The Rapture & Spiritual Awakenings

A friend asked me my thoughts on the “rapture”…well here they currently are:

The rapture has been a mystery for decades.  There are varying beliefs but the words in Matthew 24: 36-41 where “two men are working a field and one is taken and the other is left” and 1^st Thessalonians 4:17-18 where “we who are still alive will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord”, are two of the main passages that were used by two theologians in the 1800’s to make up this word in a Biblical text.  Well I have some news for these guys….the word rapture is not in the Bible once….not one time in the King James or any previous versions is it used.  It should be on page 1160 of my Strong’s Bible Concordance…but it’s not.  Although you may be surprised…I am not…not one bit.   

There have been volumes of books written on this topic and I’m not going to make this a long post trying to justify my thoughts…my faith is all the justification I need.

Let’s start simple….the term rapture is defined as “a feeling of intense pleasure or joy.”  So can you not experience “rapture” in your everyday life?  Certainly you can.  But the term rapture that many use today describes an event where the believers are caught up to be with God before the tribulations of man.  These verses confuse what to me is a very obvious transformation on this planet that is currently taking place and will culminate in the Lord’s coming in the very near future.

Let me ask you this….can we not be “transformed” while still being alive.  Certainly you can…that’s what happens when you accept Christ into your life.  And as you continue your life’s journey your spirit gains in knowledge and understanding.  Not all of us will accept Christ in our lives and many that do, do not receive the full benefits Christ offers us thru the Holy Spirit because they are weak or absent of faith. One man will accept it and be transformed…the other will be left behind.

Those of you that are strong in the faith…those that have the presence of the Lord around them know a feeling at times of having your head in the clouds as you soak in the glories our God offers.  When your heart, mind, body and soul act as one to drive your spirit to do and say things that exalt a living God.  When the Lord uses you in some way to be a vessel for others, well sir, you feel like you’re walking on clouds of righteousness.  It is a feeling I hope each and every man woman and child experiences…for it is what we were created to do…we were created in God’s image, but we have choices that form our perceptions of what we see in the mirror.

So what does this have to do with the rapture?  This is what my faith says:

"The rapture is a man- made term…it does not mean that at some point all the believers will leave to be caught up in the clouds and the heathens will be left behind.  On the contrary….the believers who are strong in faith will experience even deeper understandings that enrich their lives, purify their souls and allow their spirit to drive their heart and mind.  In other words the rapture is the strong in Christ…becoming even stronger and more Christ like in their actions and words.  Our world is currently going thru this transition…where the strong become stronger and the weak fall by the wayside".

My faith tells me that God loves us and this planet.  He has spoken to me in my prayers and in other ways and even though we see all sorts of tragedy and ungodliness around us…He is pleased His Word has survived and thrives in this country and around the world…this is not always the case.  He is pleased that there are many, many more strong in the faith than has been encountered in the past.  

Yes folks what I’m saying here is ours is not the only planet, ours is not the only history, ours is not the only place where the forces of good and evil battle and ours is not the only place that will be transformed or destroyed in the “blink of an eye”.  When that time comes, this is what my faith says:

"Two men will be in a field…one will be left, the other will disappear. The one that is left is the faithful, the other will be destroyed, his soul cast into the lake of fire". 
The faithful will be caught up in the clouds, figuratively…not literally.  When you walk in the strength of God…well sir sometimes your head is in the clouds…it is the highest of highs and a feeling I hope you have experienced and if not strive for it.  You will know when it happens…provided your intentions are pure and your faith strong.

We have all been told of “Heaven on Earth,” that God will make it all better.  Actually we need to make ourselves and our world better first through the transformation…the rapture…of our souls and spirits.

Why take away all the good and leave the bad behind to further trash our world.  On the other hand the end times will be the exact opposite.  My faith tells me that at some point all the unfaithful, those that have heard the Word and choose to ignore it will be the ones GONE…they will disintegrate before our very eyes and all they ever did or said will be forgotten…but not forgiven for they had their chances and choose to continue on their destructive and divisive ways.  "Be gone then you heathens"…for me I will wait then for the time when our world is made better through the transformation of the faithful and the rapturous feeling of intense pleasure of being one with our God.

Every day we see those that helped form this great country leaving us.  Fantastic musicians, writers, artists, athletes, leaders and such that had the Word of God in their souls and their lives were a testimate to what a faithful spirit can accomplish when they walk the path of righteousness. They are experiencing an intense pleasure, a rapture…in Heaven.  Those of us alive at the Second Coming will see this same “rapture” and we will be the envy of the angels for being able to experience it.

So what will that day be like you may ask?  Well to be found in scripture and hold its truth the Second Coming will happen when the Lord feels the time is right to end all this madness around us.  On that day my faith tells me…”The clouds will split and fall to Earth…the whole planet will be as in darkness because a heavy dense fog (the clouds) will settle on Earth and the judging will be done.  When the fog lifts a wondrous new world will be on display…but it won’t quite be Heaven on Earth…not for 1000 years of man realizing how good a world with God and His Son Jesus Christ as the corner stones can really be.”

Now that’s a pretty powerful answer to a simple prayer…a prayer that has been said more times than can be counted…and that’s a good thing…for without prayer we are lost as sheep in a dessert.

I told my friend I would make this post based on faith and the scriptures.  I know I haven’t mentioned any except two that were misinterpreted, although with good intent.  Since I mentioned two at the beginning I’ll mention two that back up my thoughts on the rapture and the end times; but the list of references doesn’t stop there…the Bible is full of clues…you just have to be guided on where to look.

Let’s look at Revelations first.  Getting back to my point that the word rapture is not anywhere in the Bible you would think it would certainly be in Revelations…nope not even there. But many people look at Revelations 3:10 and other passages to justify their interpretations.  But my faith says…”hold on a minute, don’t believe everything you’ve been told…especially when it comes to interpretations of scripture by mankind.”  So I doubted and asked for an answer…no matter what it was…I said “Lord guide me, give me strength and understanding for I have nothing else but Your Word and my faith.”  He guided me to two passages:

Revelations 3:21 “To him that overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” (NIV).  Ok now think about that for a second…no really think about how you would feel sitting with Christ on His throne…I think it is a pretty good guess that you would feel your head was in the clouds as you experienced all your faith becoming a reality. 

But this is the passage the Lord gave me just this weekend…and it sums up the end times very clearly to me.  First a little back story; the passage is Micah 4: 1-5.  Who is Micah you may ask?  Yeah I know most people don’t even know it’s a book in the Old Testament that is only seven chapters long, but it is packed with so much more than that.  Micah himself was a country man; he didn’t associate with the rich and famous like Isaiah did.  He was considered a classical (or writing) prophet who lived around 700 B.C..  Jerusalem was under siege and Israel was torn into the north and south kingdoms.  Read Micah in its entirety and compare it to what is happening in our own country and Israel today and the parallels are astounding….here is the passage:

Starting with verse 3 in chapter 4 as Micah prophesizes about the end times…”He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.  They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (4) Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. (5) All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever". (NIV)

That last verse, verse 5, sums it up for me…to me it says in the end times there will be nations that are not as strong in faith as others, but God will show mercy and allow them to transform into being more faithful having found some faith residing there.  But He will not have any mercy on their wretched leaders who have kept the Word of God from their people and corrupted their nations; who have no faith in God, only in their own destructive and perverted ways. 

We will be transformed and experience intense joy…we will be raptured from one life to another, a life of living side by side with Jesus as we learn His Ways and the ways of the faithful.  We won’t be taken up in the clouds; the clouds will come to us and blot out the sun, so the real power of the Son can be delivered to an Earth that although flawed by man in many ways, still has a strong base of faith, which is not always the case.

Here is one more thought as found in the Words of Christ Himself.  In Matthew 24 where Jesus speaks of the future starting in verse 39 where He’s talking about Noah & the great flood…””people didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came & swept them all away.  That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.””.  Verse 40 is the famous rapture passage…”” two men will be working together in a field; one will be taken the other left.””  Ok He just said that like in Noah’s flood the wicked ones were swept or “taken” away.  And in verse 50 He talks of an evil servant who is surprised at his masters return & is cut to pieces & done away with.  So who is gone….who is taken?  Not the Faithful, but the evil doers & haters in the world.  Exactly the opposite of common rapture theology…but the Words can not be ignored.  No one has ever challenged me on this…maybe it’s too radical, well maybe the Words are just too simple to understand.  I am not re-writing anything…I’m using my Faith & Gods guidance to understand Jesus’s Words…that’s the promise of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible was written to cover all of life’s bases. In all the worlds God has created it is the cornerstone of our faith.  It was written for us to learn and understand.  But it is also full of history, prophecy and symbolism and that’s where it gets confusing.  I know no one has ever given this explanation before on the rapture.  But I am not just anyone.  I am someone that the Lord has blessed with guidance and understanding, but I myself am still learning, for to know God is to seek God.

My faith is not hope…it is reality and my purpose with this post and all my others is to take what the Lord has gifted to me and share it with my fellow Christians and non-believers alike in the hope the faithful will understand His ways a little better and that the unbelievers will find salvation…before it is too late.

In His service now and forever more …}…

.B.A.S.  9/3/2018 7:57 PM EST 🐝

Pics & edits 11/4/2023 🪶😎🇺🇸✝️. 

Job Chapters 38- 41. God responds to Job

Revelations 1-3. Jesus’s letters to the Churches.  AMEN

Everyday I pray for this world & I pray for all of humanity to be “raptured” into the Grace of God.  We will experience Heaven on Earth & it will be a day where evil is vanquished…left as a smoldering pile of ash for the wind to blow away.  Think about it…if all the evils of the world were gone, what would we have?  Heaven on Earth…just as Promised.  ⏳⚖️⛲️✨🕊️

Go in Peace & Love will Follow.  🙏🕍📡🕯️🌁