Isaiah
Isaiah 3:1 - 3:26. Pages 1-10
In the last Chapter of Isaiah
we covered, Chapter 2, we were given by God a clue about the coming of the
Lord, and how those who don’t follow Him would wish to hide themselves "into the clefts of the
rocks" because of their shame. (They are ashamed because
they didn’t follow our Lord.) They listened rather to the ramblings of
the world instead of getting into our Father’s Word, and thus were not prepared
to stand against Satan who sets himself up in the role of the "another Jesus"
2 Cor 11: And who also comes before the True Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Saviour? 2 Thess 2: Ezek.28:
I realize
that this idea of Satan playing the role of the "another
Jesus", coming prior
to our True Messiah Jesus Christ is not taught to many Christians today, but it
is written in The Word. This idea is not a doctrine of
men. It is our heavenly Father’s Message throughout the whole Word. It’s
no big mystery, if you study God’s Word verse by verse and chapter by chapter.
I feel the need to comfort my fellow Christian brethren in this idea, so please
indulge me for a little while.
First of all, I well understand the doctrine of
the pre-tribulational "secret rapture", which is taught that Jesus is
returning first, before Satan as Antichrist comes, and that God’s people will
be taken out before all the bad stuff happens on earth. I am also well
aware of the verses used to support the "secret rapture" doctrine, as
in;
1 Thess. 4:17: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be
with the Lord.
For one example; I’ve also heard many
smooth presentations of the "secret rapture" doctrine, and usually
the good Christian’s moral and emotional nature is being touched. Then the
"secret rapture" idea is thrown at them like a lightning bolt of
truth that mustn’t be refused, and to use your brain at that moment,
instead of ‘feeling the faith’ would be a sin. Emotion is a very
powerful tool in the hand of those who know how to manipulate it. Many
Christians thrive on ‘faith’ emotion, which seems to conflict with using
good common sense that God intended for us to employ. The Truth of the
matter, is that our Heavenly Father said He is against those who "hunt the souls to make them
fly".
Ezekiel 13:20: Wherefore thus sayeth the Lord God; Behold, I am against
your pillows. wherewith ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will
tear them from your arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye
hunt to make them fly.
Being "caught up"
in the "air" of 1
Thessalonians 4:17 does not mean flying away up in the atmospheric
clouds. Rather, it refers to the "last trump" of... 1 Corinthians 15:
When the flesh body is
cast off at Christ's coming at the "twinkling of an eye",
and we all are revealed in our "spiritual body" (see the Asleep in Christ studies
on 1 Corinthians 15).
Here’s a
scenario: A sinner discovers Jesus Christ, and that He sacrificed Himself upon
the cross so that those who would believe on Him should have eternal life (John
3). That’s a very powerful, blessed, and humbling thought for
all of us daily, and especially for the new Christian who has just turned
away from that life of the ‘dead’. At that point, the new Christian is
very vulnerable, in the sense that they are ready to associate with the body of
Christ, and they may think that anyone teaching Jesus has got to be a real
follower of God’s Truth. At that stage they are still on the ‘milk’ of the
Word, and not the ‘strong
meat’ (Hebrews 5). They are like
putty in the hands of the teacher, because their reasoning in The Word hasn’t
reached a level of ‘rightly dividing’ God’s Word. Consider the following verses
from 2 Timothy 2: