Mysteries of God Given to Paul the Apostle (Part 1) - By Pastor Mike Taylor - https://pastormiketaylor.blogspot.com/2020/11/mysteries-of-god-given-to-paul-apostle.html
 
 
“It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
 
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
 
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
 
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” (2nd Corinthians 12:1-4)
 
Saul of Taurus, who became Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, (Romans 11:13) was a remarkable man who lived a remarkable life in the service of Almighty God. Being transformed from the greatest enemy of Jesus Christ, Paul became the greatest evangelist and God's greatest servant at a point in God's timing where God's focus and plans took on a dramatic shift from focusing on Israel as the source of blessing to the world, to focusing on a mostly Gentile body, known as the Church.
 
 
It was Paul's God given mission to establish this church, and the church began with him. To him, we owe a debt of gratitude that he was sold out to God and God used him to bring us the truth of God's Word. In the verses above, Paul speaks of a time when a man, (I believe Paul was referring to himself) was caught up to heaven and heard revelations and what Paul spoke of as “mysteries” that were not revealed to any other prophet, or even the twelve apostles of our Lord. It was not spoken of in the Old Testament, and was not spoken of in the New Testament until Paul arrived and was given the mysteries of the plan for mankind that were revealed to him alone by the risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You ask, “When did this happen?”.
 
Remember what happened after Paul was given his sight by Ananias? According to the account of Paul's conversion in Acts 9 the Lord stated twice that He would show Paul what to do and what would happen to him for the Gospel's sake. However, Paul immediately began to show from scripture that Jesus was the Christ and apparently displaying his capability to communicate well to the Jew, but his ministry ultimately was to the Gentiles. This was something that would not go down well for some one trained in the sect of the Pharisees and the Jews did not receive the message Paul preached.
 
So if Paul was to go Arabia how do we understand what is written in Acts 9. Verse 23 states that "After that many days were fulfilled" the “after that” would refer to Paul's showing the Jews that Jesus was the Christ many days past? This would work in very well with Paul's traveling to Arabia when rejected by the Jews. Here we will discuss a few of those mysteries, that God gave Paul, and the Apostle Paul gave to us.
 
God in the form of the Risen Christ, instructed Paul by revelation on the “mysteries” that had not been revealed in times past, but only hinted at when Isaiah wrote similar language as did Paul, about what we can expect in the near future.
 
19 “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
 
20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
 
21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of hplace to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” (Isaiah 26:19-21)
 
Many people read right over this passage above and don't see what Isaiah was telling us. The Apostle Paul fleshed it out for us in 1st Corinthians and 1st Thessalonians, when he made known the “mystery” that was hidden from the understanding of those in Old Testament times. Paul made known to us, many mysteries of God.
 
Paul was being commissioned to take the Gospel of salvation through faith in the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and that it was by grace that we are saved:
 
8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
 
Paul stayed for three years in the Arabian desert. Paul didn't go to the Apostles, but was led, much like Jesus was led into the wilderness, to be instructed by God Himself on “secrets” that had not been revealed prior to the calling of Paul on the road to Damascus.
 
THE MYSTERIES OF GOD
 
The word “mystery” is a confusing translation, as it can mislead the reader of what mystery means and what Paul is talking about. Is it “weird, strange, or an enigma” which is the common interpretation of the word in the English language? No, the word is Greek (μυστήριον ) It means a “secret”–something kept hidden, something previously not revealed. Paul used the term to describe the body of doctrines the risen, ascended, glorified Lord revealed to him. God alone can keep a secret and He had kept these revelations hidden until He chose to disclose them. I believe God waited until Jesus had ascended on High with God our Father and chose Paul as His minister to share this truth of God's Plan for Mankind. Paul called these doctrines “secrets” for this was what they were. What were these secrets that Peter and the other apostles knew nothing about?
 
As the opening scripture speaks of, Paul was taken away, translated via the Spirit of God into the Third Heaven, and heard words that were not lawful for a man to hear. At least not in regular Judaism, as they were Holy and revealed by the most Holy God, Jesus the Christ. Let us briefly touch on a few of these mysteries, or “secrets” that our risen Lord revealed to Paul and to him alone to change the focus of the Lord's plan for the redemption of mankind, by setting aside Israel for a predetermined span of time, until the fullness of the Gentiles had come in which has been going on for the last 2000 years.
 
25 “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
 26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
 27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”(Romans 11:25-27)
 
THE SECRET GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD
 
Paul preached what he called “his Gospel” that focused on the mercy and grace of God, instead of the coming Kingdom of God. He said it many times in his epistles to the churches of his day. Did not the Apostles preach this Gospel? No, not until Paul taught them as a new revelation, that salvation came but by grace.
 
Paul declared his gospel was, “kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested.” Paul wrote that by revelation he went to Jerusalem to communicate the gospel that he preached:
 
2 “And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.” (Galatians 2.2).
 
It was a “secret” until the ascended Lord revealed it to Paul. What was the gospel John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Twelve proclaimed? They preached the “gospel of the kingdom of God” (Matthew 4.23; 9.35; Mark 1.14-15) The focus of the Gospel before Jesus was risen and ascended back to the Father in heaven was to preach to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This was the content of the Gospel preached by Jesus and the 12 apostles. It was even preached upon the conversion of Paul for a time, as he declared that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Each of the apostles believed that the Kingdom of God was imminent in their life-time and they would be a part of that Kingdom. No where in the scriptures do the Apostles preach the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, until Paul came and taught them upon returning from the wilderness experience with our Risen Lord, Jesus our Messiah. Read the scriptures for yourself, and you will find that no one but Paul introduced salvation through faith. Beforehand, the apostles preached salvation through repentance and baptism which is what Peter proclaimed in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost:
 
37, “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38, Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:37-38)
 
But even Peter did not emphasize the finished work of the cross through the blood of Jesus Christ, as the cross was deemed a curse. Now each are necessary that Israel believe that Jesus was the Messiah, to be baptized out of obedience to the example of Jesus Christ, but Paul preached a “mystery” that there is nothing we can do by doing this or that, as salvation comes only by faith and the pardon of our sins is a gift of God. It is a bestowing of the mercy and grace and unmerited favor that is imparted to those who believe on Jesus Christ and His finished work when crucified, resurrected and ascended back into heaven's realm to sit at God the Father's right hand. There is no action, no work, no tradition, no ceremony that one can do what is required for the remission of our sins, but the blood sacrifice of Jesus for payment of the sins of the world and our justification, finalized with the Lord's resurrection, leading to our sanctification that takes our whole lives to be refined into the image of Christ, and for our future glorification along with Him.
 
 Paul wrote the Corinthians,
 
1 “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (1 Corinthians 15.1-4)
 
This “secret” mystery was a total change in the concept of salvation as Paul preached salvation through faith alone
 
THE SECRET OF THE BLINDING OF ISRAEL
 
God laid the groundwork for His creation of a new race of people, the Jews, with His calling of Abraham. Through the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God began to reveal Himself. From that point until the time when the ascended Lord commissioned Paul, God dealt with mankind through the nation of Israel. To the Jews belonged the adoption, glory, and covenants, etc.
 
“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
 
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
 
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
 
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
 
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” (Romans 9:1-5)
 
11 “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
 
12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
 
13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”(Ephesians 2:11-13)
 
24 “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
 
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
 
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."(Acts 3.24-26).
 
God revealed His prophetic plan through the Jewish prophets. But because Israel rejected the timing of the visitation of their Messiah, the Kingdom would be given to another to bear the fruits thereof. But at the end of the Age, all Israel would be redeemed.
 
What had been unknown was the when and the how. Paul revealed that following Israel’s rejection of their Messiah that the nation’s salvation would not occur “until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in.” Jesus proclaimed to them prior to Paul, when the apostle Matthew wrote about Jesus scolding the Pharisees:
 
 
42 “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
 43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
 44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
 45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.” (Matthew 21:42-45)
 
No where in scripture does it make mention of the temporary blinding of Israel and God’s creation of the Church, the body of Christ, during this blindness. These truths are found nowhere in the Old Testament. Why? Paul declared these things were a secret of God. A partial hardening–not total and not forever–would last until the fullness of the Gentiles occurred, and until the body of Christ was complete.
 
24 “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
 
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
 
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
 
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
 
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.”(Romans 11:24-28)
 
After that, all Israel, the entire nation, every single Jew alive on earth who will recognize Jesus as the Messiah, will be saved ...so much for Replacement Theology. This heresy of Replacement theology flies in the face of what Paul revealed to the world through his Gospel that the Jews, all of them alive would be saved.
 
At the end of the Tribulation, at the end of the great Day of the Lord, all Jews will believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. They will go into the promised kingdom
 
14 “If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
 
15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
 
16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
 
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
 
18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.” (Romans 11:14-18)
 
.7 “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
 
8 Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.
 
9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God.
 
10 Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her:”(Isaiah 66:7-10)
 
(also see Matthew 6.10). Unlike the generation of Jesus’ day who failed to repent and experience the kingdom, the Tribulation generation will respond and believe Jesus is Messiah (See Matthew 23.39, cf. John 10.16). God is sovereign and has promised through his prophets that Israel would enjoy the kingdom (Romans 9.29 cf. Deuteronomy 28.1-14). God will keep His word.
 
THE MYSTERY OF THE HARPAZO OF THE CHURCH.
 
 This mystery of the return of Jesus Christ for His church was something that no one in all of the pages or verses of your Bible was given this revelation. It was given to Paul the Apostle exclusively through Jesus Christ our Lord when Paul as previously mentioned, was in Arabia and experienced the “translation” into the third heaven to hear words that should not be uttered quoted at the beginning of this message. Why was it a “secret”? Because the return of Jesus Christ, our Lord after the Day of the Lord, called His Second Advent, was common knowledge in the Old Testament prophets. Like the prophet Zechariah:
 
“3, Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4, And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5, And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” (Zechariah 14:3-5)
 
 Not only Zechariah, but many of the minor prophets like Amos, Joel, or Haggai, and the major prophets made mention of the coming of the Lord to set up His Kingdom at the end of the age. So this was not something new...this was not a secret, as it had been clearly revealed prior.
 
This snatching away, (the before not mentioned revelation of the removal of the church, some call “rapture”) is the resurrection of the Church, the body of Christ. In this divine event members of the body of Christ will receive their resurrection bodies. When the body of Christ has been made complete God will take His body unto Himself. Paul called this occurrence the “fullness of the Gentiles” (Romans 11.25) since the body of Christ is composed primarily of Gentiles. The word Paul used for the Rapture was ἁρπάζω which is the word HARPAZO, which literally means “to seize” or “to snatch away by force.” Our English word “rapture” comes from the Latin “rapiemur” which is the word Jerome used in the Latin Vulgate to translate ἁρπάζω. Paul revealed the secret of the Rapture when he wrote the church at Corinth:
 
 51 “ Behold, I tell you a mystery [secret]; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”(1st Corinthians 15-51-53)
 
Paul went on to elaborate when he wrote the church in Thessalonica about the order of this resurrection:
 
 13 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
 16 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 will rise first.
 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4.13-18).
 
 IN the passage above Paul gives the sequence of the “catching away” of the body of Christ. The dead in Christ will rise first, then those who are alive and remain will be changed “in the twinkling of an eye”...both groups will meet the Lord in the air, meaning those who are alive and changed and will never experience physical death, but given immortal spirit bodies right along with the resurrected saints who have died in faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
The words for “moment” and “twinkling” are ἄτομος and ῥιπή. The thought here is that this will occur instantaneously.
 
This return of the Lord is an entirely different event from His return to save Israel and the nations at the end of the Tribulation. As Jesus told us that the end of the age will be as in the days of Noah, or people going about their everyday routines of life, not knowing that their destruction is at hand. At the end of the Tribulation, men and women will NOT be going about their everyday lives, but trying to survive in a world gone mad. It will be no secret that judgment has come and Jesus will not come as a Thief in the night. In the first return, the Lord will meet the body of Christ in the clouds (a heavenly return for a heavenly people, (Ephesians 1.3). Some scoff and label is an “escape hatch” from the coming Tribulation, but I prefer to call it “victory in Jesus” over this world. In the second return, the Lord will return to earth, (an earthly return for an earthly people,( Zechariah 14.4). God our Lord Jesus will claim what is His and bought with His own blood, and will rule the world with a rod of iron. The Rapture is the “blessed hope” of the body of Christ
 
13 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
14, Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” (Titus 2.13-14)
 
 And the coming of the Lord was Paul’s personal hope:
 
 “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10, That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
11, If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” (Philippians 3:9-11)
 
 Concerning this doctrine, Paul had to correct false teaching, when one posing as Paul or preaching a different Gospel proposed that the Day of the Lord had already happened, and that Nero was the Ant-Christ. This false prophet refuted Paul's teachings concerning this “catching away” of the saints and the people were sorely afraid, as they thought and believed erroneously that they had missed the return of Christ and were heading into the Tribulation. Paul wrote them to admonish and refute this false notion in the second letter to the Thessalonians:
 
 
 1 "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
 
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
 
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
 
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
 
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”(2nd Thessalonians 2:1-5)
 
Even today, people try to rationalize what God is going to do and that Bible prophecy is a non-starter and everything has been accomplished. They are what are known as Preterist and have a problem explaining what the book of Revelation has to reveal.
 
No one spoke of this “secret”, this mystery of the “catching away” of the church, the fullness of the Gentiles, until Paul revealed what Jesus had told him alone in revelations, being taught by Jesus personally. Jesus never mentioned it in his earthly ministry and the Twelve Apostles never mentioned it in their writings. That changed when the glorified Jesus Christ told the Apostle John in Revelation 3:10 that we would be taken “OUT OF” the coming Tribulation, not experiencing the event or going through and enduring the time of God's wrath, which I have covered in past messages. All non-Pauline writings of Christ’s return speak of His return to earth at the end of the Tribulation found in the Old Testament, that is unless you discern what John wrote in Revelation, and the Lord God revealed to him about 30 years after Paul was slain by Emperor Nero.
 
All the prophets from Ezekiel, Isaiah, to Zechariah, Malachi, Amos and the rest of the minor prophets spoke of the coming “Day of the Lord” where God would come in wrath to take revenge on a God rejecting world, in favor of worshiping a false god, the Anti-Christ during the Tribulation.
 
THE DAY OF JESUS CHRIST
 
 But the Apostle Paul spoke of a different day. He called it the “day of Christ” or the day of the Lord Jesus. The “day of Christ” is a day of deliverance, not a day of judgment. The “day of Christ” is the return of Christ for his body, the Church, or the Rapture (the HARPAZO). Associated with this day of deliverance is judgment of the believers works. Paul wrote the Corinthians about this :
 
10 “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.
11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.
14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet as through fire.”(1st Corinthians 3:10-15)
 
This is the Bema Judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not a day of judgment , but a day of rewards for the saints of God that have done deeds for Christ and are receiving rewards for their service, or the lack thereof, but “being saved as though by fire”.
 
 
 Paul spoke of many more mysteries, “secrets” that I will address in a part 2 of continuing this message, but I'll leave it there for this time.
 
 As you read these “secrets” that Paul shared with you and I today, our time of the soon coming of our Lord is an event that Paul looked down the annals of time and knew not when they would happen. All he knew is that Jesus had commissioned him a preacher of the Gospel of the risen Lord and to establish His church on this earth. His work survives and the words he wrote from what he saw and heard, are with us for our own salvation through faith and belief in the Son of God, crucified, buried, and resurrected the third day according to the Scriptures. What I have witnessed to you, is a salvation message in a nutshell and a rewards banquet that is fast approaching.
 
Will you be at that Bema Judgment seat along with all of have believed by faith, not of works, lest any one of us should boast? Will you stand with me, as we all hold hands and raise them in worship to the King of kings, and Lord of lords, my God and yours, Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty? It all is encapsulated in the whole point of this message and the point of the whole of the Bible:
 
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son,
That whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.
 17, God sent not His Son into the world, to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved,
 
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ” (John 3:16-18)
 
 I've given you three powerful, witnessed mysteries (secrets and there are more) that was revealed only to Paul and no one else. He wrote the major portion of the New Testament of the Christ who changed him from Saul, the persecutor of the saints, into Paul, the faithful, powerhouse witness of the saving Grace and Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father. Now my last witness (plea) I want to leave you with “What will you do with these mysteries (secrets) given to us by the Apostle Paul? Will you embrace them for the salvation of your soul, or will you put it off and think you can do it another day, or if at all? Don't wait another day, as you are not promised tomorrow.
 
 
8 “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
 
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
 
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
 
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” (Romans 10:8-11)
 
This is Pastor Mike Taylor, praying you receive the Lord Jesus as personal Savior today. If you need counseling, prayer, or just a listening ear, drop me an email to [email protected], OR visit me online for more on Bible based teaching on Prophecy and the Salvation through no other than Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God bless you all,
 
TILL WE MEET AT JESUS FEET

Contrasting Conditions at Rapture & Second Coming - By Gene Lawley - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/10/31/contrasting-conditions-at-rapture-second-coming-by-gene-lawley/
 
About Contrasting Conditions at Rapture & Second Coming
 
What the conditions of the economic, social and geophysical in the world are likely to be at the Second Coming of Christ seem to be overlooked when placing some Scripture passages into the correct timeline. Those things make a great difference in how to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Getting that scenario straight is always important for knowing how prophetic passages fit together properly.
 
Let’s consider some factors that will contribute to those conditions at that time of the Second Coming. We believe the Scriptures clearly pinpoint the Rapture of the body of believers, the church, at the beginning of the seven-year period of tribulation, the time of “Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). It is not the “time of judgment on the saved in Christ.” At the time of the Rapture, the Bible says there will be “sudden destruction,” and one can easily envision the chaos that will take place when millions of people from all walks-of-life situations will suddenly disappear. They will leave their clothing and any non-body, non-flesh items lying where the person was sitting or standing. The Scripture times the disappearance as “in the twinkling of an eye” it will happen. That full passage is very worthy to be quoted here:
 
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).
 
How many fatalities will result from the chaos that will occur at that time cannot be imagined. Then, the preview in Revelation 6 of what is coming in those seven years only increases the horror. First, the Antichrist comes on the scene, riding a white horse and deceitfully posing as the Redeemer, but instead, “conquering and to conquer.” That means he will be taking charge of all things as he presses toward the time of his final judgment. Knowing that his modus operandi is to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10), one can clearly expect things to be very terrible clear to the end of the age. With that view in mind, what conditions of economic, social, and otherwise should we expect to see at that time? It will not be a pleasing environment, for sure.
 
That preview in Revelation 6 continues with three other horses, each having a rider, who certainly must represent that first rider in his conquering mode. Those horses are colored red, black, and gray or pale. They represent warfare, famine, and death, the conditions that will be predominant in the seven years—not peaceable, happy or prosperous at all. As one reads through Revelation 7 to 19, he will discover the judgments on the earth will be very destructive. A third of mankind will be killed, a third of the sea will be turned to blood, a third of the green foliage will be burned up—and that is just in the early phases of that time.
 
When the heavens begin to explode, with hailstones of a hundred pounds weight falling from the sky, earthquakes in multitude, waves of the oceans creating havoc, it will not be a place of safety and security for anyone. It will be a time of judgment upon Jacob, that rebellious nature of the Jewish race, and all of those who will have rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior. Two-thirds of the Jews will be killed, and one-third will have God’s protection in a wilderness hiding place (Zechariah 13:8), but they will recognize Christ as their Atonement and turn to Him in fulfillment of the Feast of the Atonement (Zechariah 12:10).
 
The final half of those seven years will be very, very terrible, for the Antichrist will have imposed a Mark of the Beast upon all people, and those who do not accept that mark, a mark of submission to his authority and lordship, will be killed. The false prophet who is introduced in Revelation 13 will be readily available to do the Antichrist’s bidding in all of those evil actions.
 
Those who are shown in Revelation 7, standing before the throne of God, souls in white robes, are identified as those who have been killed in the “Great Tribulation,” the last half of the seven years. There are multitudes standing there, not in resurrection bodies, but souls. Thus, they are not the raptured saints, for they have been “snatched away” before the tribulation gets underway. Remember how Luke 17:31-36 relates it: “Two will be sleeping; one will be taken and the other left; two will be grinding meal, one will be taken and the other left. Two will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left.” As Noah and Lot were taken out of the way of judgment, so are those taken out of the way of judgment that will occur on earth to all those left behind.
 
It is not at all likely there will be any “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, buying and selling, building and planting” going on during those seven years, especially at the end of that time, for it is far more likely there will be a total effort being made merely for survival, even to those who have taken the Mark of the Beast. And given the multitude already killed for not taking that Mark, the few, if any, who still survive, their motivation may well be only to survive over multiple oppositions.
 
Now take a look at conditions well described when the Son of Man will be revealed. Both Matthew 24:38-39 and Luke 17:26-30 describe the physical and social conditions when the Lord comes, although Luke includes Lot’s time, additionally. Both passages in their extended contexts describe the “taken and left behind” actions, however, which are clearly a pre-tribulation action not later timed for nor mentioned at the end of the tribulation in Revelation 19 when Jesus returns to the earth. Following is the Matthew description of conditions at Noah’s time:
 
“For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:38-39).
 
Luke reports what he has learned, guided by the Holy Spirit:
 
“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:26-30).
 
The spiritual conditions of the times of Noah and of Lot, in Genesis 6:5 and Genesis 18-19, respectively, were marked by a saturation of sinfulness. In Noah’s time, God’s observation was “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” In Lot’s time, the whole city of Sodom was saturated with all the men of the city filled with the lust of homosexuality.
 
It is clear that those physical and social conditions are not like what the results of the tribulation will leave behind. It is also clear that such conditions of all things being as they have been, generally, will make the coming of the Lord “as a thief in the night” much more of an unsuspected surprise. Peter wrote of this in 2 Peter 3:3-4: “…knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.'”
 
While the exact time of the Lord’s coming to meet His saints in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) is said to be unknown by anyone except the Father in heaven, there are many clues toward the general time of His return at the Rapture event. These references to the conditions on earth tell us much about the timing. Realizing that the Lord never made a promise that He did not intend to keep gives us much more guidance to the timing. It is so told in Luke 21:28, where Jesus announced, “When you see these things begin to happen, look up, for your redemption draws near!” He said this in context with descriptions of extreme physical disturbances in the earth and the restoration of Israel to its statehood in the far-off future of the year 1948—the blossoming of the fig tree (Luke 21:29).
 
Then, the timing of the confirming of a covenant foretold in Daniel 9:27, along with the exclamation in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, saying, “Peace and safety,” tells us more of the timing of the Rapture. God has appointed the day and the hour before time began, and I submit that it will not be “some day and some hour” that occurs, but on the day and the hour so appointed (italics used for emphasis).
 
One important thing we must not forget is distinctly mentioned by Jesus in John 7:6 that brings home the significance of our mortal uncertainty: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.'” He said this in reference to His coming death on the cross, but it is equally true in these last days that His appointed time has not yet come, but every mortal person could face death at any time. And that means eternity is merely a heartbeat away for any of us.
 
No one can mentally picture or imagine the breadth and depth of that “sudden destruction” that will occur around the world when that “last trumpet” sounds and Jesus calls the dead in Christ out of their graves and up to Him in the air, along with those who are alive, all in transformed, resurrected bodies.
 
Again and again, we acclaim the victorious “blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ!” (Titus 2:13).
 
Contact email: [email protected]
 
 

The Soul of a Nation – Pete Garcia - https://www.rev310.com/2020/11/the-soul-of-a-nation
 
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12
 
The Biden-Harris campaign, recently switched campaign slogans from the generically bland, “Build Back Better,” to the emotionally charged “Battle for the Soul of a Nation.” But why was that? Was it because “Build Back Better” was already a campaign slogan for the United Nation’s Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development agenda? Yes.
 
The UN’s Build Back Better (BBB) campaign (part of Agenda 2030) is fraught with radically problematic, anti-family, anti-capitalist, anti-Christian, globally binding (if adopted), initiatives that would in a sense, attempt to make the whole world San Francisco. Therefore, in that sense of the meaning, the Biden campaign inadvertently exposed where their allegiances truly lie should he take the White House in 2020.
 
Granted, Biden probably did not realize the association at first. These days, Biden is having difficulty recognizing which race he is running in, or whom he is running against. The “BBB” slogan was most likely drummed up by some low-level DNC operative feeding the Biden Campaign a catchy slogan they could use to combat Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) during the summer months before and after the Democratic National Convention.
 
It could have also been used to signal the Bernie Sander radicals on the left in a subtle way that they fully intend on dismantling the sovereignty of the United States. However, the Democrats realized this message would NOT resonate with the electorate at large and could be damaging if the connection between the two were ever made. This required the change to the “Battle for the Soul of a Nation.”
 
But what is the “soul of a nation?”
 
According to the left, it is generosity, unity, comity, and bipartisanship.
 
On the surface, these all sound great.
 
So why hasn’t the left been practicing this since 2016? I mean, if that is what they really believe.
 
Realistically, the only person on the left to have accepted the Trump 2016 election victory was Hillary Clinton, when she conceded on election night. The rest of the leftist establishment, i.e., the media, academia, Hollywood, radical agitators, political progressives, and the previous administration, etc. have essentially waged a non-stop war on the President even before he officially took office on January 17, 2017. In other words, President Trump has been battling a non-stop rebellion since before he took office.
 
Wait, what happened with generosity, unity, comity, and bipartisanship?
 
Perhaps it is best if we break down what those words, to the radical left, really mean.
 
Generosity: America is the most prosperous and wealthy nation on the planet, however, our wealth and power were ill-gained, thus, not really ours. We must give it back to the global community because of white supremacy (i.e., the Pilgrims, Founding Fathers, etc.). Not only that but also any documents forged in the era of those white supremacists (e.g., the US Constitution), are therefore illegitimate.
 
Unity: America is the final roadblock to global government. Global government is the radical lefts’ solution to ending: poverty (see Generosity), man-caused climate change (ending US energy independence), and inequality (as it applies only to LGTBQI rights).
 
Comity: Merriam Webster (since 1862) has defined comity to mean, countries bound by a courteous relationship based on mutual recognition of executive, legislative, and judicial acts. Cornell Law interprets it this way: The principle that one sovereign nation voluntarily adopts or enforces the laws of another sovereign nation out of deference, mutuality, and respect. The United States (according to progressive ideology) must abandon its inane belief that the United States is a sovereign nation, and adopt UN mandates as law.
 
Bipartisanship: America has existed as a two-party nation since the Civil War. The Republicans were founded as an anti-slavery party. President Lincoln was the Republican’s first president. The Democrats were the party of slavery, and eventually seceded to become the Confederacy. What bipartisanship means to the left (Democrats) is that when they have power (Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary control), the right (Republicans) must acquiesce to their demands, never the other way around. Never.
 
Assessment
 
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention.
 
If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. - Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858
 
In addressing the Republican convention two years before his election, Abraham Lincoln rightfully noted, ‘if we could first know where we are, and wither we are tending (where we are heading), we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
 
We could and should ask the same questions in 2020. Where are we as a nation? Where is this nation heading? What could we do? How can we do it?
 
Nationally speaking, we are a much-divided nation. Former President Obama spent his eight-years in office, browbeating the average American into accepting its guilt over the success of the United States, as well as apologizing to every tin-pot banana republic despot over said same success. By the time then-candidate Trump announced his intent to run in 2015, he did not need to redefine reality to convince the American public how terrible things had become, he simply told them to look around and see for themselves. As he has noted on numerous occasions, the only reason he ran, was because of how terrible the Obama-Biden administration had become.
 
Response
 
Had the United States been a nation like so many others, without checks and balances, and without a Constitution to protect the people from their government, would have resulted in absolute tyranny. Our government would have been an incestuous cancer of revolving leaders (think Putin, Medvedev, Putin, etc.) that would have cemented their power forever. Instead, the people stood up against the Obama Administration, and by 2012, they lost control of Congress. I would like to tackle each point with a bit of expansion. Most of you, like myself, lived through this so I only bring up the salient points as a reminder.
 
·      They had run the economy into the ground.
·      They had placed American sovereignty into numerous, foreign diplomatic entanglements
·      They undercut the bedrock of America’s economic success (manufacturing, research, and development), by outsourcing abroad.
·      They had refused to tap into America’s vast energy resources, thus, beholding us to Middle Eastern interests with little to no leverage.
·      They took aim at destroying the family, the church, and religious liberties.
·      Obama stoked the flames of racial inequalities
 
1. The first argument about Obama’s handling of the economy could be summed up into-“it’s not his fault, he inherited the 2008 Mortgage Crisis.” That is true; however, he willingly inherited an American economic crisis and promised to fix it. He did not fix it, because he did not know how to fix it. Foolishly, he relied on his Keynesian economic experts to try untested theories that slowed and then stalled our economic growth. Obama even sent his Treasure Secretary Timothy Geithner to China to calm the nerves of Chinese investors over the strength of the US Dollar to which, he was laughed at. Loudly.
 
Juxtaposed to this, Donald Trump took a lackluster economy, and clobbered it with his “magic wand,” unfettering the bureaucratic tentacles and unleashed our economic power. In less than three years, America had the lowest unemployment and highest wage growth she had ever seen. Even with an artificial shutdown (COVID-19), and the prolonged lockdowns in Democratic states, America is doing better now than forecasted by almost every expert.
 
2. The Obama-Biden administration tied American hands with several global treaties that would have destroyed our economy, had Hillary Clinton won. First, the Paris Climate Accord would have unfairly held the American economy to reducing its ‘carbon footprint,’ (i.e., shuttering our manufacturing and energy development) ahead of the world’s worst offenders (China, India, Mexico, etc.). It would have done zero to help the so-called ‘climate crisis,’ but it would have crushed the American economy.
 
The Iran Nuclear Treaty would have supposedly, slowed Iran’s intent to become a nuclear power, by heaping tons of cash and supposed “oversight” by UN observers. Considering how well that has worked in other places (Syria, Iraq, Rwanda, etc.), Iran would already be nuclear had Clinton won.
 
Unofficially, the Obama Administration could single-handedly be pointed at as the prime mover for the Arab Spring with its “leading from behind” policy agenda. Obama’s first trip abroad was to Egypt, where, he coordinated through his staff, to signal to the Muslim Brotherhood that he would support their efforts. This had a ripple effect that quickly spread across North Africa, and like so many other times, a single event (self-immolation in Tunisia), became the dejure battle cry for change. This change (i.e., revolution) was aided, abetted, and funded through the Muslim Brotherhood with Obama’s tacit support. Remember, this cringe-worthy Hillary Clinton bravado regarding Qaddafi’s premature death: We came. We saw. He died.
 
3. Three successive presidents had done little to stop the Chinese Juggernaut from ripping out the manufacturing strength of the United States: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barak Obama. Clinton enabled it. Bush was distracted with two unnecessary wars. Obama accepted it as a fait accompli.
 
Obama had no vision, nor desire, to see American greatness ever resurrected. He grew up believing that what made America great was largely a myth, predicated on white supremacy, and nationalistic empire building. His job, if I could summarize it, was simply to oversee, and potentially expedite, the dismantling of a nation in decline. It was in his mind, a foregone conclusion that Hillary would win, thus, she would just be an extension to his eight-years. They would, as he promised, fundamentally transform this nation.
 
Trump did not share that view; neither did the American electorate. No one in China is laughing at the Trump Administration.
 
4. In the 2008 election, John McCain’s campaign promised to reduce our dependence on foreign oil (upwards of 60% then). His statement, “$700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much,” resonated with the American electorate, mostly due to our proximity to 9/11 and the two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) we had been fighting. Now, fast-forward through eight-years of Obama-Biden, and the US had done little to reduce that dependency. Obama went so far as to fight against the Keystone Pipeline (Canada-US) siding with the environmentalists and their ever-shifting crisis of climate change as cause dejure. The price at the pump average: $2.97 throughout his eight-years.
 
Since 2017, the Trump Administration has reversed our dependency on foreign oil completely. We are now the world’s largest energy producer, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs to states like Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, as well as the benefits of low gas prices around the nation. Now the US has also become (again) a major energy exporter. The price at the pump average: $2.50 throughout his four-years.
 
5. The Obama-Biden Administration, became the single, most hostile, presidential administration ever, against Christians and traditional families. The twin rise of secularization and pro-Muslim narratives skyrocketed from 2009-2016 and has left behind a track record that is openly hostile to Christianity and the traditional (male-female) family. Obama was also responsible (albeit indirectly) by leading from behind in speaking out and protecting thousands of Christians and non-Sunni Muslims from an organization he helped enable (ISIS), by prematurely pulling out of Iraq, thus, leaving behind a vacuum for ISIS to fill.
 
In contrast, Trump came into office, immediately working to reverse numerous Obama executive orders, as well as military action to crush ISIS. Whereas Obama requested a cross be covered up behind him when speaking at a university, Trump has openly embraced the support given to him by Evangelicals, Catholics, Muslims, and people from every faith. Trump’s first trip overseas to Saudi Arabia, followed by his trip to Israel (from Saudi Arabia) highlighted his willingness to work with both sides of the religious divide.
 
Furthermore, Trump’s campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital, and moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem was just as much a hit with Israelis as it was with Christian Evangelicals. This, followed up with the highly successful Abraham Accords (Abraham being important with both Jews and Muslims), brought the first legitimate Middle East Peace plan since 1992’s Oslo Accords.
 
6. The political left has been beating the racism drum against Trump since the day he announced his intention to run. However, the day before (and for years prior), Trump was hailed by Democrats, Republicans, Hollywood, New Yorkers, and pretty much everyone else, as a champion for minority causes. Trump has been friends with Jesse Jackson, Alveda King, Sean Combs (P. Diddy), Mike Tyson, Russel Simmons, Herschel Walker, Whitney Houston, and many others. If Donald Trump was really the racist the media has put him out to be, I doubt seriously that any of these would have been his personal friend for decades. But instead of me opining about that, let’s see what Ms. Alveda King had to say about the subject.
 
As much as the left likes to point to Charlottesville’s shooting/racial riot as Trump’s advocacy of white supremacy, they refuse, no matter how many times he has publicly denounced white supremacy, to let it go. Therefore, I will just let Ms. Alveda King put the situation in her own words.
 
Joe Biden is basing his entire candidacy on a discredited lie, trying to make President Trump seem like a racist so that Biden can present himself as some sort of “anti-racist” candidate. That’s the furthest thing from the truth.
 
In the video announcing his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, Biden cherry-picked a partial quote from remarks the president made in the immediate aftermath of the Charlottesville riots, stripped it of context, and presented it as evidence that Trump had called neo-Nazis “fine people.”
 
That’s a load of malarkey, and Biden knows it, because President Trump also said that “neo-Nazis and white supremacists … should be condemned totally.” The “fine people” he was referring to were the ordinary Americans, “on both sides,” who felt passionately enough about a civic issue to demonstrate — peacefully — on behalf of their views.
 
Conclusion
 
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” President Ronald Reagan
 
The battle for the soul of the nation is truly at stake. On one hand, you have a democrat bureaucrat who has spent decades in Washington D.C. The other, was a self-made (and sustained multi-billionaire) that has spent decades creating jobs and familial empire. One has used the government to enrich his own family. One came in already wealthy and has refused to take a paycheck for a job he views as a duty. One candidate is not mentally able to carry out a full four-year term, and would likely be replaced (Pelosi’s 25th Amendment pitch) by his radically progressive Vice-President. One offers a dark winter, the incumbent, a hopeful future, but either way, God is in control.
 
Either way, God’s plan for the conclusion of this dispensation, will come to its inevitable end. As students of the Bible, and in particular, Bible prophecy, knows that the final week of years, is coming, and nothing can abate or assuage this appointment with divine destiny. Moreover, given the proximity to the 2020 election, where does America fit in this indisputable ending as laid out in Holy Scripture?
 
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; Acts 17:26-27
 
This is not to say that Christians should not vote. Absolutely, you should vote. God has, for His own reasons, allowed our nation to be governed by the will of the people in these last days. God could have arranged this final superpower, to be a monarchy or a communist regime. We could have lived under the rule of King George XXIII (or whoever), but we live in a Constitutional Republic. I am under the firm conviction that God will always get the final victory, in whatever realm He chooses to exercise His authority over and nothing would get under Satan’s skin more than to lose the jewel in his earthly crown, just before the Rapture.
 
One party has intentionally decided to run on the Anti-Christ, Anti-Life, and Anti-Israel agenda; the other has not. Since the Democrats have voted God off the Democrat Platform, I am genuinely curious as to what “soul” they are attempting to battle for? We, as Christians living in these final moments of human history, have been given the opportunity to exercise our Romans 13 duty to indeed, battle for the soul of a nation. We do that by electing good leaders while we can so that righteousness might flicker a little longer in these darkening times. Fighting for an abortion-free America is something worth fighting for, even if, the Tribulation is still ahead. As I have always believed, we keep looking up as if the Rapture were tomorrow, but we must occupy until He comes.
 
America is as divided today, as it was in 1860. However, the divides are not between North and South, but between capitalism, and socialism. It is between nationalism and globalism. It is between freedom and tyranny. America is long overdue for another civil war, or worse, complete collapse. However, while we can, let us let those things come after the Rapture, and not before. Benjamin Franklin, at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation—in the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention.
 
“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”
 
 “A Republic, if you can keep it.”  

Closing In - By Daymond Duck - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/10/31/closing-in-by-daymond-duck/
 
The Bible teaches that we can see the day of our Lord’s return approaching.
 
It seems to me that the peace treaties in the Middle East, the opposition to those treaties by some of Israel’s enemies, the departure from the faith by Pope Francis, the attacks on freedom of religion and free speech, the lawlessness, and the increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters are sure signs that society is closing in on the Tribulation Period.
 
Below are some of the things that have recently taken place.
 
One, concerning peace in the Middle East, on Oct. 21, 2020, it was reported that U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said, “There will be more countries that are in the Arab League that will normalize and make peace with Israel, I have no doubt it is a certainty. How many, in what order, I think everyone will have to wait and see.”
 
Two, On Oct. 23, 2020, Pres. Trump announced that Sudan has agreed to a peace treaty with Israel, and he added that “There are many, many more coming.”
 
This is not the covenant with many, but many are signing or preparing to sign a peace treaty, and it could be a major step toward the covenant with many.
 
Trump was asked if he will have a signing ceremony at the White House for Israel and Sudan like the one he had for the UAE and Bahrain and Israel.
 
He replied, “We will have them along with some other countries that you’ll be hearing about coming, probably simultaneously. Then ultimately, we’re going to have a big reunion at the end where everybody’s here and everybody’s gonna be signed. We expect Saudi Arabia is going to be one of those countries.”
 
Ultimately, there will be a reunion and signing for all (many) of the nations that have normalized relations with Israel.
 
This is beginning to sound like it could develop into the covenant with many.
 
One thing is sure, the Arabs are beginning to separate themselves from the Palestinians and to move closer to a peace treaty with Israel.
 
It is an enormous step forward in Bible Prophecy with major implications for the Rapture, the rise of Antichrist, the Tribulation Period and more.
 
Three, not all agree, but several well-known prophecy teachers believe Israel will get into a war with her neighbors called the Psalm 83 war.
 
The PA, Hamas and Hezbollah (some of Israel’s neighbors) are unhappy with the peace treaties that several Arab nations have signed with Israel.
 
Whether or not they resort to war to stop these treaties remains to be seen.
 
Four, concerning a departure from the faith, on Oct. 21, 2020, Pope Francis said, “Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God. You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
 
His call for a law to legitimize deviant sexual behavior that the Bible calls an abomination and give it the same status as Biblical marriage between a man and a woman is a departure from Scripture and traditional Roman Catholic teachings.
 
If the Pope is an infallible man of God, wouldn’t you think he would stick to what the Bible says?
 
Five, on Oct. 20, 2020, it was reported that YouTube has admitted that it is removing videos (more than 200,000 since Feb. of this year) that disagree with World Health Organization (WHO) claims.
 
The WHO has been wrong on several issues, but they are trying to silence anyone that disagrees with what they say, and they want to tell U.S. citizens and the Church what to do (wear masks, limit attendance at services, etc.).
 
This is censorship and a denial of free speech, not science.
 
Six, concerning lawlessness (rioting, looting, burning, etc.), there have been several articles stating that a Trump victory will unleash hell on earth.
 
Several groups are threatening violence.
 
One group called Shut Down DC has posted a website message announcing plans to hit the streets between Nov. 4-7 proclaiming that Trump’s victory is an attempted coup against Biden.
 
The group has also announced that it plans to confront members of Congress on Nov. 8-11 as they return to Washington after the election.
 
Businesses near the White House have already started boarding up their windows.
 
Be aware that violence is coming if Trump wins, and it is part of a continuing effort to remove him from office.
 
This may be why Hillary Clinton advised Biden not to concede the election.
 
Seven, concerning natural disasters, on Oct. 23, 2020, it was reported that wildfires in California and Colorado have burned more acres than any year in their history, and approaching 60-80 mph winds with gusts up to 100 mph will grow the fires.
 
In California, about 100,000 people have been driven out of their homes, and about 1,000,000 have had their electricity turned off.
 
In Colorado, seventy-seven per cent of the state is under an extreme drought.
 
In Potomac, Montana, on Oct. 25, 2020, the temperature hit twenty-nine degrees below zero (a record).
 
Spokane, Washington, is experiencing the snowiest October in more than 125 years.
 
On Oct. 26, 2020, it was reported that tropical storm Zeta will turn into a hurricane that will hit the Gulf Coast on Oct. 28, 2020.
 
Zeta is the eleventh Atlantic hurricane in 2020, the third most hurricanes ever in one year, the fifth hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast in 2020, and the Hurricane season is not over.
 
Eight, concerning pestilence, on Oct. 23, 2020, the U.S. had the highest one-day total of new Covid cases ever (83,000 new cases in one day).
 
Pres. Trump said it is because the U.S. is testing more people, not because Covid is getting worse.
 
Nine, several readers have asked me who I think will win the election.
 
I don’t know the answer to that.
 
But I will view a Biden victory as a sign that God has removed His hand of protection from America and that world government, etc. are going to move forward even faster.
 
I will view a Trump victory as a sign that God is going to show grace to America a little longer.
 
Finally, our Christian faith should guide us all of the time, not just part of the time.
 
What we do should be based on the Scriptures even when we are in the voting booth.
 
The Scriptures are very clear about abortion, same-sex marriage, rioting, looting, burning buildings, Israel and more.
 
Do you want to go to heaven? Know that God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.
 
Prophecy Plus Ministries, Inc.
Daymond Duck
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