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Friday, February 28, 2014

Rapture Ranks Right Below Top Ten Teaching of Jesus

In my recent article on The Top Ten Things Jesus Taught, I showed statistical evidence from Scripture what our Lord talked about the most.  I want to encourage you to take a look at that, and compare it to the preaching you listen to, or to your own preaching if you do so.  Very few these days are emphasizing the things Jesus did.

But one of the things I mentioned was that right below these top ten topics, His Second Coming was a major topic, which ranked twelfth on the list! He spoke about it quite often, using various expressions like "the coming of the Son of man," "the Son of Man coming," "which day your Lord is coming," "that day and hour no one knows," "the Master of that slave will come on a day," "the Master of the house is coming," "He comes," "kingdom come," "coming on the clouds," "the day that the Son of Man is revealed," "the days of the Son of Man," "when the Son of Man comes," "will the Son of Man be in His day," "I will come," "I am coming," "until I come," "come on you suddenly," and specifically referred to the rapture saying, "one will be taken."  And when He spoke about it, He often said it would happen suddenly, unexpectedly, quickly, soon, and without delay.  He emphasized the need to be ready for it.  Yet so few today ever preach or teach about His soon return.  In fact, some preachers are teaching that their will be no rapture at all.

It makes you wonder whether these people read the Bible, or whether they are hearing the Word when they read it. By the way, "hearing" was the eleventh top thing Jesus spoke about! 

If you were to combine all the verses where Jesus spoke about His Second Coming with all the verses where He spoke about the end times, it would become one of the top ten topics.  He spoke about the end times in sixteen verses, using expressions like "end of the age," "tribulation," "great distress," "that hour which is about to come upon the whole world," "all these things that are about to take place," "days of vengeance," and "the times of the Gentiles."

In that article, I also stated: "Also in Revelation, only the words that Jesus spoke were counted in my exhaustive analysis.  These are primarily in the first three chapters and the last chapter.  However, technically the entire book of Revelation is “the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place.” (Rev 1:1a).  You see, the opening verse of that book says, "He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John" (Rev 1:1b).  So although the Lord sent His angel to communicate these words, they were His words, and it was all His revelation that God gave to Him.  That means all topics covered in Revelation were from Jesus, although they were not all spoken directly by Him.  There are many verses about...end times, the Great Tribulation, plagues, judgments, wrath, woes, the Lord Jesus Christ and His soon return, the harvest...and eternal judgment.  These would increase the total number of verses we would need to count for those topics in this analysis, and would help to further prove my point about their frequency.  However, none of these verses that are part of the revelation of Jesus Christ were counted, unless they were spoken by Jesus."

The Lord's return should be emphasized by every preacher and teacher of the Word.  Every disciple of Christ should emphasize it in their own life, in terms of being ready for it, and by way of warning others to be ready.  That includes your spouse and children, your parents, brothers, sisters, and other family members who will listen to you.  Tell your coworkers and those you meet.  He is coming very, very soon!

Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Author's note: You must take responsibility for your own actions. Nobody knows the day or the hour, and in no way am I date setting. This is only to provide you with information, so that you can make your own decisions, for which you will be accountable to God.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like The Top Ten Things Jesus Taught and my daughter's poem, The Midnight Hour, and the articles listed below, as well as other posts in this blog available through the Signs of the Times Directory.  You may access my complete blog directory at Writing for the Master.

The 311 Moment
Are you Rapture Ready?
The Day of Our Lord’s Wedding is at Hand
Rapture Revelation to Ayodelle Sawyerr
Rapture Revelation to Angelica Zambrano

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"
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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.