Despite the failure of Rapture date setters in the past, many people continue to try to outwit the Lord by predicting when Jesus will come back for His true church to snatch us away into the clouds to be with Him forever. It hasn’t worked out well previously, and I predict it won’t work out for this current crop of know-it-alls.

Many people attempt to tie the Rapture to the Jewish feasts. They say that such and such has already been fulfilled, and so the final one based on the Feast of Trumpets must be next so as to correlate with past prophetic feasts and events.

The most recent well-known Rapture dating exercise was by Edgar Whisenant with his infamous 88 Reasons Why the Lord is Returning in 1988. With the “oops” when that didn’t occur, and the explanation that he’d made a mistake in his calculations, Whisenant foolishly followed up with 89 Reasons Why the Lord is Returning in 1989. That failure was the end of his attempts to outwit God.

As with many pre-Tribulation Rapture teachers, I get comments and emails.

I’m rather fortunate to have a small following because more people would mean more contrary letters. Many writers disagree with my pre-Tribulation Rapture stance and can be quite insistent as to how wrong I am – to the extent that this Biblical doctrine is demonic in origin and I’m a tool of the devil for advocating it. I can’t imagine the amount of correspondence that someone like Pastor JD Farag gets every week. One such writer has me on his mailing list. He calls himself a Scripturalist for the Lord and expounds his views – based on his understanding of Scripture – particularly in regard to the Rapture and Tribulation. Lately, he’s been quite insistent on setting a Rapture date based on the Jewish calendar.

In a series of emails, our Scripturalist has determined the date the Rapture will occur based on the following:

• It will be after the Gog-Magog War.
• It will be in the month of Nisan on the Jewish calendar following this war.
• It will be on a Sabbath, i.e., Saturday.
• Based on these occurrences, it will be on Nisan 10 = April 1, 2023.

And, as our friend says in each of his missives: “So There You Have it.”

In other words, you can take it to the bank that the Rapture is scheduled by God for this particular date; so when it approaches, keep watching.

In addition to this certainty, just so you can know how accurate this date setting is, our email writer is also adamant that we are already in the midst of the Seal Judgments because the Rider on the White Horse of the 1st Seal has been revealed as Jared Kushner in his role of negotiating the Abrahamic Peace Accords.

Well, if none of this sits too well with you, join the club. There is a very good reason that no one will know the date or the hour of the Rapture except the Father. We are to know the season (NOW!), but anything more specific than that other than its imminency is not for us and is a false prediction.

Why?

In actuality, the Rapture correlates to a Galilean-Jewish wedding.

According to Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum in his must-read book The Footsteps of the Messiah, there are four steps involved with such a wedding:

1.The father of the groom makes the arrangements.

2.After a period of time, the groom fetches his bride under two conditions:

a)The father determines the timing.

b)The groom has prepared a place for himself and his bride at his father’s house.

3.Prior to the wedding ceremony – to which few would be invited – the bride undergoes a ritual cleansing.

4.The marriage feast occurs with many more people invited.

This simple outline makes it clear as to how the Rapture follows these steps:

1.God the Father has made all the arrangements. A bride price was necessary to be paid. It was done so through the blood of Messiah.

2.The Rapture is the fetching of the Bride. Once everything is set, the Father gives the go-ahead to His Son to retrieve His beloved. Jesus, as the obedient Son, does so by snatching her up in the clouds at this unexpected and unannounced time that only the Father knows. The Son has spent the last two thousand years preparing our place in His Father’s house. This is the meaning of John 14:1-3:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

3.One of the necessities for us as the Bride of Christ is to stand before the Bema Seat to be judged for our works on earth in Christ in order to receive our rewards. This is the burning up of hay and stubble, leaving only gold and silver. In other words, it is the ritual purification of the Bride for the wedding ceremony. All this, plus the ceremony itself, takes place in heaven. Given the events that occur and the necessity of their timing, it’s easy to see that the Rapture and the 2nd Coming are completely different and separated by a period of time.

4.Upon the consummation of the marriage by the Bridegroom and Bride – typically considered to be seven days which correlates to the seven years of the Tribulation, the wedding feast will begin. In our case, the Bridegroom – Jesus – leads His Bride back to earth where this takes place. Many guests are invited. These include Old Testament saints and tribulation saints, i.e., those martyred during the Tribulation plus those who endured through to the end.

If you wish to gain a terrific understanding of a Galilean wedding and further insights into what is presented here, I urge you to watch the film Before the Wrath.

The reason that no one can or will accurately predict the timing of the Rapture is because of its unknown quantity. God the Father will determine when to send His Son for His Bride. For those trying to discern the mind of God in this matter – good luck.

We who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have a marvelous day ahead when our bridegroom comes for us. At that moment, we’ll gain glorified bodies and be like Him. Jesus is coming for us before the Tribulation because 1) we believe in Him, and 2) He loves us and won’t allow the depravity of the world to stain us with the horrific events of the Tribulation. Anyone who thinks differently simply doesn’t understand the nature and character of God.

Our job between now and then is to be about our Father’s business. In so doing, we are to occupy while eagerly watching and anticipating our Lord’s return to bring us home. As we faithfully do this, let’s not forget to tell others and share with them the hope that we have in Christ. For those who don’t believe in this marvelous promise that Jesus has given us of our Blessed Hope, how dreary must their days be as they wait like unbelievers for the coming wrath of God upon this lost and dying world.

—

Gary Ritter website: books & blog

http://garyritter.com/

Kindle Vella story: Tribulation Rising

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099Z462WD

 

 

When I read reports of the increasing wickedness and violence in the U.S. that seemingly grows worse by the day, grief and disbelief swell up inside me. Is this really happening?

It’s biblical prophecy alone that puts current events into a proper perspective for me and thereby calms my soul. The Bible not only tells me that I would see such perilous times in the last days, but it also assures me of the Lord’s response.

I first noticed the relevance of the book of Habakkuk to current events about thirty years ago. Today, I’m surprised that the U.S. has not yet experienced something similar to the judgment that God sent to Judah a few decades after Habakkuk wrote his book. How much time do we have until He does?

In Habakkuk 1:2-4, the prophet provides a listing of the evil and violence that he saw in ancient Judah, which sounds remarkably similar to what I see in America today.

1. Killers

In verse 2, Habakkuk complains about God’s lack of response to the violence that he witnessed in his day.

“O Lord, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!” And You will not save.”

Consider the killers active in our day:

• In the U.S., abortion providers murder 1.1 million preborn children each year, a total of over 61 million since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.
• According to the CDC reporting database of vaccine adverse effects, 13,293 people just in the U.S. have died as a result of COVID-19 injections, and 14,232 have become permanently disabled. According to studies done on the CDC reporting data, only about 1% of vaccine adverse effects find their way into the CDC database. We can safely assume that the total number of deaths in the U.S. due to these “vaccines” is much, much higher.
• A further result of the COVID-19 injections is something health experts refer to as “sudden adult death.” Almost every day, I read or hear about young, healthy adults suddenly dropping dead or having life-changing strokes despite having no warning signs of ill health. I absolutely believe that the “vaccines” cause the majority of these deaths. (Leo Hohmann just posted an example of this on his Telegram feed.)
• The purpose of the Green New Deal is NOT to “Save the Planet.” The stated goal of the globalists is to drastically reduce earth’s population, and what better way to start than by reducing the fuel available to plant and harvest crops. The farmers in Ukraine say that even if they had the needed fertilizer, they do not have the needed fuel to plant crops this year.

I am sure that many of you can add to the above list.

2. Destroyers

In verse 3 of Habakkuk 1, the prophet protests about the “iniquity” that he sees.

“Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.”

The Hebrew word for “iniquity” in this verse includes the sorrow that results from wicked behavior. This fits with the parallel word “wrong.” The word here also denotes the grief and pain caused by evil and perverse behavior. The high rate of suicides among transgender children today exemplifies this sense; the word reflects both the evil done to others and its tragic result.

The aim of the LGBTQ agenda is to greatly harm children and eliminate the family structure that God designed to nurture them. The destroyers of our culture celebrate “pride month,” but those who cherish the words of Scripture recognize the gross evil that lies behind their vain boasting and shameful, vulgar parades.

Here are some further examples of modern-day destroyers:

• Michigan Attorney General Dana Nesse recently made headlines by calling for a drag queen to be present in every school. Even if she said this in jest, which she now claims, it still characterizes the evil that’s become an everyday part of children in our schools.
• David Fiorarzo wrote the following in an article for Harbingers Daily: “In North Carolina, a preschool teacher used LGBT flashcards depicting a ‘pregnant man’ to teach kids the colors in the progressive pride flag.” Such debauchery goes far beyond what I once thought possible.
• Scores of food processing plants have burned down in the U.S. just this year. Modern-day destroyers seek to wreak havoc with our food supply and cause widespread suffering and chaos.
• During the past several years, we have seen the same evil, violence, and strife that Habakkuk complained about so long ago spiral out of control in the U.S., and it keeps getting worse.

3. Gaslighters

I use the word “Gaslighters” here because it gets to the heart of the globalists’ activity more than simply saying that those who control our government are deceiving us. Brandon Holthaus, pastor and prominent prophecy speaker, describes gaslighting as “an evil way to manipulate and psychologically control people.” (Brandon Holthaus recently recorded an excellent prophecy update called “WEF Is Gaslighting Us.”)

Gaslighters cause people to question what they know to be true about reality; they seek to make us doubt what we both see and hear. They will tell you that what you watch take place did not really happen.

Listen to them long enough, and you will doubt your sanity and begin going along with their perverted portrayal of reality.

Make no mistake; they deceive people in order to pervert justice and justify their murderous and destructive behavior.

In Habakkuk 1:4, the prophet complains about such lawless deceivers in his day:

“So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.”

The words of the above verse fit with the behavior of modern-day gaslighters; this is the method they use to accomplish the things the prophet lists in the above verse.

Is it not the same deception, with an evil intent, that the prophet Isaiah described?

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (5:20).

Modern-day gaslighters attempt to convince us that “evil” is “good.” The examples of this abound everywhere we look:

• During the entire month of June, both the news and social media have bombarded us with the lie that the LBGTQ agenda is morally acceptable when we know that God says it’s evil.
• I watched a video of Ashi Babbitt’s killer; I saw him take aim and kill Ashi while she was peacefully and quietly taking in the wonders of being inside the Capital Building on January 6, 2021. The authorities, however, tell us that her killer was justified in murdering her. Total nonsense.
• Biden’s DOJ arrested Simone Gold, one of several frontline doctors that warn people about the dangers of the COVID-19 injections, and sentenced her to sixty days in jail for just walking into the Capital building through open doors on January 6, 2021. Is this travesty of justice not precisely the injustice that Habakkuk complained was happening in his day?
• On June 20, 2022, Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID-19 Response coordinator, said that “there have not been any serious side effects of these vaccines,” referring to the COVID-19 injections. Not only is this a blatant lie, but it’s also a clear case of gaslighting. The CDC’s database contains records of 838,800 adverse reactions to these shots in the U.S., with a total of 28,859 overall deaths, including reports from outside America. And these numbers represent only a small fraction of the actual harm and deaths caused by these shots.

I could cite dozens of additional examples of how the globalists tell us that what we see and hear is not reality. They have succeeded in making a great many people believe their lies.

Gaslighting and bullying also happen on a personal, everyday level. I have discovered that Proverbs 11:9 brings much welcome encouragement during such times:

“With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.”

A solid grasp on the truths of Scripture is absolutely essential in the day in which we live. We live in an age of deception where bullying and gaslighting abound, which necessitates a daily reliance on God’s Word.

The Lord’s Response to Habakkuk

In Habakkuk 1:5, the Lord told the prophet to look to the nations in order to see His response to the evil and violence prevalent in ancient Judah. Judgment would come in the form of the Chaldeans, a reference to the Babylonians that under Nebuchadnezzar would later destroy Jerusalem and take many people captive.

What might be the Lord’s response to the killers, destroyers, and gaslighters in America? Where would the Lord have us look during these perilous times?

I believe Jesus answers this question for us in Luke 21:28, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

The Lord gave us so many signs in Scripture so we would know the season of His return for His church, and this is it! That’s why we anticipate His soon appearing; that’s why we look up in eager expectation of meeting Jesus in the clouds.

Maranatha! Come soon, Lord Jesus.

My book, The Triumph of the Redeemed-An eternal Perspective that Calms Our Fears in Perilous Times, is available on Amazon. I wrote it for just such a time as this so as to infuse calming hope into hearts regardless of the circumstances. The murderers, destroyers, gaslighters will increase in power leading up to the kingdom of the antichrist. However, we will reign with Jesus someday in His glorious kingdom!!

Note: Please consider signing up for my newsletter on the home page of my website at https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/. It will greatly help me in reaching more people. Thanks!

Jonathan Brentner

Website: Our Journey Home