The Rapture: The Corrie ten Boom Trump Card (#6)

Some Reasons the Enemies of a Pre-tribulation Rapture Offer

1) The Saints Need to be on Earth During the Tribulation to Identify Antichrist 

This view probably has its origin in the assumption that only saints will have the wisdom to identify the Antichrist.

Revelation 13:18

⁽¹⁸⁾  Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

The verse does not say that the number 666 when properly computed will identify or pinpoint the man of perdition or that his name will add up to 666.  It simply means that wisdom is required to compute or to identify the biblical meaning of the number when it will ultimately be assigned to Antichrist. In fact, the number 666 will only find its true biblical meaning when it is assigned to the man of perdition.

Let me explain. The number 666 has been attributed to many evil men throughout the course of human history. Nero, Hitler, and Napoleon have all been possible contenders for the title “Antichrist.”  Some have even gone so far to name Henry Kissinger, Mikhael Gorbachef, the Pope and the American President as possible contenders and have come up with considerable complicated equations using letters from Hebrew, Greek or other alphabets.

None of these, or any other person for that matter, have or will ever do justice to the biblical meaning of 666. The Antichrist alone will have this privilege, if we may call it so, and indeed we may because God Himself is going to grant Antichrist the power to do his damnedest (Revelation 13:7). What then makes the number 666 so unique when it is assigned to the Antichrist? To come to a comprehensive conclusion, we need to go back to the time when Lucifer was created and fell into sin. So, let’s go there.

Isaiah 14:13-14

⁽¹³⁾  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

⁽¹⁴⁾  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Satan has always wanted to ascend the heights and exalt his throne above the stars of God. His final and very last bid to deity and his craving to be worshiped by all creatures will at last come when he takes possession of the man of perdition and insists that everyone takes his number 666 to acknowledge that he is God. As I said earlier, many previous dictators and God-haters are said to have been the Antichrist but none of them were granted permission to command everyone to take his mark on their foreheads or hands. Many New Age globalists are already urging the world to worship Satan.

David Spangler said this in one of his addresses to the United Nations

“Lucifer comes to give us the final gift of wholeness. If we accept it, then he is free and we are free. This is the Luceferic Initiation. It is one that many people now, and in the days ahead, will be facing, for it is an initiation in the New Age.” (Thomas says: Many fail to realize that the laying on of hands, slain-in-the-spirit, and the so-called baptism with fire, are all part and parcel of this initiation).

None of the former alleged Antichrists were suitable candidates to initiate Luciferian worshipers into the New Age. And it is precisely here where the biblical meaning of the number 666 and the proper computing thereof becomes relevant. Several passages in Scripture verify that the number 6 is the number of man. In his never ending hankering to be like God, Satan is going to empower his Antichrist to use the number 666 as his final bid to deity.

Instead of using any number of digits one after the another ad infinitum, like 66666666 etc. to convey man’s complete inability to usurp God’s godhood, the Bible merely uses three digits of 6’s one after another to communicate the same thing. It simply means that no matter how hard you try the 666 or 666666666 will never attain to 7 (indicating the holy perfection or completeness of God) and is always doomed to failure

The number 666 will have no significance until it is assigned to Antichrist as a means to force the entire human race to worship him as God (Revelation 13:16). Only then will “he who has wisdom (understanding)” be able to compute the number of the beast, in the sense that they will recognize, receive and worship him as God. The Antichrist will not be worshiped as God when he first appears on the scene to make a covenant with the many.

ADDENDUM

May we assume that Antichrist will only be identified when the number 666 is assigned to him? To answer the question, we need to determine when the number will be affixed UPON the foreheads and the right hands of men so that they may buy and sell their necessary daily consumables.

First, we must bear in mind that the seven-year tribulation is primarily a Jewish occurrence (Jeremiah 30:7), indicating that the appearance of the Antichrist has a distinctive Jewish ring to it. Having rejected their true Messiah, Jesus Christ, they have been waiting for more than 2000 years for a Messiah to bring lasting peace in the Middle East. I have already mentioned in part 3 of this series why the Jews have rejected their true Messiah and are consequently still waiting for a counterfeit one. On behalf of clarity, allow me to reiterate what I had written in part 3.

Ask any Jew what he would like their Messiah to accomplish, and they immediately tell you it is to bring a wave of lasting global peace. In an article on Judaism 101 we read the following:

The Mashiach

The mashiach will be a great political leader descended from King David (Jeremiah 23:5). The mashiach is often referred to as “mashiach ben David” (mashiach, son of David). He will be well-versed in Jewish law, and observant of its commandments (Isaiah 11:2-5). He will be a charismatic leader, inspiring others to follow his example. He will be a great military leader, who will win battles for Israel. He will be a great judge, who makes righteous decisions (Jeremiah 33:15). But above all, he will be a human being (a man represented by the single digit number 6), not a god, demi-god or other supernatural being.

It has been said that in every generation, a person is born with the potential to be the mashiach. If the time is right for the messianic age within that person’s lifetime, then that person will be the mashiach. But if that person dies before he completes the mission of the mashiach, then that person is not the mashiach.

Olam Ha-Ba: The Messianic Age

The world after the messiah comes is often referred to in Jewish literature as Olam Ha-Ba (oh-LAHM hah-BAH), the World to Come. This term can cause some confusion, because it is also used to refer to a spiritual afterlife. In English, we commonly use the term “messianic age” to refer specifically to the time of the messiah.

Olam Ha-Ba will be characterized by the peaceful co-existence of all people (Isaiah 2:4). Hatred, intolerance and war will cease to exist. Some authorities suggest that the laws of nature will change, so that predatory beasts will no longer seek prey and agriculture will bring forth supernatural abundance (Isaiah 11:6-11:9). Others, however, say that these statements are merely an allegory for peace and prosperity.

What About Jesus?

Jews do not believe that Jesus was the mashiach. Assuming that he existed, and assuming that the Christian scriptures are accurate in describing him (both matters that are debatable), he simply did not fulfill the mission of the mashiach as it is described in the biblical passages cited above. Jesus did not do any of the things that the scriptures said the messiah would do.

In short, the seven-year tribulation, the Antichrist and Israel are all inseparable parts of the end time. Jesus emphasized this when he told the Jews who wanted to kill Him because He claimed to be equal with God the Father and therefore God Himself, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” (John 5:43).

Accordingly, the Jews are not waiting for someone whose name adds up to the number 666 or for someone within their own ranks who has the wisdom to count the number of the beast. In fact, the number 666 will only obtain its true significance when the third seal is opened, and Antichrist takes away the peace from the world to cause havoc, mayhem, famine, and death (Revelation 6:3-6). This seems to be the appropriate time when daily consumables will have dwindled to just about a zero low and to grant Antichrist a golden opportunity to force everyone to receive his mark in their foreheads or right hands. It seems to be the only way he is going to keep the world population in check so that they may buy and sell their penny-pinched or meanest of necessities.

It follows that this won’t be the time when the Jews are going to recognize him and say, “Aha, this must be our Messiah whose number is 666.” No!  The Jews will identify and acknowledge him as their Messiah at the very beginning of the seven-year tribulation when he is going to sign a peace treaty with them for one week (seven years) (Daniel 9:27).

So, what’s the significance of the number 666? Will it be to identify the person or name of the man of perdition, or will it be to identify his true colors? Please keep in mind the Jews’ conviction that he won’t be a god, demigod, or another supernatural being. He won’t claim to represent Elohim on earth as Jesus Christ had done when they rejected Him and wanted to kill Him for blasphemy.

Had Antichrist done so from the very outset of the seven-year tribulation, the Jews would’ve rejected him outright as they did Jesus. It is for this very reason that Jesus said he would come in his own name, as a human being, without claiming deity or representing deity. However, his true colors will emerge when he will claim to be God and erect a talking statue of himself in the holiest chamber of the newly built temple in Jerusalem. It is then that the Jews will recognize his true colors and say “Hey, this in not our Messiah. When we signed our peace treaty with him, he seemed to be a mere human being (man; single-digit number 6). Yet now he claims to be God himself by his blasphemous invasion of the holiest of holies. Even the number of his name adds up to 666 (claiming to be God).”

The rest is well-known. Jesus tells us what is going to happen then,

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:15-22)

So, the number 666 will only be ascribed to the Antichrist when he usurps the lofty position of God in the most holy of holies (3 ½ years after his benevolent appearance as a champion and victor in the cause of the Jews), and many Jews will recognize him as a phony, forcing them to flee for their lives

He will be recognized as a peace-maker but not as God in the beginning of the seven-year tribulation. His claim to god-hood will only manifest itself when he makes a talking image of himself to be placed in the most holy inner chamber of the newly built temple and forces everyone to receive his mark (Revelation 13:17). Then and only then will the majority of earth’s populace worship him as God. Those who refuse will have to flee to the mountains for their protection. (Matthew 24:15-22).

Consequently, the number 666 will be given to most of the apocalyptic inhabitants or dwellers of the world as an acknowledgment that Antichrist (possessed by Satan) is their God and not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This in particular is the reason why those who take his mark will never have an opportunity to repent and be saved because they will have made their final choice between God and Satan (Revelation 14:9-12). As such, the 666 does not identify the name of the second beast but his usurped position as God throughout the entire world, and for this to transpire there is absolutely no need for the saints to be here on earth during the seven-year tribulation. (Luke 16:18).

What Event will be Potent Enough to Set the Seven-Year Tribulation in Motion?

It is a well-known fact that many grandees from the past have aspired to set up a one-world government with a one-world religion. Babylon under the tyrannical rule of Nimrod and his wife, Semiramis, was the first to attempt such an undertaking. God put a stop to it when He gently touched the inhabitants’ lips and confounded their tongues so that they no longer could continue their evil surmising. Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, and Charlemagne, to name but a few wished to establish a utopia on earth but died before they could realize their dreams. God was obviously working behind the scenes to thwart any attempt to establish an autocratic Millennial reign of peace on earth because it was not yet the right time.

When will it be the right time? Does 2 Peter 3:9 give us the answer? It certainly does.

2 Peter 3:9 Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁹ The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

In 1994 David Rockefeller said the following at the United Nations Ambassador’s dinner, on Sept. 23, 1994

“This present window of opportunity, during which a truly peaceful and independent world order might be built, will not be open too long.  . . . We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis, and the nations will accept the New World Order.”

It is unquestionably only a major crisis that is going to launch the new World Order. Nothing else but a major crisis will have the dynamic impact to bring it on. The question is, are humanly devised crises potent enough to launch the New World Order? The most recent Brexit results in the UK prove that there is a large sum of patriots who dearly want to maintain and defend the sovereignty of their country and are quite able to frustrate the globalists’ agenda of a New World order on a ballot paper.

Not even major crises such as two world wars, the holocaust in particular, and the 9/11 Twin Tower disaster were able to trigger a New World Order. Something more profound, vast and earth shattering, and something that has never occurred in the past and never will occur again in the future will have the dynamics to establish a New World Order. Only God is capable of orchestrating such a vast cataclysmic event.

Dave Hunt provided a very sensible and credible explanation why only a Pretribulation Rapture can trigger the World New Order in his book “How Close Are We?”

2) There are no Specific Verses in Scripture That Categorically Pinpoint a Pre-tribulation Rapture

Jacob Prasch and his No-Pretrib buddies often refer to John F. Walvoord’s statement that there are no passages in Scripture that offer any direct or categorical or definite proof that there will be a Pretribulation Rapture.

There are several doctrines in Scripture that are not explicitly stated or outrightly revealed in Scripture and need to be pieced together like a puzzle to get the full picture.

I find it odd that Jacob Prasch fiercely upholds the Judaic Midrash which interprets Biblical texts through peshat (literal or plain meaning, lit. “plain” or “simple”), “remez” (deep meaning, lit. “hints”), “derash” (comparative meaning, from Hebrew darash—“to inquire” or “to seek”) and “sod” (hidden meaning or philosophy, lit. “secret” or “mystery“), whilst he shuns the Biblically correct method to piece together various passages from Scripture to get the full picture of certain doctrines that are not explicitly and directly revealed in Scripture. This requires thorough reading and study of the Bible in order to seek and find passages that relate to certain not-so-easily discernible doctrines.

Are there any other doctrines, besides the Pretribulation Rapture, in Scripture that need to be pieced together from various other passages in the Bible in order to get the full picture?

The Gap Between the 69^th and 70^th (Last Week) of Daniel’s Prophecy

All the proponents of the Pre-, Mid-, and Postribulation Rapture agree that the 69 weeks in Daniel’s prophecy have already been fulfilled to the very letter. Therefore, there is no argument to be made against a literal fulfillment of the last week of the 70-week cycle. Pretribulaionists, as opposed to the Postribulationists who argue that the 7th week immediately followed the 69th, believe that there is a gap between the two periods and consequently that a 7th week is still a future event. Has it already been fulfilled or is it a future event that still needs to be fulfilled?

Is there enough evidence from Scripture that such a chronologically defined sequence of events such as the 70 weeks in Daniel could be interrupted indefinitely? If human judgment were to decide the question of whether the final period of the cycle together with the divine promised blessings be forever abrogated and lost because the Jews “killed the Prince of Life” (Acts 3: 15), a ready answer may have been forthwith very easily. The question however remains: Is there a precedent for this to be found in the mystical chronology of Israel’s history?

According to 1 Kings 6: 1 Solomon built the temple in the 480th year after Israel’s redemption from slavery in Egypt. Chronologers have rejected it as forgery and a blunder and even Scripture seems to dismiss it as an error. In his sermon at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13: 18-21), Paul elaborated on the chronology of the history of his nation: 40 years in the wilderness; 450 years under the judges, and 40 years of the reign of Saul, making a total of 530 years. Add to this the 40 years of David’s reign and the first 3 years of Solomon’s then a total of 573 years is reached which leaves a gap of 93 years amiss in the chronology of these events. Can this apparent inconsistency be reconciled?

Following the history of Israel in the Book of Judges, it becomes clear that their national existence as Jehovah’s peculiar people was in temporal abeyance for several periods. This happened in times of their punishment for their idolatry when they were “sold into the hands of their enemies.” They became slaves of the King of Mesopotamia for 8 years, to the King of Moab for 18 years, to the King of Canaan for 20 years, to the Midianites for 7 years, and finally to the Philistines for 40 years.

The sum of 8 + 18 +20 + 7 + 40 = 93 which, when deducted from the 573, leaves a total of 480 years. Can there be any doubt that the 480 years of the Book of Kings from the Exodus to the temple is a mystic era formed by eliminating every period during which the people were cast off or kept on hold by God? If God had temporarily cast off His people in the past only to reinstate them again, could He not presently be doing the same thing? Indeed, Paul who wrote his epistle to the Romans primarily to correct the developing Antisemitism and seeds of replacement theology in the Church of Rome following the banishment of Jews from that city by Emperor Claudius (Acts 18: 2), asks

“. . . has God totally rejected and disowned His people? to which he himself answers, “Never!” (Romans 11: 1). He continues to add a note of warning, “Do not boast over the branches and pride yourself at their expense. If you do boast and feel superior, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root [that supports] you.” . . .  And even those others [the fallen branches], Jews] if they do not persist in [clinging] to their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.” . . . “Lest you be self-opinionated, wise in your own conceits”

“I do not want you to miss the hidden truth and mystery (the mystery of the Jews being kept on hold during an intermediary period): a hardening (insensibility) has (temporarily) befallen a part of Israel [to last] until the full number of the Gentiles had come in, And so all Israel (the remaining remnant at His Second Coming) will be saved. As it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will banish ungodliness from Jacob.” (Romans 11: 18, 23, 25, 26; Isaiah 59: 20, 21).

These passages from Scripture declare unequivocally that God has not transferred His promises regarding the Jews’ final inheritance of the land of Israel and Jerusalem to the church. God has not written off His people and is going to fulfill every promise he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (2 Corinthians 1:20).. This will all come to pass during the 7th week of Daniel’s 70-week prophecy which still lies in the future.

Could the 7th week have been fulfilled in the past as the Posttribulationists prefer to believe? Did the 69 and last 7 weeks run in immediate succession without a gap in between? Such a scenario is highly unlikely. Daniel leaves no room for doubt when he says that exactly 69 weeks of years (483 years) expired between the going forth of the command to build Jerusalem until the coming of the anointed One (Daniel 9: 25) (referring of course to the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. (Matthew 21: 1-11) and a mere four days later He was cut off (crucified) but not for Himself.

From the day He was crucified in 32 AD, 38 years expired before the temple and the sanctuary was destroyed by Titus in 70 AD. Had the destruction occurred within the seven years immediately following the fulfillment of the 69 weeks one would have to concede that the 7th week did indeed follow the 69 weeks of years without any gap, but then all the other events Daniel mentions to be fulfilled within the gamut of the 7th week would have to be ignored completely.

In verse 24 Daniel unequivocally says that 70 weeks of years or 490 years would expire before a final end will be made to his peoples’ transgressions, before the full measure of their sin will be sealed up, before they will finally be purged and complete reconciliation be made for their sins and before everlasting righteousness will be ushered in at the inauguration of Christ’s 1000 year reign of peace on earth.

Has this all been accomplished during the seven years immediately following the fulfillment of the 69 weeks? The short answer is a resounding, no! In fact, judgment fell upon Daniel’s people instead of reconciliation; animosity rather than love for the Messiah became more ferocious as the experience of His disciples clearly shows. Would Jesus have wept under His remorseful words, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” (Luke 13: 34, 25) if all the aforementioned blessings had been fulfilled in the seven years directly after the 69 weeks of years?

As Sir Robert Anderson so eloquently says in his book “”The Coming Prince,” . . . We may conclude, then, that when wicked hands set up the cross on Calvary, and God pronounced the dread “Lo-ammi” (Romans 9:25, 26; cf. Hosea 1:9, 10) upon His people, the course of the prophetic era ceased to run. Nor will it flow on again till the autonomy of Judah is restored; and, with obvious propriety, that is held to date from the moment their readmission into the family of nations is recognized by treaty. It will, therefore, be here assumed that the former portion of the prophetic era has run its course, but that the events of the last seven years have still to be accomplished.?

Warning!

Stop using Corrie ten Boom as the Alpha and Omega of the Rapture to try and validate your infamous war on the Pretribulation Rapture. It’s not working and is ultimately doomed to failure.