The REVELATOR.com - The Dividing Line: A Key to the Rapture? (Part 2)

The Dividing Line:
A Key to the Rapture? (Part 2)

Copyright © 2008 The-Revelator.com

Part Two in a series of articles on the pre-tribulation Rapture of the Bride of Christ

If there is a rapture event in which the Bride and Body of Christ - the church - is going to be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord, who will be taken. Will it be everyone who professes to be a Christian? Not hardly. In fact, the reader should know that a terrifyingly large majority of them that claim the name of Christian will be 'left behind.' I do not say this because I believe in the best selling series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins but because I believe in the Holy Bible written by God through man, which seems to indicate only two sevenths of professing Christians are actually reborn. But, why? How can we be so sure? How do we know exactly who will be taken and who will be left? Let's explore the evidence found in Scripture along with the actual context, and I think you will agree, we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt.

In the book of Revelation there is a distinct and obvious division that is unmistakable in it’s importance and quite telling when arranged like a scorecard - with the ‘winner’ on one side and the ‘loser’ on the other. Below is a listing of the seven churches of Revelation by commendation and condemnation, I pray you will see the astounding inference of the first three chapters of the Apocalypse given to the beloved Apostle John by the messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ. As is always the case, names carry great weight in the Bible and the following is no exception:

The ‘Winners’ all congregants sanctified and worthy (commended and acceptable)

2nd church: The Church at Smyrna [means ’Myrrh’ = a spice to anoint the dead] - the persecuted church
Commendation: ...I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and [I know] the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but [are] the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast [some] of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

6th church: The Church at Philadelphia [means ‘Loving brother or sister‘ = caring for others as family] - the church of brotherly love
Commendation: ...I will cause {those} of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie--I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and {make them} know that I have loved you. 'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that {hour} which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

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The ‘Losers’ with a precious few exceptions in each (condemned - ‘if you won’t repent...’)

1st church: The Church at Ephesus [means ‘Permissive‘ = allowing, tolerating]- turned away from God and passion of serving and worshiping Him, allowed the world to choke out their love
Condemnation: ...or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy lampstand out of it’s place

3rd church: The Church at Pergamos [means ‘Height or ‘Elevated‘ = above all else]- filthy lucre like Balaam, pornography, unbridled unmarried sex, hierarchical division of laity and priesthood
Condemnation: ...or else I will come upon them quickly and with fight against them with the sword of my mouth

4th church: The Church at Thyatira [means ‘Odour of Affliction‘ = to be distressed] - allowing the infiltration of sensual spirits, following sexual desire and idolatry, false teaching of sexuality and moral propriety
Condemnation: ...cast her into a sickbed...and them that commit adultery with her will be cast into great tribulation...kill her children (not small children but the congregation) and all of the churches will know that I am He that searcheth the reins and hearts...giving everyone according to their works

5th church: The Church at Sardis [means ‘Red Ones‘ = crimson in color] - being lead away from the Truth originally accepted, works for works sake, having a name that they are alive (clothed in white), but they are dead (clothed in red)
Condemnation: ...if you will not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief and you will not know what hour I will come upon thee

7th church: The Church at Laodicea [means ‘Justice of the people‘ = legalistic, judging, validating, self-righteous] - false converts, neither spiritually cold nor on fire for the Lord, useless and a stumbling block to others, selfishness, similar to the Pharisees
Condemnation: ...I will spew you out of my mouth...buy spiritual gold, clean garments (of salvation), and salve to make your eyes able to see (the Truth) from me or your nakedness will be exposed (your claim of being a follower will be exposed as a lie)

It is obvious by looking at the text of the first three chapters that only 2 of the 7 are ‘worthy to stand before the Son of Man’ on that day. Many will claim this has nothing to with any rapture event, but I beg to differ. The words ‘church’ and ‘churches’ are used no less than 19 times in the first three chapters of Revelation and only once in the rest of the Book of Revelation - in the twenty-second chapter, which, not ironically, is in Christ’s closing benediction and exhortation to His Bride to hold fast until He comes. These two words are found in no other passage in the Apocalypse besides these 20 specific occasions.

In the first and second chapters, John is told , “write what you have seen, what is and is to come.” This divides the book of Revelation in to three parts; what John saw - the resurrected Alpha/Omega standing in ‘the midst of the seven lampstands’ (the seven churches); what is - the age of grace when anyone can come to Christ of his own free will, while the church is existent on the earth; and what shall come to pass - the time of testing in which all of the inhabitants of the earth shall go through. By it's very definition - sanctified and saved - the true Christian is exempt. This is a time when you will be forced to choose between Jesus Christ and Satan. Born again Christians have already made that choice and have no need of testing. In fact the Son of God has already told us ‘I will keep you from that time of testing, which will come upon the inhabitants of the earth.’ There is no way to misconstrue this; Christians...true, born again, Holy Spirit filled Christians will not be on the earth during this time. He has also said that when you “see these things beginning to come to pass”; wars and rumors of wars, the sea and the waves rolling, pestilences, earthquakes in strange (diverse) places, ethnic groups rising against ethnic groups and nations against nations - “look up, for you redemption draws neigh.” Also, one of the strongest themes throughout the New Testament is that believers are ‘sons of the Light’ while the rest of the earth are counted as ‘sons of wrath’...which is exactly what the book of Revelation tells us the period of testing is; the wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb.

In terms of the size of the rapture and them that will be caught up to meet the Lord, we can make a pretty good ‘guestimate’. Statistically speaking, fully 33% of the earth’s population claims to be Christian. That is a staggering 2.1 billion of the roughly 6 billion people of this world. If we take the book of Revelation’s approach on the faithful church adherents verses they that are not truly regenerated through Christ we find that only 2/7th of the 2.1 billion will be acceptable. While this is not a small number, if we look as the math we find it is only a drop in the proverbial bucket in relation to the population of the inhabitants of earth. 2,100,000,000 professing Christians divided by 2/7th, equals 600,000,000 true Christians. That’s only roughly 10% of the earth’s population, and that’s probably not on the conservative side.

It is obvious that this is the ‘great apostasy’ (the Apostasia / Apostasion argument of the previous article, "The 'Great Apostasy': A key to the Rapture?") of the second Thessalonian epistle from Paul in a much clearer light. The true church, the Bride or Body of Christ is represented by the two perfect churches, them that suffer unto the death without denying their Lord and them that love the brethren as Christ loved them. This is what Jesus said “sums up the Law and the Prophets,” as seen below:

Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The other five will all suffer the fate of being left behind to suffer through the tribulation - two periods of three and one half lunar calendar years, totaling seven 360 day years - in which the Revelation tells us at least 1/2 of the population of earth (minus the raptured Christians) will die a terrible death. Just look at the figures; 5,400,000,000 left behind; 1,350,000,000 (1/4 killed) 4th horse - leaving 4,050,000,000; 1,350,000,000 (1/3 killed) 6th trumpet - leaving roughly 2,700,000,000 or a little over 1/3 the current and only half of the post rapture population of the earth. All of this in seven years. No wonder the tribulation period and the book containing the vision is filled with so much blood. Woe to them who wait until after millions vanish to repent and come to Christ - yet, they can still be saved, only through greater tribulation than has ever been seen on earth.

For any one not convinced there will be a rapture, I will continue to add articles from this study to try my best to persuade you to make the decision today as ’this is the day of salvation, if you hear the Lord‘s call respond to Him.’ I see a great example from our Lord in the Gospel of John (the same Apostle who was the Lord’s chosen pen for the Apocalypse):

John 10:29 Jesus saith unto him, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they who have not seen, and yet they have believed.”

More to come in the next article on the rapture - providing there is enough time to write it, as the ‘gathering’ of His church could happen before you finish this study...even so, Lord Jesus, Come!!!

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