Convergence Series Wrap-up…And End Game: Stay Rapture Ready?

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Since January, we have plumbed the depths—learning how a yielded servant of God was used in powerful ways in 7^th century BC to foretell what would happen three hundred years later…and more than three thousand years later.  The end time prognostications that were downloaded to Daniel by God were fleshed out and given substance by John in the Book of Revelation.  We took a timeline that was created by a 19^th century pastor, with one point of convergence, and expanded it to reflect six more.   The major points of intersection, in converging, enabled a tiny trickle of insight to gain volume/momentum and turn into a flowing river of revelation, as we covered the following subjects:

I. Introductory discussion of the intersections between the two authors including-
(a) Both men were promoted in (~) their 20’s then later in their 70’s
(b) Both men were willing to die for God (Lion’s Den – Vat of Boiling Oil)
(c) Both men had New Testament relationships with God – Daniel understood that God could and would bless him. He found his strength in God, and knew that God would give him wisdom. The Apostle John fell on his face before Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and yet wasn’t afraid to lean against Him during the Last Supper
(d) Both men were told to withhold certain precious knowledge that they had been given.
Then we talked about the indisputable deity of Jesus, as introduced in Daniel 6 and 7 and gloriously corroborated in Revelation 1, etc.

II. Next we talked about the false deity of the anti-Christ
(a) (and discussed a PBS e-article that sadly misrepresented Jesus as the anti-Christ’s good and true counterpart—”Twinnie No, Consuming Fire Yes” post)…
(b) …and explored the Abomination of Desolation
(about which I wrote: “God Himself has shown us how He feels about (the Abomination of Desolation), by the name He gave it when He used a prophet millennia ago. So when the anti-Christ commits this ultimate sin, he will cross that uncrossable line that God has drawn and ‘the decreed end will now be poured out on the desecrator.’”)

III. Following that…timelines! I introduced Clarence Larkin’s 19th century work-of-art—a “timeless timeline drawing” that reflected both the books of Daniel and Revelation—with one connecting line drawn between their respective sections. We then walked through the Daniel section of the timeline, the Revelation section, Larkin’s connecting line, and finally added six new connections.

IV. Last of all, we got down to basics about where we are on this melded timeline in 2020. The takeaway was that the anti-Christ could be alive today, and the rapture can theoretically happen any time that God wants it to—independent of timeline milestones.

As I mentioned in last week’s post, the rapture might be the biggest evangelical crusade that the world will ever know. It is an opportunity for thousands all over the world to see the truth. But the question is, will they be able to recognize the truth—even when it’s smack dab in front of their faces?

Both Daniel (8:23) and Revelation (13:4) corroborate that the anti-Christ is a master of deception. And Daniel expressly says that “truth will be thrown to the ground:”

(The little horn/anti-Christ) took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord, and His sanctuary was thrown down. Because of rebellion, the Lord’s people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it (the little horn/anti-Christ). It prospered in everything it did, and truth was thrown to the ground.  Daniel 8:9-12

So the question is—are people today in a spiritual state that would make them vulnerable enough to be fooled by the anti-Christ’s lies?  COVID-19 has allowed us to take the world’s spiritual temperature in 2020—and assess people’s willingness to let a globally monolithic power-base define truth for them.  Millions of people have passively followed international leadership’s instructions to shelter/self-isolate—and, on a daily basis, are drinking a fire hydrant dose of the media spin-masters’ version of the truth.  For example, who specified the accuracy requirements of the curve flattening models (present and projected statistics)? Or the universal criteria for determining whether someone is considered to have tested positive and/or succumbed to COVID-19?  Can we trust the statistical collection accuracy or reliability?  We have willingly embraced significant behavioral changes—some possibly permanent—and there’s no martial law here, folks; no military show of force or strong-arming.  But, on a spiritual level, there has been a whole lot of strong-arming going on.  Billions are being ruled by fear—and that fear only comes from one place—the future anti-Christ’s boss. 

There is another kind of fear that would solve everything if it took precedence in our lives.  I order “Scripture Tea” on-line.  It’s tasty and I get to read a Bible verse on every tag.  So Tuesday’s was, “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Prov 9:10”  The Hebrew word for fear here is יָרֵא or yara and means awe, reverence, honor, respect.  The Hebrew word for the media-induced kind of fear is עָרַץ or aratz.  Aratz will prevail during the last days, therefore, men will not be wise—they will be utterly blind to the truth and willing to accept lies (Matthew 24:24).  My opinion: I think we’re there now—spiritually.  

If we’re there now, does this mean that we’re in the last days?  We’ve all heard the “the end is near” rhetoric regarding rapture readiness and Jesus’ imminent/eagerly awaited return.  I always used to get upset when people would say, clean up your life—Jesus could come back any second.  That to me was overly assertive evangelism.  My main argument was, “hey they were expecting Jesus to return to earth—before the cloud cover was complete during His last departure.” 😊  But my POV changed 100% when I received a cancer diagnosis 14 years ago—and became acutely aware of the fact that I did not want to die.  The next time I heard a rapture teaching, and realized that it was the Gen 5:24 Enoch Disappearing Act on a massive scale, I grabbed hold of that teaching for all it was worth.  However, in all seriousness, I believe that there is a blessing in store for us, if we are eagerly awaiting Jesus’ return.  In 2 Timothy 4:8, Paul wrote: Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day–and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing. And that’s the easiest way of earning a crown that I could envision—no works there—we actually need to take a work sabbatical…to consider and meditate on how incomparably wonderful it will be when we finally behold Him and get to experience Him physically in-person.

Bottom line:  Maranatha! 😊

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Note: To view the posts in this series, you can use Search Bar at the very bottom. To view all posts chronologically please go to “PRIOR POSTS” Selection on Menu Bar. (“Uncategorized” link gets you vintage posts.) Once you’ve selected a post, if you scroll to the very bottom, you’ll find navigation links to help you easily traverse through the topic.