Rapture

June 12, 2021 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Survivalists, Escapists and the Rapture in the Prophetic Future!

There are not that many topics in the Bible that cause so much controversy as the Rapture does. Some people believe in it, some don’t. From those who believe that the Rapture is a real event that will be fulfilled literally–and I belong to that group–many positions exist. The Rapture might happen before the Tribulation, during or after. I personally believe that the Rapture will occur before the Great Tribulation, leaving behind all those who have not placed their trust in the atoning death of Yeshua the Messiah for their sins. So, on the spectrum of end-times events, we find many markers representing doctrinal positions. At each end of that spectrum, we find groups that I will identify as the survivalists and the escapists.

The survivalists, that we can also call preppers, are a group of people convinced that mankind will go through the Great Tribulation and suffer greatly. They are right that the Tribulation will be a horrible, bloody carnage. They believe that it will include unbelievers and believers together for seven years of unprecedented turmoil and persecution resulting in the greatest death toll of all human history. Preppers prepare. They buy food, supplies, weapons, ammo and some even build remote bunkers hoping to put all the odds in their favor for surviving the Tribulation. Preppers also have a tendency to succumb to the latest conspiracy theory. On the mind of most preppers is the inevitable end of the world that must be avoided at all costs

Am I saying that believers should trust the Lord in all things and not prepare for difficult times? Absolutely not! In fact, the Bible advises us to prepare and be ready in many ways:

• Be ready for Messiah – Matthew 24:44
• Be watchful and strong – 1 Corinthians 16:13
• Prepare supplies of food – Proverbs 28:19-20, 20:4
• Prepare with faith – Hebrews 11:7

Now, what I am saying is that our preparedness should not consume us to the point that we are ignoring other aspects of life. Preparing is good and necessary. We need to prepare for the future and, to an extent, we also need to prepare for the unknown and the unexpected, but I find many preppers being so obsessed with stocking up supplies in anticipation of doomsday, that they completely miss their many opportunities to be witnesses of the love and compassion of Messiah to the lost. God provides and protects His children. He does it directly through circumstances and indirectly through people. So, we need to be wise about preparing for the future, using common sense mixed with wisdom and discernment. We must not succumb to the temptation of overstocking and over-preparing. Satan loves to keep people busy with whatever people deem necessary, and in the meantime, nobody is sharing the Good News. Some even think that they are smack in the center of God’s will by over-prepping for the end. A balance must be achieved.

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Now, on the other side of the same spectrum, we find the escapists. Who are these people? Escapists are people who believe in a pre-tribulational Rapture as I do, but they are fixated on their imminent departure more than anything else. They believe that the Rapture will occur prior to the Great Tribulation and that they hold their ticket and reservation for the ultimate ride upward. Escapists look forward to the Rapture and are often heard pleading for Yeshua to come now and snatch away the believers immediately. Escapists are not only “Rapture-ready”, but they also are “Rapture anxious”. They are chomping at the bit for the Rapture to take place.

This reminds me of a pet peeve of mine. It really rubs me the wrong way when I hear people use the word Maranatha all the time. I have nothing against this beautiful Aramaic word meaning “The Lord is coming” or “Come, O Lord”! We shouldn’t dismiss or ignore the beautiful hope that we have in Yeshua and His return. He will return as the Lion of Judah to rule the world from Jerusalem. What a glorious day this will be! What troubles me, is the many believers who constantly say Maranatha as they express their strong desire for Yeshua to return NOW! The question that usually comes to my mind is: “Are all the people you care about saved for you to be so anxious about Yeshua’s return?” When could such a question be answered in the affirmative without any doubt by anyone? Never!

I find the escapist approach to be selfish. It is as if people are thinking, “I’m saved, I’m in and who cares about others”? Again, and as always, I do not wish to paint with broad strokes, but I am greatly concerned with the escapist mentality found across the Body of Messiah. So where is the healthy balance between the escapists and the survivalists? I believe it is found in the person who trusts the Lord day-by-day, moment-by-moment, as they also prepare with common sense for possible financial, physical, political and spiritual difficulties. Planning is necessary, prepping is over-reacting. Trusting the Lord is critical to our spiritual health and growth, but blindly trusting God for all things without any planning is irresponsible.

We need to expect His return at any moment because it can happen at any moment, but we also need to wisely prepare as if He will not return and/or rapture us immediately. Nowhere in the Bible does it mention that believers will not suffer prior to the Rapture. So, prepare, trust, obey and anticipate His return. If we combine all that wisely, we will find plenty of time and opportunities to witness the good news to those who have no hope, so that when He indeed calls the believers to be raptured, more people will join in this glorious departure. Until then, let us all gather in the center of that spectrum and get busy sharing with the lost.

November 13, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

The One End Times Prophecy You Can Take to the Bank Today!

The words “end times”, “prophecy” or “prophetic” usually get people’s attention when uttered, and they should! Unfortunately, a lot of false teaching is being done under the heading of “end times prophecies” and it can be very damaging. There is a proper, healthy way to look at the prophetic word, biblically. But let’s start by defining what we mean by prophecy. The word “prophecy” comes from two Greek words meaning, “to speak for or before”. Thus, prophecy means to be speaking or writing about events for someone or before they occurred. All prophecies of the Bible are from God only, and none of them were from the prophet’s origin (2 Peter 1:20.) The prophet of God can either be used for forth-telling (inspired telling) or foretelling (predicting). In both cases, they are directed by God Himself for the benefit of mankind. From that perspective, almost 30% of the Tenach (Old Testament) is prophetic, and almost 22% of the B’rit Hadashah (New Testament) is prophetic.

More and more people are wondering why we should even study prophecy. Intimidated by apparent biblical difficulties, inconsistencies or contradictions, people give up on prophecy and miss out on about one third of the counsel of God. We should study prophecy for several reasons:

• It comforts and calms: God has always been in control of all events of history. We are comforted (John 14:1-4) with the fact that He gave us His unchanging word, especially messianic prophecies that were all literally fulfilled in ONE person, the future unfulfilled prophecies will likewise be literally fulfilled.
• It cleanses and changes: In light of the fact that Yeshua of Nazareth could return at any moment, we should strive to lead lives that are pleasing to Him. (Titus 2:14; 2 Peter 3:13-14). In the effort to lead better lives for Him, we cannot avoid growing closer to God.
• It helps us understand who Messiah is and who God is: By studying messianic prophecies in the Tenach (Old Testament), we discover that through progressive revelation, God has granted us with increasing knowledge about the person, character, timeline and redemptive career of Messiah. Eventually, as the prophecies are studied within the grammatical/historical context, they all point to the same person: Yeshua of Nazareth.

But we must be careful to properly approach the prophetic word. Many approaches to the study of prophecy have been introduced over the ages. It is important to use a consistent approach when studying prophecy, as switching between approaches might satisfy our desire for an interpretation that fits our needs or understanding, but would do a disservice to God’s word. The proper study of prophecy helps us understand the whole Bible and it motivates us to live godly lives.

Towards that goal, we must remember the David L. Cooper’s “Golden Rule of Interpretation”: “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.” The bottom line is this; a text apart from its context is a pretext!

Regardless of all the warnings about taking Scripture out of context to fit the news or one’s opinion (eisegesis), people thrive on speculating on end times events. Newspaper eisegesis is running rampant today. Especially in the era of the Internet and social networks, it is easy for someone to become a self-proclaimed prophecy teacher, throwing a bible verse here and there to impress their online audiences.

Trying to identify the Antichrist or pinpoint the exact date of the Rapture of the believers are two favorite topics for a lot of people. There have been more potential candidates for the office of antichrist over the ages, than we can count or list here. Some say that he will be a Muslim, others say that he will be a Jew or a Gentile. People are divided on that topic, but it preaches well, and it sells books even better. A thorough study of the prophet Daniel and the book of Revelation will equip us to understand that the Antichrist will be a Gentile leader (read “totalitarian dictator”) who will appear on the world scene after the Rapture of the believers, as soon as the Great Tribulation starts (Daniel 9:27.)

As to the Rapture, people have been speculating on the exact date when it will occur, when in fact nobody knows the day or the hour. These, as Ed Hindson and Mark Hitchcock state, are “calculated guesses based upon interpretive assumptions” at best. We can learn from a study of God’s word that the Rapture will happen, and that it will be before the Tribulation, although not everybody agrees on the timing, but nobody should set a firm date. I often imagine Yeshua, currently at the right hand of God, looking down on us and each time someone sets a new date, He shrugs and says: “They set a new date for the Rapture, I got to postpone again!” I say this tongue-in-cheek of course, but there is some truth in that statement.

Now, I promised you at least one end times bible prophecy that you can take to the bank, I will actually give you two. This doesn’t mean that the rest of the prophetic word cannot be trusted or is with error. It simply means that we should tread the prophetic landscape carefully, lest we have to back pedal on some unfounded dogmatic statement we made. As to the currents events that we can know for sure are part of the prophetic future, they are the apostasy of the Church and the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.

The apostasy of the Church is promised in the Bible. Paul said that the Antichrist will not be revealed to the world until “the apostasy comes first” (2 Thessalonians 2:3.) Additionally, Yeshua prophesied that “many will fall away” and “most people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:10, 12.) It is not difficult to see that much of the Church today is increasingly shifting towards that toxic behavior. Revelation 2 and 3 also give us some examples of the great falling away. Are we in the midst of the great apostasy? Will it get worse before it gets better? Are we not there yet? I think that we have started as a Church to see the falling away but it will get worse, and I am not even talking about the Great Tribulation, but what must take place before it.

Now, let’s look at the one world event that we are living through today that is a guarantee that we are in the last days. I am speaking of the regathering of the Jewish people to the land of Eretz Yisrael. God promised to restore the land of Israel and He did when He allowed for the birth of the modern state of Israel on May 14, 1948. Beyond the restoration of the land, He also promised in Ezekiel that the Jewish people would return to it in the end times. Ezekiel 36:24 is clear, “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.” This speaks of the physical restoration of Israel and it has literally been happening in front of our very eyes for the last few decades. Additionally, In Ezekiel 37, the prophet is given a vision known as “the vision of the valley of dry bones”, in which he is told that Jewish people will return to Israel. This is about Israel’s national restoration, which is controlled by the God of Israel.

Jews have been coming to Israel under “the Law of Return” since 1948, but even more so in the last few decades. God is directing His chosen people back to His land for the final days before the return of the Mashiach. France has lost 50,000 Jews in the last 30 years, most of them in the last 15, due to the increased antisemitism that we have been witnessing lately. Is God behind this surge in antisemitism? He is not, but He can easily allow it as part of His divine plan. After all, He allowed for Satan to mess with Job at a level that most of us cannot even comprehend, but God did not hurt Job Himself. Can God allow for antisemitism to increase so that His chosen people will return home to Israel? Can God allow us to get into difficult and dangerous situations to draw us closer to Him, the answer is yes to both.

But, the national physical restoration is only part of this world event, because we will also see the spiritual rebirth of Israel as we read in Ezekiel 36:25-27, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

Frankly, the national regathering of Israel is nothing short of a miracle. We, the Jews should not exist, if it was not for God’s grace and the fact that He made promises to Israel that He ratified in His covenants. The fact that Jewish people are moving to Israel in droves from the four corners of the world should encourage us about God’s promises. It is the one current end times prophecy that we can claim is happening in front of our very eyes. What it does, is that it confirms that the word of God is true, tested and guaranteed.

We do not need to know the exact identity of the Antichrist (if you do know his identity, it actually means that you were left behind and are suffering through the Great Tribulation, and you don’t really want that to happen to you!) We also do not need to know the exact date for the Rapture, we just need to know that it will happen for sure (it is actually the next prophetic event on God’s timetable and could happen anytime now.) What we need to know, is that as we see the Jewish people repopulating their ancestral biblical land, we are living in the end times for sure and this should encourage us and motivate us to share the Gospel with people.

August 15, 2020 By Olivier Melnick 1 Comment

Will Antisemitic Christians Miss The Rapture?

The Rapture of believers has long been a controversial topic. Some believe that it is a myth and that it will never happen. They usually belong to a group of people that shies away from studying and/or teaching Bible prophecy for various reasons, and that would mean that we ignore about 25% of the Bible. Others believe in the Rapture happening, but simply place it at different times in the prophetic future, and some others would like to alter the way it will take place and who it will include. This has led to a lot of faulty views that are not doing justice to the doctrine of the Rapture. One of these views, circulating in some circles, claims that some Christians WILL NOT be included in the Rapture. This view is also known as the “Partial Rapture” view. Is there validity to that view at all, and who would be excluded?

The word “Rapture” is not found in the Hebrew or Greek Scriptures, but this doesn’t mean that the concept is not real. The word “Trinity” also doesn’t appear anywhere in Scripture, and yet, Orthodox Christianity has the monotheistic belief in a triune Godhead including the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Rapture comes from the latin raptus, meaning “to snatch up or seize.” It is found 14 times in the New Testament as the word harpazo. While the Rapture itself isn’t spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), there are some examples of individuals being snatched up or raptured by God such as Enoch (Genesis 5:24) or Elijah (2 Kings 2.) There are also several instances of individuals being taken-up in the New Testament, but we need to concentrate on the events surrounding the future Rapture of the Body of Messiah (all believers in Yeshua of Nazareth.)

The most common view of the Rapture is that of a descending of the Lord Yeshua in the sky (without touching down to earth) and a snatching up of all the believers on earth–dead or alive. It is based on two key passages of the Bible: 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. People see that event happening at various times around the events of the Great Tribulation (prior, during or after, being the three main views.) I adhere to a view of the last days that places the Rapture first, then the seven-year Tribulation (also known as the seventieth week of Daniel), followed by the Second Coming of Yeshua and the 1000-year Millennial Kingdom of Messiah on earth from Jerusalem.

In this view, believers are taken up to be with Yeshua prior to any other event of the end times. They are protected by God from any harm that will be inflicted upon unbelievers during the Great Tribulation also known as the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” Such an event is imminent, it could happen at any moment, and yet, nobody knows the exact time of the event. Even though many have speculated and written a myriad of books dating the Rapture, nobody knows the day or the hour. We are assured of the imminency of the event by passages such as John 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 1 Corinthians 1:7 and Titus 2:13. Author Renald Showers said it best in Maranatha, Our Lord Comes:” Other events may happen before the imminent return, but nothing else must take place before it happens.” I could continue to substantiate the pre-Tribulational, pre-Millennial view of the Rapture, but I am more interested in looking at who will be included and who will be excluded in that future event.

It should be obvious that the Rapture is seen as a reward for believers who will be protected from God’s wrath. That should never mean that because believers know that they will be snatched up before things get really bad, that we shouldn’t care. The opposite couldn’t be truer! Because we will be taken, and the unbelievers will be left behind, we should double up our efforts to share the Good News with the lost, so that many more can join in this epic upcoming event and be sheltered from the Great Tribulation. It should also be clear that those included in the Rapture–and this being whenever it takes place–are believers only. By this we mean those who have placed their trust in the death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah for their sins.

In spite of all the biblical evidence, there are people who believe that the Rapture will only include some Christians but not all. I have a serious problem with that view. It was recently brought to my attention while I was listening to a very popular teacher on prophecy who was speaking about Israel, gentiles and end-times. At some point in the message, it was said that:”Christians who hate Israel will not be included in the Rapture.” While I philosophically would agree with the exclusion of some believers in the Rapture, biblically, I simply cannot. Let me explain.

I have been a student of and teacher against antisemitism in all of its forms over the last several thousand years. As a result, I am painfully aware of Christian antisemitism over the centuries. By definition, Christian antisemitism means that one can be a follower of Messiah or a Christian and have resentment or hatred against the Jewish people. Their maturity as believers might be put in question, but their salvation shouldn’t. We come to Messiah by believing in the power of Yeshua’s atoning death and His blood shed on the cross on our behalf. That process is known as justification. Next comes a process that will take place for the rest of the life of the believer, and that is known as sanctification, when we are progressively made in the image of Messiah, until we are in our perfect glorified body, in God’s presence. Sanctification takes time and its progressive work is different in everyone. An antisemitic Christian is toxic to the Jewish community and negatively influential to the Christian community, and yet, they remain a Christian, saved by grace through the blood of Yeshua.

If the Nazi officer who pushed my grandfather to his death in Auschwitz was led to Yeshua moments before his death, he will be in heaven with me for all of eternity. In my still fallen human nature, I despise him, and I hate the possibility of his salvation, but biblically, I cannot avoid the reality of his inclusion in the family of God if he had indeed come to faith in Yeshua. Similarly, in Luke 23:42-43, the thief on the cross didn’t have any time to review his deeds and hang-ups when he placed his trust in Yeshua for his salvation. He simply turned his head, looked at Yeshua and asked Him to remember him: “And he was saying, “Yeshua, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” The thief had no time to revisit his life in detail or denounce and reject any hatred or prejudice he might have had. In his case, there was not time for earthly sanctification, but he was in God’s family nonetheless.

When I became a believer in the 1980s, it took me several years of maturing in the Lord and reading the Word to change my view on abortion. I used to be 100% pro-choice, but I am now convinced that the Bible teaches 100% pro-life. I was not less of a believer then, I was just a baby believer and had the Rapture occurred at that time, I would have been included, just the same way that the potential “saved Nazi officer” would have been included, had he become a follower of Yeshua.

So, when I hear someone saying that “Christians who hate Israel will not be included in the Rapture”, I cringe. I agree that Christian antisemitism is a real problem, but the only way these people will be excluded is if they are Christians in name only and have not given their lives to Yeshua, but that is a very different group of people.

To say that there will be a partial Rapture, is not new. It is a view from the mid-1800s, based on the idea of obedience and watching for Messiah’s return. It is built on verses such as Matthew 24:40-51 and 25:1-13, to name just a couple. But it is a faulty view that according to Richard Mayhue in Christ’s Prophetic Plan, would also necessitate a partial resurrection and require an earthly purgatory–two concepts found nowhere in Scripture.

Alongside the concept of a partial Rapture, another passage is often cited to prove that hating the Jews will exclude Christians from the Millennial Kingdom. That passage is found in Matthew 25:31-46 and is known as the Judgement of the sheep and the goats. In it, Yeshua says that those who helped Jews (the sheep) during the Great Tribulation are akin to having helped Him, “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Additionally, Yeshua speaks of those who didn’t help (the goats), as receiving eternal punishment in verse 46.

Two things need to be understood from this passage. First, this is taking place during the Tribulation and has no connection to the Rapture, and secondly, the people who will help the Jews during the Tribulation will be doing it because they themselves have become believers after being left behind, thus after the Rapture. They will not help in an effort to gain acceptance from God unto salvation, but as a result of their late salvation and understanding of the need to help and bless Jewish people, otherwise, this would mean that we can work for our salvation, another doctrine not found in the Bible.

There is simply no validity to the statement that “Christians who hate Israel will not be included in the Rapture”. We can go as far as saying that hating Israel is akin to hating God, and we get that idea from Psalm 83:3-5, “They make shrewd plans against Your people, And conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more.” For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant.”

It is clear that when one conspires against Israel, one conspires against the God of Israel Who is our God. As much as I wish it were, Christian antisemitism is not an oxymoron. It is the unfortunate result of our fallen nature, lack of maturity and ignorance. It can and should be fought with prayer and education.

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