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In Matthew "the kingdom of the heavens" some have thought to be heaven itself. But "the kingdom of the heavens" throughout Matthew's Gospel particularly is better understood as - the kingdom whose ORIGIN is heaven, whose HEADQUARTERS, if you will, is in heaven. In Matthew "the kingdom of the heavens" is better understood as not Heaven itself but the administration which is coming from heaven.
The relationship between the rapture and Matthew's term "the kingdom of the heavens" is that "at the consummation of the age" Christ, the King in heaven, will vindicate those who have been normally walking in, living in, having their earthly living under the government of the "kingdom of the heavens".
TO heaven they are briefly taken. Having lived in its reality while enduring on earth they like Enoch in Genesis, are taken TO Heaven where Christ is before He returns with them to establish His kingdom on the planet.
That is a clarification of the relationship between walking in "the kingdom of the heavens" as Christ teaches in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:1 -7:28 and the being "taken" in Matthew 24:40-44.
This is a brief explanation between the living in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens in the "Sermon on the Mount" and the rapture of the ready and watching kingdom people in Matthew 24.
"At that time two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left" (Matt. 24:40)
Who are "two" in "two men" ?
"Two women will be grinding at the mill, one is taken and one is left."(v. 41)
Who then are the "two" is "two women" ?
The two are two people - one living in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens and the other not living in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens.
That could be TWO Christians.
That could be TWO PEOPLE, one being a Christian.
I doubt that it could be TWO unbelievers who do not own Christ as King in any sense.
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@hakima
Christ warns us not to be befuddled by the age. He wants us not to be weighed down by anxiety so that His coming does not come upon us when we are in a drunken state. The indulgence of the age can be a strong current of the age stupefying us in conscience and spiritually.
"But take heed to yourselves lest perhaps your hearts be weighed down with debauchery and drunkenness and the anxieties of the age, and the day come upon you suddenly as a snare." (Luke 21:34)
Many people will snared and the great tribulation which follows the rapture will come down hard upon the whole world like a trap. Jesus told His lovers and followers to pray to escape that world wide trial through rapture to stand before Him in heaven.
"But be watchful at every time, beseeching that you would prevail to escape all these things which are about to happen and stand before the Son of Man." (v.36)
This is like being on a river drifting closer and closer toward a violent waterfall. The pull of the current grows stronger. One must be like a salmon fish and swim upstream against the ever increasing current.
What is effective is to begin each morning with a time in the Bible and prayer loving Christ. Building up a habit of starting the day with God in confession and prayer for the day is effective in drawing closer to God within.
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We all know that in playing chess it is effective to gain ground in the center of the chess board early in the game. Make sure you have your share of the center place of power.
It is the same with the day by day Christian walk. The first thing when you rise up is like the center of the chess board. To START your day with time with Jesus Christ is the place of strengthening. Even to start with five minutes is good. To expand to a few more minutes is good.
I promise you that God's voice is clearer to the heart in the morning. So I have kept the habit of beginning each day with a time with the Lord. This is an excellent way for the believer to watch. Learning to watch is a day by day matter.
One day at a time is the healthy spiritual life.
A Time With The Lord is a little book that helped me:
https://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?id=190FCF
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"But be watchful at every time, beseeching that you would prevail to escape all the things which are about to happen and stand before the Son of Man."
The powerful trend of the age has a stupefying effect which only Christ can overcome. So we need Christ on the inside as the Spirit of Christ. He has overcome the world.
We need to receive the available resurrected Christ as the Holy Spirit into our innermost being once and for all. Then the One who overcame the world will be the One who can again overcome from within us !
"These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
Tell Him in the morning - "Lord Jesus YOU have overcome the world! Amen!"
How wonderful it would be if for a week the first thing you say when you wake up is "Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ, YOU have overcome the world! Amen Lord Jesus. You are THE overcomer. Lord Jesus YOU are MY overcomer. Come live in me Lord Jesus."
Then we can enter into the truth -
"You are of God, little children; and you have overcome them because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4)
@sonship said@sonship
@hakima
Christ warns us not to be befuddled by the age. He wants us not to be weighed down by anxiety so that His coming does not come upon us when we are in a drunken state. The indulgence of the age can be a strong current of the age stupefying us in conscience and spiritually.
[b]"But take heed to yourselves lest perhaps your hearts be weighed down with debauchery ...[text shortened]... the day with God in confession and prayer for the day is effective in drawing closer to God within.
😂
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@hakima
hakima those who are left behind in the rapture have opportunity to be matured in grace and endurance under the heat of the great tribulation.
Unbelievers who notice that many Christians have not been able to be found may remember that there was going to be such an event. Christians who are saved and left will know for sure that they were not found ready. And they will know that there is only a short time before the spectacular public manifestation of Christ.
The best is to receive the Lord Jesus NOW as Lord and Savior, And then to seek daily to know Him better and more. First get yourself saved by asking Jesus to forgive all your sins and come live IN YOUR HEART.
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and him who comes to Me UI shall by no means cast out." (John 6:37)
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@sonship saidHave you read Robert Jewett’s 'Jesus Against the Rapture'? (It lays out how many theologians are skeptical of doomsday prognosticators and how the rapture is not supported by the New Testament ).
@hakima
hakima those who are left behind in the rapture have opportunity to be matured in grace and endurance under the heat of the great tribulation.
Unbelievers who notice that many Christians have not been able to be found may remember that there was going to be such an event. Christians who are saved and left will know for sure that they were not found ready. And ...[text shortened]... r gives Me will come to Me, and him who comes to Me UI shall by no means cast out." (John 6:37) [/b]
As an aside, the notion that the godly would be 'raptured' or literally sucked into the air was popularized by a British minister, (John Nelson Darby) as a result of a Scottish teenager having visions of Christ’s return, before being picked up later by Christian fundamentalists and those who had ventured into the realms of fantasy.
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Have you read Robert Jewett’s 'Jesus Against the Rapture'? (It lays out how many theologians are skeptical of doomsday prognosticators and how the rapture is not supported by the New Testament ).
There is no question that many good Christians have differing opinions how to understand the last days. Different opinions from Christian teachers about rapture is by no means an indication of their inferiority spiritually to those who feel their view is more accurate.
I want to first say the caricature of "doomsday prognosticator" is unfortunate. Christ's coming is a NEW BEGINNING, the entering of hope, peace, wonderful equity world wide and bounty. Nature will be effected. The scarcity of necessities will be addressed. It is true that FIRST there must be this difficult entry INTO the next age that the Bible calls "the great tribulation".
So I try not to share what I have received with a flavor of "doomsday prognosticator". Having said that, you really don't have to come to Christian teachers to notice that difficulties around the globe are brewing. What are we headed for ?
Whether one considers this as the end as in "doomsday" or the morning star rising just before the sun of righteousness with healing in its wings arises depends on where one stands with Jesus Christ. We see a glorious day rather than only doomsday.
As an aside, the notion that the godly would be 'raptured' or literally sucked into the air was popularized by a British minister, (John Nelson Darby) as a result of a Scottish teenager having visions of Christ’s return, before being picked up later by Christian fundamentalists and those who had ventured into the realms of fantasy.
The passages have been there in the New Testament long before Darby. In the same way the verses on justification by faith were there before Martin Luther drew people's attention to them.
I do not blame John Nelson Darby for inventing the teaching. I say at the appropriate time the Holy Spirit used men like Darby to illuminate neglected truths which were always there in Scripture.
Jesus said the Holy Spirit would lead the disciples into all of the truth. If then the Holy Spirit breaths on certain neglected revelation, causing new attention to them, that is not Darby's fault or Luther's fault. Discernment is needed to check the things out to see if they are valid according to Scripture.
Did Darby write this into the New Testament?
"Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his soul-life will lose it, and whoever loses it will preserve it alive.
I tell you ..."
The "I" there in "I tell you" is not John Darby inventing something. It is Jesus Christ telling His followers something.
"I [Jesus] tell you, In that night there will be two on one bed; the one will be taken but the other will be left.
There will be two women grinding together; the one will be taken and the other will be left;
Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left. And they answered and said to Him,
Where, Lord? And He said to them, Where the body is, there also will the vultures be gathered together." (Luke 17:32-37)
My major point here is not that Darby was totally clear about this. But Darby hardly invented it. Christ spoke the words. Luke and Matthew recorded them long before Darby came along. Disagreements on details do exist from differing teachers. Neither Darby nor Newton nor Scofield invented the teaching.
I feel the light on these passages has grown brighter and clearer since these teachers. Why not? Again the Holy Spirit would lead the saints into all of the truth.
"These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you; But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you." (John 14:25,26)
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@sonship saidDo we agree at least that 'Trinity' or 'Rapture' do not appear in the Bible?
@Ghost-of-a-Duke
Have you read Robert Jewett’s 'Jesus Against the Rapture'? (It lays out how many theologians are skeptical of doomsday prognosticators and how the rapture is not supported by the New Testament ).
There is no question that many good Christians have differing opinions how to understand the last days. Different opinions from Christian teac ...[text shortened]... teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you." (John 14:25,26)[/b]
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Do we agree at least that 'Trinity' or 'Rapture' do not appear in the Bible?
The word "trinity" does not appear in the Bible.
The word "rapture" as far as I know does not appear in the Bible.
We agree if you mean that the specific words "rapture" and "trinity" do not appear in the Bible.
@ghost-of-a-duke said90% of what sonship preaches is not in the bible. What is in the bible and what Jesus said leads to eternal life, sonship ignores all that. Instead promoting professions of faith and love for Christ with the mouth, and mind, thinking and talking is emphasized. The act of DOING THE GOOD WORKS is condemned by sonship as works salvation. I pity the fool that follows this fool to his death. He is like a Satanic Pied Piper of Hamlin.
Do we agree at least that 'Trinity' or 'Rapture' do not appear in the Bible?
The Rapture is not specifically taught in the bible but appears to be an assumption. Two verses that would seem to indicate (all quoted from KJ on line) that the favoured remain on earth can be found at
Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Psalm 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
So working from the passage of scripture quoted from Luke I'm not sure that i would want to be "taken". The assumption seems to be to heaven but I'm not sure that is correct.
I'm open minded to hearing spritual propositions if they can be supported scriptually, as I don't feel that any one religion commands a monopoly on truth. My friend invited me round in July/August ("you've got to come round and see this" he said over the phone enthusiastically) to review some material that he had got his hands on that turned out to be in support of The Rapture. The proposition (keeping this short) was that The Rapture would commence in September 2020 and would continue in waves or stages commensuerate with the old Jewish celebrations ending in 2024 or 2025.
I'm still not convinced.