(Jeremiah 11-13; 1 Timothy 4)

In the fall of 2019, before the whole COVID chaos hit, I was part of unpaid staff when a new pastor was chosen and came to lead our church. I had been the Missions Director for several years, as well as a Bible teacher emphasizing eschatology. That’s pretty rare these days, I know, but our prior pastor and the interim pastor gave me free rein to teach on end times related subjects.

Because of my watchman mentality and focus, I’d been seeing for a while that things were getting darker in the world and America in particular. I’d said for some time that I believed the American church would face a time of trial and persecution before the Rapture, because I always felt the Lord would need to purify His Bride in our land. My facetious and (in)famous saying was: “Do you think the only suffering we’ll endure before Jesus returns is ease and comfort?”

Seeing this gathering gloom, I suggested to the new pastor in one of our first staff meetings that it would be prudent for the church to make plans for a time of coming persecution. Perhaps we should get the people thinking about this and make preparations to go underground at some future point by getting small groups meeting and understanding what this would mean.

This idea was met with a serious head nod and abruptly forgotten. Subsequently, into 2020 with the advent of COVID, because of things I said about what was happening and how I said them, the pastor didn’t approve, effectively saying, “That’s not who we are.” Eventually, through this and various other interactions, this led to my parting ways with the church.

Here we are now two years later, in the fall of 2021 [when this essay was written], and our government is plunging headlong toward absolute tyranny. Conservatives and Christians, i.e., political enemies and those who love God, are being demonized. The State has set up a false dichotomy of fear versus safety by emphasizing the difference between vaxxed and unvaxxed people. Quarantine facilities, a.k.a. FEMA or internment camps, have been prepared all around our nation – no different from those already being used in China and Australia. The rhetoric is increasing against those who refuse to go along with the narrative propagated by mainstream and social media under direction of the Biden Regime. All they need is a trigger mechanism to go after those they deem enemies of the State.

No doubt at that time, churches that declare they follow only God and His commands will find themselves at extreme odds with governmental decrees. It wouldn’t surprise me if they are forcibly shut down. What then happens? Will churches be ready to meet secretly, i.e., those believers who haven’t yet been rounded up and isolated in Green Zones for “their protection”?

Perhaps in 2019, such scenarios may have appeared as fanciful conspiracy theories. Twenty-four months later, at least to some, they’ve probably taken on a new reality and truth.

In Jeremiah’s day, the Lord warned the prophet that certain men were conspiring against Him. In Jeremiah 11:9-10, He warned:

“Again the Lord said to me, ‘A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers.”

God went on to detail the extent of their sins, and it disgusted Him so much that He commanded in Jeremiah 11:14:

“Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.”

They had gone after other gods, worshiped them, gave them offerings of every kind, and set up altars in reverence to them. In other words, they had decided that the God of Israel wasn’t worth following. They apparently thought that pagan gods had more to offer than the One who had delivered them from the fiery furnace of slavery in Egypt.

Their iniquities had risen to such a drastic level in their rejection of Yahweh that He wouldn’t even hear prayers on their behalf going forward. He would bring disaster upon them.

There are two groups in our current times that are stoking the furnace of God’s anger. The first is those who have outright and long ago decided they didn’t need Him in their lives. For many of these, just as Romans 1:24 says, He has given them over to the sinful desires of their hearts.

The second group is the church that has chosen to ignore the Word of God when its people should have known better. How much condemnation might the Lord have for those who say they are in Christ yet choose to continue doing church as though we’re still in normal times?

One of the phrases making the rounds these days that resonates is because of the truth it conveys. It distinguishes between what we’re currently seeing and surely what is ahead, from the days of old, i.e., 2019 and earlier, to the future. It is the BEFORE TIMES. This is so dystopian – and yet so true – it’s astounding that we are even beginning to talk this way.

Those who have believed that Christ-followers must endure the Tribulation are perhaps beginning to understand how devastating this coming time will be. To think that we can prep and hole up as God’s wrath rages around us – and that He will shelter us supernaturally – is an interesting but false perspective. I’m very much a believer in the supernatural aspects of God, but I also believe that He has other plans for us during the Day of the Lord. In fact, I’m very much anticipating the incredibly supernatural event that will soon astound the world, i.e., the Rapture of the true church.

Conspiracy theories from just a couple of years ago have largely proven true. Thankfully our God is sovereign and watching closely. At just the right time, He will prove that the “conspiracy theory” of the Rapture is also fact. Won’t that be an amazing vindication of what many of us have believed to be the blessed hope that God has given to His children?

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The Lord has put it on my heart to always read completely through His Word at least once each year. From that practice, it resulted in my producing the Awaken Bible Study Notes, a 4-volume set correlating with each quarter’s readings. This is the link to Amazon for Volume 1 covering January – March (Genesis 1 – Judges 5; Matthew 1 – Luke 7):

Awaken Bible Study Notes series Volume 1

Following that year’s efforts, God gave me the “assignment” of writing a daily essay on what I had read. That produced the 4-volume Awaken Bible Commentary and Reflections series. Here is the link on Amazon to Volume 1, which covers January – March (Genesis 1 – Judges 5; Matthew 1 – Luke 7):

Awaken Bible Commentary and Reflections series Volume 1

If these daily writings have been a blessing to you, I hope that you’ll acquire these books for further study. My intent in all I write is to bring God the glory and to make His people think. Both the Study Notes and the Commentary and Reflections delve into the prophetic and supernatural nature of God’s Word, a combination you simply won’t find elsewhere. They attempt to show the parallels to our times with the peril from the past when God’s people turn away from Him and His commands. Scripture is very much a blueprint for today.

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Gary W. Ritter is a lay pastor, Bible teacher, and prolific author. His Whirlwind Series comprises three end-times books: Sow the Wind, Reap the Whirlwind, and There Is a Time. These books are contained in the collected volume of the Whirlwind Omnibus. Gary has written many other Christian thrillers that will challenge you, and which you can learn about at his website:www.GaryRitter.com. You can also watch Gary’s video Prophecy Updates on Rumble at his Awaken Bible Prophecy channel: https://rumble.com/c/c-783217.

 

We here at Rapture Ready are indeed READY for the rapture. We LOVE the rapture and look for anything that will help us to know as close as we can when it truly might occur. But how many born-again Christians are even paying attention to the rapture or Jesus’ second coming? Statistics show that number is a lot smaller than most people think – as low as one to ten percent and probably closer to one than ten.

Supposedly there are Christians who don’t even believe in the rapture, much less watch for it. We can expect that from the world who thinks that people who believe in something as what they consider ridiculous as the rapture must have a screw loose, but we don’t expect this from so-called Christians who, you hope actually read and study the Bible. I mean, just imagine an event where many millions of people will instantly disappear off of the planet in the blink of an eye. Can you even begin to imagine the chaos that will cause to this world? The world will never be the same following such an event, and especially as it sets the stage for the seven-year tribulation in which God’s judgment is poured out onto the planet in ways that are almost too horrible to even imagine.

But let’s look at a question that is even more important than when is the rapture, and that question is WHY is there a rapture? What is the purpose of it? It’s easy to read the key rapture verses in 1 Thes 4:13-18 and 1 Cor 15:51-53 that describe the rapture, but they don’t tell us WHY there is a rapture.

This article, which is a follow-up to “Will You Marry Me?” on the Rapture Ready website, will explain it exactly in a way that few even know about. The rapture is the fulfillment of a Galilean wedding ceremony which is very prophetic, as you will see. Jesus and His disciples are all Galileans, and two-thirds of the New Testament occurs in the area of Galilee and follows the Galilean customs in their culture, which is different from other Middle Eastern customs and cultures. A prime example is the customs used in the Galilean wedding ceremony.

Obviously, a wedding ceremony begins with a proposal. A Galilean proposal begins with the bridegroom. When he is ready to propose, he offers his prospective bride a cup of wine. She has 100 percent control over whether she wants to accept his proposal or not. If she rejects his proposal, she simply pushes the wine cup back to the bridegroom. But if she accepts his proposal, she accepts the cup and drinks from it. The bridegroom, knowing he must leave her and go back to his father’s house to add on a place for them to live, then says he will not drink the wine until they are together in his father’s house where he has added a place for them to live. He also tells her he has to leave to go and prepare a place for them to live and that he will come back to get her to take back to his place for their wedding ceremony.

This is exactly what happened between Jesus and His disciples in the upper room at the last supper, where Jesus offered His disciples a cup of wine. They accepted it, and all drank from it, and Jesus said He would not drink it again until they were together in His Father’s kingdom.

The next thing that occurs in the Galilean wedding custom is the bridegroom tells his bride he must leave her to go back to his father’s house to build a place for him and his bride to live. The bride is to wait for him to come back and get her no matter how long it takes. Also, it’s important to know that the Galilean custom is very different from other cultures in that area in that neither the bridegroom nor the bride knew when the wedding would take place. The ONLY person who knew when it would be time for the wedding was the father of the bridegroom. Only when he told his son that now is the time to go get your bride would the son know the date and time. Other cultures in the area would assign a wedding date in advance, but only the Galileans left that date to be decided by the bridegroom’s father.

Also, when Jesus tells us that no one knows the day or the hour of His return, He is “not” talking about His second coming but is talking about His coming for His bride in fulfillment of the Galilean wedding customs.

This is exactly what occurred, as Jesus and His disciples are simply following the Galilean wedding customs. Jesus and His disciples understood very clearly everything involved with Galilean wedding customs and all of the things that must occur leading up to the wedding. In John 14, Jesus told His disciples that He must return to His Father’s house to prepare a place for He and His bride the church so that where He is, so shall the bride be. He also said that no one knows the day and hour of His return for His bride, not the angels or even Him Himself – only the Father.

During the time the bridegroom is away, the bride is to carry on getting ready for the wedding and always watching for her bridegroom to return for her. Scripture tells us that Jesus will be returning like a thief in the night. This is why we have popular songs like The Midnight Cry. Recent Galilean discovery shows that when the father tells his son that it is time to go get your bride, it will be at night to catch those who are asleep unaware, but we are children of the day who are to be aware.

This helps explain the parable of the ten virgins and why they were to always have oil in their lamps in order to be ready when the bridegroom came for his bride at night. The five that had oil and were ready signify born-again believers. The five who started out with oil but whose oil had run out signify people who appeared to be believers but who were not actually born again.

When the actual time arrived for the father to say, son, go get your bride, the bridegroom would blow a shofar to wake up those who are waiting for him to get his bride, and he and his groomsmen would go and get his bride. There would be trumpets blowing and shouting as they approached the bride’s house. The bride would already be dressed in her wedding dress, and she and her bridesmaids, as well as all of those who also were watching and waiting, would gather together to head back to the bridegroom’s place for the wedding feast.

They would sit the bride on a lift, which is a chair mounted on two poles, where she would be lifted into the AIR and carried to the bridegroom’s home. They called this “flying the bride” to her new home.

This is a perfect picture of the rapture and is obviously what occurs when Jesus comes back for His bride. He comes in the air, and all born-again believers who have died in Christ and all born-again believers who are still alive will meet the Lord in the air to be carried back to His home for the wedding feast, which would last for seven days, or seven years in our case. The door would be shut, and no one would be allowed to come or leave for that seven-day/year period.

In our case, the period is seven years to correspond to the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy, which begins the seven-year tribulation period when God’s judgment is poured out onto the whole earth for its sins and to finally bring Israel to recognize Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah, as shown in Zechariah.

We can now better understand why the church is called the bride of Christ and how all of the end-time events are demonstrated in the prophetic pattern of the Galilean wedding ceremony. It also PROVES that Jesus HAS to come back because it is the most crucial part of the wedding ceremony when the bridegroom comes back for his bride to take her back to his place to begin the seven-day wedding ceremony.

As we see, all of the birth pain signs are occurring right before our eyes that Jesus said would be occurring right before He comes back. We see global nations set up as scripture describes. We see worldwide culture that has rejected Jesus like never before, and where people are mocking and saying, “Where is the sign of His coming? Things are as they have always been.” We see scripture in 2 Tim 3-5 that describes “perfectly” the amoral times we are living in now. Therefore, we can’t help but see that His coming for us is right around the corner.

We appear to be the most blessed of ALL generations to be the one in which many will not experience death but actually be translated off the planet to meet the Lord in the air and be escorted back to His place in heaven for our seven-year wedding feast, which occurs at the same time God’s seven-year tribulation judgment is being poured out onto the world. It is said in Matt 24 to be a time of judgment so severe that all of life would be destroyed if those days were not cut short by God.

I hope this article has shown you why the rapture must happen and how it is impossible for it not to occur. ALL of this is presented in much more detail in an excellent movie presentation in 2020 entitled “Before the Wrath.” You can watch it on YouTube or see it on streaming. Prime has it available for $3.99. It is a great movie to show to your friends and family and even to your church as a special event.

In the meantime, let’s keep watching and praying for our Bridegroom Jesus to come and get us so we can go back with Him to His place for our incredible wedding ceremony.

Maranatha,

David Cogburn

dcogburn789@gmail.com