Rapture 2023: On the Third Day

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

The story of Jonah is well known—at least parts of it. We all know he got swallowed by a big fish, and we all know he eventually came out alive and became an instrument of Nineveh’s salvation.

The author gives us the time frame for how long Jonah was in the fish’s belly: “And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jon. 1:17). The mention of this time frame is a strong hint that after three days Jonah will rise from what he himself refers to as “the belly of Sheol” (Jon. 2:2), the Hebrew word for the place of the dead (“Hades” in Greek).

It should strengthen our faith when we consider that God designed all of history with Jesus at the center, with every third day deliverance pointing directly to him.

You may question my previous examples. But in this case, Jesus connects the typological dots for us, drawing the parallel between Jonah’s deliverance from Sheol and his:

An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matt. 12:39–40)

Don’t get hung up on the fact that there weren’t literally three nights between Jesus’s death and resurrection. The Jews counted days inclusively—the fact that Jesus was dead during parts of three separate days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) was enough in their minds to justify the language of “three days and three nights.”

The point is that just as Jonah got spat out of Hades on the third day, so did Jesus (Jonah 2:2; Acts 2:27). And just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so Jesus became a sign to his generation (Luke 11:30).

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In Accordance with the Scriptures

He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is on Me,
because He has anointed Me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent Me
to proclaim freedom to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.” (Luke 4:16-21)

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Dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape you: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. (2 Peter 3:8)

If we use the approximate date of the end of His public ministry as the First Coming (30 A.D.) and add 2,000 years (30 + 2000 = 2030) this suggests the Second Coming will be soon. When we subtract 7 years (2030 – 7 = 2023) for the Tribulation, the Rapture appears to be imminent.

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How close are we to our Third Day?

Israel, US wrap up largest-ever joint drill in message to Iran The Times of Israel, January 26, 2023

The Israel Defense Forces and the United States Central Command on Thursday wrapped up their largest-ever joint exercise in Israel and the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the two militaries announced.

The drill, dubbed Juniper Oak 2023, involved some 6,400 US troops alongside more than 1,500 Israeli troops, and over 140 aircraft, 12 naval vessels, and artillery systems, making it the largest-ever joint drill between the nations.

Juniper Oak 2023 was the first in a series of planned drills with the US in the coming year, the IDF said.

In November, the IDF and the US military held a series of joint aerial exercises, simulating strikes against Iran and its regional terror proxies.

Then-IDF chief Aviv Kohavi that month said joint activities with the US military in the Middle East would be “significantly expanded.”

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Russia is now at war with NATO and the West Daily Mail, January 27, 2023

Russia is now ‘at war against NATO and the West’ and has taken the invasion of Ukraine to a ‘different stage’, a senior EU official has admitted, raising the terrifying spectre of a global conflict.

The ‘game-changing’ deal among Western leaders to pump sophisticated tanks into the country to blast through the Kremlin’s invading forces has sparked fury in Moscow which has threatened to escalate the war beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Stefano Sannino, secretary general of the European Union’s European External Action Service, said Vladimir Putin will increase indiscriminate attacks on civilians and non-military targets and retaliate against the West.

Speaking at a news conference in Tokyo as part of an Asia-Pacific tour, he said Putin had ‘moved from a concept of special operation to a concept now of a war against NATO and the West’.

The Kremlin said it saw the promised delivery of Western tanks as evidence of growing ‘direct involvement’ of the United States and Europe in the war, something both deny.

Western allies have committed about 150 tanks while Ukraine has said it needs hundreds to break Russian defensive lines and recapture occupied territory in the south and east. Both Moscow and Kyiv, which have relied on Soviet-era T-72 tanks, are expected to mount new ground offensives in the spring.

After being promised modern tanks, Ukraine is now seeking Western fourth-generation fighter jets such as the U.S. F-16, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister said.

The United States on Thursday formally designated the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary company, as a transnational criminal organisation, freezing its U.S. assets for helping Russia’s military in Ukraine.

Since invading Ukraine 11 months ago, Russia has shifted the focus of its rhetoric from ‘denazifying’ and ‘demilitarising’ its neighbour to confronting what is says is an aggressive and expansionist U.S.-led NATO alliance.

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Putin’s nuclear threats move Doomsday Clock closest ever to Armageddon, atomic scientists say CNBC, January 24, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Tuesday that it has moved its metaphorical Doomsday Clock closer than ever to midnight, the hypothetical hour of Armageddon, reflecting experts’ assessment that humanity is confronting unprecedented threats to its existence.

The 2023 countdown time was set at “90 seconds to midnight,” the group’s leaders announced in a press conference at the National Press Club. This new time was 10 seconds closer to “doomsday” than it was set to a year ago. The group has been measuring real and existential threats to humankind, from climate change to the prospects of nuclear war, for more than 70 years.

“The point of the clock is to assess where humanity is, and whether we are safer or at greater risk,” said Dr. Rachel Bronson, president and chief executive of the bulletin. “And as we move the clock closer to midnight, we are sending a message that the situation is becoming more urgent.”

This year, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s thinly veiled threat to deploy nuclear weapons in the conflict raised the global threat to humanity, the group said.

“Putin has given no indication that he’s willing to accept defeat,” said Dr. Steven Fetter, a professor at the University of Maryland and a nuclear-threat expert.

“But even if nuclear use is avoided in Ukraine, the war has challenged the nuclear order, the system of agreements and understandings that had been constructed over six decades to limit the dangers of nuclear weapons,” said Fetter.

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As Christians, it is now time for us to enter into His presence

Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 
         
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise. 
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting, 
And His truth endures to all generations! (Psalm 100:1-5)

The Lord Jesus Christ has given us the way to a closer more intimate walk with our Father in heaven. The tabernacle has also given us the pattern to a closer more intimate walk with our Father in heaven.

Jesus would step away from the groups of people and spend precious time alone with His Father. He would often put on His tallit, pull it around His face and enter into a tabernacle of prayer, leaving the world around Him out of His private time with the Lord.

There are some things you can do to help enter into His presence:

• Ask for forgiveness and thank Him for all He has done.
• Praise Him with song or words of your love for the Lord.
• Worship Him with all your heart.  Offer yourself wholly to Him!

Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple. (Psalm 65:4)

Go where He Goes!  Follow the Leading of the Lord!

And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 
Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”(Exodus 33:14-16)

Having the Presence of the Lord with you is most important. You can have this by setting aside the worldly problems, worldly goods and money as your main priority and MAKING GOD FIRST.

And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’ Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt…
(Exodus 3:14-16)

When we seek the presence of God, He the Great I AM becomes a part of us, part of our very DNA.

The outer court is the court of Salvation

The inner court is the court of Pentecost

The court behind the veil is the court of the Holy of Holies.

This is the court of the Presence of the Lord.

The veil that prevented His people (who were not priests) from entering was rent from top to bottom at the moment that Christ pronounced “It is finished!”

When He gave His life on the cross for our transgressions, we were then able to enter into the secret place of the Most High God!

Here is the good news for today: Jesus the Messiah has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  (Ephesians 2:4-7)

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If you are not sure that you are a member of the family of God, 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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.Reader Comments:

Awesome! Awesome! Perfect message again!!! Love it!

GospelGail, February 12, 2022

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Interesting article.
Thank you for sharing
hugs

Ziggy, March 18, 2022

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Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over—will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. (Luke 6:38)

Current events are aligning with Biblical prophecy