Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Protector (12/05/24)
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TITLE: Is It Possible? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Anne Warden
12/10/24 -
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After opening in prayer, Greg began the lesson. “Does anyone know where we get a Pre-Tribulation Rapture?”
“I think from Revelation 3:10,” Jenny answered. “Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” She looked up at Greg.
“Did you research the word ‘keep?’”
“Yes. It means ‘guard, preserve, hold fast, watch.’”
“Hmmm. Nothing about ‘remove.’”
Where’s he going with this? she wondered.
Someone, please read Isaiah 26:21.”
Finding it, Leon began, “For behold, the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will also disclose her blood and will no more cover her slain.”
“Isn’t that the Tribulation?” Greg asked. “And the previous verse, Leon.”
“Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past.”
“‘Indignation.’ ‘Wrath.’ They’re the same.” said Greg. “This verse commands God’s people to hide, protected from His wrath.
“Now let’s transition to something few Christians acknowledge, but should. In Leviticus 23, God gave the Israelites seven holy celebrations to be observed every year. God calls them, ‘My feasts.’ In Hebrew, they are ‘moedim’ – which means ‘appointed times.’ Times the people met with God. But they also were appointment days for Jesus to progressively fulfill each part of His plan of salvation. Please jot down these celebrations, and study Leviticus 23 thoroughly at home.
“In spring, there is Passover, followed by seven days of Unleavened Bread. Jesus was our Passover Lamb, sacrificed for the world’s sins. He went into the grave carrying leaven – our sins.
“God placed the Feast of Firstfruits of the barley harvest on the Sunday which falls within the week of Unleavened Bread. Jesus rose from the grave that very Sunday to become our Firstfruit of Resurrection. But he left the leaven behind, which is why it was imperative He rise during Unleavened Bread. Paul explains Jesus’s fulfillment in First Corinthians 15:20-23.
“The final spring celebration, the Feast of Weeks, came seven weeks later. That’s Pentecost. What happened that day in God’s salvation plan?”
“Believers were baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit,” answered Carlene.
“Bingo! Jesus kept those four spring appointments at His first coming. We live in the Church Age, represented by the long summer. Then come three autumn celebrations – appointments which Jesus will keep at His second coming. The first is Feast of Trumpets, when the trumpet will blow to call us home. In Jesus’s time, it was a two-day festival. Jews called Trumpets the festival which ‘no one knows the day nor the hour,' because the new moon must rise first to determine its beginning.
“Nine days after is the Day of Atonement, when God opens the books to reward our earthly deeds.
“Then five days later comes the joyful eight-day Feast of Booths, seven days for the Marriage Feast of the Lamb and His bride. And the eighth day, when satan and his demons will be removed from earth for a thousand years. Four more significant events in Jesus's salvation plan.
“Turn to First Thessalonians 4:16-17. ‘For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.’
“This reveals the what, who and how, but not the when. Because the church of Paul’s day already knew when Jesus would call us home. On a Feast of Trumpets, sometime in the future. Found in Matthew 24:36.
“Notice, Jesus’s spring appointments all occurred in the same year, over two months. Is it possible the future three will also occur in the same year? We’ll go to heaven, receive our rewards and sit down to our Marriage Feast with Jesus.
“If so, instead of removing true believers from the earth before the Tribulation, God will supernaturally protect us through the worst of it.
“Consider another parallel. The Israelites left their bondage in Egypt during spring and entered the Promised Land in autumn.”
Jenny sat back, amazed. And determined to learn more about those crucial God-given celebrations.
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I just finished reading "Left Behind," And I am now interested in learning more about those days to come.