Stephen Bell, The KEY Ministries, 3201 West Pipeline Road, Euless, Texas 76040  817-283-1700   e-MAIL Stephen at KEY Ministries

 

 

“ONE TAKEN. . . AND THE OTHER LEFT“

 

Excerpts from Bill Brittons’s book … A Closer Look at The Rapture

To give you an idea of the way the scriptures were mutilated by those straining to prove this theory, let us look at the example in Matthew 24. Here it tells us that at His coming, “one shall be taken, and the other left”. Songs were written, and sermons were preached, to urge us to be ready to be “taken” when Jesus comes. When actually, the Bible is saying the exact opposite. It was the wicked that were “taken” in Noah’s day, and the righteous were left to inherit the earth. So shall it be in the day of the coming of the Son of man.

 

Matthew 24:37-41 says:

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”

 

Now who was taken in Noah’s day? The wicked! Will it be different now? No, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. That’s what the Bible says. And if there is still any doubt in your mind as to whether the saints will be “taken when Jesus comes”, let us turn to Luke 17:27. While Matthew says that the “flood came and took them all away”, Luke gives the same account of this teaching of Jesus, except that in Luke we read: “and the flood came and destroyed them all”. So to be “taken” means to be destroyed by the judgments that are coming upon the earth. Do you still want to be taken?

 

WHAT REALLY HAPPENS?

 

“To meet the Lord in the air”. Not meet Him up in the sky, or in outer space. But in the air. Air. The stuff we breathe. It is all around us. It’s what there isn’t any of in outer space. When airplanes fly up above the clouds, they have to take their air with them in order to breathe. Wuest translation says we meet Him “in the lower atmosphere”. But it will be in a much higher spiritual order. Caught up…Hallelujah! I like that. “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” But aren’t we with Him now? In one sense, we are. But II Cor 5:6 makes it plain that “whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” But when we are “caught up”, our bodies are also involved in this ascent, so that we can be forever in the presence of the Lord in a way we cannot know now, and still have our body. A glorious body then

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So the sum of what we have said is this: The old pre-tribulation escape rapture theory that originated with Margaret MacDonald in 1830, and now held by many Fundamentalists and Pentecostals, has been proven to be false and contrary to scripture. God has promised to deal with those preachers who lull the people to sleep with this doctrine.

In Ezekiel 13:4-5 He says: “O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord”.

 

God’s complaint against the prophets was that they did not prepare the people for what was coming in the Day of the Lord. And in verse 10 He says “Because, even because they have seduced my people saying Peace. And there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar.” Irving built the wall, while Darby, Larkin and Scofield daubed at it. But God says it shall fall. The storm is coming. The prophets have said “Peace”, and there was no peace. Back to I Thessalonians now…in chapter 5, verse 3: “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.”

 

What really happens is that Jesus is coming back with a sound of a trumpet. Now wherever the Bible speaks of a trumpet, it is symbolic of a message going forth. Look it up. Many scriptures confirm this. Trumpets sounded for each feast day. And there is a message or trumpet of restoration that brings Jesus back to earth (Acts 3:21). And when He comes back, those saints that come back with Him shall receive their bodies again that were laid down in death. Those bodies shall ascend or rise out of that state of death, into a glorious state of likeness to His body of glory. Then those who are still dwelling in these mortal bodies shall be “caught up” into that same place. This mortal shall put on immortality. Death shall be swallowed up in victory. Then the Sons of God, that manchild company, shall be “caught up unto God, and to His throne”. (Rev 12:5). The manifestation of the Sons of God (Romans 8) takes place. The Jubilee trumpet of Leviticus 25 begins to sound. The Melchisedec priesthood order passes through the veil into the Holy of Holies to be with their great High Priest, Jesus our Lord. Those whom He has made to be kings and priests begin to reign on this earth (Rev 5). The Armies of heaven who follow Jesus on white horses, destroy Babylon, burn her with fire, and bind Satan with unbreakable chain. All enemies begin to be put under the feet of the Body of Christ, until every enemy has been destroyed, even death! Whether or not you have faith to believe for these great things, does not bother me in the least. For the performance of those things God has spoken does not depend upon your faith, and is not hindered by your unbelief. He has spoken, and He shall perform it. The age of death, sin, sickness, crime, hate, war, pain, darkness and rebellion is rapidly coming to an end. The door is opening to a new age. The Kingdom is getting ready to come to earth! Hallelujah! JESUS IS COMING SOON! Judgment from God on the Earth will come …

 

2 False doctrines being taught today

( from “Light Out Of Shadows” by Bill Britton, Church in Action, POB 707, Springfield, MO 65801-0707 )

Certainly there will be judgment on the earth. For during this glorious Day of the Lord, Satan and all his hordes will be raging, having been cast out of the heavens and knowing that his time is short. ALL who are not sealed by God in their foreheads ( REV 7:3, 14:1 ) will suffer the wrath of that awful day. But we are not appointed unto wrath ( 1 Thess 5:9 ), but to obtain full deliverance and salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And though Satan rages for awhile, he is defeated. And though the nations drink of the cup of the wrath of God, as they certainly deserve, yet in His mercy He shall send them deliverance in the person of His Son, His many membered Son! GLORY TO GOD! The world of men has never dreamed of the glory that shall be manifested in these last days. Right here on this earth. Well, wait and see, if you cannot believe. Or be a part of it, if you can believe for it.

 

There are several false doctrines which keep men from believing the Truth of what God is doing. One of these … and one of the most widely accepted … though doctrinally weak and scripturally unfounded, is the traditional doctrine of the so-called “rapture”. I teaches that God is going to spend 2,000 years building an army and girding them with a spiritual armor (helmet, breastplate, shield, sword, etc ) and them jerk them suddenly from the field of battle just as the real war of the ages begins. It implies that God’s poor little weak Church is just not able to overcome the Anti-christ, so they must be taken off to get a glorified body and escape the battle. It tells us that God actually did let some of His children be thrown into a fiery furnace, let some be sawn asunder, be fed to the lions, be tortured on the Roman rack, burnt at the stake, and only God knows what all else … but that He is too good to let us easy-living Americans of the last days be on this earth during a time of great trouble and tribulation ( though we are promised the seal of God to protect us).

 

Another false teaching ( made necessary to bolster up the first one ) is that God is going to train His Church to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ for 20 centuries, opening up New Testament revelation to them and giving them a burden for lost souls and for the evangelization of the billions of the earth … and then at the last minute take the end time church out and give the job of evangelization over to the Jews, who are supposed to all become transformed into great evangelists in 24 hours. And the natural Jews who never knew the truths of the New Testament, who never had the ministry of Apostles and prophets and pastors to perfect them, are supposed to go forth and do what the Church has failed to do in 2000 years. Does this make sense to you?

Of course not! People only believe it because it is tradition, and because they have heard it preached all their lives. The Holy Ghost never gave any such revelation.

 

Comments by Paul Nowlen - I have for years heard the expression in churches about “getting up a load to go” just before the Great Tribulation hits the earth. I asked several pastors WHY we are doing all this training now, overcoming, etc, just to be taken out when real trouble comes and millions are left to fend for themselves without having trained believers to lead them to Christ. The silence, and the look on their faces, spoke loudly to me about what they believe. Jeremiah has some interesting comments to say about such pastors and teachers (“prophets”) in LAM 2:14. ( NKJV )

“Your prophets have seen for you False and deceptive visions; They have not uncovered your iniquity, To bring back your captives, But have envisioned for you FALSE PROPHECIES and DELUSIONS”

 

True and honest believers stand on the WORD of GOD and believe and know without doubt that they are covered by the full armor of God. HE will sustain, feed, and protect each of us supernaturally during today and the hard days that are coming when HIS judgment falls on America and other nations. I want to be here to help those who are lost and who will be terrified at that time of “God’s wrath” upon the nations. I have no desire to go off someplace and not be here to comfort and assist those in bondage, fear and need. The “rapture” is escapism, pure and simple, and a cop-out teaching. The Bible nowhere teaches such nonsense and falsity.

 

The Rapture – A Selfish Hope?

George Warnock – The Vision and the Appointment

“There has been too much expectation of a premature rapture into Heaven, to get away from earth’s troubles and problems. God loves the world too much to strip the earth of the righteous ones. He will have a warring righteous people for that hour. He will have a people clothed upon with “the whole armour of God” – for what Day? – for that evil Day.

 

What a selfish hope some have, to fly away from it all, and leave Planet Earth in the hands of the Devil! God has prepared sufficient armour for us to overcome any evil plot that Satan has against God’s people. “Wherefore,” the apostle tells us, “take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” ( EPH 6:13 )

When the overcomers have fought this last great Battle against the forces of evil, they will stand victorious on the field of battle.