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We can confidently trust that God will rapture his church and deliver us from the divine wrath that is to come.
1 review for Sorting Out The End Times–Part 7
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Leonard Martinez –
I was disappointed to hear that Pastor Mike subscribes to the silly and foolish notion of a rapture and millenium.
Matthew 24 is a lengthy discourse about the tribulation 1st century Jews will undergo in A.D. 66-70, culminating in the destruction of the temple and the end of the age of animal sacrifice. It is estimated that the Roman Army killed as many as one million Jews at that time. In that discourse Jesus also answers the question of when he will return a second time. Nobody knows, not even the Son of Man. The beginning of the discourse is where the disciples’ questions are found that Jesus is answering in Matthew 24.
The book of Revelation is a letter to seven churches that will undergo the fire of tribulation by having the Caesar cult forced down their throats. The primary thrust of Revelation concerns Christians living in the first century A.D. Moreover, the belief that there is going to be a thousand-year period of animal sacrifice in Israel when Christ has already paid the price once for all seems a slap in the face to our Redeemer. In a book with so much symbolic imagery, it seems strange that 1000 years is taken by some as a literal millennium, especially since the number is used elsewhere in the Bible only figuratively.
Israel and the Church are not two separate entities, but after the resurrection of our Lord, they both became “the Israel of God.” Then the Gentiles were grafted into the same olive branch identified as believing Israel, says Paul in the book of Romans.
The next and final happening on the eschatological calendar, in my thinking, will be the parousia and the New Heaven and New Earth. That’s it. Not as exciting as a rapture and looking for signs of the end in the newspaper, but it gets the job done. God’s way.
Taking verses out of context doth not become thee, Pastor Mike. I enjoy your preaching and listen to you on the radio here in the Los Angeles area. I feel that the Hal Lindsey/Tim LaHaye sensationalism of a rapture and future end-times tribulation has made Christians look silly, stupid and gullible. Please review again the Scriptures you use to support this view.
Sincerely,
Leonard Martinez