General Articles

The Damascus Rapture :: By Matt Leasher

Published on: by RR7

Those that study Bible prophecy are well aware of the method of using types and figures in the Bible to shine enlightenment on prophetical events that are still future and to provide more detail as to what is yet to come. In the case of the Rapture of the Church, many point to people and events such as Enoch representing the Church being translated to heaven before the Judgment of the Flood, and Lot being led out of Sodom before the Judgment could be permitted to fall upon Sodom and Gomorrah. But I’d like to do some comparing and contrasting to Paul’s experience when He was suddenly struck by the bright appearance of our risen Savior while on the road to Damascus.

Our point of reference is in Acts 9:1-9. This is when Paul was still Saul and hadn’t had his name changed yet.  The account given in Acts 9:1-9 is commonly referred to as “the Damascus Road” where Saul set out to persecute and murder the disciples of the Lord being as he was still a Pharisee and hated the “people of the Way” (Christians).

It is in Acts 9:3-4 where we can begin to observe some parallels and contrasts that look forward to the Rapture of the Church. It says in Acts 9:3-4:

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:3-4).

Putting aside the fact that Saul was still an unbeliever, a big change had just occurred, and it came suddenly! It’s the details of the actual experience itself that I feel may be very comparable to the coming sudden snatching away of the Church at the “appearing” of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Those that hold to the Post-Tribulation Rapture view often argue that us Pre-Tribulation Rapture believers are claiming that there is going to be two Second Comings, making that view unBiblical. This is where this account refutes that.

Here, the Lord Jesus Christ made an “appearance” to Saul but did not physically return to the earth to stay. In fact, Jesus made two other “appearances” to Paul as well. The second one is in Acts 22:17-21 where Paul is testifying to the Jews of his Damascus experience, and then he speaks of when he was praying in the Temple and Jesus appeared to him again with instructions to leave Jerusalem and to go to the Gentiles. The third time Christ appeared to Paul was in his prison cell as recorded in Acts 23:11 where it says the Lord stood by him to encourage him that he would eventually go to Rome to testify of Him.

So from those three accounts, we can see that Christ can make an “appearance” any time He wants to, before He comes to the earth to stay. Since we have the completed New Testament, it is unlikely He will make appearances until His Second Coming, because we now have the completed Word of God at our dispense to bring us to faith and to build our faith. As Paul himself wrote in Romans 10:17, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

Okay, let’s get back to the Damascus Road. The first parallel to the Rapture is the fact that Saul was going about his business when the Lord suddenly appeared to him without warning. This will be the case for the Rapture of the Church. Next, Saul would be changed forevermore after this moment, and we will be changed forevermore at the moment of the Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:52). Saul didn’t get a new body like we will, but he got a new Spirit!

In Acts 9:4 it says that Saul heard a voice speak to him after he fell to the ground. In contrast, the Church will go up after the Lord descends from heaven with a shout (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

According to Acts 22:9, when Paul was recollecting his Damascus experience he said:

“And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of Him that spoke to me” (Acts 22:9).

Here we are informed that the men with Saul had seen the light but didn’t hear the voice. It may very well be that when the Rapture of the Church occurs, the world will most certainly be aware of something supernaturally monumental taking place, but those that are not in Christ will not hear the shout! Just as Christ shouted Lazarus’ name to come out of the tomb (John 11:43), the shout for the Bride of Christ will be specifically only for us.

This is also reminiscent of when the Father spoke from heaven in John 12:28 declaring He would again glorify His name in the work of His Son. Some of those that stood nearby thought it was thunder, while others thought it was an angel that had spoken. At the Rapture, the shout to “Come up hither” will only be heard by Christians, while the rest of the unbelieving world may think it is only thunder!

In Acts 26:12-18, Paul recollects for a second time his Damascus experience. This time we are informed that not only did Saul fall to the ground when Christ appeared, but those that were with him all fell too. In fact, in Acts 26:14 it says they “all fell to the earth.” From what we know, only Saul was changed, not the others. At the Rapture the whole world will be affected, and the Church will be changed and removed from the earth, but the unbelieving world will remain grounded!

According to Titus 2:13, Colossians 3:4, Hebrews 9:28, 1 John 3:2 and 1 Peter 5:4, the Rapture is described as an “appearing” of Christ. In Acts 26:16, Jesus Himself tells Paul that He has “appeared” to him, as will be the case at the Rapture.

For there to be so many similar parallels and contrasts between Paul’s Damascus experience and the Rapture of the Church is only fitting since Paul would be the one to reveal the “mystery” of the Rapture:

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51).

Sometime after Paul’s Damascus experience, he also had an out of body experience where he was caught up to the third heaven to experience the glory that awaits those in Christ (2 Corinthians 12:1-5).  Saul may have been knocked to the earth on the road to Damascus, but as he faithfully served the Lord in obedience to his calling, the Lord blessed Paul with a preview of the glory that awaits.

We the Church are busy working for the Lord at ground level on this earth, but we have the blessed words of Christ given to us through Paul of the glory that awaits us also! Let that be encouragement as we continue to fight the good fight and draw nearer to that glorious Day!

With all that said, it is interesting to note that there are three Old Testament prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled that us prophecy watchers have had a close eye on for quite a long time. They are Isaiah 17, Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38 & 39. Many (including myself) believe that these prophecies will be fulfilled in that order as well. Since the Old Testament prophets could not see the Church Age (1 Peter 1:11), it is unlikely that any of these prophecies will come to fulfillment while the Church is still here. The interesting thing about that, for this commentary, is that the Isaiah 17 prophecy is about the overnight destruction of Damascus!

Since the Greek word for Rapture is Harpazo (Strongs #726), and it literally means “to seize by force, snatch up suddenly, to forcefully pluck,” it could be that at the very moment that destruction strikes Damascus, we the Church are simultaneously snatched up to be with the Lord, as those prophecies kick- start the events of the Tribulation. If so, I would call that a Damascus Rapture!

Even so, Come, Lord Jesus!

Jewish Lives Matter & Why I Never Owned a Ford :: By Geri Ungurean

Published on: by RR7

For the last six years, whenever I write an article with ‘Jew,’ ‘Jewish,’ ‘Israel,’ or anything pertaining to my people on my WordPress – the readership plummets.

I have wondered about anti-Semitism within the church. My husband and I had to leave four Baptist churches because of Jew Hatred. YES – BAPTIST CHURCHES.

I apologize for my anger today as I write this, but I do not apologize for the FACTS that I will present to the reader.

Living in a World which naturally loathes me

I learned about Rabid Jew Hatred on the streets as a young girl. I was called:

  • Dirty Jew
  • Penny-pinching Jew
  • Hook-nosed Jew
  • Filthy Jew
  • Kike
  • Christ-killer Jew

Did I miss any? I’m sure I did, but those are the names I remember most.

Jewish lives do NOT matter to this world

As I watch the paid thugs destroying our country, and as I hear the Black Lives Matter mantra, I am sickened to my core. My own children, who have been won over by the Left, have become self-hating Jews.

Did we not have a Black president for 8 years?

Let me think about the last Jewish president – oh wait – there has never been one. Silly me.

My ancestors were NOT here when slavery came to America. No – we were busy being systematically slaughtered by Jew Haters in Ukraine.

Jewish blood is cheap to this world.

And that pesky number 6,000,000 is forever engrained in my brain, along with black and white pictures of the lifeless bodies of my starved and tortured people being bulldozed into mass graves by Hitler and his SS. I grew up seriously wondering if there was something inherently wrong with the German people.

That may sound unfair to the reader, but I could not wrap my Jewish mind around the fact that many Germans knew about the genocide, and made cabbage soup in their kitchens to mask the horrid smell of burning flesh. Yes, that is a fact.

Why I never bought or drove a Ford

My dad, who is in heaven, told us when we were young that we were never to buy any vehicle made by Ford Company. It had something to do with Henry Ford being a Jew hater. Oh, you didn’t know that?

From thehenryford.org

As with most famous people, Henry Ford was complex and had traits and took actions that were laudatory as well as troublesome. The most controversial and least admirable aspect of Ford’s career was his descent into anti-Semitism. Convinced that “bankers” and “the Jews” were responsible for a whole range of things he didn’t like, from the world war to short skirts to jazz music, Ford used his newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, to carry on an active anti-Semitic campaign. Between 1920 and 1922, a series of articles denounced all things Jewish. While officially apologizing for the articles in 1927, Ford’s anti-Jewish sentiments ran deep. Seen within the context of the times, they demonstrate the sharp realities and tensions that emerge in societies undergoing profound cultural, economic and political change.

In January 1919, Henry Ford began publication of the Dearborn Independent, a small financially troubled community weekly he had purchased the previous year. Carrying the subtitle, The Chronicler of the Neglected Truth, the paper primarily served as a forum for Henry Ford’s views. Each issue of the Independent carried “Mr. Ford’s Own Page,” an editorial expressing his opinions, written by William J. Cameron. Ford hired Edwin G. Pipp from the Detroit News to serve as editor. Agents went door-to-door selling subscriptions, and Ford Motor Company pressured car dealers to buy multiple subscriptions and hand out copies to customers. The newspaper was popular, and circulation reached 900,000 in 1926.

The idea of acquiring a newspaper first came to Ford during his antiwar crusade, when he became convinced that a hostile press controlled by banks and other powerful financial interests was campaigning against him. The paper would provide Ford a means to express his own views and to counter the attacks that had been launched against him for the five-dollar day, his pacifist activities, and his 1918 run for the U.S. Senate, which he believed his opponent, Senator Truman H. Newberry, had stolen from him.

The Dearborn Independent would most likely have remained a sidebar in Ford’s biography were it not for a controversial series that began on May 22, 1920, and lasted for several years. Appearing on the front page every week, “The International Jew: The World’s Problem” examined a purported conspiracy launched by Jewish groups to achieve world domination. The basis for the articles was an ancient and notorious forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic hoax, first published in Russia in 1903.

Why would Ford agree to publish such a thing? Many have accused Ford’s personal secretary, Ernest Liebold, of being the source of the campaign, and Liebold’s anti-Semitic views are well documented. E.G. Pipp resigned as editor in protest over the series. However, William Cameron, who then became editor of the Independent, was an enthusiastic supporter of the publication of the anti-Semitic diatribes.

However, Ford’s own attitudes towards Jews were the major reason for the publication of “The International Jew.” His anti-Semitic beliefs formed along several strands from his upbringing, attitudes, and personal beliefs. They were also influenced by current populist political sensibilities that advocated a distrust of financiers, bankers and institutions of economic power. A common stereotype at the time led some people to assume that Jews controlled the international banking system; that belief may have fed his anti-Jewish feelings.

Ford’s pacifism probably formed a second strand. His crusade against World War I convinced him that international Jewish bankers were fomenting the war. Here again, the stereotype noted above may have convinced him that international Jewish bankers supported the war for personal gain. Lastly, Ford’s growing cultural conservatism, anti-urbanism, and nostalgia for the rural past formed an important third strand. Ford saw Jews present in everything that he viewed as modern and distasteful—contemporary music, movies, theater, new dress styles, and loosening social mores.

The publication of “The International Jew” caused an uproar. In some quarters, such as anti-immigrant and nativist groups, the series confirmed their own beliefs. Others were appalled by the series, published demands for a retraction, removed the paper from public libraries, and promoted a boycott of Ford automobiles. Some Ford dealers refused to carry the paper. Responding to this pressure, Ford halted publication of the anti-Jewish series in January 1922, only to start it up again less than a year later.

In April 1924, the Independent initiated a new series of attacks on attorney Aaron Sapiro, accusing him of exploiting farmers’ cooperatives. When Ford refused to print a retraction, Sapiro sued him for libel. The case finally came to trial in March 1927 and quickly turned into a media circus. Shortly before Ford was scheduled to testify, he ordered the closing of the Dearborn Independent (it closed at the end of 1927) and explored an out-of-court settlement with Sapiro. After negotiations with U.S. Representative Nathan D. Perlman, a vice president of the American Jewish Congress, and Louis Marshall, president of the American Jewish Committee, Ford agreed to release a formal apology, written by Marshall, and to make a cash settlement with Sapiro.

Although this seemingly ended a sad chapter in Henry Ford’s life, the episode tarnished his reputation, and it has never been completely forgotten. source

Oh, and just for your edification, I want you to know that Hitler loved Henry Ford. They were of one mind. They shared a deep hatred for all Jews.

You may be thinking “Well, I’m sure that the Ford Foundation came to its senses and renounced the Jew hatred and other evil beliefs. Actually, they have remained EVIL as Henry Ford was. He would be so proud of them.

The Ford Foundation is among the largest supporters of Planned Parenthood and all of the demonic NGO’s of George Soros.

And of course, Ford Foundation pours their monetary support to the Leftists in our government

Some things never change, huh?

So, the next time you get into your F150, please remember this article.

And to any who call themselves Christians, yet have disdain for my people – you should take that up with your Jewish Savior Jesus Christ!

How Can I Be Saved?

Shalom b’Yeshua

MARANATHA!!

grandmageri422@gmail.com

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