• Partial Rapture

    by Published on 06-07-2011 11:37 AM     Number of Views: 2049 
    1. Categories:
    2. Partial Rapture

    We've talked enough about the first rapture according to readiness before the first trumpet, as well as, the 7th trumpet rapture and resurrection according to completion before the bowls of wrath are poured. What about the gleaning period immediately after the 7th trumpet rapture to the time when Jesus returns? This period is 24 months and can be considered the gleaning period of further raptures and resurrections. Praise the Lord!

    "When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field [think of Revelation 14.14-16], and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean[it afterward: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow [anyone saved during the last 24 months]" (Deut. 24.19-21).
    by Published on 06-05-2011 12:46 PM     Number of Views: 1571 
    1. Categories:
    2. Partial Rapture

    But watch ye at every season, making supplication, that ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Luke 21.36.
    The Lord distinctly promises that the church may escape the Great Tribulation and "stand before the Son of man"—This no doubt refers to rapture. Nevertheless, there is a condition involved. Not for all who are simply born again, but for those born-again ones who watch and pray. "That ye may prevail"—If you watch and pray, you may prevail. Hence the promise is given to those who do these things.

    Does everyone in the whole church watch and pray? Let us pay attention to this.
    by Published on 05-30-2011 07:31 AM     Number of Views: 2271 
    1. Categories:
    2. Partial Rapture

    The 144,000 in Rev. 7.1-8 are a remnant of Israel. The 144,000 in Rev. 14.1-5 are not a remnant of Israel, but firstfruit virgin Christians (v.4). God has three groups in view: remnant Israel, Christians, and the nations. God will not break His promise to Israel to be the center of all nations, yet any Jewish person in Israel to be saved still must believe in the Lord, for the true Jew is a Christian. Abraham or Isaac or Jacob if they were alive today would be a Christian, accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

    Who are the 144,000? The 144,000 cited in Revelation 7.4 and 144,000 spoken of here in 14.1 are two different classes of people, contrasted as follows:

    (1) The people of 7.4 are the chosen among the children of Israel, while those of 14.1 are purchased from among men.
    (2) The seals received by them are not the same. The one spoken of in 7.2 is “the seal of the living God”, which is Old Testament terminology. The seal alluded to in 14.1 bears the name of the Lamb and the name of the Father, and such names are related to the church. Hence these people must come from the church.
    (3) The people told about in 7.3 are called “the servants of our God”, but those in view in 14.1 are the children of God (this conclusion is deduced from the name of the Father).
    (4) Throughout the entire book of Revelation the Lord calls God as Father each time. And He always says it in connection with the church (1.6, 2.27, 3.5, 3.21). The Lord never uses it in connection with Israel.
    (5) The people spoken of in 14.1ff. are associated with the Lamb (standing with the Lamb, having the name of the Lamb, following the Lamb, and being the first fruits unto the Lamb). In chapter 7 the Lord is seen as another angel; and this, as we have seen, is a returning to His Old Testament position.
    (6) The song they sing is described in 14.3 as a new song, whereas the song the people mentioned in 7.4 sing is but an old song.
    (7) The people in view in 14.4 are virgins, but with Israel virginity is to be bewailed. (According to Ex. 23.26, Deut. 7.14, 1 Sam. 2.5, and Ps. 113.9, to bear children is considered a blessing while to be barren is deemed a curse. In Judges 11.38,39 the daughter of Jephthah is said to have bewailed her virginity for two months.)
    (8) The articles preceding both of the 144,000 numbers cited in 14.1 and 7.4 are indefinite, and are therefore general and not specific. Thus these 144,000 numbers constitute two different classes.

    14.1 The group of 144,000 here is a special class of people in the church; they are not all the people of the church. And the reasons for this conclusion are as follows:

    (1) Since the 144,000 figure in 7.4 is taken literally, the number here should also be reckoned as literal.
    (2) This group being the first fruits (14.4), it cannot be said that the entire church makes up the first fruits.
    (3) There is no such fact that the people in the entire church keep their virginity.
    (4) Prior to the arrival of the Great Tribulation (for it is before the voices of the three angels are heard, 14.6-11), these people are already raptured to Mount Zion.
    (5) 14.5 tells of the exceptional features of these people, concerning which it cannot be said that all the born-again ones possess such characteristics.

    Consequently, the 144,000 standing on Mount Zion are the best of the overcomers of the church; that is to say, this group of 144,000 is representative of the totality of the overcomers.

    Who is this man child? (Rev. 12.5) He must be the overcomers: for example, (1) some Christians in the church in Smyrna, since “Be thou faithful unto death” (2.10) coincides with the last clause in 12.11—“they loved not their life even unto death”; (2) some Christians in the church in Thyatira, for “he shall rule them with a rod of iron” (2.26,27) agrees with “a man child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron” (12.5); (3) some Christians in the church in Philadelphia, because they are kept out of “the hour of trial” (3.10) just as the man child is “caught up unto God” (12.5); and (4) some Christians in the church in Laodicea, since they will “sit” on the “throne” (3.21) just as the man child “is to rule all the nations” (12.5).

    Some others advocate the interpretation of Christ being the man child, but this is also inapplicable for the following reasons:

    (1) The woman represents Jerusalem, while the Lord Jesus is born in Bethlehem.
    (2) This man child is not personal but corporate in character (12.10-11).
    (3) Should this man child be Christ, the dragon will then be Herod, yet 12.9 states explicitly that the dragon is Satan himself.
    (4) As soon as the man child is born, he is caught up to the throne, whereas the Lord Jesus is taken up to heaven only after He has lived over thirty years, died, and been raised from the dead.
    (5) Because all this is a vision, the word “travail” cannot be interpreted literally.

    Still others say that the man child denotes the whole church. This too is impossible since (1) the whole church is not all raptured at the same time: some will go in advance of others and some will follow afterwards, but here the man child is caught up as a unit simultaneously; (2) to rule all the nations with an iron rod is not a promise given to the entire church, rather is it promised to the overcomers only (2.26-27), and not all in the church are overcomers; and (3) to reign is promised to those who suffer and endure with the Lord today (2 Tim. 2.12).
    by Published on 02-27-2011 07:06 AM     Number of Views: 2033 
    1. Categories:
    2. Partial Rapture


    In order to understand Matthew 24 and 25, it is essential to have a clear knowledge of the subject of rapture. For it is one of the most important matters in this last hour. Unfortunately it is greatly misunderstood by many. Rapture is the same as the word “receive” found in John 14.1-3. It does not signify the idea of “climbing up” to heaven but of the Lord receiving us to heaven. Hence rapture is a specific term used to denote His receiving us at His soon return.

    There are different views on rapture among believers. Some say (1) that the whole body of the saved will be raptured before the Great Tribulation; others believe (2) that the whole body of the saved must go through the Great Tribulation before they are raptured; while still others feel (3) that a part of the saved will be raptured before the Great Tribulation and a part of them will be raptured after the Great Tribulation. There are mainly these three schools of interpretation on the subject; yet merely because any one of them is different from the one you hold to does not give you any warrant to denounce the different view as heresy. It is wrong to withhold fellowship simply for this reason. Well-known believers are found in all three schools.

    Of the first school mentioned, names can be cited such as J. N. Darby, William Kelly (C. H. Spurgeon once said that Kelly’s brain was as large as the universe), R. A. Torrey (who later changed to a post-tribulation rapture view), Phillips Brooks, James Gray, Arno G. Gaebelein, J. A. Seiss, C. I. Scofield, and so forth. Of the second school, there could be listed such names as George Muller (who first believed in pre-tribulation rapture), A.J. Gordon of Boston, A. B. Simpson, W. J. Erdman, W. G. Moorehead, Henry Frost of Canada, James Wright, Benjamin Newton, and so on. And as to the third school, we have names such as Hudson Taylor, Robert Chapman, Robert Govett (Spurgeon praised his writings as having light a century ahead of his time and as being full of gold), G. H. Pember, D. M. Panton (the “prince of prophecy”) and others. None of the three schools can completely ignore the others, yet only one is correct. Let us therefore examine them with fairness, having the attitude of a judge and not that of a lawyer.

    I. Reasons given by the first school - that is to say, by the adherents of a pre-tribulation rapture - are presented in the following paragraphs.

    A. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 “The wrath to come” - This is the Great Tribulation. Since the Lord Jesus will deliver us from the wrath to come, we must be raptured before the Great Tribulation. Also, 1 Thessalonians 5.9 “For God appointed us not unto wrath” - Once again this “wrath” has reference to the Great Tribulation. Let me say, though, that such an interpretation of “wrath” here as being the Great Tribulation is incorrect. How do we know that this wrath must necessarily ...
    Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12