Take Heart, The Rapture Is Coming :: By Nathele Graham

The world is becoming a very dark place to live. In my lifetime, I’ve seen so much change in people’s attitudes, and very little is good. I count myself blessed that I was raised in a God-fearing family. I was taught about God right along with being taught to walk and talk. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

I don’t take this blessing lightly. When my family was touched by tragedy, I could see the adults handle the pain through prayer and trusting God. As I entered my teen years, much changed in the world around me. It was the 1960s, and it seemed as if there was a spirit of evil all around. The portal for that evil was opened by the hippies who promoted free love and drugs. Still, the foundation of my life was built upon Jesus Christ, and I was able to avoid any involvement in that lifestyle. I’m so thankful.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m far from perfect. God is still working with me, and the more I submit to Him, the more peace I find. As I look back, I can see that those days of free sex and drugs are still an influence in the world today. It’s a very bad influence. I take heart knowing that the Rapture is coming.

I don’t understand the controversy over the Rapture. It’s all very clear in Scripture. That is, it’s clear if you don’t try to twist God’s words. Whenever I write about the Rapture, I get emails (very lengthy emails) explaining to me why I’m wrong. I appreciate the information, but please be assured that I’ve held a pre-tribulation view for many, many years. I have studied the subject and didn’t just flip a coin in order to decide what to believe.

Christians tend to be confused over many important Biblical subjects because they don’t study. Scripture encourages us to study. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

If you don’t study, then you can’t defend your faith. The preacher at the last church I attended decided to preach through Revelation. He made it clear for 3 weeks prior that he didn’t understand it but would teach on it anyway. Oh my. I gave him some information about some excellent Bible teachers who have great teachings on it, but he didn’t want help. His teaching was very poor and showed a total lack of understanding.

Revelation is a worthwhile study and is really very comforting to all believers, as well as a witnessing tool. When I met my husband, he was not a Christian. He had some ideas of what was in Scripture but no true knowledge. One of his favorite movies was The Ten Commandments. I kept telling him, “If you like the movie, you should read the book.” His other evidence of “knowledge” was 666. He had no idea what that was all about but knew it wasn’t good. Well, he finally read the Book, he accepted Christ for salvation, and was filled with the Holy Spirit. His knowledge of Scripture grew every day because he prayerfully studied daily.

Something you will come to understand as you honestly study Scripture is that demons are real. God is real and teaches us about the supernatural, but we aren’t to seek after the evil. God has always given rules in order to protect us from the evil one. Adam and Eve chose to defy God and listen to Satan’s twisted words. After that, the evil in the world spread. The fallen angels mated with human women, and the Nephilim were born. Most of the world allowed themselves to be corrupted by the evil, but there did remain one pure human line from Adam’s son Seth.

One of Seth’s descendants was Enoch. He was a man who had a change in his life when he was 65 years old. “And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:21-22).

God’s judgment on a rebellious world, which was consumed by sin, was coming soon. God saves those who love Him, and prior to God’s judgment through the Flood, God raptured Enoch. “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24).

Noah was Enoch’s great-grandson and followed the godly example of his forefathers. Noah obeyed God and didn’t mingle with the fallen angels. He chose a godly wife and raised 3 sons who also honored God. Enoch was taken prior to the judgment (a picture of Christians being Raptured prior to judgment), while Noah and his family were protected through the judgment (a picture of God’s protection over Israel through the Tribulation). We can take heart as we watch this world fall deeper and deeper into sin; the Rapture is coming.

Throughout the Old Testament, we can see hints of the Rapture. For instance, Isaiah wrote, “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. 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. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place 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).

Christians are the only group of people who have the promise of not facing God’s wrath. This passage in Isaiah seems to be what Paul refers to in his first letter to the Thessalonians. Remember, the Rapture is not the same event as the Second Coming. At the time of the Rapture, Christians will meet our Lord in the air prior to God’s judgment, but at the Second Coming, we will come with Him after the final battle.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18).

The Rapture is truly a comfort. Whatever this world brings, we always have the Blessed Hope. We might face some very evil times, but Christians will never face God’s wrath. Jesus Christ took all of God’s wrath upon Himself as He hung on the cross. All we have to do is understand we are sinners, repent of our sin and rebellion to God, and truly believe in His death, burial, and resurrection. Then we can take heart because the Rapture is coming.

Now let’s take a quick look at Revelation. Jesus dictated seven letters to John, and those letters describe the history of the church in advance. Each letter describes a specific “age.” The last letter was written to the Laodiceans and describes the modern church; God isn’t welcome within its walls. They have all they need and are lukewarm in their faith. They are “woke.” Jesus is on the outside and knocking to be welcomed in. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me“ (Revelation 3:20).

Do you hear Jesus knocking at the door of your heart? Don’t delay. Open the door and invite Him in because this is the last age. After this is the Rapture. “After this I looked, and, behold a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter” (Revelation 4:1).

Both “after this” and “hereafter” are from the Greek words meta tauta, which means the next in a sequence of events. So, after the 7 letters describing the church age, John saw a door open in Heaven (the Rapture), and he was shown the events that would happen after that. Those events are God’s judgment upon the people who have chosen to live in rebellion and sin. The ekklesia (translated “church”) is last mentioned in the letter to Laodicea. Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation describe what happens in Heaven after the Rapture, and beginning with chapter 6, we read of the judgment upon Earth with no mention of Christians being on Earth.

We can see the signs of the times getting stronger. Earthquakes, love growing cold, wickedness everywhere, war. The days of Noah and the days of Lot are being repeated, just as Jesus said would happen. Don’t despair, and don’t deny your faith. God has given us a wonderful promise: Jesus is preparing a place for us and will take us there to be with him forever. “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know” (John 14:2-4). Thank You, Jesus, for loving us.

Are you lost? If you need to find the way, you will only find it through faith in Jesus. The directions are found in Scripture. Jesus is the only way. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me“ (John 14:6).

Those words bring so much comfort. Jesus is preparing a place for us to be with Him always. Is this what Isaiah wrote about? I believe it is. No matter how dark and ugly the world becomes, take heart: the Rapture is coming!

God bless you all

Nathele Graham
[email protected]

Recommended prophecy sites:

www.raptureready.com
www.prophecyupdate.com
www.raptureforums.com

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“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee” (Psalm 122:6).

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