The Message of the Kingdom

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the inhabited world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14 ISV) The message of salvation through your Bridegroom, Jesus the Messiah, is found in 1John 1:8-9 KJV, "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." A statement of faith is found in Romans 10:9 KJV, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Yet, what do Christians really believe? Christians believe that God created the world, and this is based on the story of Creation found in the book of Genesis. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He was sent to Earth for our salvation as seen in John 3:17. Christians believe that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary according to Matthew 1:18 NASB, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit." Christians believe Jesus suffered for our sin, and was crucified, died, buried, rose again and ascended into heaven, and will return to judge the living and the dead, as seen in 1Corinthians 15:4. Christians believe in the forgiveness of sins by confession and repentance according to Romans 10:9 NASB, "If you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved." Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and only He can offer eternal life as seen in John 3:16 KJV, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." We are all born under the curse of sin as children of Adam. Jesus suffered the punishment of the sin curse, so that we might be born again as children of God. This mystery was hidden in God from the very beginning, and it is revealed to you in Genesis 3:15. Jesus, the Redeemer, will one day crush the serpent’s head, and restore all the kingdoms of this world back to God. God is so awesome! He is a straight shooter! He not only made the mystery known through His Holy Word, but He also told Satan the end from the beginning of that day in the Garden of Eden. Satan just did not see the Resurrection coming, because he did not know the mystery hidden in the power of the blood of "the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). God kept that one to Himself! The precious blood of Jesus was His plan of redemption. Oh, how I love Him! *** Christians, Jews, and Muslims are all expecting a Messiah to show up. The prophets of the Bible have declared that there will be a climax of great judgment, and that Jesus the Messiah will return. In Titus 2:13, the apostle Paul said, the return of Jesus is our "blessed hope." The Bible indicates that when Jesus the Messiah returns, the world will not be looking for Him. I showed you this in the Parable of the Ten Virgins and in the Parable of the Man going on a Long Journey. However, I think the most accurate indicator of the nearness of His return is found in the teaching that Jesus gave, when He referred to the time to be looking for Him should be "like in the days of Noah were" (Matthew 24:37). All three of these parables indicate that Jesus will come for His bride when no one is expecting Him. His arrival will be totally unexpected and sudden without any notice, just like that of an ancient Jewish bridegroom! In other words, we are not going to get a text, or an email telling us to be ready tomorrow at 2 p.m., or at any particular day or time. We are to be ready to go with our Bridegroom at all times. In Noah's day, the people did not believe the flood was coming, but it came, and so will Jesus, the Bridegroom. A long time ago, God confirmed that the Earth would be destroyed by a flood. Noah warned the people, but they did not believe a flood was coming. They laughed at the ark, but one day the clouds formed, and the rain came. The Earth was purified by water! If God did that, then He will surely do, as He has promised with the destruction of the Earth by fire. 2Peter 3:3-10 NIV reads, "Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say where is this coming he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation. But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens came into being and the Earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not forget this one thing, my dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the Earth and everything done in it will be laid bare." Remember, I told you the Rapture is a type of ark. The first time God used an ark was to save people that believed in Him from the destruction of water. The second time will be to save the faithful from the destruction of fire by the ark of rapture with the Bridegroom Jesus. It has never been God’s method in the past to pour wrath out on believers. Noah and his family went inside of the ark seven days before the flood. The ark was a covering like a “huppa,” which is symbolic of heaven. The church will be raptured away just as an ancient Jewish bride would have been. The Holy Spirit fell on the church at Pentecost after Jesus returned to His Father's house. The Holy Spirit is the "Comforter" that Jesus promised would come after His Ascension. The Holy Spirit manifested within the body of the church, and it is the current restrainer of the antichrist. A spirit needs a body to manifest itself in, and when the Holy Spirit filled church is gone, Satan, who is a spirit, will be able to take over inside of the antichrist. The apostle Paul tells us this in 2Thessalonians 2:7 NASB, "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." *** No one knows the hour, but people have tried to set dates for Jesus’ return. There are certain signs which are given in the Bible, and those signs are to signal to the faithfully, watching servants that the time is approaching. I told you some of the signs would be moral decay, worldwide military upheavals, and environmental catastrophes. These signs continue to mount with great frequency every day. It is the “frequency” like that of birthing contractions that we really need to focus in on. There is not a single prophecy that needs to be fulfilled before Jesus calls for His bride, the church. He may come for her at any moment. He will return for her on an ordinary day, when it is least expected. He said so in His teachings! He gave examples of what it would be like. Surely, by now, you have some insight to the urgency of being prepared. One thing is for sure; the removal of the church will be sudden. It is described as a "flash of lightning" in Luke 17:24, and as a "thief breaking into a house" in Matthew 24:43, and as "an unannounced return of the master of the house" in Mark 13:35. We are to be comforted by the romantic promise of rapture, or a snatching away by our Bridegroom, Jesus. "Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when He cometh shall find watching…," Luke 12:37 KJV. "For the Lord, Himself shall descend from heaven with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up; together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air…," 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 NKJV. "…Until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the Earth for their iniquity…" Isaiah 26:20-21 KJV. The indignation is the Great Tribulation! There will be a trumpet call to announce the Rapture, and then all the dead believers will be resurrected, and they will be made imperishable, and all the living believers will become immortal as well. Unbelievers will be left to face the tribulation. All of this will happen "in the twinkling of an eye," 1Corinthians 15:52. The apostle Paul describes Jesus as "coming in the air" and adds the phrase "caught up" in 1Thessalonians 4:17. The Rapture of the Church will be just that! There is no mention of Jesus touching the Earth as we are told elsewhere that He does when he returns at the Second Coming. A supernatural removal of believers from the Earth is seen in the miraculous disappearance of Enoch in Genesis 5:21-24, as well as that of Elijah in 2Kings 2:1-30. The bypassing of death is referred to as "translation" in the King James version of Hebrews 11:5, and it reads, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God…" God always gives us a reason to believe with some evidence to support what He has said will happen. The mysterious disappearances of Enoch and Elijah are Rapture evidence of being “caught up” or “snatched away” from the Earth without physically undergoing death. At His Ascension, Jesus Himself was taken up and far away into the clouds as the disciples watched, "and when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven," Acts 1:9-11 KJV. The Bible does not tell us why God took Enoch and Elijah to heaven before they had experienced death. Their rapture offers proof of having been alive and removed from the Earth with a summons to come up. Jesus’ Ascension, not only offered visible proof to the witnesses, but it also demonstrates the rapture removal of those who have been resurrected. Praise God! He always gives a piece of evidence somewhere! To find out more about the message of the kingdom and the return of Christ, I invite you to read, like or share Last Call for The Church which is now available at my Amazon/Createspace estore: https://www.createspace.com/3540402 as well as Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com