Exposing The Truth

The purpose for the Rapture
(Or the purpose for the Tribulation)

I’m now looking at the Rapture from the point of view that this is probably going to happen very soon, especially if we see a massive attack on Israel by her enemies as per Ezekiel 38. And that the purpose for the Tribulation cannot be ignored, something alleged “Christians” who claim that the Church will go through the Tribulation would do well to consider.

So many alleged Bible “teachers” today seem to have a problem with acknowledging the major part Israel must play in the coming 7-year Tribulation. Yet Daniel 9:24-27 makes it clear that Israel still has one week of years (7 years) remaining on her timeline, with the antichrist setting himself up at the halfway point as the abomination that Jesus warned us of in Matthew 24:15.
Daniel 9:24-27 – ²⁴Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. ²⁵Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. ²⁶And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. ²⁷And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
All end-times prophecy focuses upon Israel as God’s people who have to face extreme affliction before they will repent and are saved. And, if Israel is to become God’s people for that final 7 years before Armageddon, then either the Church has to somehow disappear or exist without purpose. Some would have the Church hidden away protected by God for that 7 years, but this is an unacceptable opinion. What would be the purpose of the Church existing then without any purpose for existing? The Church on earth without ministry?

Israel was given 490 years from the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem which was given to Ezra in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes (465 BC to 425 BC). “Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks”(that is, 62+7=69) (Daniel 9:25)
There were two other possible commands given but it is impossible to line up either with the times of Jesus’ ministry and death. This command was given around 458-457 BC. 69 x 7 years = 483 years takes us to around 26 AD (possibly around September), with the crucifixion in March 3½ years later around 30 AD (and assuming Jesus was then around 33-34 years old). (Note that the Anderson timeline on that 483 years so much quoted by commentaries was incorrect; he assumed all BC years to be 360 days, disregarding that the Jews regularly added an extra month to bring the year back in line with their harvest times. The Old Testament year began with the barley harvest, specifically marked by the stage of the barley called Aviv, which indicated the ripeness necessary for the new year to commence. This timing was crucial for agricultural and religious observances in ancient Israel. Thus every year BC must be counted as a year just as we count years. Those 70 x 7 years meant exactly 490 years.)

While the Hebrew mashiyach (anointed) is used 39 times in the OT, it is only translated “Messiah” twice in the OT, and both are in the above passage from Daniel 9. The context clearly refers to the crucifixion (“cut off”) and the 483 years was to end before this event. If the 483 years ended around 26AD, then it cannot be referring to the crucifixion date. Numbers 8:24-25 says that the Levites were to be at least 25 before serving God (and no older than 50). However, they were to be at least 30 to enter the priesthood itself. “From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.” (Numbers 4:3) Jesus was called to the priesthood “after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 5:6) and therefore had to be at least 30 years old when anointed for service. Luke 3:23 says “Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age” at His baptism. John the Baptist commenced his ministry in the 15^th year of Tiberius Caesar (Luke 3:1). Tiberius was sole ruler from 14AD but he did rule as Co-princeps with Augustus from around 12AD. His 15^th year would have begun in 26AD and possibly ended sometime in 27AD.

Many commentaries state or strongly imply that being “cut off” or cut down in death was itself the end-point of the 483 years. In fact, this may be largely due to calvinist influence on the interpretation of Daniel 9:27 (“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease”) where they generally teach that “he” who makes the covenant for one week (7 years) is Jesus and that the ceasing of sacrifices refers to the crucifixion in the middle of that final 7-year period. They then teach that the end of Israel being God’s people is soon after that (or at least by the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD at the latest), thus effectively cancelling Israel as God’s people from this time on. However, those 483 years end with the anointing for service of “the Messiah the Prince” (Daniel 9:25); this is what the term Messiah (mashiyach) depicts: anointing for service. All OT usage of mashiyach (= the anointing; the anointed one) refers to the anointing for service for the purposes of ministry for or by God. Those 483 years ended when Jesus began His ministry at 30 years of age. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (John 1:11)
Romans 11:25-27 makes it clear that the times of the Gentile Church were to be completed (fulfilled) before the Deliverer (Rescuer) would come to save His people Israel. Note also Isaiah 59:20 – And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. This can only happen once the Church age is completed. There will be no co-existence of Israel together with the Church. The Church is pruned off and Israel grafted back on again! (Romans 11)

Currently Israel does appear to be in the early stages of their time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30) where Israel has to be pronounced terminal with no hope of survival, no available cure, no workable medications. “For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.” (Jeremiah 30:12-13)
Only when their future seems impossible will some (just ¹/₃) repent and be healed, while the remaining ²/₃ refuse to repent with God then rejecting them from being Israel. (Zechariah 13:8-9)

This is what the Tribulation period is all about. There’s only 2 main groups that will enter the Tribulation: (a) those who are to be judged and condemned as servants of satan, and (b) those who have yet to choose this day whom they will serve. It’s all about the redemption of Israel as God’s people, plus the cleansing of the world in preparation for Israel under the reign of their Messiah. Forget the Church; they will have had their day; once Israel takes over, the Church on earth is history! Joel is largely a prophecy, a picture, of the end-times; Israel must suffer until they repent, and Jeremiah 30 says they will be declared terminal before they repent and are saved. The Tribulation is to be like the locusts of Joel’s day, using the destruction of God’s people to turn them back to God. Only, it’s never ever been this bad before. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22)
The purpose of the final 7 years before the end is to redeem Israel with judgement that will destroy many of them, but the ones who repent will be saved from that destruction. There would have been no need of the time of Jacob’s trouble if Israel didn’t need redemption as a nation. Why take medicine unless you are sick?

This is why the Church will not be on earth during that final 7 years. Those who are in the true Church must already be redeemed, saved, washed clean, sanctified. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
What purpose would the Tribulation serve for them? Why take a bath when you are already clean? Unless, of course, you are not actually as clean as you claim to be!

This time of Jacob’s trouble is for God to buy back from satan the title for God’s people Israel (= to redeem them), and also to buy back from satan the title to God’s creation (= redeem the world) in readiness for a redeemed Israel to finally be the kingdom of priests that God had always desired that they should be. This will happen after Armageddon and after God has dealt with all those who have opposed Him and His people for so long. The millennial reign of Christ their Messiah will be over a sanctified people inhabiting a sanctified land in a sanctified world. But it will take these end-times to cleanse the world and its people of its unrighteousness.

Many of those who do believe that Israel will be a part of the final 7 years before Armageddon, also believe that the Church will be basically running the show, or, at the very least, in authority over Israel. There is no biblical nor logical reason why this should be so, apart from false teaching that assumes that the Church is somehow superior to Israel; such false teaching includes calvinist and Augustinian doctrines which assume that God has chosen superior people to replace an inferior Israel. And, it includes all those who have blindly accepted some calvinist doctrines as biblical without ever testing them to discern the truth.
(You could also add to the calvinists the catholics, mormons, JWs and, to some extent, the SDAs. The problem with these groups that push Israel to one side or even out of the way is that they need to feel that they are somehow the exclusive holders of the only salvation on offer. They cannot handle the competition so why not get rid of the opposition! Therefore, invent a theology that gives them exclusive rights to preach their own version of the gospel.)

For many years I have understood this rejection of Israel’s rights to be the consequence of calvinist jealousy regarding the eternal promises made by God to Israel. Israel has a special place in God’s creation. They were the only nation chosen to be God’s priesthood to the nations. Those who blessed Israel would be blessed and those who cursed Israel would be cursed. It was only due to the iniquity of Israel and the rejection of their Messiah that the gentile Church came into being. If Israel had fulfilled their mission as a royal priesthood, and accepted their Messiah when He came, then the whole story would be totally different today. The Church was Israel’s replacement for a season. They were the wild olive branches that replaced the natural olive branches of Israel (Romans 11) for a season. The Church inherited Israel’s connection to the olive tree with its promises and ministries. But the Church was never the real Israel deal, never was, and never will be. The Church took Israel’s place while Israel was sent out into the cold, rejected from God, alienated from their promises which now became the promises for the Church for 2000 years. But this idea of being just the replacement people of God never sat well with such as the calvinists who are all too often calvinists because they want to be seen as the elite of the election of God. Calvinism is driven by a jealousy of Israel and so they demand all Israel’s promises to be theirs instead, even the promises of an eternal redemption and righteousness promised to Israel.

Therefore the calvinists have to set up a belief system that makes them top dog, better than the rest. No second place behind Israel! Therefore Israel has to be seen as having forfeited its election in favour of the “superior” calvinist election, according to the calvinists! Allegedly, for their sin, Israel, the chosen people of God, would now be declared rejected by God, their special nation status revoked, their covenant annulled. According to most calvinists, God had ordained that the chosen nation should now be replaced by the calvinist election. Thus calvinists do not generally believe in a pre-tribulation Rapture because that would acknowledge Israel was still God’s chosen people in the leadup to Armageddon, and this would make Israel the people who would reign with their Messiah during the following millennium (and calvinists just could not accept that Israel was God’s special people in the millennium either!), Therefore calvinists more or less demand to be the important ones during the final 7 years, and the millennium as well, should it exist! Such behaviour is largely driven by feelings of inadequacy! In fact, most people who choose to become calvinist, do so because they have feelings of inadequacy and thus are made to feel special by belonging to that exclusive club of the elect of God.

But, if those calvinists are saved (regenerated by God’s will alone and not by personal prayer), then why would they need to go through the tribulation? According to Jeremiah, this will be the time of Jacob’s trouble, forcing sinful Israel to face certain destruction before they (just a ¹/₃ of them) will repent and be saved. And Joel (which is a picture of the end-times upon us now) describes the locusts that God uses (His army!) to destroy His people until they repent of their sins; those locusts represent the affliction of Israel of these end-times (= the time of Jacob’s trouble). This extreme affliction will be necessary to break Israel in order to bring Israel to a national redemption that no previous affliction has ever been able to achieve. The earth’s final 7 years before Armageddon is to bring Israel through the furnace of affliction in order to redeem them from their iniquity, to give them everlasting righteousness before they join Christ their Messiah to reign with Him for 1000 years.

Do the calvinists believe they are not really saved by regeneration and perhaps need the tribulation to ensure their salvation? Of course, if they were genuinely saved, then there would be no need for them to be purged by affliction if there’s no sin to purge. Clearly the calvinists must consider that their elect salvation is not as perfect as it should be. If they were truly saved, they would desire to be taken to heaven in righteousness without the need to be further afflicted. Why be purged from sin in the furnace of affliction if you have no sin? Answer: when you are a calvinist!

This is the key issue with those who do not believe in a pre-tribulation Rapture. If a major reason for the tribulation is to purge God’s people of their sins, then those who are already saved have no need for further affliction. The true Church is comprised of only those who are saved by calling upon the name of the Lord to be saved (Romans 10:13). Such do not need to be afflicted further. Thus the Church must go home in the Rapture to then permit Israel to return to being God’s people for just 7 more years, to face their time of Jacob’s trouble, to bring them to the brink of annihilation, to make their future terminal, or else repent. By the end of this period, those who have repented will be Israel and those of Israel who have not repented will no longer be Israel (Romans 2:28-29).

Some believe in a mid-tribulation Rapture. This is largely driven by the calvinist teaching that the crucifixion was that which caused sacrifices to cease in the middle of the final 7-year period. While calvinists generally believed that Israel would then cease being God’s special nation, others were influenced by their teachings to believe in the mid-week crucifixion and thus allowed that Israel would have just 3½ (not 7) years remaining. They assumed therefore that the Church would then not depart until that final 3½ years remaining for Israel began. However, this teaching rests upon a false calvinist teaching that interprets the ceasing of sacrifices in Daniel 9:27 as referring to the crucifixion. This in turn has to assume that he who shall confirm the covenant with many for one week (Daniel 9:27) must be the Messiah, but in doing so they ignore the previous verse that defines this “he” as “the prince that shall come” from “the people” who would “destroy the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Temple)”. It was the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70AD and therefore they are forced to assume that the Messiah would be a prince of Rome. In actual fact, “he” is the antichrist who will be a prince (ruler, leader) who is descended from the Romans, or is a ruler of the revived Roman empire of the end-times.

The Tribulation was to be an extreme affliction that would purge God’s people from their iniquity forever, and for God to reclaim title to His creation, both of which deal with the iniquity of sin built up over a long time, with God applying a cleansing sanctification. This would lay the foundation for the coming millennial reign of peace by Christ the Messiah together with His people Israel. There will be no more sin, no iniquity at all in this millennium to begin with. Satan will be locked away until the 1000 years is over. But prophecy does indicate that there will be judgements for sin during the millennium, so where does it come from? Remember that the Israel that goes into the millennium are not glorified; they are still mortal. However, while they are declared righteous forever, their children are not necessarily so. They are still mortal; they still carry the curse of Adam. Those under the age of accountability (babies etc) would still be declared sanctified if their parents were righteous, but once they reached a certain age they would need to decide for themselves which side they were on. And, apparently many of those born during the millennium will be drawn to follow satan when he is released for a season at the end of the millennium (Revelation 20:7-9). This means that while sin is dealt with at the start of the millennium, many will be drawn by that sin nature in spite of the perfect world they now inhabit, especially once satan is released at the end of the millennium. Remember that Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world to begin with, yet, when tempted, they chose to sin. With free will, even a perfect unglorified world cannot guarantee everlasting righteousness! However, once all are glorified, leaving behind their old physical bodies with their old natures, sin will certainly no longer exist. Once day there will be eternal righteousness, but not until after the millennium. There will be a new heaven and a new earth; no more pain, no more sin (Revelation 21).

So, if the task of the end-times tribulation is to cleanse from sin, then those alleged “Christians” who claim to be going through the Tribulation must consider themselves sinful indeed and in need of spiritual cleansing. Those who believe that the Rapture is at the end of the final 7 years must accept that this assumes their sin-guilt that needs cleansing. In particular, this applies to all those who teach that it’s the Church that represents God’s people in the Tribulation (and not Israel, or perhaps an Israel subject to the authority of the Church). Those calvinists and others who believe as they do regarding the Rapture are literally acknowledging that they enter the tribulation period with unforgiven sin that must be dealt with. And an acknowledgement that their claimed regenerated status was not able to actually save them to the uttermost!