When the term “heaven” is not used symbolically in Scripture, it usually refers to one of three realms.
(1) Our Immediate Atmosphere
(2) Outer Space (The Sun, Moon, And Stars)
(3) The Home Of YAHUAH ELOHIYM
Consequently we find the Scriptures speaking of more than one heaven or multiple heavens.
More Than One Heaven
The fact that YAHUSHA passed through the heavens gives evidence there is more than one heaven.
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, YAHUSHA the Son of ELOHIYM, let us hold fast our profession.
IVRIYM (HEBREWS) 4:14 את CEPHER
Third Heaven
Furthermore the Scriptures refers to the third heaven.
I knew a man in MASHIACH above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: YAHUAH knows;) such one caught up to the third heaven.
QORINTIYM SHENIY (2 CORINTHIANS) 12:2 את CEPHER
If there is a third heaven, it seems there must also be a first and second heaven. The Scriptures, however, does not mention a first and second heaven.
1. The Atmospheric Heaven – The First Heaven
The atmospheric heavens include the air that we breathe as well as the space that immediately surrounds the earth. The technical term for this is the “troposphere.” It extends about twenty miles above the earth. The space above this is called the “stratosphere.” The Scripture uses the term heaven to describe this area.
And YAHUAH said, I will destroy את eth-man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for I repent that I have made them.
BERE’SHIYTH (GENESIS) 6:7 את CEPHER
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they?
MATTITHYAHU (MATTHEW) 6:26 את CEPHER
The word translated “air” is ouranos, the same Greek word that is elsewhere translated “heaven.” We have another example of this use in the book of Ya’aqov (James).
And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
YA`AQOV (JAMES) 5:18 את CEPHER
2. The Celestial Heaven – The Second Heaven
This use of the term heaven refers to outer space or the stellar heaven. It includes the sun, moon, and stars.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
MATTITHYAHU (MATTHEW) 24:29 את CEPHER
Stars are said to be in heaven.
And lest you lift up your eyes unto the heavens, and when you see את eth-the sun, and את eth-the moon, and את eth-the stars, even all the host of heaven, should be driven to worship them, and serve them, which YAHUAH ELOHAYKA has divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
DEVARIYM (DEUTERONOMY) 4:19 את CEPHER
Heaven Of Heavens
The Scripture speaks of heavenly spheres beyond that which is visible from the earth. It is called the heaven of heavens.
Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens belongs to YAHUAH ELOHAYKA, the earth also, with all that therein is.
DEVARIYM (DEUTERONOMY) 10:14 את CEPHER
The psalmist wrote.
Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
TEHILLIYM (PSALMS) 148:4 את CEPHER
3. Heaven As The Home Of YAHUAH – The Third Heaven
The Scriptures is clear that YAHUAH cannot be limited to any one geographical place.
But will ELOHIYM indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built?
MELEKIYM RI’SHON (1 KINGS) 8:27 את CEPHER
Yet Scripture also teaches us that there is a certain geographical place where YAHUAH resides. It is also designated heaven. The writer to the Hebrews said.
NOW of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
IVRIYM (HEBREWS) 8:1 את CEPHER
Stephen knew he was going into the presence of YAHUAH ELOHIYM.
But he, being full of the RUACH HA’QODESH, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of YAH, and YAHUSHA standing on the right hand of YAHUAH,
MA’ASIYM (ACTS) 7:55 את CEPHER
Heaven is called the presence of YAHUAH.
For MASHIACH is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of YAHUAH for us:
IVRIYM (HEBREWS) 9:24 את CEPHER
The location of the abode of YAHUAH is not revealed in Scripture.
Summary
Sometime the word heaven is used symbolically in Scripture. When used of an actual place, Scripture speaks of three heavens.
1. The first is the atmosphere above us.
2. The second heaven is the stellar heaven, the sun, moon, and stars.
3. The third heaven is where YAHUAH resides, above the other two regions.
YAHUAH, however, is certainly not limited to one geographical place.
The doctrine of the Pre-Trib Rapture is a late Christian doctrine which is running rampant in Messianic Judaism. This late Christian doctrine did not even emerge in Christendom until the nineteenth century. This late Christian theology has somehow managed to find favor with many of the Messianic movement who claim to be restoring the ancient Jewish roots of the original followers of YAHUSHA. In this article it will be proven that the doctrine of the Pre-Trib rapture is:
1. A late invention of Christendom with NO Hebrew or Yahudim/Jewish roots whatsoever.
2. A doctrine which runs counter to the teachings of the Scriptures themselves.
3. A doctrine of “peace and safety” which may destroy the faith of many in the end.
TERMINOLOGY
Before beginning lets define some basic terms we will be using: RAPTURE – This term has become very controversial. In the occult the term has been used for centuries to refer to occult levitation. The Scriptural origin of the term however, in 1Thes. 4:17 where we read the words “caught up,” the Latin Vulgate uses the Latin word “RAPTOS” here. The “rapture” then, is the “being caught up” described in 1Thes. 4:17.
NATZAL – Hebrew word for “deliverance.” This word has come to be used by many Pre-Trib Messianic Jews as an attempt at a Jewish/Messianic term for the pre-tribulation rapture.
KH’TAF – Aramaic word for “caught up” in the Aramaic text of 1Thes. 4:17.
POST-TRIB – The view that the KH’TAF (rapture) will is simply part of the second coming of Messiah and will therefore take place at the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the millennial Kingdom.
PRE-TRIB – This view maintains that the rapture is a separate event from the second coming of Messiah and that it will take place seven years earlier, immediately before the tribulation.
MID-TRIB – This view also maintains that the “rapture” is a separate event from the second coming of Messiah and that it will take place 3 1⁄2 years earlier, halfway through the tribulation, at about the time of the “abomination of desolation” (the revealing of the Anti-Christ). PRIOR-RAPTURE – This is any view which maintains that the rapture and the second coming of Messiah are separate events and that the rapture precedes the second coming of Messiah by some period of time.
PARTIAL RAPTURE – This view maintains that only part of the Body of Messiah will be “raptured.”
PASHAT – The plain, simple, literal meaning of a text.
WHERE’S THE PASHAT?
One serious problem with Christendom’s pre-trib rapture teaching is that it has no basis in pashat. Although pre-tribers often claim that their beliefs are based on the plain literal meaning of the Scriptures, the reality is that such an approach does not produce a belief in a pre-trib rapture. Even Hal Lindsey, perhaps the worlds best known advocate of a pre-trib rapture, admits that his belief in such is not based on the plain literal meaning of the Scriptures.
Lindsey admits that he cannot “point to any single verse that clearly says the rapture will occur before… the tribulation.” (The Rapture by Hal Lindsey p. 32). Instead Lindsey claims “pretribulationism is based largely on arguments from inference and silence.” (ibid p. 31).
If pretribulationism does not come from a pashat understanding of the scriptures then one must ask, where did it originate and why do so many believe it?
DISPENSATIONALISM AND PRETRIBISM
During the 1820’s and 1830’s a Christian theologian named John Darby (founder of the Plymouth Brethren) developed a new systematic theology called Dispensationalism. Dispensationalism has since become very popular in Christendom. Somehow this late Christian invention has gained the favor of many claiming to be returning to the Hebrew roots of the original followers of YAHUSHA. It is a fact that Dispensationalism did not exist until the nineteenth century. It has no roots in the Hebrew Scriptures whatsoever and did not even exist in Christianity until the 19th century.
Like most 19th century theologians John Darby was an anti-nomian, he believed that the Law of Moses had passed away at the cross. Darby was disturbed however with certain problems created by that theology. Darby noticed that during the seven years of Daniel’s final week the offerings are being made at the Temple. Since the Law of Moses was clearly being kept during this seven year tribulation, Darby concluded that the Law comes back into effect at the beginning of the tribulation. This train of thought caused Darby to segregate Scriptural and prophetic history into compartmentalized ages. Darby theorized an age of Law that ended at the cross and an age of grace or church age that began at the cross. Then at the seven year tribulation the age of Law kicks back in and the church age of grace ends.
This created a problem for Darby’s theory. How can the age of Law return if the Church is still here? Darby saw the age of Law as an age in which YAHUAH ELOHIYM dealt with Yisrael and the tribulation as a return to YAHUAH ELOHIYM dealing with Yisarel. So what happens to the Church? Surely the Church will not leave Grace and come under the Law of Moses. As a result Darby adopted the idea of a pre-trib rapture which had become popular among the Irvingites. This idea had the Church leave the earth at the beginning of the tribulation, leaving Yisrael behind to enter the tribulation and the age of law’s return. Darby now had another problem. If the Church is raptured leaving Yisrael behind, then what about so-called “Jewish Christians.” Do they get raptured with the Church, or stay behind with Yisrael. Darby proposed yet another solution: Church/Israel dichotomy. This theory taught that a Jew who becomes a believer in Messiah becomes part of the Church and is no longer part of Israel. As a result no one can be both a part of the Church and Israel. Jewish believers, according to this theory, stop being Jews and become part of the Church of G-d, which he taught contained people that are not Jews or gentiles. Thus the three pillars of Dispensationalism are:
1) The Law is not for today
2) The pre-trib rapture
3) Church Israel dichotomy
Now Messianic Jews cannot accept number one or number 3. Number two was only needed because of a belief in number 1. Number 2 does not work without number 3 which was created to solve problems created by number 2. As a result Messianic Judaism is incompatible with Dispensationalism. Two of the three pillars witch must be present to support Dispensationalism are non-compatable with Messianic Judaism. Moreover the only remaining pillar cannot stand alone, it only exists to solve a problem created by number 1 and it cannot stand without number 3. When examined in light of the truths that Messianic Jews have, the whole structure of Dispensationalism comes crashing down. It is a late19th century invention of Christendom with NO roots in first century Judaism at all.
HOW MANY COMINGS OF MESSIAH?
Almost immediately it becomes apparent that prior-rapturists believe not in two comings of Messiah, but three comings of Messiah. Sine the post-tribulation return of the Messiah has been clearly recognized as the “Second coming of Messiah” for centuries, the prior rapturists must either relabel this coming “the third coming of Messiah” or, as most of them do, insist that their prior-rapture is not actually a “coming of Messiah.” Prior-rapturists insist that their prior rapture is not a “coming” of the Messiah, but merely an “appearance” of the Messiah. If this is true then the Scriptures should clearly bear this out. If the prior-rapturist theory is true then the Scriptures should teach a pre-trib “appearance” of Messiah which is not a “coming of the Messiah” followed by a post trib “coming of the Messiah.” We should not see the KH’TAF (rapture) refered to as a “coming” of the Messiah in the Scriptures. We should also not expect the post trib coming of the Messiah labled as an “appearace.” Now lets examine the Scriptures:
I charge you therefore before ELOHIYM, and Master YAHUSHA the Messiah, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom. (2Tim. 4:1)
Here it is clearly the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the Kingdom which occurs at the appearance of Messiah.
So Messiah was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Heb. 9:28)
Here the text seems to discuss the post-trib coming of Messiah . If prior-rapturists are correct then this text should either read “come the second time” or “appear a third time.”
Be patient therefore brothers, unto the coming of Messiah. (James 5:7a)
This text seems to tell us that our hope is to look for the “coming of Messiah” not an “appearance of Messiah.”
For this we say to you by the Word of YAHUAH, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of Messiah shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the YAHUAH himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of ELOHIYM: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up (raptured) together with them in the clouds to meet YAHUSHA in the air: and so shall we ever be with Messiah. (1Thes. 4:15-17)
This passage is the definitive rapture text. But look, this passage is
describing a “coming of YAHUAH.”
It becomes clear by examining the texts that prior-rapturists believe not in two comings of the Messiah but three. This theory is clearly at odds with the Scriptures which teach only two comings of Messiah.
THIEF IN THE NIGHT
One of the catchphrases used by prior-rapturists is the phrase “thief in the night.” The prior-rapturists use this term to describe their prior rapture as a “secret rapture” in which the Church is secretly snatched away. This is however a complete misuse of the biblical term “thief in the night.” The “thief in the night” parable is one of the many parables YAHUSHA told (Mt. 24:42-51) it is referred to in the scriptures on three additional places (1Thes. 5:2-10; 2Pt. 3:10; Rev. 3:3 & Rev. 16:15). A true analysis of the term “thief in the night” as it is used in the scriptures will reveal a post-trib rapture which is anything but a secret prior-rapture.
The first place to look is the parable itself. The thief in the night parable is given by YAHUSHA in Mt. 24:42-44:
Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Master does come. But know this, that if the good-man of he house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man comes.
There are a number of important elements to this parable. First it should be noted that the “thief” in this parable is clearly the Messiah. However in the parable of the Thief in the Night the Messiah is a thief who comes at an unexpected time. He is not pictured as “stealing the church away” If anything the assembly is the victim of his surprise visit, but not the thing being stolen. Secondly we not that the thief/Messiah comes at a time that the Assembly does not expect him. Finally it is significant that the thief comes at a time later than the Assembly expected and found the Assembly sleeping. Throughout the scriptures sleeping is a type of apostasy (see Is. 29:10 = Rom. 11:8). The Thief in the Night parable is part of a section of Scripture beginning in Mt. 24:42 and ending in Mt. 25:13 in which YAHUSHA illustrates that the Messiah comes later than expected to a sleeping assembly which expected him earlier. YAHUSHA first states this theme in verse 42. Then in Mt. 24:43 YAHUSHA give the thief in the night parable.
Then in verse 44 YAHSHA restates this theme. Then in Mt. 24:45-51 YAHUSHA gives the parable of the “faithful and wise servent.” In this parable also the Messiah comes at a time later than the servant expected (verses 48 & 50) to find an apostate servant (verses 48-49). Finally YAHUSHA gives the illustration of the “ten virgins” (Mt. 25:1-12) in which the bridegroom comes later than the virgins expected. The virgins (at least some of them) are clearly believers for five of them have oil in their lamps. The bridegroom comes to find the virgins sleeping. Even though many of them had oil in their lamps, they thought the Messiah would come sooner than he did and as a result the fell into a sleep of apostasy. Rather than teaching a pre-trib rapture this section of scripture warns us that much of the assembly will expect the Messiah sooner than he comes (pre-trib), and when the Messiah comes later than the Assembly thought he was supposed to (post-trib) these believers fall into apostate sleep. The pretribbers have been falsely taught by many of the teachers of Christendom that the Bible teaches Messiah will rescue them from the tribulation before it comes. When this does not happen many of them will lose faith and think that the scriptures are a lie. They will fall into an apostate sleep.
In Rev. 3:3 we read:
…If therefore you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I come upon you.
This passage clearly refers to the material in Mt. 24:42-44. Here Messiah is addressing the Assembly at Sardis (actual believers) and indicates that he will come at a time that the Assembly does not expect. The implication in the phrase “If therefor you shall not keep watch…” is that the Messiah will come later than expected to find sleeping/apostate believers.
In 2Peter 3:10 we read:
But the day of YAHUAH Elohim will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
The “day” referred to here is the 1,000 year day of the millennial Kingdom (2Pt. 3:8; Ps. 90:4; Rev. 20:2, 7). This 1,000 year “day” begins with the second coming of Messiah (Rev. 19:11-20:2) and ends with the destruction of the earth by fire (Rev. 20:7-21:1). Here YAHUSHA will come like a thief” (2Pt. 3:10) definitely refers to the second coming of the Messiah at the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the 1,000 years. This is anything but a stealthy silent secret rapture thief. This is a noisy thief who will cause the heavens to pass away with a “roar.”
In Rev. 16:15 we read:
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
This passage occurs in context of the events of the 1,000 year day mentioned above. Moreover the passage also reflects a thief that comes later than expected to find an apostate Assembly. Finally in 1Thes. 5:2-10 we read:
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of YAHUAH Elohim comes as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For Elohim hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Master YAHUSHA the Messiah, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Now in reading this passage we should recall the Thief in the Night parable that is clearly being referred to here. Here we learn that the sleeping apostates will be duped by a “peace and safety” doctrine (verse 3) however “sudden destruction comes upon them…and they shall not escape” (verse 3). Here those that expect the Messiah to come later than he does believe in a “peace and safety” teaching and fall into apostasy when the Messiah does not come as soon as they expect but instead “sudden destruction comes upon them” something they apparently expected to “escape.” At this point they seem to fall into a sleep of apostasy. A great falling away comes when pretribbers are disappointed when they enter the tribulation instead of escaping it in a pre-trib rapture. But wait! Look at 1Thes 5:1! This whole section of scripture refers to the timing of the “rapture” event of 1Thes. 4:16- 18. In fact, the chapter change from 1Thes. 4:18 to 5:1 occurs in the middle of a paragraph!
The reference to the thief in the night parable in 1Thes. 4:16-5:10 is also important for another reason. This reference gives us some context for the “rapture” event of 1Thes. 4:16-17. The thief in the night parable of Mt. 24:43 takes place in a large segment of Matthew (Mt. 24:29-25:46) which clearly discusses the post-trib (Mt. 24:29) second coming of Messiah. The thief of Mt. 24:42-44 comes at a time that is like “the days of Noah… before the flood” (Mt. 24:37-41 with Mt, 24:42-51). Luke also discusses this time that is like the days of Noah (Mt. 24:37-41 = Lk. 26-36). Luke goes on to say that those “taken” in Mt.24:37-41 = Lk. 17:26-36 will be consumed by birds of prey (see Lk. 17:37 = Mt. 24:28). These men consumed by birds of prey are those who come against Israel and are destroyed at the second coming (Rev. 19:11-21 esp. 19:17-18, 21). The timing of the “thief” event is therefore that of the second coming of Messiah in Rev. 19:11- 21. Since the timing of “thief” event of 1Thes. 5:2-10 is that of the “rapture” event of 1Thes. 4:16-18 (1Thes. 5:1 states clearly that 1Thes. 5:2-10 refers to the timing of 1Thes. 4:16-18) then the “rapture” of 1Thes. 4:16-18 is simply a part of the post-trib coming of the Messiah.
IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS (Mt. 24:29)
In order to get a good picture of just what the KH’TAF (rapture) event of 1Thes. 4:16-17 is we must let Scripture interpret Scripture. This is a concept in Jewish hermeneutics called G’ZARAH SHEVAH (equivalence of expresions). This is the second of the seven rules of Hillel. The first scripture that we should compare 1Thes. 4:16-17 with is 1Cor. 15:52.
Now 1Thes. 4:13-17 reads:
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that YAHUSHA died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in YAHUSHA will Elohim bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of YAHUAH, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of YAHUAH shall not prevent them which are asleep. For YAHUSHA himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of Elohim: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet YAHUSHA in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Master.
Lets compare this passage with 1Cor. 15:50-55:
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Elohim; neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Certainly these two passages obviously speak of the same event. The question is what kind of context does 1Cor. 15:50-55 give to the “rapture” of 1Thes. 4:13-17?
1. The event of 1Cor. 15:50-55 facilitates the inheritance of the Kingdom.
2. 1Cor. 15:54b quotes Is. 25:8
3. 1Cor. 15:55 quotes Hosea 13:14
Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14 clearly speak of the beginning of the Kingdom. Taken together it would seem that 1Cor. 15:50-55 places 1Thes. 4:13-17 in the context of the beginning of the 1,000 year Kingdom.
Now 1Thes 4:13-18 and 1Cor. 15:50-55 are generally regarded as the “rapture” verses. In fact the word “rapture” comes from the Latin Vulgate word for “caught up” in 1Thes. 4:16-17. Let us compare these with the generally accepted “second coming” verses.
Some of the generally accepted “second coming” passages are: Dan. 7:13-14; Mt. 24:29-31; Mk. 13:24-27; Rev. 11:15 and 20:4-6. In these passages we can immediately identify four elements:
1. Messiah will supernaturally appear in the sky. (Dan. 7:13-14; Mt. 24:30; Mk. 13:26)
2. There will be a supernatural gathering together to him in the sky. (Mt. 24:29 31; Mk. 13:24-27)
3. A last (seventh of seven) trumpet is blown by one of the seven angels which stand before Elohim. (Rev. 8:2; 11:15; Mt. 24:31; Is. 27:13)
4. A (first) resurrection of the just (Rev. 20:4-6)
Now lets compare these four elements with the “rapture” passages of 1Thes. 4:13-18 and 1Cor. 15:50-55:
1. Messiah will supernaturally appear in the sky. (1Thes. 4:16-17)
2. There will be a supernatural gathering together to him in the sky. (1Thes. 4:17)
3. A last (seventh of seven) trumpet is blown by one of the archangels (1Thes. 4:16; 1Cor. 15:52)
4. A (first) resurrection of the just (1Thes. 4:16; 1Cor. 25:52)
By comparing these four elements we find that the “rapture” of 1Thes. 4:13-18 & 1Cor. 15:50-55 is identical to the second coming of the Messiah in : Dan. 7:13-14; Mt. 24:29-31; Mk. 13:24-27; Rev. 11:15 and 20:4-6. This conclusion has been reached by many commentators. For example Halley’s Bible handbook says regarding 1Thes. 4:13-18:
It [the event in 1Thes. 4:16-17] is mentioned or referred to several times in almost every Renewed Covenant(NT) book. The chapters in which it is explained most fully are Matthew 24, 25; Luke 21; 1Thesalonians 4, 5; 2Pt. 3. (Halley’s Bible Handbook p. 626 on 1Thes. 4:13-18) (See also Halley’s comments on Mt. 24:31 on p. 447)
Also in his book MESSIAH: A Rabbinic and Scriptural Viewpoint, Messianic Jewish writer Burt Yellin writes regarding 1Thes. 4:16:
In IThessalonians 4:16, Paul tells us of the return of the Messiah: “For YAHUAH Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet (shofar) of YAHUAH; and the dead in Messiah will rise first…” When read together with Revelation 11:15-17 we find that this resurrection will Take place on the seventh trumpet blast. (p. 99)
If we were to take the “rapture” passages of 1Thes. 4:13-18 & 1Cor. 15:50-55 to be a separate event from the “second coming” passages of Dan. 7:13-14; Mt. 24:29-31; Mk. 13:24-27; Rev. 11:15 and 20:4-6 as the prior-rapturists do then we have some major chronology problems. Such a chronology would have the trumpet blast of Rev. 11:15 & Mt. 24:31 being blown after the “last trumpet” of 1Thes, 4:16 & 1Cor. 15:52). Such a chronology would also have the general resurrection of the just in 1Thes. 4:16 & 1Cor. 15:52 taking place before the “first resurection” of Rev. 20:4-6). The KH’TAF (rapture) is clearly the event which Mt. 24:29 states occurs “immediately after the tribulation of those days…”
THE PASHAT
Hal Lindsey, one of the chief apologists for the pre-trib rapture states:
The truth of the matter is that neither a post-, mid-, or pre-Tribulantonist can point to any single verse that clearly says the Rapture will occur before, in the middle of, or after the Tribulation.
(The Rapture by Hal Lindsey p. 32)
Now, we agree that it is true that Lindsey cannot “point to any single verse that clearly says the rapture will occur before… the Tribulation.” However, Lindsey is clearly wrong to state that we cannot “point to any single verse that clearly says the rapture will occur… after the Tribulation.” This article has already shown that the scriptures clearly teach a post-trib KH’TAF (rapture). The following are single verses that clearly say the Rapture will occur after the Tribulation:
For it was not David who ascended into heaven, But he himself says: YAHUAH said to my Adon Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. ( Acts 2:34-35 (quoting Ps. 110:1)) (see also Heb. 1:13; Mt. 22:44; Mk. 12:36)
This passage clearly states that the Messiah will remain at the right hand of the father until his enemies are made his footstool in the 1,000 year Kingdom. This passage clearly teaches the rapture will not occur until after the tribulation, at the beginning of 1,000 year Kingdom.
And that He may send YAHUSHA the Messiah appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of Restoration of all things which Elohim spoke by the mouth of his Set-Apart prophets from ancient times. (Acts 3:20-21) (see also Rev. 10:7 & 11:15)
This passage also teaches that Messiah will remain in heaven until the Kingdom comes.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Master YAHUSHA the Messiah, and by our gathering together unto him, That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Messiah is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called Elohim, or that is worshipped; so that he as Elohim sits in the temple of Elohim, showing himself that he is Elohim.
This passage clearly teaches that the rapture CANNOT occur until AFTER the revealing of the Anti-Christ midway through the seven year “Tribulation” (see Mt. 24:15; Mk. 13:14 & Dan. 9:27).
COMMONLY MISUNDERSTOOD PASSAGES
Unable to find support for their pre-trib rapture theory in the PASHAT (literal meaning) of any Scripture passages, Pre-Tribbers have resorted to REMEZ (implied) and DRASH (allegorical) interpretations. As Lindsey admits in his book THE RAPTURE saying that it “is in some measure true” “…that pretribism is based largely on arguments from inference and silence.” (p. 31).
THE WRATH TO COME ARGUMENT
Using this argument pre-tribbers use texts which they say imply the church will not enter the tribulation, which they say hints at a pretrib rapture. The Pretribber will argue that the Tribulation is “YAHUAH’s wrath” and that the church will not suffer “YAHUAH’s wrath” (Rom. 5:9; 1Thes. 1:10; 5:9-10; Jn. 5:24). By using this argument pretribbers ignore the fact that the Anti-Christ, one of the major figures of the Tribulation, is the devil’s wrath (Rev. 12:12; 13:2). They also ignore the fact that the Messiah may deliver us from this wrath by destroying the AntiChrist at his second coming. Moreover they ignore the fact that by context, the wrath Messiah saves us from is in that we are “justified by his blood” (Rom. 5:9) and so we “shall be saved” (Rom. 5:9) clearly the wrath here is the Lake of Fire not the Tribulation. (Jn. 5:24 uses the word “condemnation” but the same argument applies.)
THE LUKE 21:36 ARGUMENT
This argument was first used by prior-rapturisms 15 year old inventor, who misquoted the verse in her discussion with Darby. This verse says “…pray always, that you may be accounted worth to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
To begin with this verse only says to pray and does not promise a result. Secondly the passages simply says “escape” not “raptured”, this could simply refer to survival. The most important flaw in this Pre- Trib argument is what is meant by “all these things.” This phrase seems to refer to those things listed in Luke 21:34 which would cause one to be off guard at the second coming (Lk. 21:34-36) and not the Tribulation at all. Finally, we must ask pretribbers what is meant by “accounted worthy”? If these are the church then those in the church are “accounted worthy” of their salvation. This runs counter to the Scriptures which clearly teach that we do not earn our salvation, but that we receive it as an act of grace that we are not worthy of.
THE REVELATION 3:10 ARGUMENT
Pretribbers will also point to Rev. 3:10:
I also will keep you from the hour of temptation Which shall come upon all the world, To try them that dwell upon the earth.
To begin with the word “keep” here does not mean “rapture” and could simply refer to survival with Elohim’s help. More importantly the context of the passage is not prophetic but written to the “assembly at Philadelphia” (Rev. 3:7) or those believers that lived in Philadelphia in John’s time. Revelation is divided into three sections (Rev. 3:10) things which John saw (Rev. 1) things which are (Rev. 2-3) and things which shall be hereafter (Rev. 4:1). Rev. 3:10 therefore applies to the time of John and not the future tribulation in the last days.
THE HOLY SPIRIT TAKEN OUT OF THE WAY?
This argument was first used by prior-rapturism’s 15 year old inventor. This argument uses eisogesis (reading ideas into a text) rather than exogesis (reading ideas out of a text). In this case Prior-rapturists read “Holy Spirit” into the “he” in 2Thes. 2:7. By this reading the Anti- Christ is revealed (2Thes. 2:8) and the Tribulation begins after the church (and therefore the Holy Spirit within them) are removed by a pre-trib rapture. Prior-rapturism’s inventor first proposed this idea after having a weird vision in which it was “revealed” to her that “then shall the wicked be revealed” immeditely follows “…two shall be in one bed, the one taken and the other left…” (Lk. 17:34f; Mt. 24:40- 41). Prior-rapturism’s inventor taught a partial prior-rapture in which those “taken” were identified as “those who were filled with the Spirit.” She falsely identified “taken” in Lk. 17:34-35 & Mt. 24:40-41 with “taken” in 2Thes. 2:7. Those “taken” in Lk. 17:34-35 & Mt. 24:40-41 are not “those filled with the SET-APART Spirit” but are compared to those “taken” by the flood in the days of Noah (Mt. 24:39). Their bodies will be fed to birds of prey (Lk. 17:37) at the secod coming of Messiah (Rev. 19:17-18, 21). In fact the Shem Tob Hebrew Matthew adds in Mt. 24:41: this is because the angels at the end of the world will remove the stumbling blocks from the world and will separate the good from the evil.
Although restraint of some kind is removed in 2Thes. 2:7 the Set-Apart is not.
THE REV. 4:1 ARGUMENT
Being unable to prove their argument by a literal understanding of the Scriptures, prior rapturists turn to arguments based purely on allegory.
In this argumernt prior rapturists say that John represents the Church and that he is getting “raptured” just before Rev. describes the Tribulation. There is absolutely no support for this argument from the text.
THE ENOCH ARGUMENT
This argument is also pure allegory. This argument says that Enoch was translated before the flood. The Prior-rapturists say Enoch = the Church and the flood = the Tribulation. Actually in the scriptures (and even the Book of Enoch) the flood represents the day of judgement and the days before the flood (the “days of Noah”) represent the tribulation. Moreover, Elijah was also translated AFTER surviving a Tribulation period (2Kn. 2:9-11; 1Kn. 17f) 3 1⁄2 years of which are often paralleled in the scriptures to the second half of the 7 year “Tribulation.”
JEWISH CUSTOMS
Certain Messianic Jewish scholars have sought to find evidence for a pre-trib rapture allegorically from Jewish customs. One of these involves Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur, another the Jewish wedding. These are weak attempts at finding allegory to prove something that has no support from any PASHAT (literal) interpretation of any passage and which has no roots in Judaism to begin with but was invented in Christendom in the 19th century.
RAPTURE OR REGATHERING?
To understand the truth about the KH’TAF (rapture) it is important to understand just what this event is. Christendom generally teaches that the Rapture is a rapture of the Church, but the real truth is that the KH’TAF (rapture) is the supernatural regathering of Israel upon the return of Messiah. A serious examination of the scriptures makes this clear.
The Tanak foretells of a time when YAHUAH will regather Israel “from the four corners of the earth” (Is. 11:12) and “from the farthest parts under heaven” (Dt. 30:4). The Torah says that Messiah will “bring” them out of these other lands (Dt. 30:4). The word for “bring” here in the Hebrew actually means a forceful action. The Jerusalem Targum interprets this passage (Dt. 30:4) to mean that YAHUAH will “gather you together by the hand of Elijah… and from thence will He bring you by the hand of the King Messiah.” According to Rashi’s commentary this means that they will be dragged through the air by the hand of Messiah to the land. Is this event the KH’TAF (rapture)?
The first evidence that the “bring” in Dt. 30:4 is the KH’TAF (rapture) is found in the wording of Mt. 24:31 = Mk. 13:27 which identify those being “gathered” as “the Elect.” The term “the Elect” in the scriptures is a euphemism for Israel (Dt. 7:6; 10:15; 14:2; Is. 41:8-9; 42:1; 43:2f; 45:4; 65:9-22; Ps. 135:4; 1Pt. 2:9 = Is. 43:20f & Dt. 10:15). In 1Thes 4:17 Paul uses the term “we” but this is a term that elsewhere uses to refer to himself and his fellow Jews (Acts 17:1-4).
Further evidence to identify the KH’TAF event with the regathering of Israel is that of the trumpet. A trumpet is blown at the KH’TAF (rapture) in 1Thes. 4:16-17 and 1Cor. 15:50-55 as well a in Mt. 24:31 and Rev. 11:15. According to the Tanak a trumpet is also blown at the regathering of Israel (Is. 27:12-13.
Additional evidence which identifies the KH’TAF with the regathering of Israel is that of the resurrection. The KH’TAF is accompanied by a resurrection (1Thes. 4:16-17 & 1Cor. 15:50-55). The regathering of Israel also includes a resurrection (Ezkl. 37:1-14; Is. 25:1-12; Hosea 13:9-14:9). In fact, 1Cor. 15:54-55 actually quotes Is. 25:8 & Hosea 13:14. The use of Is. 25:8 & Hosea 13:14 in 1Cor. 15:54-55 is also important because of its finality. How can pretribbers believe death comes to an end at the beginning of the Tribulation?
There is yet more evidence that the KH’TAF is the regathering of Israel. Those “raptured” in 1Cor. 15:53 become immortal, but in the 1,000 year Kingdom there will also be mortals (Is. 65:20) If the Church is raptured in 1Cor. 15:53 and becomes immortal, then who are the mortals of Is. 65:20?
Final proof that the KH’TAF (rapture) is actually the Regathering and Restoration of Israel at the return of the Messiah is to be found in the text of Mt. 24:31 = Mk. 13:27 which actually quote the phrases “from the four corners of the earth” (Is. 11:12) and “from the farthest parts under heaven” (Dt. 30:4) right out of the Tanak passages which describe the regathering of Israel.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENS
Immediately after the tribulation (Mt. 24:29; Mk. 13:24) the Messiah will appear in the sky (Dan. 7:13-14; Mt. 24:29-31; Mk. 13:24-27; 1Thes. 4:16-17) there will be a final trumpet (Rev. 8:2; 11:15; Mt. 24:31; Is. 27:13; 1Thes. 4:16-17; 1Cor. 15:52) and there will be a resurrection (1Cor. 15:50-55; 1Thes. 4:16; Rev. 20:4-6; Is. 25:8; Hosea. 13:14; Ezkl. 37:1-14) and a gathering together to Messiah in the sky (Mt. 24:29-31; Mk. 13:24-27; 2Thes. 2:1; 1Thes. 4:17). This is followed by the Messiah coming with many of His Set-Apart ones (Jude 1:14-15 = 1Enoch 1:9; 1Thes. 3:13; Rev. 19:11-16; Zech. 14:4- 5). After this, the 1,000 year Kingdom is established (Rev. 20:1-3, 7). This KH’TAF will be the Regathering of Israel to the Land of Israel at the return of Messiah and not a pretrib rapture of the Church.
Ask any evangelical whether this verse in Matthew 24:40 is speaking of the end-time rapture of the saints and almost assuredly he will say that it is.
This passage, which speaks of people in the last days doing everyday things when suddenly some are taken away, is foundational to the rapture doctrine.
The common understanding of the rapture—a term not in the Scriptures—is that the saints will be instantly transported off for safe keeping in heaven for three and a half or seven years when conditions worsen on earth prior to the Savior’s return.
A variation of this theory asserts that the rapture will happen in the middle of the end-time tribulation period or at its end.
Once the tribulation is past, His saints will return to earth with YAHUSHA to reign here for a thousand years, many believe.
Is this so? Millions of people are expecting a sudden “lift-off” to take them completely away from all the turmoil and trials prophesied for the time just ahead of us. They believe that they will leave friends and family down here to suffer and die, while they witness it all from a safe distance in heaven.
In fact, millions are, and will be, duped into a spiritual slumber because of this doctrine. When the time comes they may find themselves unable to cope with what they will be forced to undergo.
Let’s understand exactly what the Scriptures say. What you know or don’t know now could be critical in the years ahead.
Where Do They Go?
A passage parallel to Matthew 24:40 that is a somewhat more complete rendition of the same account is in Luke 17:34-37, where YAHUSHA said to His disciples,
“I tell you, in that night there shall be two [men] in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two [women] shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two [men] shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, where, Master? And he said unto them, wheresoever the body [is], thither will the eagles be gathered together.”
YAHUSHA’s answer to their question about where these “raptured” will be taken is the key to the rapture issue.
Other translations render eagles as “vultures,” such as Weymouth and Moffatt. The New International Version also says, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures gather.”
These people are taken to a place of dead bodies and vultures. Does this sound like a safe haven in heaven? Far from it!
In another parable about the end-time “harvest” of souls, YAHUSHA told His disciples that the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed a field and an enemy came later and sowed tares or weeds in it, Matthew 13. The servants asked the owner whether they should go out and pull up the tares, but he told them to wait.
“Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:30)
This parable fits perfectly with His other parable about the end. The tares representing the wicked are the ones first taken and destroyed. The righteous remain until the firstfruits harvest.
YAHUSHA Himself spelled out His parable of the tares when His disciples begged an explanation.
Matthew 13:37-43 reads, “He answered and said unto them, He that sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked [one]; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Proper Time Sequence
Most rapture theorists say the saints will be taken away before or partway through the tribulation period.
By looking at Matthew 24:29-31 we can see when the saints will in fact be resurrected.
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Notice, the elect or the saints will be gathered after the tribulation, not before it.
Paul gives us another indication of the time sequence in 2Thessalonians 2:
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Master YAHUSHA the Messiah and by our gathering together unto him,” verse 1. We learn here that when the Savior comes THEN the body of saints will gather with Him.
Now note verse 8 for the timing of when YAHUSHA actually comes. He comes after the appearing of the wicked one (i.e., the one who is moved by Satan). “And then shall that Wicked [one] be revealed, whom the Master shall [afterwards] consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”
Once Satan has done his work, which will include events of the tribulation, verse 10, then the Savior will come.
A Period and a Conclusion
In His well-known Olivet prophecy, YAHUSHA talked about the end times. His disciples wanted to know what exactly will happen and asked Him about events at the time of the close of this present world.
“Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world?” they asked Him in Matthew 24:3. This word “end” is from the Greek word sunteleia, which means the combined circumstances surrounding the end. It does not mean the very final event itself.
However, that is not the case later in the chapter, as in verse 13:
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Here the word “end” is the Greek telos and means the actual end as a final limit. In other words, those who would be True Believers will be called on to be faithful all the way to either the end of their lives or to the last event of the whole end-time sequence.
This precludes that they would be somehow cut short of the process in a rapture.
Again in verse 14 telos is used:
“And this Good News of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” The witness will continue to go out to the world all the way up to the final event.
The witness is carried by YAHUAH’s True Worshipers, is it not? Has it not always been the prophets and YAHUAH’s people who have brought the truth to the world? How can the truth go out to the very last (telos) if the saints are raptured away in heaven three and a half or seven years prior?
Of course, the saints will be either changed or resurrected at the final trumpet blast. Paul writes in 1Corinthians 15:51-52, “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
The last trump refers to the seventh trumpet sound of Revelation 10:7. Each of the seven trumpets announces a certain plague that is prophesied to befall this earth.
Historical Models
If the saints are not raised and changed until the last of the plagues, then they obviously must endure the coming tribulation.
Can we find any instance in history that parallels what will happen in the end of the age? YAHUSHA tells us we can in Matthew 24:37-41:
“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
Just as the flood “took” all the wicked away and drowned them while Noah and his family were preserved in an ark on earth, so first wicked ones will be “taken” to a place of death—where vultures are gathered around dead bodies.
Many of the righteous will be protected here on earth, just as Noah was. Remember, Noah’s circumstances are a paradigm or model of what will occur at the end of the age.
Revelation 12 tells us that the woman, which typifies the assembly, fled into the wilderness where YAHUAH had prepared a place for her (them). “They” fed her there for 1,260 days or three and a half years.
The reason is that the man of sin, a civil leader, will make war with saints and even overcome them, Revelation 13:7. This would be impossible if all the saints were already gone, raptured away in heaven.
Trials Endured, Not Removed
When Daniel’s friends refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image (probably an Asherah) they were thrown into a burning furnace. There they were protected from the flames.
Daniel’s friends escaped destruction of the fiery furnace by way of the furnace.
Daniel himself, in another account, was cast into the lion’s den and escaped death by way of the lion’s den.
Yisrael had to suffer the first three plagues in Egypt —the blood, frogs, and lice—before they were protected from the last seven. They were not taken out of the tribulation in which they found themselves, either.
Yisrael escaped the rest of the plagues while living in the midst of the Pandemonium.
We read that Joseph was “delivered out of all his afflictions,” but we also learn that his feet hurt with fetters and that he was laid in iron until the Word of YAHUAH tried him and the king loosed him, Psalm 105:17-20.
Far from being removed from the world in a rapture, YAHUSHA prayed that the righteous be delivered, and asked specifically that they not be taken out of the world, John 17:15. “Sanctify them through your truth,” He prayed in verse 17. “Sanctify” means to set apart. We are set apart by His Word while living in the world, and not separated by physical removal.
Paul told Timothy that he had endured many trials and tribulations. “Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch , at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all YAHUAH delivered me” (2Timothy 3:11). Although delivered by his faith, Paul still had to undergo the trials.
Revelation Reveals Trials
Specifically, how can we know that many saints will need to endure the coming tribulation? Is there a passage that shows in no uncertain terms that this will indeed be the case? Yes there is.
As each of the seven seals is opened in Revelation 6, various plagues are unleashed on the earth: false ministers, wars, famines and death from diseases, war, and wild animals make up the first four seals. The fifth seal is opened in verse 9:
“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of ELOHIYM, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O YAHUAH, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”
Saints Will Be Martyred
Now notice in Revelation 7:2-3:
“And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living ELOHIYM: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our ELOHIYM in their foreheads.”
This is after the first six seals are opened with various plagues accompanying each.
Just as with Yisrael in Egypt , those at the end of the age will undergo the first part of the tribulation period. Then the 144,000 will be sealed with YAHUAH’s Name (Revelation 14:1) to protect them from further calamity.
How Many Resurrections?
In Revelation 7:13 one of the elders asks about the identity of a great multitude standing before YAHUAH’s throne. Verse 14 tells us that these came through the great tribulation and through their works of obedience (“washed their robes”) had been approved.
Revelation 20:4 tells us that there will be souls beheaded for the witness of YAHUSHA. These saints will reign with the Messiah for a thousand years.
Had they been beheaded before the tribulation, they would have risen with the rest of the dead in the supposed rapture and would not have had the opportunity to refuse to worship the Beast.
Most rapturists maintain that the righteous living and righteous dead will be raptured off to safety in heaven before the tribulation. This being the theory, the next verse presents another problem:
“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” (Revelation 20:5)
Had there already been a rapture, this would in fact be the second and not the first resurrection!
How Many Second Comings?
Another problem arises with the rapture theory. How many second comings will YAHUSHA make? Is there a second and a third coming?
The rapturists believe that YAHUSHA will come to pick up the saints but not touch down on earth. Then He will go back to heaven with the righteous ones. After either three and a half or seven years of the tribulation He will come back again with His heavenly army and the raptured saints to set up His rule for a thousand years.
The rapture doctrine maintains that YAHUSHA will come in two stages: “for” His saints, represented by the Greek word parousia, and the second stage, “with” His saints, as revealed in the Greek word apokalupsis.
In fact, the Scripture makes no distinction between these two Greek words. For instance, Matthew 24:37 and Luke 17:26 and 30 describe the same thing—saying that the days of Noah foreshadow the time before the Savior returns.
The first account uses parousia in reference to the Messiah’s “coming,” while the second employs apokalupto in “revealed.” No differentiation is made in the circumstances, however.
Similarly, parousia is used in 1Thessalonians 4:15-17, the passage many use in support of a rapture. Recall that parousia is supposed to indicate only a coming “for” His saints.
The problem is, the same word parousia is found in 2Thessalonians 2:1 and 8, verses that speak of YAHUSHA’s “coming” after the reign of the man of sin—at the END of the tribulation—to destroy the man of sin. This is not rapture but war!
We find parousia also used in 2Peter 3:4 and 12. These verses, as well, show a Savior coming (parousia) in vengeance, when the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Again, this is no indication of a rapture before the tribulation begins.
Major Problem No. 3
Aside from Matthew 24:40, the other main support presumably holding up the rapture theory is 1Thessalonians 4:16-17:
“For the Master himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of ELOHIYM: and the dead in Messiah shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Master in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Master.”
This, then, is the first stage of YAHUSHA’s coming, rapture theorists maintain. Some say it will be in secret when YAHUSHA comes the first time to rapture the saints. But there is nothing secret about a shout, an overpowering voice of an archangel, and a trumpet blast!
A real problem for the theorists in using this verse is in the word “meet.” Do we meet Him in the air and then reverse direction and go back to where He came from?
If I meet someone arriving at the airport, do I get on the plane and go back with him to the place he just left, or do I pick him up and take him to his final destination?
In 1Thessalonians 4:17, the word “meet” is the Greek apantesis. This word is used in only two other references in the New Testament.
One is Matthew 25:6. Here the bridegroom is met by the virgins and continues on to the wedding feast. He does not reverse direction and go back to where He came from. (This meeting is called in verse 13, “the day and hour when the son of man comes.” This phrase joins this parable with the Second Coming.)
For the only other instance where apantesis (“meet”) is found, turn to Acts 28:15. Here Paul is headed to Rome. He is met by a delegation of Roman brethren who have come as far as the Three Taverns to meet him. From there they proceed on to Rome. Just as with YAHUSHA’s Second Coming—Paul approaches, is met, and continues forward to his destination.
YAHUSHA doesn’t reverse direction. But the saints do, exactly as some did here in Acts 28:15—and at His Second Coming, the saints will return with Him.
Nothing Secret or Quiet
When YAHUSHA comes the second time every eye shall see Him, according to Revelation 1:7. Why? Partly because of an ear-shattering shout, the disquieting voice of an archangel, and a loud trumpet blast.
As we have also read, the anti-Messiah will be destroyed with the brightness of YAHUSHA’s coming, 2Thessalonians 2:8.
Nothing in the Scriptures gives any indication that the Savior will come quietly to snatch away His elect.
Some may point to 1Thessalonians 5:2 and 4, maintaining a secret first return of YAHUSHA.
The passage reads, “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of YAHUAH so comes as a thief in the night…But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”
Here we see clearly that the day is what can come unexpectedly to the unprepared. We are not to let the day overtake us as a thief, but to be primed for it. Nothing is said or hinted that the Messiah will sneak down and snatch away people. The day of His return may come as a surprise, but He will not.
The day He comes He will stand on the earth, not head back to heaven. The prophet Zechariah wrote: “Behold, the day of YAHUAH comes, and your spoil shall be divided in the midst of you…And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.” (Zechariah 14:1, 4)
Rapture: a Dangerous Teaching
The teaching that the saints will be secure in heaven during the coming tribulation is nothing short of sinister. Instead of spiritually preparing people for the trials to come, they are taught not to worry, they will be delivered out of it all.
Many people have conjured a picture of peace and safety in their minds. They have been removed from the trials of life while the earth is torn apart by storms, tornadoes, typhoons, volcanic eruptions, convulsions of the earth, fires, floods, wars, and whatever catastrophe comes to mind. Revelation 6 teaches there will be earthquakes, the sun blackened, the moon as blood. Asteroids and comets falling to earth, the mountains and islands, are moved out of place. Verse 17 describes this as the great day of YAHUAH’s wrath, and asks who will be able to stand?
Instead of fostering a dream of escape, our goal should be to do as did the Old Testament heroes and “occupy until He comes.” Our attention should be focused on the Scripture so that we can be a bulwark against doubt, but a kindly help to others who will need encouragement and strengthening of their resolve to carry on, knowing that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” Psalm 30:5.
Remember that the tribulation is sent by YAHUAH, and He certainly will not target those who are striving to obey Him, but instead promises to spare those striving to please Him.
“Then they that feared YAHUAH spoke often one to another: and YAHUAH hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared YAHUAH, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith YAHUAH of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. (Malachi 3:16-17)
Just as ancient Yisrael was spared from the final seven plagues, we are promised similar protection:
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with dissipation, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:34-36)
Not only are we to watch, but we also are to pray that we will be accounted worthy:
Seek ye YAHUAH, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of YAHUAH’s anger. (Zephaniah 2:3)
Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance,” Psalm 32:7.
May you find salvation in the truth and escape the destruction that follows the misguided doctrines of man.
Hebrew/Aramaic Origin of the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament)
Below is evidence which clearly points towards the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) being originally written in Hebrew and not Greek.
Churchianity (Christianity) itself is tainted with Greek thinking, Hellenized creeds, and unscriptural practices derived from Greco-Roman infusions through a Greek-translated Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament).
Scholarship is increasingly validating the case for a Hebrew original Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament). We include some of their documentation in this short study. Examining all the evidence, we conclude that the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) was inspired in Hebrew (or Aramaic) and then later translated into Greek.
The testimony to this is voluminous and logical. One needs only to consider that the writers were themselves Hebrews.
At the end of this article is a list of scholars and their writings supporting an original Hebrew Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament).
This list is by no means comprehensive.
Other enlightened experts have come to the same realization that the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) was originally a collection of Hebrew works.
The Scriptures’s Hebrew writers were led by the Set-Apart Spirit (sn- Holy Spirit) to write in their native Hebrew language, just as Paul (sn- Paul) was spoken to from On High in the Hebrew tongue, Acts 26:14.
Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) Based on Old
The inquiring Scriptures student soon realizes that the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) is undeniably Hebrew in grammar, idiom, and thinking.
This opens up a whole new understanding of the essence of truth for the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) believer.
If the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) is rooted in the Hebrew Language, then its teachings also derive from the Hebrew culture and are embedded in the Hebrew – and not pagan Greek – view of truth.
Those who would object to this reality must be asked the question, does arguing for a Greek Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) bring one closer to the truth, or take one further from it, knowing that the Old Testament is a thoroughly Hebrew work?
Is the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) a complete replacement of Old Testament teachings, with entirely new truth flavored with Hellenistic (Greek) thought, practice, and understanding?
Not according to the Apostle Shaul (sn- Paul). He wrote that the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) is built on the foundation of the Old Testament prophets as well as the apostles, Ephesians 2:20. YAHUSHA Ha’Mashiach (Messiah) the Messiah gave the directive to “search the Scriptures,” Yahuchanon (sn- John) 5:39.
The only “scriptures” existent at that time were those of the Old Testament. The Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) writings were not yet finished and compiled.
In His parable of Lazarus, YAHUSHA Ha’Mashiach (Messiah) again advised the unknowing to listen to “(sn- Mosheh) and the prophets,” meaning the Old Testament, Luqas (sn- Luke) 16:29.
It was these same Old Testament Scriptures that the “noble Bereans” used to establish truth in Acts 17:11, and the very ones Shaul (sn- Paul) told Timothy would make one perfect, 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
Aside from approaching truth from the right scriptural foundation, there is another important reason for coming to grips with the original language of the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament).
One of the arguments advanced against the verity of the set-apart (sn- sacred) Names is that the Names would appear as “God” (Theos) and “Jesus” in the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) Greek text.
The logic goes, if such titles and names are in the “original” texts, then who are we to change them to something else?
The issue though is that these names weren’t in the “original texts! Apart from this argument’s erroneous premise (“God” is not the same word as the Greek Theos: “Jesus” is only partly a Greek term), we must ask, is it legitimate to change someone’s name simply because you are writing about him in some other language?
Names are transliterated, not translated.
Names don’t change pronunciation.
If a book about the president of the United States were written in or translated into Russian, would the author or translators look for a Russian equivalent name for “Donald Trump?”
Of course not. His name would still appear as Donald Trump. By the same token, the Father and Son’s Name are the same in every language.
Therefore we must call on them by their name revealed through the Hebrew tongue.
There is no more a Russian equivalent name for “Donald Trump” than there is a Greek or English equivalent of the Hebrew “YAHUAH” and “YAHUSAH Ha’Mashiach.” “God”, “Lord”, and “Jesus” are not equivalents, they are REPLACEMENTS.
Hebrew Words Out of Place?
A peculiar discrepancy within the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) is this: if the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) were originally composed in Greek, why does it contain many untranslated Hebrew words?
Why did the writers go to all the trouble of preserving Hebrew terms in their Greek writings?
The only valid explanation is that the Greek language had no equivalent words for these uniquely Hebrew terms taken from an original Hebrew text and translated into Greek.
These Hebrew survivals attest to a Hebrew original – and a Greek (and English) translation that brought them across unchanged from the Hebrew.
The following HEBREW words are included in the King James Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament), as taken from the Greek translation (some are Aramaic).
Abba (“dearest father”);
Messiah (“Anointed one”);
Rabbi (“my teacher”);
hosanna (“Save! We beseech”);
Amen (suggests trust, faithfulness);
talitha cumi (“maid arise”);
ephphatha (“be opened”);
corban (“a dedicated gift”);
Sabbath (“repose”, “desist” from exertion);
Satan (“adversary”);
mammon (“riches”);
raca (“to spit in one’s face”);
cummin (herb);
Maranatha (“Master, I pray you overthrow”);
Passover (“pass over”);
Emmanuel (title meaning “El with us”);
Eli lama Sabachthani (“my El, why have you forsaken me?”)
Even more compelling evidence for a Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) originally composed in Hebrew is found in the clear Hebrew word order extant in the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament).
Many sentences contain the verb-noun reversal common to Hebrew and Semitic languages.
Scholars also have long recognized that the grammar of the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) does not befit good Greek, but does reflect excellent Hebrew grammar.
In addition, many Hebraic idioms and expressions are scattered throughout the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament).
Had the original been composed in Greek, these sayings would have been put into Greek form and expression. For example, what did YAHUSAH Ha’Mashiach (Messiah) and others mean by statements that don’t make good sense in Greek (Or English) but are powerful in the Hebrew?
Such expressions include:
“If your eye is evil” (Matt. 6:23);
“let the dead bury the dead” (Matt. 8:22);
“for if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry” (Luqas (sn- Luke) 23:31),
and “thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head” Shaul (sn- Paul) in Rom. 12:20).
Numerous examples of Semitic poetry and reverse couplets (chiasmus) are dead giveaways to the original Hebrew of these books.
Hebrew is also distinct for its colorful descriptions of simple, common acts. For example, a beautiful expression in classical Hebrew is found in Luqas (sn- Luke) 16:23: “…he lift up his eyes…and saw…”
Other sayings peculiar to Hebrew and found in the Evangels include: “Lay these sayings in your years,” “Cast out your name as evil,” “He set his face to go,” and “The appearance of his countenance was altered.”
Whole sentences or paragraphs in the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) can be retranslated word for word back into the Hebrew. Luqas (sn- Luke) 10:5-6 is just one example: “And into whatsoever house you enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.”
This passage is a synthesis of vivid Hebrew idioms unknown in the Greek.
Greek Unpopular in Yisrael (sn- Israel, Judea) Many linguists and historians now attest that the Evangels, the Acts, and the Book of Revelation were composed in Hebrew (see listing of these scholars included herein).
Early “assembly fathers” validate that the Book of Mattthyahu (sn- Matthew) was originally written in Hebrew (see Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History 3:39; Irenaeus’ Against Heresies 3:1; Epiphanius’ Panarion 20:9:4; Jerome’s Lives of Illustrious Men 3 and De Vir. 3:36).
Hebrew was the language of Yahudah (sn- Judah) and Galilee in the first century.
Its sister language, Aramaic, remained the secondary tongue and the language of commerce. Yahudiy (sn-Jew) in this area were not Greek-speaking.
Their revulsion to the Greeks and the Greek language derives from the fact that the Maccabees had just defeated the Greeks and driven them and their pagan defilement from the Temple and Palestine.
The eminent first century Yahudiy (sn-Jew) historian, priest, and scholar Josephus admitted that he could not speak Greek fluently and that the Yahudiy (sn-Jew) frowned on any Yahudiym (sn-Jew) who did.
“I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understanding the elements of the Greek language although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own language, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness: for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations” (Antiquities, 20:11:2).
If this illustrious scholar was unable to speak Greek sufficiently, how could the uneducated disciples write their books in Greek?
From what we’ve learned, why would they even want to do so?
A Hebrew Writing to Hebrews The common perception is that Shaul (sn- Paul) was a Hellenist Yahudiy (sn-Jew) from Tarsus who wrote his letters to Greek-speaking assemblies in Asia Minor, Rome and Greece. Shaul (sn- Paul) was first and foremost a Pharisee – a Yahudiym (sn-Jew) sect opposed to Hellenization (Greek way of life).
He was of the tribe of Binyamiyn (sn- Benjamin) and a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” Philippians 3:5. A note in the NIV Study Bible says the expression “Hebrew of Hebrews” means “in language, attitudes and life-style.”
Shaul (sn- Paul) was educated at the feet of Gamaliel, a great doctor of Hebrew law, Acts 22:3. Although he was born in Tarsus (a city speaking mainly Aramaic), Shaul (sn- Paul) grew up in Yehrushalyim (Jerusalem), the center of Pharisaic Judaism, Acts 22:3. The epistles Shaul (sn- Paul) wrote were to various assemblies of the Dispersion.
Each assembly was composed of a nucleus group of Yahudiym (sn-Jew) and supplementary collections of gentiles (read about the Thessalonia Assembly, Acts 17:1-4, as well as the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 10:1-2). The converted Yahudiym (sn-Jew) in these assemblies would receive Shaul (sn- Paul’s) letters and then teach the gentiles among them.
It wasn’t the gentiles who were converting Yahudiym (sn-Jew) to a Grecian-Roman faith with a Greek Savior and doctrines of mystery worship!
Typically Shaul (sn- Paul) went first to the synagogue when he traveled to contact these and other assemblies (Acts 13:14; 14:1; 17:1; 17:10, 18:4, 19:8).
The language of the second Temple and synagogues at this time was Hebrew and Aramaic, not Greek.
His letters in Hebrew to these Yahudiym (sn-Jew) and gentiles of the various assemblies would reflect his mission to take the Good News to “the Yahudiym (sn-Jew) first and then to the Greek,” Romans 1:16. As an example, Shaul (sn- Paul) specifically addressed Yahudiym (sn-Jew) of the Corinthian assembly:
“Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto (sn- Mosheh) in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor. 10:1-2).
Truth from Greek or Hebrew?
Understanding basic truth is to know that YAHUAH chose the Hebrew peoples with whom to make a Covenant and through whom to bring the truth.
How much of a gentile should the True Worshiper be who is bathing in Scriptures first delivered to Hebrew patriarchs, Hebrew prophets, and Hebrew apostles and lived by a Savior from the human lineage of King Daviyd (sn- David)? Shaul (sn- Paul) was no champion of the gentile cause.
He was the champion of a Hebrew Messiah and scriptures given in a Hebrew Old Testament. These were what he taught in his epistles.
Note: “But this I confess unto you, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the Eloah of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets” (Acts 24:14).
“Law and prophets” refers to the Old Testament Scriptures. Which culture, world-view, and mentality should prevail among True Worshipers today?
A Greek-gentile heritage?
Or the birthright of those grafted into the promised of Yisrael (sn- Israel) established by the Heavenly Father YAHUAH Himself?
Shaul (sn- Paul) wrote to the assembly at Rome, “Who are Yisraelites (Israelites); to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of Eloah, and the promises” (Romans 9:4).
If Christianity were honest with itself, it would openly acknowledge that it derives its faith from Hebrew and not Greco-Roman Scriptures.
That its salvation comes from a Savior who came as a Hebrew not to establish a new religion but to build on what went before.
YAHUAH Ha’Mashiach (Messiah) and the Scriptures are Hebrew.
If this one pivotal truth were taught today, real understanding of the Scriptures would break out everywhere, and the Scriptures would at last be revealed.
Scholars Who Support A Hebrew Original Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament)
Following is a listing of some linguistic and Biblical authorities who maintain or support a belief in a Hebrew origin of the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament):
● Matthew Black, An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts, third edition, entirety.
● D. Bivin and R. B. Blizzard, Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, entirety.
● E. W. Bullinger, The Companion Scriptures, Appendix 95.
● Dr. F. C. Burkitt, The Earliest Sources for the Life of Jesus, pp. 25, 29.
● Prof. C. F. Burney, The Aramaic Origin of the Fourth Gospel, entirety.
● Epiphanius, Panarion 29:9:4 on Matthew.
● Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, III 24:6 and 39:18; V8:2; VI 25:4.
● Edward Gibbon, History of Christianity, two footnotes on p. 185.
● Dr. Frederick C. Grant, Roman Hellenism and the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament), p. 14.
● Dr. George Howard, The Tetragram and the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament) in Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 96/1 (1977), 63-83. Also, Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, entirety.
● Dr. George Lamsa, The Holy Scriptures from Ancient Eastern Manuscripts, Introduction, pp. IX-XII.
● Dr. Alfred F. Loisy, The Birth of the Christian Religion and The Origin of the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament), pp. 66, 68.
● Dr. Isaac Rabinowitz, Ephphata…in Journal of Semitic Studies vol. XVI (1971), pp. 151-156.
● Ernest Renan, The Life of Jesus, pp. 90, 92.
● Hugh J. Schonfield, An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew’s Gospel, (1927) p. 7.
● Dr. Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, p. 275.
● R. B. Y. Scott, The Original Language of the Apocalypse, entirety.
● Prof. Charles C. Torrey, Documents of the Primitive Church, entirety. Also, Our Translated Gospels, entirety.
● Dr. James Scott Trimm, The semitic Origin of the Brit Chadash (sn- New Testament), entirety.
● Max Wiolcox, The Semitism of Acts (1965), entirety.
● F. Zimmerman, The Aramaic Origin of the Four Gospels, entirety.
Modern Day Christianity, Your Papa is still the Roman Catholic Pope
Protestants, Why did you leave the Roman Catholic Church and remained a watered down version of the Roman Catholic Church?
You still hold onto the pagan celebrations, Christmas, Easter, Lent, ext… implemented into the church by the Roman Catholic church. Also you continued in the footsteps of the Roman Catholic church, by proclaiming that false name Jesus.
You hold to the Roman Catholic Trinity and Baptism. You take Catholic Communion. You keep to the change of the Keeping of the Sabbath to Sunday when clearly the Roman Catholic Church admits to changing. You keep and observe the Roman Catholic Church’ Pagan Holidays instead of Keeping and Observing YAHUAH’s 7 Feasts that the Scriptures tells us to.
The list goes on how the Ecumenical Protestants, Evangelicals and Pentecostal Churches are indeed Children of The Pope and can be proven that the Pope is your Head Bishop that you follow.
Come out completely !!!
Revelation 18:4 [ Warning to Escape Babylon’s Judgment ]
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And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
CHIZAYON (REVELATION) 18:4
For true and righteous are his judgments: for he has judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
CHIZAYON (REVELATION) 19:2
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Roman Catholic Church took the image of the Popes son, Cesare Borgia and used this image as the son of YAHUAH and called this image Jesus.
The Roman Catholic Church has even went further, the Catholic Church believes this about their Popes ?
“The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of flesh.” ~Catholic National article 1895~
“We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” ~Pope Leo XIII~
“The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth.” ~Pope Pius V~
STOP being spoon fed !!!
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Study to show yourself approved unto YAH, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.
TIMOTHEUS SHENIY (2 TIMOTHY) 2:15
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Back To The Foundation
Are You Truly Pursuing The Faith Established To All Believers By YAHUAH The Most High Through YAHUSHA HA’MASHIACH (The Messiah)?
It’s time to be honest with ourselves and evaluate our lives and motives behind our actions.
Most people who call themselves born again believers, have no idea how much man has changed the doctrines that YAHUAH had instituted into the first century fellowship of believers.
We must go back to the foundation (YAHUSHA) and look at History and the Scripture, how The Talmidiym (Disciples) of YAHUSHA and those under YAHUSHA’s Talmidiym (Disciples) instructed believers to live for YAHUAH.
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But seek ye first את eth-the Kingdom of YAHUAH, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
MATTITHYAHU (MATTHEW) 6:33
BLESSED is the man that walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the Torah of YAHUAH; and in his Torah he meditates day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.
Emperor Constantine Was the First Pope!! Caesar is Pope!!
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. (Revelation 6:2-3).
This is a description of the 1st of the 4 deadly horseman of the Apocalypse. It is a description of Emperor Constantine going forth to conquer the entire Roman world.
All the great prophecies in the Book of Revelation began to be fulfilled with the reign of Emperor Constantine. Before the battle of the Milvian Bridge outside Rome in 312 A.D., Constantine claimed to have seen a cross in the sky with this inscription: IN HOC SIGNO VINCES or IN THIS SIGN CONQUER. He immediately had the Roman eagle replaced by the cross on his battle standards.
Emperor Constantine began to fulfill Scriptural prophecy when he founded a new capital for the Roman Empire in Constantinople.
Pagan Rome ended and Papal Rome began with the CROSS!!
Imperial Rome became PAPAL Rome on October 28, 312 A.D., when Constantine exchanged the eagle for the cross:
And not only so, but he (Constantine) also caused the sign of the salutary trophy to be impressed on the very shields of his soldiers; and commanded that his embattled forces should be preceded in their march, not by golden eagles, as heretofore, but only by the standard of the cross. (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, p. 545).
He would have been much better off if he had kept the eagle, because YAHUAH is referred to as an eagle in the Old Testament, but you will never find the word CROSS in the Hebrew Old Testament . . . or the Greek New Testament.
Emperor Constantine was the first Pope!!
Emperor Constantine was a GIANT whose iron legs bestrode the vast Roman Empire from east to west….By founding a new capital at Constantinople, he divided the Empire into 2 halves, and actually fulfilled the prophecy in Daniel chapter 2 of the division of the Empire into East and West.
Emperor Constantine was born Flavius Valerius Constantinus at Nis on Feb. 27, 280, in what is now Serbia, son of the commander Constantius Chlorus (later Constantius I) and Helena, a prostitute and Balkan barmaid. Constantius became co-emperor in 305.
Following the example of his father, and earlier 3rd-century emperors, Constantine in his early life was a solar henotheist, believing that the Roman sun god, Sol, was the visible manifestation of an invisible “Highest G-d” (summus deus), who was the principle behind the universe. This g-d was thought to be the companion of the Roman emperors. Constantine’s adherence to this faith is evident from his claim of having had a vision of the sun g-d in 310, while in a grove of Apollo in Gaul.
As a youth Constantine was sent to the palace of the infamous Roman Emperor Diocletian to learn the tricks of the trade as they say. At that time, Followers of YAHUSHA was growing by leaps and bounds throughout the Empire. The Qodeshiym’s (Set-Apart Ones) were outstanding citizens but the Emperors saw them as a threat to the Empire for ONE reason: they refused to acknowledge the divinity of the Emperors or call Caesar “lord.”
During the early days of Rome, the people hated kings. Rome was a republic. This human divinity idea came from the Pharaohs. Egyptian rulers were considered g-ds by their subjects, and when Julius Caesar conquered Egypt, he brought this idea back to Rome.
Emperor Diocletian was actually just 1 of 4 Caesars because the Empire began to SPLIT in two during his reign.
Emperor Diocletian began the last great pagan persecution in which most of the history of early Followers of Messiah YAHUSHA was destroyed.
In Diocletian’s days the Roman Empire began to SPLIT in 2 according to the predictions of the prophet Daniel.
Beginning in the year 303, the pagan Roman Empire made one last great attempt to exterminate Messiah’s Followers. This persecution, under the Emperor Diocletian, began on the 23rd of February (303 A.D.), that being the day the Roman Terminalia was celebrated, and the cruel pagans boasted that they would finally put a termination to the Qodeshiym (Set-Apart Ones)
Diocletian began by sacrificing to the pagan g-ds to make his war against the Followers of YAHUAH a success:
. . . In the first, while Diocletian was sacrificing in public, the chief interpreter of the victims’ organs reported that he could not read the future in them because of the hostile influence of the Qodeshiym (Set-Apart Ones) standing around. Diocletian burst into a rage, insisting that all in his court should offer sacrifice, and sent out orders to his army to follow suit. (Ramsey MacMullen, Constantine, p. 24).
The local demons having failed him, Diocletian then consulted the most powerful shrine of augury and divination in the world. This was the Oracle of Apollo in Delphi, Greece. His priests brought him back more bad news: it quit working too….This caused him to fly into an uncontrollable rage and he ordered the holocaust to commence immediately.
Monuments to the power of the Risen Messiah!!
All over the Old World, shrines of divination like these stopped working after the Resurrection of Messiah. Apollo was another name for Sol Invictus or the sun god.
Shrines of divination stopped working throughout the Roman Empire due to the restraining presence of the Qodeshiym (Set-Apart Ones).
Satan was FURIOUS . . .and so was the pagan priesthood due to the massive loss of revenue from their dupes.
Real Follower’s of YAHUSHA would NEVER build churches or houses of worship over pagan shrines. This was strictly prohibited by the Scriptures. The very ground was polluted with blood offered to demonic images.
Many of Satan’s most powerful demons could no longer operate after the Resurrection of Messiah YAHUSHA. Many of them emigrated to the New World and found a refuge there….In the following centuries, Pope Constantine’s system made sure that no missionaries reached the New World inhabitants with the Besorah (Gospel) of Messiah YAHUSHA .
Emperor Diocletian’s 10 year persecution of YAHUSHA’s Follower’s
Beginning in the year 303, the Roman Empire launched a persecution against Qodeshiym’s (Set-Apart One’s) which lasted 10 years. It is called the last great pagan persecution of the Congregation.
Fire, racks, swords, wild beasts, crosses, poison and famine were made use of to kill the Qodeshiym’s (Set-Apart One’s). Invention was exhausted to devise tortures against those who would not deny Messiah and acknowledge Caesar as “lord” and burn incense to his image.
The lives of the Qodeshiym’s (Set-Apart One’s) during that time consisted of persecution above ground and prayer underground. This is known in history as the era of the martyrs.
The main target of the pagans was the New Testament . . . and the histories of Messiah YAHUSHA….All of the great books portraying the Mount of Olives as the site of the Resurrection were systematically destroyed.
Even the books written by pagan authors were destroyed because they would reveal a lot about the doctrines and practices of the Apostolic Congregations.
There were millions of Qodeshiym’s (Set-Apart Ones) and many of them had copies of the New Testament. Only about 5,000 manuscripts have survived from that time and the oldest is dated around 350 A.D.
Eusebius tells us that there were innumerable histories of the Life of Messiah written by the Qodeshiym’s (Set-Apart Ones). Only one account survived this persecution. If any had survived we would have known exactly when YAHUSHA was born:
Hence by recent authors also, there are, as I have said, demonstrations without number, which we may carefully read, very able and clear, written in argumentative form in defense of our doctrine, and not a few commentaries carefully made upon the sacred and inspired Scriptures, showing by mathematical demonstrations the unerring truthfulness of those who from the beginning preached to us the word of godliness. (Preparation for the Gospel, Bk. I, ch. III, p.7).
Rome was systematically destroying the Qodeshiym’s (Set-Apart Ones) history so that the next generation of believers would have no idea what their parents believed. YAHUSHA said that the Believers were the salt of the earth and the light of the world:
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Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a menorah; and it gives light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
MATTITHYAHU (MATTHEW) 5:13-16
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With the removal of the salt and light through persecution, the world became a very dark place. This is what Paul was referring to when he refers to the let or hindrance that was holding back the manifestation of the Antimessiah system:
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Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called YAH, or that is worshipped; so that he as YAH sits in the Temple of YAHUAH, showing himself that he is YAHUAH.
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
And now ye know את eth what withholds that he might be revealed in his time.
TASLONIQIYM SHENIY (2 THESSALONIANS) 2:3-6
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Even Eusebius was imprisoned and it is a miracle that any of his writings have survived. His close friend and mentor, Pamphilus, was martyred during this time.
Emperor Constantine “rescued” the Christians from persecution!!
The idea of a Roman Emperor “rescuing” Christians from persecution seems incongruous but that is exactly what happened. Emperor Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and proclaimed religious toleration for all.
Constantine was always very ambiguous when he mentioned the divinity that he served….This was done to gain favor and acceptance with pagans and the Qoeshiym’s (Set-Apart Ones) in order to unite then with his new ecumenical religion whose sign or symbol was the
With the defeat of Maxentius—Roman Emperor in the West—Constantine began to merge Scripture Truth with paganism.
His triumphal arch mentions The Divinity as giving him victory . . . it says nothing about YAHUSHA!!
Here are the words on his triumphal arch in Rome translated from Latin:
To the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantinus, the greatest, pious, and blessed Augustus: because he, inspired by the divine, and by the greatness of his mind, has delivered the state from the tyrant and all of his followers at the same time, with his army and just force of arms, the Senate and People of Rome have dedicated this arch, decorated with triumphs.
With the defeat of Maxentius, Constantine was master of the entire Western Roman Empire and he began to fix his gave eastward….The Emperor of the East was named Licinius, and Constantine was determine to eliminate his rival and be sole master of the Roman world.
This so-called first “Christian” Emperor waged savage warfare by land and sea to be sole Emperor of Rome.
Licinius was murdered along with his son, even after he surrendered to Constantine, with a promise to spare his life.
Byzantium was renamed Constantinople
After Constantine became sole master of the Empire in 324, he decided to built a new capital for the Roman world. The city that he chose was an ancient Greek city called Byzantium, and was situated on a strategic and well fortified location on the Black Sea.
Little did Constantine realize that his actions would split the Roman world in two and fulfill Scriptural prophecy.
It was called the New Rome and mirrored the Old Rome in many respects with its own Senate House and violent public entertainment.
The New Rome was a lot like the Old Rome. “Bread and circuses” was the watchword for the Old Rome and Constantine made sure that the population was well fed and well entertained.
This dividing of the Roman world by Constantine did not take the Almighty YAHUAH by surprise. As a matter of fact, He had already predicted it 800 years beforehand
The king of Babylon had a dream in which he saw all of world history from his day to the end of time.
Daniel the Prophet interpreted the dream for him, as a colossal statue composed of 4 different metals, representing 4 successive world empires.
The legs of iron represented the divided Roman Empire.
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a terrifying nightmare but when he awoke he couldn’t remember the dream.
None of his astrologers or “wise men” could be of any help because they were all charlatans and fakes.
Daniel the Hebrew prophet, who was a captive in Babylon, came to the rescue and told the king his forgotten dream . . . and its interpretation:
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You, O king, are a king of kings: for the ELOAH of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heavens has he given into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold.
And after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things: and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
DANIY’EL (DANIEL) 2:37-40
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Notice that the 4 empires follow one another in SUCCESSION and there is no gap or break between them.
The MYTH of the Fall of the Roman Empire!!
The QODESH (Set-Apart) Scriptures is the only book in the world where the future is given in ADVANCE….None of the founders of the major world religions dared make any prophecies about what will come to pass in the future, because they were all charlatans and fakes, like the “wise men” of Babylon.
Most children in school are told that the Western Roman Empire fell to the barbarians in 476 A.D., and that the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) fell in 1453 A.D. It is a DOGMA that is held as firmly as the moving earth.
A British author named Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), greatly perpetuated this myth in his massive tome entitled: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon ended the Western Empire in 476 and the Eastern Empire in 1453.
It is a MYTH and falsehood because it contradicts the infallible Word of YAHUAH ELOHIYM.
Emperor Julius I was the next to assume the purple after Constantine.
His palace was the basilica of St. John Lateran built by the order of Constantine himself.
The highest office in the pagan pantheon was that of Pontifex Maximus or Supreme Pontiff….This was held by the Roman Caesars. The last Caesar to hold that title was Emperor Gratian who conferred it upon Pope Damascus.
Emperor Gratian conferred the title and the office of Pontifex Maximus on Pope Damasus.
This shows the unbroken continuity between pagan and Papal Rome.
With the total destruction of Yahusha’s history, it was easy to associate the Papacy with St. Peter.
About 12 “Emperors” ruled from Rome until the last one, Romulus Augustulus, abdicated in 476. However, these “Emperors” were merely figureheads or puppets who answered to the Papal dynasty.
There were several barbarian invasions of Rome, but the Papal dynasty continued to rule the Western or Latin Empire right down to our own time….Even the Roman Catholics admit that Rome never fell when they claim an unbroken succession of pontiffs right back to St. Peter.
Moscow is the successor of Constantinople!!
According to the prophecy in Daniel chapter 2, the Roman Empire would be divided into 2 halves, and both halves would continue unbroken until the end of time.
Constantinople—headquarters of the Eastern Empire—fell to the Turks in 1453, but the Orthodox church found a new home in Moscow.
The Eastern Empire is derisively referred to as the BYZANTINE Empire meaning shady or characterized by intrigue; scheming or devious. As Old Rome’s main rival, we know who was the author of that appellation.
Old Rome was fighting vainly with her eastern rival for centuries.
Finally, in 1453, she used the Moslem Turks to conquer Constantinople.
The Orthodox empire moved to Moscow, and Moscow became known as the 3rd Rome.
The Almighty, who sees all things in advance, had a new home for the Orthodox church in Russia.
Zoe Palaiologina was the niece of Emperor Constantine XI.
In 1472, she married the Grand Duke of Moscow, Ivan III.
Due to her influence, Moscow became the 3rd Rome, and depository of the Orthodox faith.
Due to her family traditions, she encouraged imperial ideas in the mind of her husband, Ivan. It was through her influence that the ceremonious etiquette of Constantinople (along with the imperial double-headed eagle and all that it implied) was adopted by the court of Moscow.
The double-headed eagle was adopted by Ivan III after his marriage with the Byzantine princess Zoe Palaiologina, whose uncle Constantine XI, was the last Byzantine Emperor.
We shouldn’t fail to mention that the Julian calendar was imported to Moscow from Constantinople, as well as the Greek based Cyrillic alphabet.
One widespread rationalization in Christian circles, often used to justify humanity’s mistreatment of animals, is the erroneous belief that humans alone possess souls, and only humans, therefore, are worthy of moral consideration. The 19th century German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, condemned such a philosophy in his On the Basis of Morality.
“Because Christian morality leaves animals out of account,” wrote Schopenhauer, “they are at once outlawed in philosophical morals; they are mere ‘things,’ mere means to any ends whatsoever. They can therefore be used for vivisection, hunting, coursing, bullfights, and horse racing, and can be whipped to death as they struggle along with heavy carts of stone. Shame on such a morality that is worthy of pariahs, and that fails to recognize the eternal essence that exists in every living thing, and shines forth with inscrutable significance from all eyes that see the sun!”
According to the Scriptures, animals have souls. Texts such as Genesis 1:21,24 are often mistranslated to read “living creatures.” The exact Hebrew used in reference to animals throughout the Scriptures is “nephesh chayah,” or “living soul.”
This is how the phrase has been translated in Genesis 2:7 and in four hundred other places in the Old Testament. Thus, Genesis 1:30 should more accurately read: “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, I have given every green herb for meat.”
YAHUAH breathed the “breath of life” into man, and caused him to become a living soul.
(Genesis 2:7) Animals have the same “breath of life” as do humans. (Genesis 7:15, 22)
Numbers 16:22 refers to YAHUAH as “the ELOHIYM of spirits of all flesh.”
In Numbers 31:28, YAHUAH commands Moses to divide up among the people the cattle, sheep, asses and human prisoners captured in battle and to give to YAHUAH “one soul of five hundred” of both humans and animals alike. Psalm 104 says YAHUAH provides for animals and their ensoulment.
“O YAHUAH, how innumerable are Thy works; in wisdom Thou hast made them all! The earth is full of Thy well-made creations. All these look to Thee to furnish their timely feed. When Thou providest for them, they gather it. Thou openest Thy hand, and they are satisfied with good things. When Thou hidest Thy face, they are struck with despair. When Thou cuttest off their breath, in death they return to their dust. Thou sendest Thy Spirit and more are created, and Thou dost replenish the surface of the earth.”
Similarly, the apocryphal Book of Judith praises YAHUAH, saying, “Let every creature serve You, for You spoke and they were made. You sent forth Your Spirit and they were created.”
Job 12:10 teaches that in YAHUAH’s hand “is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.”
Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 says humans have no advantage over animals: “They all draw the same breath…all came from the dust, and to dust all return.”
The verse that immediately follows asks, “Who knows if the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?”
The exact Hebrew word for “spirit,” “ruach,” is used in connection with animals as well as humans. Ecclesiastes 12:7 concludes that “the spirit shall return unto YAHUAH who gave it.”
This position was taken by Paul, who called himself an apostle to the gentiles. Paul spoke of YAHUAH as the “giver of life and breath and all things to everyone.” (Acts 17:25) In his epistle to the Romans 8:18-25, Paul wrote that the entire creation, and not just mankind, is awaiting redemption.
Revelations 16:3 also refers to the souls of animals: “The second angel poured out his bowl upon the sea, so that it turned to blood as of a corpse, and every living soul that was in the sea died.” The exact Greek word for soul, “psyche,” was used in the original texts.
English theologian Joseph Butler (1692-1752), a contemporary of John Wesley’s, was born in a Presbyterian family, joined the Church of England, and eventually became a bishop and dean of St. Paul’s. In his 1736 work, The Analogy of Religion, Bishop Butler became one of the first clergymen to teach the immortality of animal souls. “Neither can we find anything in the whole analogy of Nature to afford even the slightest presumption that animals ever lose their living powers, much less that they lose them by death,” he wrote.
The Reverend John George Wood (1827-89) was an eloquent and prolific writer on the subject of animals. A popular lecturer on the subject of natural history, he wrote several books as well, such as My Feathered Friends and Man and Beast—Here and Hereafter. Wood believed most people were cruel to animals because they were unaware that the creatures possessed souls and would enjoy eternal life.
One of the most scholarly studies on the issue of animal souls was undertaken by Elijah D. Buckner in his 1903 book The Immortality of Animals. He concluded: “…The Scripture, without the shadow of a doubt, recognizes that animals have living souls the same as man.
Most of the quotations given are represented as having been spoken by the Creator Himself, and he certainly knows whether or not He gave to man and lower animals alike a living soul, which of course means an immortal soul.”
Influenced by Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas, the Church of Rome maintains that animals lack souls or divinity, even though such a doctrine contradicts many Scriptural passages. Previously, during the Synod of Macon (585 AD), the Church had debated whether or not women have souls!
Women in the Western world are finally being recognized as persons in every sense of the word—social, political and spiritual.
Animals have yet to be given the same kind of moral consideration.
Pope Innocent VIII of the Renaissance required that when witches were burned, their cats be burned with them; Pope Pius IX of the 19th century forbade the formation of an SPCA in Rome, declaring humans had no duty to animals; Pope Pius XII of World War II stated that when animals are killed in slaughterhouses or laboratories, “…their cries should not arouse unreasonable compassion any more than do red-hot metals undergoing the blows of the hammer;” and Pope Paul VI in 1972, by blessing a batallion of Spanish bullfighters, became the first Pope to bestow his benediction upon one cruelty even the Church had condemned.
In Christianity and the Rights of Animals, the Reverend Andrew Linzey responds to the widespread Christian misconception that animals have no souls by taking it to its logical conclusion:
“But let us suppose for a moment that it could be shown that animals lack immortal souls, does it follow that their moral status is correspondingly weakened?
It is difficult to see in what sense it could be.
If animals are not to be re-compensated with an eternal life, how much more difficult must it be to justify their temporal sufferings?
“If, for an animal, this life is all that he can have, the moral gravity of any premature termination is thereby increased rather than lessened…
In short, if we invoke the traditional argument against animals based on soullessness, we are not exonerated from the need for proper moral justification.
“Indeed, if the traditional view is upheld, the question has to be: How far can any proposed aim justify to the animal concerned what would seem to be a greater deprivation or injury than if the same were inflicted on a human being?”
“Mark Twain remarked long ago that human beings have a lot to learn from the Higher Animals,” writes Unitarian minister Gary Kowalski, in his 1991 book, The Souls of Animals. “Just because they haven’t invented static cling, ICBM’s, or television evangelists doesn’t mean they aren’t spiritually evolved.”
Kowalski’s definition of “spiritually evolved” includes “the development of a moral sense, the appreciation of beauty, the capacity for creativity, and the awareness of one’s self within a larger universe as well as a sense of mystery and wonder about it all. These are the most precious gifts we possess…
“I am a parish minister by vocation,” Kowalski explains. “My work involves the intangible and perhaps undefinable realm of spirit. I pray with the dying and counsel the bereaved. I take part in the joy of parents christening their newborns and welcoming fresh life into the world.
“I occasionally help people think through moral quandaries and make ethical decisions, and I also share a responsibility for educating the young, helping them realize their inborn potential for reverence and compassion. Week after week I stand before my congregation and try to talk about the greatest riddles of human existence. In recent years, however, I have become aware that human beings are not the only animals on this planet that participate in affairs of the spirit.”
Kowalski notes that animals are aware of death. They have a sense of their own mortality, and grieve at the loss of companions.
Animals possess language, musical abilities, a sense of the mysterious, creativity and playfulness.
Animals possess a sense of right and wrong; they are capable of fidelity, altruism, and even self-sacrifice.
“Animals, like us, are microcosms,” says Kowalski. “They too care and have feelings; they too dream and create; they too are adventuresome and curious about their world. They too reflect the glory of the whole.
“Can we open our hearts to the animals? Can we greet them as our soul mates, beings like ourselves who possess dignity and depth?
To do so, we must learn to revere and respect the creatures, who, like us, are a part of YAHUAH’s beloved creation, and to cherish the amazing planet that sustains our mutual existence.
“Animals,” Kowalski concludes, “are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.”
(Natural News) It was a celebration of all things strange, sexual and satanic at the Roman Catholic religion’s Vatican Hall on January 8. Pope Francis reportedly invited a group known as “Aqua Circus,” Europe’s response to “Cirque du Soleil,” to dance around on stage and pay homage to the reptile “jesus” idol perched up in a display behind him.
During this postlude to Rome’s General Audience event, Francis tossed a hula hoop to the “artists” in the performance troupe who were acting out a tale about a mermaid and a man under the sea trying to fight contamination of the ocean. In other words, the purpose of the show was to offer worship to Francis’ god of global warming and climate change.
In the below video footage, watch as creepy Francis smirks with satisfaction at the pagan performance happening right in front of him. And keep in mind that Vatican Hall itself is shaped like a giant serpent, both inside and out (pictures of Vatican Hall are available at Now The End Begins):
Pope participates in circus act during general audience
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For more related news about the false religion of Roman Catholicism, be sure to check out Deception.news and Evil.news.
Is Pope Francis the false prophet eagerly awaiting his antichrist’s rise from the ashes?
As you’ll notice, the overtly satanic imagery was everywhere at this spectacle. Besides the shape and design of Vatican Hall, which is clearly meant to resemble a snake – think Garden of Eden if you’re missing the insinuation, here – the dancers, which looked like a bunch of ambiguously adorned drag queens, further represent the new race of genderless, sexless cyborg beings that will populate the New World Order.
This is what the satanic Baphomet image is supposed to represent, in case you didn’t know: a part male, part female, part animal, part artificial intelligence (AI) robot being that will exist as earth’s new race of fake humans once the LGBTQP agenda is fully implemented.
And how about that creepy “art” image of fake jesus rising from an “atomic apocalypse” behind Francis the entire time?
This 1977 creation by Pericle Fazzini depicts the false messiah rising from the ashes after what would seem to be a catastrophic global disaster of some kind.
If you look closely at the fake jesus in Fazzini’s statue creation, you’ll see that he’s been given a reptile head, further revealing this creepy to be that of Satan himself, and certainly not the real Messiah.
“In the Bible, Satan is pictured as a reptile who will have a coming war with King YAHUSHA at the Battle of Armageddon at the Second Coming,” writes Geoffrey Grider for Now the End Begins, about which side of the battle Roman Catholicism has embraced.
“Revelation shows us that the Genesis serpent had an ‘upgrade’ along the way and now is a giant, red-headed multi-headed dragon, though still a reptile.”
Whether you personally believe in all of this or not is irrelevant, because Roman Catholics and Francis certainly do. And it’s all coming to pass just as the Bible said it would, with Francis vying for the false prophet position in this apocalyptic narrative.
Keep in mind that the climate change narrative being pushed by Francis and his ilk is a religion in and of itself, and one that requires worship in the form of not eating meat, not using fossil fuels, and embracing the LGBTQP “rainbow” as the new global standard for civilization – just like Sodom and Gomorrah, and we all know what happened to those places.
“The Vatican loves dead things, and creepy things, and perverted things,” Grider also notes. “Things like the circus that Pope Francis invited to the reptilian Audience Hall on January 8, 2020.”
This brief article focuses on the alleged linguistic connections of the Greek “Iesius” and the Scriptural “YAHUSHA (Yah’usha)”.
Which is the Greek spelling of the name of our Savior?
a) ιησου [“Ihsou”] or
b) ιεσιυς [“Iesius”]
Answer: “Iesius”, answer (b), is the name of the son of Zeus and Electra. In Latin it is “Iesus”, from which we get “Jesus”!
Answer (a), “Ihsou”, is the phonetic rendition (transliteration) of the Hebrew name “YAHUSHA (Yah’usha)”, the prophetic name of our Savior. (a) is the correct one but (b) is the one in the Scriptures?
Do you worship “Jesus” or “YAHUSHA?”
Why this is important? IDENTITY!
Not knowing the difference opens the door to putting faith in a counterfeit Savior! Just because others say “Iesius, Iesus, or Jesus” is from the Hebrew, doesn’t mean it really is!
Since this was a specific warning connected to the coming of Messiah (Mat 24:24), which appears to drawing closer every day, it is crucial to your future. The majority view may not be the right one since Satan deceives the whole world (Rev 12:9).
More than just “a name”, or a doctrine, it is the entire identity, both character and name, of the possessor of that name. There is a deception.
Do you understand what this difference is?
Iesius or Ihsou? it’s the Ie… or Ih? A profound difference!
Contrary to popular belief, these two names at the beginning of this paragraph are NOT written in Greek letters! They are English equivalents of Greek letters! At the end of this paragraph there is the actual Greek lettering, and it’s English counterpart.
Note: There is no “e” in the scriptural Greek spelling of the Savior’s name, which is from the Hebrew, יהושוע, “Yah’usha” [Ιησου- Ihsou].
But…there is an “e” in Iesius – ιεσιυς!
Why is there no “oo” sound in Jesus?
There is an “oo” or long “u” sound in YAHUSHA!
In addition, the omichron, “o”, in [Ιησου – Ihsou] cannot be omitted in a phonetic articulation, i.e. transliteration, because it is part of a combined vowel sound “ou” (a dipthong) representing the “oo” sound of the Hebrew [ו] “waw”. [see comment on “Yahusha”]
However, there is no such vowel combination (dipthong) in the “iu” of “Iesius”, thus the “i” is easily omitted, leaving the “uh” sound of a short “u”, as in “us”…and Jes-us! See the Problem?
The implications are clear! Any name allegedly pertaining to the Scriptural Messiah containing an “e”, and not containing an “oo” sound only in the second syllable, is not Scriptural! Thus “Iesius”…aka “Iesus”…aka “Jesus” is not Scriptural.
It is, however, the name of someone else, i.e the son of Zeus!
The similarities shared among the pagan mysteries in the son of Zeus, “Iesius”, The Persian “Mithra”, and the Christian “Jesus” are simply overwhelming, even to the point of being highly documented variations of the same entity! The ancient practice of assuming the worship of foreign deities by changing names as well as adapting situations is well known. References to Mithra are in the footnotes, and are highly recommended reading.
“YAHUSHA”: We also note that the full Hebrew six letter of the name [יהושוע] does contain 2 [ו] “waws”, but some incorrectly attempt to vocalize both. As we shall see, the first “waw” is not vocalized, thus rendering the vocalization as “Yah’usha”. (The apostrophe in “Yah’usha” is employed to represent the silent “waw”.)
If the silent “waw” were vocalized, there would have to be a linguistic representation in the Greek in order to articulate that sound, which would be… Ιηουσου [“Ih-ou-s-ou-(a)” (Yah-u-sh-(a)] which was never there. How do we know this?
The earliest Greek rendering of the Hebrew “Yah’usha”, was done by a committee of 72 Hebrew speaking Jews in (or sent to) Alexandria, Egypt, around the year 250 BCE when they translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek (according to the Letter of Aristeas).
Since these Jews knew how the Hebrew was pronounced, they faithful reproduced the articulation, which omitted the first “waw” sound. Thus the name [יהושוע] “Yah’usha” was phonetically rendered in the Greek as Ιησου [“Ihsou”]…but still pronounced “Yah’usha”.
Note: the final Greek endings [“s”, “n”, or no letter] are grammatical, thus not part of the name proper. So again it cannot be, “Iesius”
Incidentally, Yah’usha means “YAHUAH is Salvation”. The name of the successor to Moses, and the name of a High Priest after the return of the Babylonian captivity, is the same name used of Messiah in the Greek writings called the “New Testament”. The similarity between the two proto-types as leaders into the promised land from types of exile and bondage, cannot be lost on the prophetic Messianic fulfillment.
The Scripture presents a True Messiah – His Name is YAHUSHA.
Yet Satan has created a false and counterfeit Messiah – his name is Jesus. The false messiah Jesus is very different to the True Messiah YAHUSHA, in personality, in nature, in teaching, and in character. Who will you show your allegiance to and follow?
YAHUSHA MESSIAH
– Seventh-Day Shabbat (Sabbath)
– The dead asleep in the graves awaiting the resurrection.
– The lost completely destroyed in the lake of fire.
– Salvation through grace, by faith in YAHUSHA Messiah resulting in a love for, and obedience to YAHUAH’s Laws.
JESUS CHRIST
– Sunday Worship
– The dead go straight to heaven or hell.
– The lost will burn in agony forever.
– Eating unclean foods.
– Trinity- 3 gods who are creators.
– Christian Holidays: Pagan Christmas, Pagan Easter, Pagan Valentine’s Day, Pagan Halloween, All Saint’s Day, False Good Friday, Jesus resurrected Sunday.
– Praying to Jesus, Mary and the dead.
– False unknown tongues.
– Salvation through faith and grace alone, and no obedience to all of YAHUAH’s Laws required, and willfully sinning allowed because grace is all that is needed.
Truthers Journal 