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“When Shall These Things Be?” —————PART #2————— by General James Green
“And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matt. 24:1-3).
IN PART ONE we discussed the FEAR and MONEY aspect connected with all this END
TIMES business. Now, we have a divided camp over the issue of “When Shall
These Things Be?”, but the MAJOR SIN within the modern contemporary
Church is the making of HUGE PROFITS off the Gospel. And actually,
worse than this, I believe, is the LACK of FEAR of God existing in
nearly all “Christian” groups of today. In addition to this, I feel
another major problem is the withholding of “inconvenient” Biblical
truths about SIN and the much needed call to heart repentance—all for the
sake of RICHES, “RESULTS,” and (so-called) “RELATIONSHIPS.” These SINS
have nearly killed the universal Going mute or soft on SIN has become the Church’s specialty. This has caused the Church’s conscience to be seared with a hot iron. Without preaching against sin, the heart conviction “vanishes like the early-morning mist,” it “vanishes in the ambiguity of religious relativism,” as one critic so aptly put it.
What Does the Future Hold? REST ASSURED, THERE IS NO “PRE-TRIBULATION SECRET RAPTURE”! There will certainly be, however, a “Second Coming” of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. [In my teachings on CD/DVD, I show how Christ has already come several times (even many times!) in various ways since His Ascension. Learn more about this by writing and receiving these FREE “Rapture Series” messages.] When this will happen, no one knows for sure. But one thing I do know is this: He will not come until the Bride has made herself ready. Is that “prophetic” enough for you End Time prophecy buffs? We could all agree that the present time is “ripe” for both tribulation and wrath. But there have been other BAD times in history as well. Thus men have date-set the END for centuries—all failed to predict the coming of the Lord, of course. Only God knows the future (cf. Isa. 46:9-10). God has spoken to us over the years and told us some horrid things about what is coming (things recorded over the years in Words of the Spirit publications), but only the Father knows the time of the END. Some look for the In contrast to “Something’s gonna happen!”, why not spend your time being a true witness to the lost? Aren’t we supposed to disciple the nations? How is it that the Church has fallen for the “End Time game” of watching the world instead of winning the world? Trust me, the world has a definite “date with destiny”: nothing will change this. In fact, you could die at any moment; so could I. We had better use our time wisely—FEARING GOD, not the future. Haven’t you ever read “Take heed of yourselves”? What about “watch and pray”? Instead of “watching and praying” the Church is “waiting and PLAYing”!! When I first began to teach “NO RAPTURE” over the radio back in the early 1980's, I was harshly accused of “taking away the Christians’ hope!” Get serious! Our hope is in our relationship with Christ, not some End Time event.
Apocaliterature Grows TO BE honest, I have rarely taught on the End Times. Sure, my “Rupturing the Rapture” series; but besides this, hardly any messages or sermons on “the future.” I feel we need to concentrate on the “NASTY NOW-AND-NOW,” not the “sweet bye-and-bye”—being caught “up and away” to escape TRIBULATION. People just LOVE “GLOOM and DOOM”—if they know they will escape it! They love to be “SPOOKED”...and this is what we have as I write: SPOOK/FEARMONGERS. Cataclysmic tales make sales...money, honey, is the name of the “End Time game”!
Since 1948 THIS DATE set prophetic date-setters to work. Evangelical Christians are pretty sure the “Pre-trib Rapture” will happen at any time after this date: COUNTDOWN TO THE “CATCHING UP”! Our dear misguided Hal Lindsey, with his unBiblical The Late Great Planet Earth book, started “the wheels of (FALSE!) theological enlightenment” rolling...and they haven’t stopped. This guy has made his millions $$, predicted the “Rapture,” failed, written other books, made millions $$, predicted the “Rapture,” failed—and still he is out there doing the “End Time thing.”
Calamity IT IS written that calamity is the mother of
End-of-the-world prophecy. It is a fact that after the With all this “ The “highwater mark” of
Jewish apocalypticism is found in the book of Daniel, which our opponents
claim to be a “timetable for the End and for the beginning of a 1,000-year
Messianic reign of Jews and Jesus together”—the much talked about “peaceful
Millennium.” But just who and/or what is this “ Just what kind of long-term
role do these date-setters/calculators play in the unfolding drama of the End
Times? Well, to be sure, MONEY and FEAR will play a major role
in everything they do or don’t do. The way it appears at present, Ever since the founding of On page 359 of The Light
and the Glory, we read: “If just a fraction of us Americans choose to go
the No nation on earth has
thought itself more of a player than Will
Rapture Fever RAPTURE FEVER came from abroad in the person of J.N. Darby
(1862). This deluded Anglican preacher brought a revolutionary, radical,
ridiculous eschatology to the cities of After the 7-year “Tribulation,” the “Second Coming” of Christ would happen (their “second stage” of the “Second Coming”; the “first stage” being the “Pre-trib Rapture”). Christ would fight/defeat Antichrist, then a 1,000-year peaceful Millennium would follow. All this is what our opponents believe. Jesus didn’t teach this nor did his followers. Leave the “Pre-trib Rapture” out and we find ALL the world, Christians included, going through tribulation up until the time of the First Resurrection of the dead and the Transforming of living believers into spiritual bodies.
“Us” vs. “Them”! DARBY AND gang slipped this “secret coming” before what most Christians believed to be the “Great Tribulation” (a 3½-year tribulation + a 3½-year WRATH of God, which = 7 years). This “secret coming” spares the “us” saints (meaning the ones making this “fly away in the sky” scenario) from the “Tribulation” period while the Jews and the world’s LOST, the “Scripturally uninformed” (like me!) will ALL be “left behind” to face dear ol’ Antichrist in all his fury (although, according to their camp, he will make a 3½-year peaceful covenant with “left behind” Israel, and then will break it and persecute the Jews for the last 3½ years).
Darby/Scofield WHEN SCOFIELD’S Reference Bible came out (1909), it was loaded with “his” (twisted!) interpretations of verses. He established a set of “fundamentals,” thus a new Fundamentalism. But not all believe this Darbyite DECEPTION—thank God I saw through it in 1978-79! The official name for this new religious disease is called Pre-Millennial Dispensationalism. David Van Biema, reporting on The End (Time), made mention of Randall Balmer (of Barnard College), author of several books on Evangelicals, who called Pre-Millennial Dispensationalism “a theology of despair.” Well, this is not to say that the world will end in “happy days,” but we do not have to continually despair, be fearful, or look for a “hiding place” (as many are doing even as I write. Hey! How about hiding in Christ?!).
Check This Out! WHILE OUR opponents teach/preach End Time extraordinarily cataclysmic events,—things getting WORSE and not better—why do these same folks get involved in politics, trying to reverse the order of things? These people are calling for a “revolution” (my word) to “overthrow” the sinful, dark, hellish, disgusting, political camp to bring in peace, love, harmony—true Christianity. But if God’s next End Time event is the “Pre-trib Rapture” and “Great Tribulation,” things OUGHT to be BAD and be GETTING WORSE, not better. Seems to me like these folks in question are confused: they want to turn the nation/world around (from evil distressing times) to a better nation/world, yet this is working against their own theology. Hey! You can’t have it both ways! If you succeeded at (politically and religiously) turning things from BAD to GOOD, that would delay Christ’s return...don’t you think?
Why Is THERE IS no doubt in my mind that Lindsey’s, LaHaye’s, and
others’ End Time predictions have definitely influenced the political folks.
It has been reported that during the first and second Gulf Wars, book sales
jumped “sky high” (WOW!...almost sounds like a “Rapture”!).
Why? Because people FEARED that
End Times Theology or End Times Enlightenment? REALLY NOW, if the West took all this End Times theology
seriously, entertainment would be discarded. But End Times theology has become a “Great Distraction” while the Church’s Great Commission (Matt. 28:19) has become the “Least Commission”—winning the lost is practically LOST: doing “good works” has replaced telling people to “FEAR GOD, REPENT, AND LIVE THE LIFE!”
World War III—Can’t Wait!! JUST ABOUT everybody we talk to these days sees nothing
ahead but WAR. Why? Well, hasn’t “If we keep our eyes on
Stay or Go? WHILE THE “Left Behind” series (books/movies) may “encourage” many, trust me, the “many” are so far from God, they wouldn’t even get an inch off the ground even if there was a “Rapture”! “Knowing” is not “doing,” and “doing” the Gospel is a far cry from “knowing” it. The “Left Behind” series is popularized/commercialized DECEPTION for people who don’t read their Bibles in light of the Holy Spirit’s guidance, or who have been deluded into believing this “Pre-trib Rapture” propaganda. Oh sure, all things will pan out for those that “go” (in a fairytale “Rapture”), but HELL ON EARTH for those that “stay” behind. This may be “good news” for the silly ding-dongs that believe in “cloud travel,” but it’s bad news for the Jews (and the rest of the LOST SOULS left on earth). Trust the Bible: All good blessings hinge on OBEDIENCE, not disobedience or some FALSE HOPE. This goes for both Jews, Gentiles, and “Christians.”
Bless DORON SCHNEIDER (of the International Christian Embassy in
This does not make me
anti-Jewish. NO! I pray for their salvation, I just
don’t support their HATRED for Jesus, Christians, and
Christianity. You can’t tell me that And what about
In Control THE JEWS MUST be in control of And what of the “Last Battle” whereby 2/3 (!) of the Jews will be SLAUGHTERED? Do you hasten their destruction? What of the mere 1/3 that survive during the “Great Tribulation”? And how many will accept Jesus as their Messiah after you’re done telling them they DON’T HAVE TO accept the Church’s Messiah, but their own will appear “someday”? Hey, what is his name?
Church or IF ONE takes Covenant Theology seriously, one will have to see that Jesus the Christ raised up the fallen Tabernacle of King David. Take a look at Acts 2:32-36— “[Peter said,] This
Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by
the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For
David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said
unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.
Therefore let all the house of We know that Peter quotes Psalm 16:8-11 and 110:1. (Read those.) After this, it says, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (vv. 38-39). The “promise” in verse 39 is
none other than the “New Covenant”: the promise of the Holy Ghost/Spirit was
part of that “New Covenant.” This covenant/promise was not just for those
early converts but for any and all who would repent in every age till
Jesus comes. This promise was for both the Jews and “Gentiles” which made
up the
“Resurrection” = “Raised Up” HEART REPENTANCE / heart cleansing—this sets Christ upon the throne of our hearts. Also, this sets Christ upon the throne of David, the fallen Tabernacle (i.e., House/Dynasty) of David. The resurrection of Christ from the dead also raised up David’s throne, his eternal throne. “And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world” (Acts 15:13-18).
Jesus: Chief Cornerstone LOOKING AT 1 Peter 2:4-7, we know that Jesus was the
“Chief Cornerstone” of the fallen Tabernacle of David. Not only this, but we,
as followers/believers in Him, are “living stones” that make up God’s Seeing that the racial Jews were “cut off” by God Himself because of DISOBEDIENCE, why do our opponents tell us that we’re “blessed” if we bless the DISOBEDIENT Jews? David never built a
House/Temple for His God, but his son did. David wanted to honor God
by building a physical, local, and temporal
Solomon= DAVID’S SON Solomon ruled out of physical (earthly) We don’t have to FEAR the days now or in the future. We are the New Israel, the New Jerusalem (despite what our hyper-Calvinistic Dispensational Fundamentalist opponents believe!).
Grace or Race? IF ONE reads the Bible without Dispensational Fundamentalist lenses, one will see “grace” not “race” at the center of it. It is not about one’s ethnic descent but God’s free grace to ALL the world (Jn. 3:16). One’s obedience of faith is the key to the Kingdom: “But now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to ALL NATIONS FOR THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH” (Rom. 16:26). How can one argue with this? God’s New Israel/House is clearly a depiction of Covenant Theology. The OBEDIENT Church is the “Body” of Christ on earth, the “new priesthood” of God (see Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4; 5:23-27; Col. 1:18; 1 Pet. 2:9-10; Rev. 1:6 and 5:10). I see nothing about “race” here.
So... IF WE believe that Jesus was/is Israel’s Messiah, that He came to the Jews first (which He did), that He was rejected by that nation (which He was), what makes us believe that the Antichrist, not Christ, is the covenant-maker of Daniel 9:27? Why is it hard to believe that Christ “caused to prevail” the “New Covenant” promises for FULL spiritual redemption to the first century Jews? Jesus was sent to the Jews FIRST for SEQEQ (“righteousness”), SHALOM (“peace”) and YASHA (“salvation”).
Faith and Grace “THAT AS sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by [faith in] Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21). Our salvation comes as a free gift of God’s grace (not because of race), but it can only be appropriated by “the human response of faith.” Our salvation is instant, but must be maintained by daily continuance.
Preferential Distinction THERE IS just no way anyone that is honest with Scriptures can’t see that the New Testament teaches, since the death of Christ, that the “preferential distinction” between Jews and “Gentiles” has been ABOLISHED—by grace and not race are we saved! And I must add that we must continue in that faith to remain saved. I personally believe that one CAN lose his or her salvation. Salvation is of the Jews. And four times in Revelation, the “Lion of Judah” and “Root of David” (5:5 and 22:16) made eternal life conditional. Salvation for the “Gentiles” came because the Jews (as a nation) rejected Christ.
Dispensational Antinomianism REV. GARY Cutler writes in his book Is the Great Tribulation in Daniel 9:27? that Dispensational Antinomianism rests in the principle of an “election” of the Jews, based on “race,” that stands independent of their obedience to the will of God revealed in Christ NOW! But does not the New Testament teach that the racial Jews were “cut off” from God’s election (see Matt. 23:37-39; Rom. 11:17-24; 1 Thes. 2:14-16; Rev. 2:9; 3:9)? I must add this warning: The same judgment upon Jewish antinomianism applies to the “Gentiles”: disobedient Christians can be “cut off” too. Our free-will choice, to accept Christ, must be maintained (with OBEDIENCE!) throughout our entire walk. God will NOT tolerate DISOBEDIENCE. We must live the Gospel NOW, not wait for some future “other way” to serve God.
Since... THE NEW Testament teaches that the True Church is the very “Body” of Christ on earth (see Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4-6; Col. 1:18; 2:10), why do our opponents believe that the (so-called) 1,000 year reign of Christ, with the Jews, is what really counts? This same “Body” of Christ WILL also BE the same “Body” throughout eternity; SINCE WHEN DOES THE CHURCH IN THE CHURCH-AGE—BETWEEN CHRIST’S DEATH/RESURRECTION UNTIL HIS (TRUE) “SECOND COMING”—STOP BEING A “SPIRITUAL CHURCH” AND BECOME A “RACIAL CHURCH” (I.E., JEWISH)? The “Postponement Theory” of God’s Kingdom (that Christ’s rule and reign hasn’t begun and doesn’t begin until the 1,000-year Millennium) “wrests the present Messianic content of Christ’s reign totally out of this present dispensation—wholly transferring it to a post-‘Second Coming’ Millennial Dispensation.” But our eternal salvation is secured under the rule/reign of Christ in this present dispensation (—“if” we hold onto our faith). Our victory over satan/demonic forces—made possible through Christ’s rule and reign—is “forensically complete NOW” (“if” we do spirit-warfare). The question has therefore been asked: “What degree of power and dominion will be actualized, for the Jews, in the future dispensation, seeing how, on this side of the 1,000-year reign, satan is bound?” (See Rev. 20:1-3.) And: “Just how can the racial Jews become ‘overcomers’ if satan/demons are bound for 1,000 years?” I see no promises to non-overcomers in God’s Word. And just what is the meaning of “Millennial” (1,000 years)?
One Last Thought NEARLY ALL have been taught that Revelation 20 speaks of a literal “1,000 years,” but it doesn’t make sense, so it might be good to reconsider this. Could the “1,000 years” be symbolic? Precedent for interpreting the “1,000 year” symbol is taken from Psalm 50:10—“For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” Does God own the cattle on (literally) “1,000 hills”? How are we to take this? It has been asked, “Will literalists argue that this means the cattle on hill number 1,001 do not belong to God?” Think for a moment. This expression (“1,000”) means God owns all the cattle on ALL the hills; it is the O.T. expression of INFINITUDE (“the state of being infinite; unlimited extent; infinity”). So, Revelation 20 speaks of, not a literal “1,000 year” period, but AN AGE that will last a very long time. If God had told exactly how long the “Christian age” would last, then you and I could fix the exact time between the first and second resurrection (see Rev. 20:6). In any case, I see no reference to racial Jews reigning 1,000 years with Christ. Those who take the Millennium literally put the “resurrection of the just” before the 1,000 years and the “second resurrection” after it, which is the right order, but the “1,000 years” is not a literal “1,000 years”—it is a time-span no one knows. The Bible I have—which supports our opponents’ theory—says in the footnote on Revelation 20:7 that “at the close of Christ’s reign, satan will be loosed.” What? “...at the CLOSE of CHRIST’S REIGN...”? HOW CAN CHRIST END HIS REIGN? He has been reigning since His resurrection/ascension, and will reign FOREVER! (More on the 1,000-year period later.) |