The Thunder Heard ‘Round The World :: By Daniel Payne

Published on: by RR7 Category:Dan Payne, General Articles

A recent article posted by a brother here on R.R. got me thinking: what exactly will the rest of the world hear the moment that the true remnant church is snatched from the face of the earth?

The Rapture will, of course, involve the entire surface of the planet. The Rapture will likely be a physical, as well as a spiritual event. God’s Word says that, at the Rapture, believers will be given their physical bodies, equipped for life in eternity with the Lord:

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (Corinthians 15:52-53).

From living believers positioned at various locations above ground, and the earthly bodies of those returning with Jesus buried at various locations underground and underwater, it’s possible a type of nuclear fission/fusion will shake nearly every molecule in every location on earth.

According to the Duke Energy Nuclear Information Center, fission is the splitting of a heavy, unstable nucleus into two lighter nuclei, and fusion is the process where two light nuclei combine together, releasing vast amounts of energy.

Not only will a widespread physical event take place at the Rapture, but the voice of the Lord will also ring out.

Incidentally, the trumpet that will sound at the Rapture will be the last trumpet blown for the true remnant church. More trumpet blasts will be heard by the rest of the world in the days following the Rapture.

Along with the sound of a trumpet at the Rapture, there will also be the sound of the Lord’s voice. Speaking of the Lord’s voice, this is what those who were with Jesus heard when the Father spoke to Him from heaven:

“‘Father, glorify Your name.’ Then a voice came out of heaven: ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.’ So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, ‘An angel has spoken to Him’” (John 12:28-29).

Some people in the crowd understood that a voice spoke from heaven, yet others who were there only heard thunder. A similar situation occurred when the Lord spoke from heaven to Paul, prior to his conversion:

“And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.’ The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one” (Acts 9:5-7).

Some of those with Saul understood that they heard a voice from heaven, yet apparently there were others present who did not understand:

“And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me” (Acts 22:8-9).

Could it be that those who were with Paul when the Lord spoke to him from heaven, and did not understand His voice, also heard thunder like those without understanding who were with Jesus? Maybe.

According to various examples in the Word of God, the voice of God resembles the sound of thunder. The voice of an angel can also sound like thunder. Even when what the Lord speaks is understood, those who hear His voice still describe it as sounding like thunder:

Job 37:4-5a, “After it a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, And He does not restrain them when His voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with His voice.”

Psalm 18:13, “The LORD thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire.”

Ezekiel 3:12-13, “Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: ‘Blessed is the glory of the LORD from His place!’ I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise.”

Revelation 6:1, “Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’”

Job 40:9, “Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His?”

Psalm 77:18, “The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook.”

Psalm 104:7, “At Your rebuke they fled; At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away.”

Revelation 14:2, “And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps.”

Revelation 19:6, “And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!’”

Since obviously no one who is left behind will have the discernment of the Holy Spirit to allow understanding of the Lord’s shout from heaven, it stands to reason that the only sound they will hear is thunder.

The Rapture will very likely be a thunderous noise the likes of which the world’s ears have never heard. If a sonic boom is loud, the hypersonic boom of Jesus arriving from heaven will be much louder.

Another interesting point as recorded in Acts, is that when the Lord Jesus spoke to Paul from heaven, a very bright light flashed all around Paul, like lightning.

“But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me” (Acts 22:6).

One can only imagine the combination of the nuclear physics of the event of the Rapture along with the thunder of God’s voice, hypersonic booms, and a very bright flash of light. Planet Earth will indeed be shaken!

Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Kneeling for Peace and Safety :: By Terry James

Published on: by RR7 Category:General Articles, Terry James

Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison took a knee when confronted by a group of protesters of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Bettison complied with the enraged protesters’ demands, later saying he did so for “tactical reasons,” apparently since a kneeling policeman threatens no action against anyone. Bettison said he did so because he “didn’t want any violence.”

The performance was against police protocol to be ready to put down actions of unruly gatherings that threaten public harm.

It was all quite ironic since Bettison, a black man, was kneeling before a mob that included a number of white people.

Again, his purpose was, he said, to prevent violence. It was a noble gesture, I suppose, since it seemed to work in that instance. Detroit, of all places, seems to have avoided some of the extreme acts of destruction and anarchy of other inner cities.

Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and others didn’t fare so well. Seattle, of course, was completely taken over in one section of downtown by anarchists who demanded extortion money from business owners and even residents to “protect” them in the absence of cops, who abdicated even their precinct headquarters to the gun-toting mob.

Abdication of individual rights quickly turned into kneeling before the people who are determined to break the nation into individual “protectorates.” I use the term facetiously, of course.

These extortionists and destroyers of law and order are following the dictates of the minions that direct them. Satan is the lawless one at the head of all such activity, regardless of the noble purposes within which the destroyers try to deceptively couch their protestation.

There is a place in America for protests—for free speech against perceived or actual wrongs. The Constitution provides that protection to individuals and to groups of peaceful protesters.

But it is peace that is disturbed—is taken away—when the mob mentality takes over and lawlessness prevails.

When violence ensues if others don’t kneel before them and their “causes”—this is iniquity of the first order. This is lawlessness.

We see God’s thoughts on iniquity, the biblical synonym for lawlessness, throughout His Word.

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12)

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4)

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:7)

And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:23)

It can be conjectured, I think, whether the lawlessness we are witnessing is bringing about the cry for peace and safety prophesied for the time leading up to the day of the Lord—the time when the Age of Grace will end. This will be the moment of the Rapture.

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:2–3)

The officer in Detroit was kneeling as a symbolic cry for peace and safety for the people he was supposed to be protecting.

Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murillo attended a protest at which she did not agree to calls by protesters to take a knee. The mob became unruly and the crowd refused to allow her to speak. Two days later, she took a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance at city council meeting, but her action was rejected as “an encore performance.”

But the most despicable act for purpose of political pandering, in my view, came when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi led House and Senate Democrats in a group kneel at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall. It was a blatant statement against constitutional law and order yet perpetrated by an official at that level of federal government. It showed disdain for men and women in law enforcement who die every year to protect us from those who would make us kneel before them.

And make no mistake; it is indeed a thin, blue, line (law enforcement) between us and the tyrants who want to enslave Americans—enslavement, the history of which is the very thing this current kneeling nonsense is supposed to show solidarity against.

The following article excerpt offers a bit of hope for the nation in standing against the kneeling, if I may put it that way.

The ritual [kneeling in solidarity /protest] has caught on and people from around the world are now following suit…

Though the murder of George Floyd is universally condemned, not everyone who supports the fight against racism agrees with taking a knee. Lily Mei, the first Asian-American and the first woman mayor of Fremont California, was addressing a protest on Tuesday when the crowd called for her to take the knee.

“Taking a knee is something that I’m not going to be doing,” she told the crowd.

She explained her decision… “I have been asked why I will not kneel at events like the one from earlier today,” Mei wrote. “Because of my faith, I will never kneel to anyone but God. You will see me kneel in church, but you will not ever see me kneel at any other event except in prayer.”

This statement of faith was also expressed by Georgia State Trooper O’Neal Saddler, who was allegedly asked to kneel during a demonstration in Hartwell.

“If I didn’t have any respect, I wouldn’t [be here],” Saddler explained. “I was supposed to be out of town this weekend with my wife. I took off today, this weekend, but I’m out here to make sure y’all are safe.”

He added, “Don’t go there with respect, OK? I have much respect, but I only kneel for one person.”

Someone in the crowd replied: “And that’s God,” which the trooper confirmed: “God.”

This is Georgia State Trooper O’Neal Saddler. He was asked to kneel today, and this was his response.

God Bless him! (“Rabbis Agree: Kneel Before No One Except God,” Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, June 9, 2020, Breaking Israel News)

People of America and the world take heed. Don’t kneel before the lawlessness perpetrated by the lawless one—Satan. Kneel only before the One Who truly has the keys to peace and safety, to death and hell, to salvation.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10–11)