Rapture 2022: the Throne and the Kingdom

Discussing current events and how they relate to Biblical prophesy. What are some critical signs are pointing to the imminent Rapture of the Church?

After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” (Revelation 4:1)

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Breaking: The United Kingdom

Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning British monarch whose rule spanned seven decades, died on Thursday at the age of 96, Buckingham Palace announced. Her death marks the end of an era for the United Kingdom, with most Brits having known no other monarch in their lifetimes. The Queen’s oldest son Charles — now King Charles III — has ascended to the throne. Her passing leaves a void for the UK at a time of steep change in political leadership and a looming economic recession.

She was arguably the world’s most famous person — and was the most reproduced female face in world history. Elizabeth ascended the throne 70 years ago as the head of a globe-spanning empire. But she died at a moment of contraction and uncertainty, with most of Britain’s colonies gone, its place in Europe a source of tension, and its global status diminished.

The largest, richest, and most powerful empire in world history was the British Empire. Over a span of some three centuries Great Britain brought lands on every continent and islands in every ocean under its rule. At its height the colonies and other territories of the empire encompassed nearly one-quarter of the world’s land surface and more than one-quarter of its population. It was a common saying that the sun never set on Britain’s dominions.

Unable to put down the warfare between Arabs and Jews in Palestine, Britain in 1948 resigned its mandate over the area. It had granted independence to the Arab state of Jordan in 1946. It relinquished control over India in 1947, dividing the subcontinent into India and Pakistan. In 1948 it gave Burma (now Myanmar) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) independence. In 1949 Ireland was separated from the Commonwealth and became the Republic of Ireland.

The Gold Coast became the first sub-Saharan African colony to gain independence (as Ghana) in 1957. The movement of Britain’s remaining colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean toward self-government gained speed after 1960 as international pressure mounted (especially at the United Nations) and as the idea of independence spread in the colonies themselves. At the same time, the British public accepted that the empire’s days were numbered.

The last significant British colony, Hong Kong, was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. By then, virtually nothing remained of the empire.

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Why it matters:

Hear the word of the Lord, people of Israel,
for the Lord has a case
against the inhabitants of the land:
There is no truth, no faithful love,
and no knowledge of God in the land!

Cursing, lying, murder, stealing,
and adultery are rampant;
one act of bloodshed follows another.

For this reason the land mourns,
and everyone who lives in it languishes,

along with the wild animals and the birds of the sky;
even the fish of the sea disappear. (Hosea 4)

Rivers of blood, invasions of frogs, lice, locusts, pestilence, devastating storms… The ten plagues which beset Egypt over the course of one year are horrifying to contemplate. Lives and livelihoods were being lost. People were forced to lock themselves in their houses to avoid annihilation… Is it beginning to sound terrifyingly familiar?

For the past two years the entire world has been buffeted about by one cataclysmic catastrophe after another. The Corona virus has wreaked unprecedented havoc on the modern world. Natural disasters, political violence and mob anarchy have all darkened our days and night. Governments have been toppled. Presidents have been felled. How have we arrived at this Egyptian-like nadir in history?

Should we be surprised that a revolution seems to be in the works? Interestingly, in general, few civilizations or Empires remain dominant for more than 500 years, but usually it is only 300 to 400 years.

Sir John Bagot Glubb (1897-1987), a highly honored British general and historian, wrote about the collapsed empires of the past. In his 1978 book “The Fate of Empires and the Search for Survival” he described a common pattern fitting the history of some fallen empires. They went through a cycle of stages as they started, expanded, matured, declined and collapsed.

Does the pattern apply to America today? Has the United States entered this cycle’s ending stages? If so, shouldn’t Americans critically examine the current state of their culture to see what could be done to prevent the same grim fate?

By knowing history better, we can better project our likely national futures. As the great British Prime Minister and noted historian Winston Churchill observed, “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”

Glubb learned that different empires had similar cultural changes while experiencing a life cycle in a series of stages that could overlap. He generalized about empires having seven stages of development, identifying these successive ages as follows:

1. The age of outburst (or pioneers).
2. The age of conquests.
3. The age of commerce.
4. The age of affluence.
5. The age of intellect.
6. The age of decadence.
7. The age of decline and collapse.

What are some common features of an empire’s culture in its declining period? Glubb describes developments like these:

1. Rampant sexual immorality, an aversion to marriage in favor of “living together” and an increased divorce rate all combine to undermine family stability.

2. Many foreign immigrants settle in the empire’s capital and major cities. The mixture of ethnic groups in close proximity in these cosmopolitan places inevitably produces conflicts.

3. Both irresponsible pleasure-seeking and pessimism increase among the people and their leaders. The spirit described in 1 Corinthians 15:32 spreads throughout society: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

4. The government provides extensive welfare for the poor.

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What to watch:

Wells Fargo, Target, CitiBank, Hewlett-Packard Sponsor Child Drag Performances / Breitbart News Network, September 7, 2022

The Boise Pride Festival will have an event called “Drag Kids on Stage.” The description reads, “You have watched the queens and kings, now it’s time to see the kids.”

It goes on to call the performances “a drag show like none other” and notes that those between the ages of 11 and 18 will be performing.

“Come and cheer them on as they bring drag to the younger generation,” the description reads. The festival will also include a drag queen story hour and will host at least four different events with drag performers.

The Boise Pride Festival, which takes place September 9-11, is sponsored by several notable companies, including Wells Fargo, Target, Hewlett-Packard, and CitiBank.

Both Target and Wells Fargo have a history of supporting leftist activism. The Target Foundation has funded Race Forward, a George Soros-backed organization that hopes to permanently entrench Critical Race Theory in the executive branch by staffing it with woke activist-bureaucrats.

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Majority said Biden prime-timer was a ‘dangerous escalation’ of political rhetoric: poll / Just the News, September 6, 2022

A new poll show that over 50% of likely voters think President Biden’s primetime TV speech last week represented a “dangerous escalation” in political rhetoric and was designed to “incite conflict” among Americans.

Respondents in the Sept. 2-5 Trafalgar Group poll were asked about their opinion of the speech in which Biden accused his political opponents of representing “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” and were give two possible responses.

Nearly 57% responded that the speech was a dangerous escalation designed to “incite conflict,” while 35.5% said the speech was “acceptable campaign messaging that is to be expected in a campaign year.”

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Larry Kudlow: These climate policies would lead to a global economic and financial catastrophe / Fox Business, September 9, 2022

They talk about making and building in America, but wait a second, you can’t get a permit to make or build anything in Biden’s America. His zealous environmental rules have stopped almost everything. All manner of energy and, by the way, ordinary road-building infrastructure too—can’t get it past the fanatics in the White House and the EPA.

This radical global warming, climate change obsession that informs every single policy of the Biden administration is moving the U.S. and the world economy toward an unstoppable economic decline. Hat tip to the Wall Street Journal’s Joseph Sternberg for his latest column, “The Coming Global Crisis of Climate Policy.”

There is no climate emergency. It’s all a central-planning socialist fabrication, trying to jam this bureaucratic religion down our throats. Fossil fuels generate about 85% of the world’s power, even after decades of government subsidies and crazy quilted regulatory plans, but what will happen if any of these climate policies for “net-zero this, or net-zero that, or we’re going to take your car away from you, or we’re not going to let you run your air conditioner” or literally any of these crazy policies that just want to unplug America, if any of this stuff ever truly came to pass, it would be a global economic and financial catastrophe.

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What will be the result of our National sin? Case in point:

Apocalypse This Weekend: Heat, Wildfires, and Now a Tropical Storm Converge on California / Yahoo News, September 9, 2022

Millions of people across California are bracing for an apocalyptic battle with Mother Nature over the coming days as a tropical storm threatens to add intense moisture to the already devastating mix of excessive heat and raging wildfires, sparked by historic drought conditions, in many parts of the state.

The record heat has put extraordinary pressure on the state’s electric-power grid as people try to cool off, causing utilities to call for voluntary cuts in service to make sure there is enough juice for fundamental infrastructure.

Now new wildfires have produced thick clouds of smoke, which have started to compromise the solar power grid by blocking sunlight.

As if the heat and fires weren’t challenging enough, Tropical Storm Kay, which has luckily lost its hurricane-strength punch, will make landfall in northern Baja California on Friday, which will bring welcome moisture, but accompanying chaos in the form of strong winds and flash flooding.

The rain, as the storm makes its way along the West Coast, is expected to dissipate, but the winds could add dangerous new fuel to fires in Northern California and Oregon.

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1 hopeful thing – Our Rapture to the Throne:

After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

Immediately I was in the Spirit, and a throne was set there in heaven. One was seated on the throne, and the One seated looked like jasper and carnelian stone. A rainbow that looked like an emerald surrounded the throne. Around that throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones sat 24 elders dressed in white clothes, with gold crowns on their heads. Flashes of lightning and rumblings of thunder came from the throne. Seven fiery torches were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal, was also before the throne. (Revelation 4:1-6)

In Revelation chapter 4, John’s visit to Heaven starts with an open door and a voice like a trumpet, and then immediately he is before the Throne Room. This is a preview of our blessed Rapture – our rescue!

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:50-52)

Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

The word rapture comes from the Latin rapere, meaning, “to seize” or “to abduct.” It is translated from the Greek word that is rendered “caught up” in English Bibles today.

The key to understanding the timing of the Rapture is knowing that very soon there will be a dark seven year period called the Tribulation. Just prior to the Tribulation, Jesus will gather all true believers to him. This gathering is the Rapture!

Jewish wedding ceremony – This ceremony is the theme and model of the Rapture, and determines the sequence of events. The Jewish wedding is a type and shadow of the return of Christ Jesus, the Messiah, for His Bride (the Church).

Jewish wedding event / Jesus and Church

* Groom pays a Bride price (Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross).

* Bride prepares herself (wears white robe representing righteous deeds)

* Groom gives gifts to His chosen Bride (gifts of the Spirit)

* Groom prepares a place for the Bride and himself (New Jerusalem)

* Father tells the son when to get his Bride (God the Father has an appointed time)

* Groom comes with others at midnight with a shout! (the Rapture of the Church)

* Groom takes Bride to private chambers for 7 days (the 7 Tribulation years)

* Groom and Bride share a marriage feast (the marriage supper of the Lamb)

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Verse 18 says we should be comforted by these verses. It only makes sense that we would be comforted if the verses meant that we would be brought up to Heaven before World War 3 starts. If we have to live through that horrible time of “hell on earth,” there would be no comfort.

For the grace of God has appeared with salvation for all people, instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, while we wait for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:11-13)

The “blessed hope” is not seven years of “hell on earth” during the Tribulation. Aren’t you glad Christ could come at any moment?

Immediately following the Rapture is the End Times.

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)

In both of His examples, the righteous people were saved first, then came swift destruction for the wicked. There was no apparent warning.

That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (Matthew 24:39-41)

In other words, the Rapture will come as a complete surprise, and during normal activities. It will come before the Tribulation!

Using another parable, Jesus describes His return this way:

“Now concerning that day or hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son—except the Father. Watch! Be alert! For you don’t know when the time is coming. It is like a man on a journey, who left his house, gave authority to his slaves, gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert. Therefore be alert, since you don’t know when the master of the house is coming—whether in the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster or early in the morning. Otherwise, he might come suddenly and find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Be alert!” (Mark 13:32-37)

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The bottom line: God’s Kingdom never ends!

The dominion will be vast,
and its prosperity will never end.
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. (Isaiah 9:7)

In the book of Isaiah, we read a lot about God’s judgment on the people of Israel, since they continually rebelled against Him. As a consequence of their idolatry, the people “dwelt in a land of deep darkness” (Isaiah 9:1-2).

Once, their country had flourished under the reign of King David, but now enemies had conquered them and the situation seemed hopeless. But right in the midst of this misery, God tells them that He will give them a “Prince of Peace” who will reign on David’s throne forever and restore justice and righteousness.

In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel quotes this prophecy and applies it to Jesus. He is the ultimate Son of David. He will reign forever and ever. The book of Revelation gives us a preview of this situation, since Jesus’ Kingdom is not yet visible to us in all its glory.

All three Bible passages stress that there will be no end to Jesus’ reign.

This promise is like a refrain that unites believers from all times: the Kingdom we are expecting will endure through the ages. Human nations rise and fall, but God’s Kingdom will remain.

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If you are not sure that you are saved, you can accept Christ into your life right now, by praying:

“Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.  Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of eternal life.  I ask you in to my life and heart to be my Lord and Savior.”

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Current events are aligning with Biblical prophecy