No Rapture: Part 2 – Patience is a virtue

No Rapture: Part 2 – Patience is a virtue…

Remember those times you have been placed on hold during a phone call. It really doesn’t matter if it is a company, friend or relative anything over 30 seconds of dead air space is a little unsettling. Once, ok probably more than once, I actually timed a caller that placed me on hold and to my shock it was nearly 28 minutes. They had other things to do and forgot about me. Fortunately I was in route and had the time to spare.

There have been those times, you have had them too, where you just gave up and went without the conversation or called someone else. What you believe about the concept of a rapture will have an effect on how you will live your life. If you believe it is coming before the trials and testing begins you will feel like YHVH has placed you in that uncomfortable space “on hold”.

Matthew 26:40-41 ^“And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

This is the hour of Jesus’ temptation, that being, the trial of His will over the Fathers will concerning the cross. The temptation would be to ask God to rapture him out of this as he says “may this cup pass from me”. His prayer shows this, thankfully for our benefit he finishes it with “yet not my will but thy will.” There will be no rapture for Yeshua here.

This affirms Christ’s ability to see us through our own hour of temptation, that of denying the Gospel, when we are persecuted for our beliefs, because He was able to stand against the temptation of not completing His own tasks as set by the Father. This is “the word of my patience”, the ability to endure tribulation, not only today, but also on the Great Day.

Need reassurance while “on hold”? Most of us do, that is why they have music on hold, so we know there is a connection.Most certainly, those that profess faith in Yeshua, they will during this time, just before the return of the Messiah. John 16:33 tells us, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation (G2346 to squeeze, press, compress, crush): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

We already know that there are sects of humanity that will not see the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven as they do not profess Yeshua as the Messiah. In Matthew 7:14, we read,  “Because strait is the gate, and narrow (G2346 to squeeze, press, compress, crush) is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Notice here the Greek root for both the word narrow and the word tribulation are the same.

Reading it as such we see: “Because strait is the gate, and tribulation is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

There for us again is the obvious correlation to enduring tribulation and the entering into the Kingdom of Heaven. This why James 1:12 tell us: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation (G3986 test, discipline, putting to proof): for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

We have already discovered that Jesus has overcome the world and Paul reaffirms this in  1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation (G3986 test, discipline, putting to proof) taken you but such as is common to man (applies to all): but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted (tested) above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape (G1545 (literally) a walking out of or stepping out of (in contrast to fleeing or an escape)), that ye may be able to bear it.(G5297 equipped to endure it)”

If he is equipping us to endure it by walking through it then there would be no need to fly away from it. Right?!!

2 Timothy 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

We are being molded and shaped into the people God would have us to be through these trials, and the tribulation, in order for us to be his witnesses to the lost all the way up to the very last second. Why? 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

How “on earth” (pun fully intended) can we reach the lost and dying world if we are not “on Earth” when all the scripture is fulfilled? Who would be here to explain it to the neighbor, friend or relative that has not been diligently seeking after God even while the times were good? In the hour of our greatest distress the rapture means there is no way for the other people find hope.

Psalm 66:10-12 “For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.”

It is clear to the psalmist that we must go through the fire in order to make it to the wealthy place. This thought is resounded by James, the half-brother of Jesus, in his letter: James 1:2-3 “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; (adversity) ³ Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.(G5281 endurance (cheerful or hopeful), constancy.)”

The theme of endurance, trial, testing and temptation run their courses from the beginning to the end, from the Genesis to Revelation, with emphasis on the believer and their grooming for the Day of the Lord.

Peter tells us it will start with us: 1 Peter 4:16-18 ^“Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

When you sign up to be a Christ follower you are asking for trials and tests with a side order of tribulation because you drink from living waters. Its dine in only … no carry out.