For those who have followed my writings over the years, knows, that I am not prone to wild speculation, date setting, prophecy “crazes” or any other sort of unbiblical theology. This will be a little different. So, let me caution you and preface this article with several points of consideration.
- I do not know the ‘day or hour’ (Matthew 24:36). You will not find me saying on here, on such and such date, the Lord will Rapture the Church. I am simply giving a likely window of time that I feel, He could return.
- Do not take my speculation here as Gospel. IOW, don’t quit your job, sell the farm, leave your spouse, or any other life-changing decisions based off what you read here.
- Do not lose hope if my theory is wrong, and we are still here after ____ date. You can fault me, but don’t fault Scripture. I am errant, Scripture, is not.
- Do keep looking up. Do remain excited about our Lord’s soon coming. I may be wrong by months and year(s), but I believe we are very close.
As believers who earnestly desire the return of the rightful King of Kings to the earth, thinking upon these things should bring joy, peace, and excitement. We should be excited about the return of Christ. With that said, let me break this down into six major points before I give you my conclusion.
1. Knowing
But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4 (emphasis mine)
The Apostle Paul introduces us to the mystery of the Rapture (Greek-harpazo) for the first time in his first letter to the Thessalonian church (1 Thess. 4:13-18). He reinforces the idea of hope here in chapter five. Remember, chapter and verses were not added to Scripture until 1560 (Geneva Bible), so in the original Greek, all of this (1 Thess.4-5) would have just been flowing narrative.
Here, Paul reiterates that there is some expectation by God that we should be able to look around, see the prophetic signs, and know we are near the season of His return. Jesus had a similar expectation of the Pharisees and Sadducees of His day when He rebuked them for either not knowing or purposely ignoring them.
Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. Matthew 16:1-4
The Pharisees and Sadducees came demanding Jesus do parlor tricks to prove who He claimed to be. He already knew in their hearts that they didn’t believe Him, even if He did do signs for them. They had already accused Him of doing miracles through the power of demons-Matt. 9:34, 12:24. This is, in part, why he accused them of being wicked and adulterous and would only get the sign of the prophet Jonah through His three-day death, burial, and resurrection.
The other part of their wickedness was due to their hypocritical dismissal of the prophecies that had already been given to them via the Old Testament prophets. They had already written about WHEN the Messiah would come (Dan. 9:24-27), where He would be born (Numbers 24:17, Micah 5:2, Matt. 2:3-6), and WHAT He would be like (Genesis 49:10, Deuteronomy 18:18), and what He came to do (Isaiah 53, Psalm 22).
Therefore, the Biblical expectation is that when we see the super-sign of the last days (i.e., the rebirth of national Israel) we SHOULD KNOW we are in the season of the Lord’s return. We know this is the super sign because of the numerous prophecies concerning her rebirth as a nation again in the last days (Deut. 30, Amos 9:14-15, Isaiah 11:11, Jeremiah 30:7-11, and Matt. 24:15-21, 31-35, Romans 11:25-27, etc.).
Again, we know what Jesus stated in Matthew 24:36 about not knowing the day or hour. However, those were not Jesus final word’s on the subject. Here, in the letter to the church of Sardis (the dead church), He notes a peculiar command:
Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. Revelation 3:3
Translation:
“If you will not watch….you will not know.”
However, the opposite of that translation is…
“If you will watch…you will know.”
Summary: We are commanded to watch and be aware of the times in which we live. It would be impossible to watch, if we didn’t know what to watch for. Therefore, if we are watching for our Lord’s return, we should be able to know the season with some reasonable expectation. (See also: Mark 13:32-36, Luke 12:38-40)
2. The Third Day
Time is a finite resource and each of us are only appointed so many days to live our lives. Likewise, the human race also has an end-date; humanity will not continue indefinitely. If humans were meant to live in perpetuity, then God could have created mankind billions of years ago. However, that is not the case. A biblical perspective shows a very limited window for the entirety of human history approximating around 6,000 years. According to Genesis 1-2, God created our universe in six days, and on the seventh day, He rested. Thus, biblically and historically, we know there was-
2,000 years from Adam to Abraham
+
2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus
+
2,000 years from Jesus to today
+
1,000-year millennial reign of Christ (still future)
=
7,000 years, which were meant to mirror the seven days of Creation
With that explained, here is what the prophet Hosea wrote back in the eighth-century BC.
Come, and let us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight. Hosea 6:1-2
Historically, we know the Assyrians conquered Israel around 720BC. The Babylonians would conquer the southern tribes (Judah/Jerusalem) for the first time around 605BC. Those conquered here were repatriated around 538BC by the Medo-Persians. This was their first regathering. Those first-century Jews were then conquered and dispersed a second time in AD70 by the Romans.
Now fast-forward 1,878 years, and Israel and Judaea were now restored a single nation (Ezekiel 37) for a second time in 1948. Most people would start Hosea’s time clock from the AD70 date, however, given the Messianic overtones in the Hosea passage and Matthew 27:25, we should start in 33AD.
Therefore, if we use the 33AD date to begin Hosea’s two days, we know there was 1,915 years from 33AD to 1948. If we add 70 years to 1,915 years (from 1948), we get 1,985 years and the year 2018. If we add another 10 years (see Psalm 90:10), then we are at 1,995 years and the year 2028. Not to get too into the weeds on this, but in the year 2020, we are two years away from the 2,000-year time-stamp God has used in previous ages.
Gregorian calendar:
- Add 70 years (lifespan) = 1,985 years = AD 2018
- Add 80 years (lifespan) = 1,995 years – AD 2028
However, the Gregorian calendar is 5.2422 days longer (in a calendar year) than the 360-day prophetic calendar. The 360-day calendar will accumulate more calendar years than the Gregorian calendar, given enough time; because of this fact. Thus, we must add 29 years to the total.
360-day prophetic calendar:
- Add 70 years (lifespan) = 2,014 years = AD 2047
- Add 80 years (lifespan) = 2,024 years = AD 2057
Summary: We are either right at the cusp, or we are in an extended overtime depending on how you measure it. For those who would think I am reading too much into Hosea 6:1-2, keep in mind, it is not just hyperbolic language. We have two accompanying passages that also equate time from God’s perspective as being very different from our own understanding of it (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8).
3. Feast Sequence
Christ fulfilled the Spring Feasts in His death, burial, and resurrection. The church was then conceived at Pentecost and we have been in the spiritual incubation/maturation phase ever since. Since the rebirth of national Israel, we have been witnessing a rapid development of the birth pangs spoken of in Matthew 24, 1 Thess. 5, 2 Thess. 2, and so forth. Some might argue these are not birth pangs, but call them what you will, they are either Braxton-Hicks contractions, or the real deal.
The Spring Feasts
- Christ was crucified on Passover
- Christ was buried on Unleavened Bread
- Christ was resurrected on the First Fruits
- The Church was conceived on Pentecost (Shavuot)
~These are then separated by the long summer months
The Fall Feasts
- Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah)
- Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)
- Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)
If a consistent prophetic model can be applied here, the past 2,000 years would represent the summer months separating the spring and the fall feasts. The next feast (prophetically speaking) is the Feast of Trumpets. These are the dates for the next few years:
- 2020: Sept. 19-20 (US Election Year)
- 2021: Sept. 7-8
- 2022: Sept. 26-27
- 2023: Sept. 16-17
- 2024: Oct. 3-4 (US Election Year)
Summary: While I have never been dogmatic in attempting to align the Rapture with a particular Jewish Feast day, I thought I should include them given their prophetic significance in the life of Christ as we understand it. IF there is correlation between the Feasts of the Lord and the Rapture of the Church, then the Feast of Trumpet’s is the most likely candidate, because it is in keeping with the chronological sequence as the next Feast date requiring fulfillment on the prophetic calendar.
4. Apostasy or Apostasia?
As many, seasoned Christian’s have told me on numerous occasions, every generation has had their “antichrist.” The Reformation Era had largely concluded that the Popes were the Antichrist. The 19th-century likely thought Napoleon was the antichrist. The WWII generation likely concluded that Hitler was the antichrist. To their credit, each generation were correct to a degree. They were antichrists, but none of them was THE Antichrist (i.e., the lawless one, the son of perdition, the rider on the white horse, etc.).
Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul tells us in 2nd Thessalonians 2 that we (Christians) cannot know who the Antichrist is, because we will be removed from the earth by way of Rapture, before He is revealed.
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thess. 2:3-8
I hold to the interpretation that the words ‘falling away’ (Greek-apostasia) speak to both a spiritual falling away, as well as a literal, physical departure from the earth. I believe there are very many good reasons to believe that (see here) and will not restate them all save one. If the “falling away” (apostasia) only meant a religious falling away, as in apostasy, then, which apostasy?
For those who only believe this word apostasia only applies to widespread apostasy, I would argue that there has always been widespread apostasy going back to the second century Gnostics and onward. From there we get about a thousand years of Roman Catholic domination over what was then, Christendom. From there we get a brief period of Protestant fire, but that is quickly drowned in tradition, creeds, dogma, and dead religiosity. There were brief periods of time in which revival in the west and around the world occurred (e.g., the Great Awakenings, missionary movements), but for the most part, true Christianity has always been the faith of the remnant.
Jesus states in His final letter to the last church, Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22) that they were lukewarm and nauseating, and He would spew them out of His mouth. Now, if these Laodiceans were truly Christians in the first place, this would be in direct conflict with dozens of other NT passages showing that when we first believed, we were sealed and indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, and new creations in Christ. In other words, it would be highly contradictory for Christ to spew out Christians who were sealed by God the Holy Spirit and also part of His body for falling away.
Rather, these were people pretending to be Christians but were noncommittal in their faith, and thus, had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof (2 Tim. 2:5). These were people playing church, but were not THE CHURCH. This is why in this letter, Jesus is standing on the outside, knocking on the door. They thought their wealth and their works were enough to save them, but they were really wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. This does not sound like a description of true, born-again believers. So how could they be apostate, if they were never really Christians in the first place?
We have been watching this happen on steroids to the western churches since 9/11. It began when liberal theology invaded the seminaries back in the early 1900s and began denying the fundamentals of our faith. It spread from there to anti-Zionism, and later, anti-Semitism. It then began to embrace liberation theology and various forms of Socialism. The next surrender was to the pagan death cult of Islam. Then it was the capitulation to the perverse homosexual and sexually confused agenda. Next, the Laodiceans have moved into Critical Race Theory, Marxism and other new world order socialist agendas. Finally, and mark my words, we will see the inclusion of Pagans, Satanists, and pedophiles into the final stage of this nauseating Laodicean movement.
It has been one capitulation after another to some form of ungodliness. Like a tsunami of wickedness, we have witnessed wave after wave of godlessness crash our churches and leave nothing but rubble in the wake.
Summary: I believe that is why Paul was instructed by the Holy Spirit to use the word apostasia as he did. It speaks both to the rapid decline of Christianity in the final moments just before the Rapture (spiritual departure), as well as, to the actual event of the Rapture (physical departure). Without our physical departure, the Antichrist could not be revealed (2 Thess. 2:7-8). The elections of Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump, have only increasingly agitated and solidified the sides for which Christian’s now stand, at least, in this country. IOW, God is shaking off the fence sitters and forcing people to choose sides.
5. Prophetic Shelf Life
And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Luke 21:24
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Romans 11:25
Bible prophecy is not some open-ended concept with no definitive conclusion. The late Chuck Missler used to say, bible prophecy was just history written in advance. Bible prophecy has a shelf life because it must find its fulfillment in its specified time and place. Keep in mind, God is always precise in the execution of His plan. While I support the idea of imminence, I do not support the idea of imminence as being random or unplanned. Let me explain.
- Could God rapture His Church tomorrow? Yes.
- Could God rapture His Church, 500 years from now? Yes.
- Could God have raptured His Church 500 years ago? Yes.
- Would God pick a random date to rapture His Church? I do not believe so.
For everything we have seen in Scripture, from the six days of Creation, to the Flood, to the sacrifice of Isaac, to the exodus, and the arrival of His Son to the earth- there was always a rhyme to the reason. There was always a shadow or type it was meant to convey. When Moses sinned by striking the rock twice at Meribah Kadesh, he was judged harshly for breaking typology and was not allowed enter into the Promised Land.
So while I could be wrong in stating that imminence (in the strictest sense of the word) is not in keeping with God’s nature, it could also be that the Rapture happens on a day we don’t yet fully understand. However, if we are going to have that view, we must also then apply that same level of fairness to things like the Blood Moon Tetrads and the September 23, 2017 ‘Revelation 12’ sign. Perhaps those things meant something, but we just don’t understand their significance yet either.
Setting imminence now aside, we have come to the execution of God’s prophetic plans by the players involved. For example, we see the nations as mentioned in Ezekiel 38-39, lined up exactly as God said they would. For 2,600 years, the nations of Russia, Turkey, Iran, and Libya have always been at odds with each other.
Turkey had been an ally of the west for most of the 20th-century. Libya had been ruled by a washed up despot for decades. Russia was focused on their own national identity crisis with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Only Iran (who had been an ally of Israel and the West until 1979) remained singularly focused on destroying Israel. These nations are now allied for a variety of reasons (economic, political, scientific, and militarily).
However, their alliance will not remain indefinitely. All of these countries are facing significant economic and cultural-stressors at home that for now, are forcing them to unite against the West. However, these same stressors (sanctions, declining populations, political instability, etc.) do not afford them the luxury of time.
Secondly, for 2,000 years, the technology the bible mentions in places like Revelation 11 and 13 did not exist in the world. It has only been since the late 1980s, that satellite television came into being. It has only been since the late 1990s and early 2000s, that digital currency was even possible. From then until now, we are increasingly living in a world where the Beast technology is becoming a frightening reality. In fact, it is becoming so obvious at this point, that even non-believers are joking (half-heartedly that is) about things like the mark of the beast.
We are in that weird in-between stage now where half the people are waking up to the prophetic reality that we are living in the last days, while the other half are becoming conditioned to accept it as the new normal. As my friend Matt Ward once wrote, the technology of Revelation is the technology of now, not the technology of 2040.
All of the technological aspirations that corporations like Google, Apple, IBM, Bill Gates, etc. want to take mankind; many of these go beyond the level of technology Revelation talks about.
Summary: Thus, we must conclude that the geopolitical arrangements, as well as the technological limits, will come to some form of ‘fullness,’ but go no further. Man will not download their souls into computers. Man will not colonize Mars. Man will not invent time machines. As much as man desires to do these things, and could (see Gen. 11:6), God will not allow it any more than He allowed the tower of Babel to be finished.
6. The Last Trump
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.1 Cor. 15:52 (KJV)
I am not a KJV-onlyist, nor do I think one translation is superior to all the rest. I will say though that the KJV is the most well known and most read translation ever written. With that said, isn’t it divinely ironic that the most popular translation of the Bible ever written uses the word “trump” in its translation instead of “trumpet.” From the 1611 version-
In a moment, in the twinckling of an eye, at the last trumpe, (for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.)
Some may smirk at the association I am making, but if for nothing else, the term “trump” has been associated with this passage and the Rapture for around 400 years now. The miraculous victory Donald Trump had in 2016, just so coincided with the 70th anniversary of Israel.
President Trump had every excuse in the book to do like every president before him had done, and ignore the recognition of Jerusalem as the true and undisputed capital of Israel. He could have kept the tradition of keeping the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, but he didn’t. After declaring Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel (December 2017), many in Israel’s Sanhedrin began comparing Trump with Cyrus.
According to their family tree, Trump’s German grandfather (Friedrich Drumpfe) and grandmother (Elizabeth Christ) adopted the anglicized version (Trump) sometime between the years 1885 and 1904. In 1905, they gave birth to their son Frederick Christ Trump (Donald Trump’s father) in New York. The name Frederick in the Germanic tongue, means, peaceful ruler. Frederick’s father, Friedrich, would later die in 1918 due to the Spanish Flu. Frederick, however, would carry on the family name and industrious success in the real estate and construction business and later pass it on to his son, Donald.
Summary: We must remember that it is not unprecedented for God to name names in Scripture. God, through the prophet Isaiah, named the Persian King Cyrus (another friend of Israel) some 150 years before his rule (see Isaiah 45). Is it possible that God has been signaling to us that there is a connection between the Rapture and Donald Trump’s time as leader of the free world?
Conclusion
With all the things I have provided above, it is my estimation that we are now between four and ten years away from the Rapture of the Church. Now, if all of my reasons above prove wrong and we are still here beyond 2030, then, by all means, give me flack. However, I feel ten years is a reasonable estimation, especially given all we are seeing now.
Granted, it would be much easier (and safer) if I came out and said the Lord will return by the year 2050. That is a safe, no-risk answer, because, well, most of you reading this now will not be here in 2050. Many of us would have already graduated into glory by then should the Lord tarry. Heck, I would be 76 if I lived that long. However, 2050 (using the Gregorian calendar) holds no special significance to either Israel or to Scripture.
If Jesus’ Parable of the Fig Tree (Matt. 24:32-35) is to be understood reasonably, then the phrase this generation shall not pass away, is the generation that sees the rebirth of Israel. The rebirth of Israel happened in 1948. Israel’s 70th anniversary happened in 2018, two years into the Trump presidency. And since there is no consistent specification from scripture as to how long a generation is exactly, we are left to conclude that a generation is the length of a man’s life. This length then, according to the only Psalm written by Moses, is between 70-80 years long (Psalm 90:10), and then we “fly away.”
So what does the 2020 election and Donald Trump have to do with all this?
Well, as I have stated in previous articles, the world’s leaders are desperately seeking a global crisis of such magnitude that they have an excuse to put us all under one governmental system. They are so desperate that they have even drummed up our present “crisis” in an attempt to stop Donald Trump from winning reelection.
We know that according to Ephesians 6:12, spiritual forces are presently at work, behind the scenes, attempting to carry out their dark and wicked machinations. They do this often times, through their human agents, who seem to now (since 2016) to be working overtime to stop Donald Trump.
But why?
What is Donald Trump to them that they would throw every political caution to the wind, and openly commit: treason and spying, spend three years and $30M on a hilariously hoaxed Russian-collusion investigation that they created, then drumming up a pointless impeachment over his investigation over crimes they actually committed, while simultaneously destroying the economy with a fake pandemic and tearing this nation apart with anarchy and violence, and now attempt to steal the election through mail-in ballots? Seriously, when you say it all together like that, the left and their demonic overlords, REALLY DO NOT want Trump to win again.
Nevertheless, knowing we are right at the 6,000 year-mark of human history; that the election of the highest office, of the most powerful nation in human history, is timed in the fall; at the same point in time where Christendom is abandoning the faith in record numbers; while our geopolitical enemies are growing desperate and anxious; while a man named Trump is our president, I would say, it looks like we have arrived in the season of our own fullness of time.
I suspect, and I could be wrong here, but Trump has more of a connection to the Rapture than even we know. As a point of fact, if the Rapture happened sometime between now and 2024, then the Rapture would happen at the last Trump.
Maranatha!
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