The Time is Near, Even at the Very Door

Great dey for a Rapture ("snatching away" of the Church).  Chaos galore.  Coming off COVID-19 quarantine to rioting in cities across the nation.  Even Reno.  Supposedly about the police killing of a black man in Minneapolis, George Floyd.  Started with peaceful protest although that by itself makes no sense because this incident happened five days ago and the cop has been charged with murder.   However, the peaceful protest in front ot City Hall eventually got violent, breaking windows and trashing the streets.  Went on for hours here and I gather all over the country.  And we're supposed to believe this is a spontaneous protest over the George Floyd incident.

But the first protests in Minneapolis were exposed as the work of nonlocals, people who were brought in, probably paid for.  Then around six thirtt here local KOLO TV announcer said the same is suspected here, not locals but outsiders involved in the violence.

So this on top of the virus anxiety and destruction of the economy.

I think it was Robert Jeffress at Jan Markell's Understanding the Times conference last October who said he guesses the Rapture would likely occur at a time of internation crisis of some sort.  This isn't international but the virus was and who knows what's coming next.

This is also Pentecost Sunday and I tend to think something as big in Church history as the Rapture has to happen on one of the big holidays.  But there's no way to predict the exact timing despite the accumulation of signs.

The day may come and go of course with no Rapture.

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Speaking of the Rapture, however, I was thinking about the first of the Seven Seals of the Book of Revelation, the white horse with its rider who goes out to conquer, with a bow in his hand but no arrows.  The best interpretation of this seems to me to be spiritual deception or a False Christ.  Some think it IS Christ but it doesn't make sense that He would be one of the judgments of God which is what the Seals unleash when they are opened.

The Book of Revelation seems to be both a revelation of Jesus Christ Himself, as God, the Alpha and the Omega, as well as a revelation of things to come:

 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; 

" ...to show "things which must shortly come to pass."

ANYWAY, the first seal does not show Jesus but a False Christ going out to deceive people, as the first part of God's Judgment.  The first six seals are opened in Chapter Six of Revelation, all revealing disasters of one sort or another, paralleling those Jesus describes in Matthew 24 as well as similar passages in Mark and Luke known as the Olivet Discourse.  This is where Jesus is shown answering his disciples' questions about the future.  "Beware ye not be deceived" He starts out, for deceivers will come.  And it goes on from there to wars and rumors of war, earthquakes and other natural disasters and so on, events that are paralleled in the opening of the seals in Revelation.  The white horse of the first seal is understood to reflect the deceivers who will impersonate Him.  

Or in a word, the Antichrist.  The Antichrist is first presented to us in the Book of Daniel as a deceiver and an enemy of Israel who will start out at the beginning of a seven-year period by making a covenant with Israel, which he will then break in the middle of that seven year period.  

The Tribulation which we understand is to follow the Rapture, is to be that seven-year period initiated by that covenant.  It is also understood to be the Day of the LORD prophesied here and there in the Old Testament as the day when God's wrath is poured out on the Earth.   Since the Rapture is understood in the theology I now follow, to occur in Chapter Four of Revelation, the opening of the seals that begins in Chapter Six is where the seven-year Tribulation begins.  No covenant is mentioned in Revelation but the Antichrist is revealed later on in the book.  Taking Daniel as the source we look for such a covenant at the beginning of the seven years.  

That means the identity of the Antichrist needs to be known from the very beginning of the Tribulation, for those who accept the biblical prophecy.  

There continues to be a lot of mystery surrounding this Antichrist, but as I've spelled out in previous posts I believe the best candidate is the one identified by Martin Luther and the other Protestant Reformers along with many others down the centuries:  The Pope.  This interpretation is not accepted by many, if any, of today's churches that I know of, but I want to present the possibility so that anyone who sees this won't be taken by surprise, or remain in confusion and doubt for long if the Pope is that Antichrist, which I believe to be the likeliest possibility.  If it's someone else, he will be identified by the covenant he makes with Israel in any case.

For now, if the Rapture and the following Tribulation are as near as I think they probably are, the rider of the white horse of the first seal is going to be Pope Francis.   

With the Church remoed, which will be composed mostly of Protestants though perhaps with some Catholics, anyone who believes in Jesus' death as our salvation without works, there will be many people who consider themselves to be Christans who were not Raptured, and that would include the majority of Catholics.  This would most likely prompt explanations that deny those removed in the Rapture were true Christians, and the Pope would then emerge as the spokesman for the "true" Christians.  He is already known throughout the world but at this time after the Rapture he would likely emerge as the central spokesman for "Christianity" and rise to much greater prominence in a short period of time.  With such world power he could make the covenant with Israel "for one week," as described in the book of Daniel.  With the Protestants out of the way the Roman Church would reestablish its former power in the West, the power it lost due to the Protestant Reformation, which it has been hoping to regain ever since.  

This fits the prophecies.  The Roman Church IS that "revived Roman Empire" that is to dominate in the Tribulation period.  It was that revived Roman Empire throughout the Middle Ages until displaced by Protestantism, and it will be revived in the Day of the LORD as the same murderous beast it was back then. 

It is possible there will be some variations on this theme to fulfill the descriptions of Revelation, but I think this must describe the basic formula of what is to occur.  Islam is likely to be part of this scenario though it is harder to see where it figures in the story.  Since the martyrs described in the Fifth Seal were beheaded and that is the method of execution of "infidels" used by Islam, that is one place we can look for its influence.  Islam has been regarded by some as the "other leg" of the statue in the Book of Daniel that represents the kingdoms of this world, the Roman Empire being the lower legs and feet and toes.   About the time that the Roman Church was formed in 606 AD by the decree of the Byzantine Emperor, making the Bishop of Rome universal Bishop (which some at the time recognized as creating the Antichrist),  Mohammed was promnoting his new religion, soon at swordpoint when people rejected it.  Islam was then understood by some to BE the Eastern part of the Roman Empire, one of the two legs of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream as interpreted by the prophet Daniel,  dislacing the Byzantine Christian empire.  Islam destroyed Christian and Jewish communities and established Islam by force as the religion of the whole area.  Just as the Roman Church murdered dissidents in what had been the Western leg of the Roman Empire. 

So to my mind all this sets the stage for the resurgence of the Roman Church as the revived Roman Empire that persecutes the true saints of Christ during the Great Tribulation that is spelled out in the Book of Revelation.  Pope Francis is the rider of the white horse of the first seal, and the Antichrist of Revelation wherever he is identified.

I think this of course because I thihk this is all very close.  But if it doesn't come about soon it should still be a Pope.  However, this Pope is the perfect last Antichrist, for reasons I've spelled out in other posts here.

I pray that many will come to salvation before the Tribulation and be with the Church in the Rapture.  Many will be saved during the Tribulatioh but through tremendous suffering.

Nevertheless Come soon LORD Jesus.