a thief in the night to us (1 Thess. 5:1–4); and we are advised not to be like the one who does not know the day or hour (Mt. 24:48–51; Rev. 3:3).

Three things are clear: 1. No one has yet been able to pinpoint the dates of the rapture or second coming (as far as I know), 2. Those dates are fast approaching in our generation, even within the next several years, and 3. Those who hold to the doctrine of imminency as if it means Christ will literally come at a completely random/unknown time are mistaken.

Let me explain that third point a bit more.  I do not have a problem with the doctrine of imminency if it is properly reconciled with other Scriptures.  Certainly Christ's coming is imminent for all Christians in every generation from a human and earthly perspective.  But that's as far as the doctrine can go in terms of biblical support.

Some proponents take the doctrine further saying Jesus still doesn't know and that literally nothing else needs to happen between now and the rapture.  Both of those beliefs are plainly false.  Our glorified Savior most certainly knows now and He also knows exactly what events will transpire on earth between now and our being gathered to Him.  Here are two sorts of things that must happen between now and the rapture:

1. Anyone who was predestined to be part of the Body of Christ must come to a saving knowledge of the truth.

2. Any geopolitical, economic, religious, or societal changes necessary to bring about post-rapture conditions on earth as described in biblical prophecy must happen.  In other words, the stage must be set.  And this has been a big focus of Unsealed, to trumpet these things as they happen.  100 years ago, who would have foreseen the Revelation 12 Sign, RFID, the war in Syria, the Jewish State Law, or the dedication of the Third Temple altar?  Yet all of these things were destined to happen before Christ takes us home.

Further reading on this topic: 

The LORD is Punctual

No One Knows the Day or Hour

The Day of the LORD

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Mt. Sinai

This is something that I was already distantly aware of, but a documentary was recently shared with me that seals the deal and I would strongly encourage you to watch it and share it with your friends.  This discovery is to me as exciting as Rick Larson's Bethlehem Star in 2007 or the Revelation 12 Sign's discovery in 2008–2011.  Jabal Maqla in Saudi Arabia seems undoubtedly to be the true Mt. Sinai.  After all, Paul himself said it was in Arabia (Gal. 4:25).  You can learn more here or watch the video below:

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Concluding Thoughts

You are all dearly loved and in my thoughts and prayers. Please be in constant prayer with me for the building up of the Church into perfect maturity.  2019 is going to be an even more wild ride—hopefully a ride up to Heaven in a chariot of fire!  We're only getting closer day by day and God is working His works marvelously.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

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