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 25 PROPHETIC EVENTS BEFORE THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH

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        Many Bible prophecy teachers advance the notion that the next major event in Bible prophecy is the Rapture or catching away of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. A closer reading of the prophetic Scriptures, however, reveals many events yet to transpire before the righteous are removed from the earth. God has promised in His Word that He would surely do nothing but that He first reveals His secrete to one of His prophets (Amos 3:7). By diligent study of the prophetic Scriptures, then, we can know much of what is yet to happen before the Rapture of the Church and the second coming of Jesus to reign over the earth.

Here are 25 Biblical events that the Scriptures reveal must happen before the Rapture of the Church. [Please also note that Acts 3:20-21 says that Jesus must remain in heaven until all these things are fulfilled.]

Timeline of Bible Prophecy

The glory and judgments of the year 2008 to the Rapture of the Church

·     [1] The earth has been filled with the glory of God (Num. 14:21), and is being filled with the knowledge of that glory [the Anointing of Jesus (Hab. 2:14, c/p. Isa. 10:27)]. The earth is also full of God’s mercy (Psa. 119:64).

·     [2] A steady stream of the great latter rain harvest of both souls and money is flowing worldwide into the Body of Christ (Zech. 10:1; Jas. 5:7): above the level and the world and the Church has not been familiar with...all to the Glory of God. In these final hours of this the age of grace, more souls will be saved and baptized with the Holy Spirit than all who have been saved and Spirit-filled since the day of Pentecost. Russia has been open to the Gospel for some time, and the door is now open for the final move of God in China and the Middle East.

·     [3] During these final hours the Body of Christ will experience an Anointing on it that will be so strong that it will produce a multitude of healings and God-given miracles even greater than those experienced in the earthly ministry of Jesus. It will also produce a material prosperity on and in the Church that will exceed even the old covenant Anointing for wealth that was on King Solomon.

·     [4] The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just (Pro. 13:22) must now be fulfilled in the earth. The wealth of the world is gradually coming to be controlled by God's people. For the ChurchMoney Cometh and Money Thou Art Loosed! [See The Wealth of the Sinner Is Laid Up for the Just]

·       [5] Concerning Israel, it will tap the immense mineral wealth and chemical salts of the Dead Sea, estimated to be four times the wealth of the United States (see Dakes Annotated Reference Bible, note f, column 4, page 852; see also note, Isa. 60:5, The Amplified Bible).

·       [6] Israel will also discover what may be the world's richest oil and gas field[s], perhaps "shaken there" after a massive earthquake [like the one experienced during the days of King Uzziah (Deut. 33:24; Zech. 14:5; Ezek. 38:18; c/p. Jas. 4:1-6; Ecc. 2:26)]. On November 19th and November 20, 2007, Israel experienced three mild earthquakes: which it had not experienced since the year 1099. God may be moving the geological plates under Israel and the Middle Eastern oil nations quietly and without noticeuntil the oil and gas is gone! [See: A Massive Oil And Gas Flow Into Israel Will Make It The World's Bankers.]

·     Following this or these earthquake(s), or however God chooses to accomplish His task, Hebron and the West Bank will be found to be full of oil.  It's not there now, but it shall be so in the days to come. Once oil is found in Israel, there will no longer be any interest within the nation in brokering land for peace; and Israel will be come the bankers of he world [see Israel: The World's Bankers].

·     [7] Israel will become the land of unwalled villages, fulfilling Ezekiel 38:11.  For a season, she will be at peace with all her neighbors, including the Palestinians and Syria. This period of peace will not be the peace covenant that will be brokered in a later year by the Antichrist, even if some charismatic individual in the near future negotiates a 7-year treaty with Israel (c/p. Dan. 9:27). God’s purpose for this period of peace is to secure a final harvest of souls into the Body of Christ from the Middle East.

·     [8] Israel will experience a period of great prosperity, paralleled by a great inversion of wealth out of the world into the Body of Christ. [See: The Wealth of the Sinner Is Laid Up for the Just.]

·     [9] The financial judgments of James 5:1-8 have come upon the sons of Japheth (beginning with the United States, but likely to include Western Europe, Central and South America; and possibly South Africa and Australia as well.) for their part in the African slave trade and its aftermath. [Concerning the United States, the judgments of James 5 are the casual roots of the September 11, 2001 terrorists attack on New York City and fall of the twin towers of Wall Street's World Trade Center, as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The war in Iraq, alone, is costing the US taxpayers in excess of $200,000,000 per day in borrowed US dollars. These continuing judgments have also caused the Katrina hurricane and flood which destroyed major portions of New Orleans, which was a major US slave portal. They are also behind the current foreclosure crisis across the US, which has had the domino-effect of crashing Wall Street and the world's financial markets, because of the trillions of dollars invested in US home mortgages from foreign institutions around the world.]

·     The "withheld wages" of African slaves (Jas. 5:4) generated  immense profits during the triangular slave trade: where manufactured goods and textiles were sent from Europe to Africa where they were bartered for slaves to export to North, Central, and South America; which were then sold for cash which was immediately reinvested to purchase sugar, tobacco, cotton and rum (etc.) for import and resale back in Europe. The enormous accumulations of capital, land, and other forms of wealth-formation at the expense and tragedy of African slavery financed the industrial revolutions of both Europe and the United States [reinvestment capital is accumulated in geometric proportions when free-enterprise capitalists from Europe and in the Americas did not have to pay "the laborers that reaped down their fields"]. These "laborers" and their descendants have been crying out to God for hundreds of years. So has their "defrauded and withheld wages". God has heard the cries of both; and the self-executing judgments of His Word are now coming to pass [see the literal texts of James 5:1-8; see also Capitalism & Slavery, Eric Williams, Russell & Russell, New York, 1961]. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. [See also John Wesley: Thoughts Upon Slavery; and John Wesley's Last Letter (to William Wilberforce.]

      [Before one dismisses this prophetic utterance as nonsense, remember that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). God keeps meticulous books. He knows each and every penny owed to the African slaves, and is now owed to their descendants has been compounding at the maximum heavenly rate since the 1600's—with punitive damages owed for all the misery, death and destruction.  In the eyes of God, the European/African/American slave trade and resulting slavery was and remains a Christian institution. How can God now not do for blacks in America, Central and South America, South Africa, the African Continent and Australia what He did for the children of Israel when He brought them out of slavery? If He failed to pay them also for the sufferings and labors of their forefathers, He would indeed be a respecter of persons. There was something missing and something very broken in the lives of the Israelites after 400 years of slavery—they had no peace (shalom), and they were broke. God answered their lack by giving them the wealth of Egypt. While the sons of Japheth have taken the Gospel of Christ to the islands of the sea, they have also taken a proud heart and a unique form of racial and economic supremacy based on race to the ends of the earth: which God hates so much that He has placed these judgments on their money in His Word. These issues and judgments are matters for much prayer, acknowledgement, confession, and repentance within the Body of Christ. Remember to pray…In wrath remember mercy (Hab. 3:2). Also remember that what the Devil has meant for evil, God wants to turn to His glory for good (c/p. the story of Joseph in Genesis 45).]      

  A word concerning the prophetic significance of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York City and Washington, D. C.

·     [10] During the coming years, Satan will do all that he can to convince the world—and particularly Bible-believing Christians—that the European Union (EU) is the revived or revised Roman Empire of Bible prophecy (see Revelation 17), and that the Antichrist will come out of Europe. Satan is the great deceiver, as neither of these statements is true [see How To Quickly Locate the Antichrist in Scripture; see also Endnote #9 on Revelation 13:3 and Endnote #28 on Revelation 17:18, The Chronological Revelation, for a detailed explanation of what the revised Roman Empire in fact will look like. Satan knows about the great financial inversion and transfer of assets that must come into the Body of Christ. His primary objective is to deceive Christians into believing that the EU is the revived Roman Empire and  is in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, so that the Church doesn’t take authority over his plans and purposes for the EU and come against them. Stated differently, the Devil knows that he must turn loose of the world’s financial resources because they belong to God and He has given them to His children—but, if he can control the world wide flow of money through the EU’s massive computer systems, he can still control the world’s finances and severely limit the end time preaching of the Gospel in this the final harvest of souls into the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul admonished us to be not ignorant of the Devil's plans..."Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices (2 Cor. 2:11). Add to your prayers this confession:

Satan, I take authority over your plans and purposes for world domination through the European Economic Community. I bind them in the Name of Jesus by the Blood of the Lamb. Crashes and glitches abide its computer systems. They shall never work! In Jesus Name.

Money Cometh, Money Thou Art Loosed, and Money Floweth In The Body of Christ. Satan, you shall not hinder the flow of money throughout the world’s systems of commerce, for money has a mission in these last days: to bring in the harvest of souls into the Body of Christ! In Jesus Name.

[Remember, we overcome the Devil by the Blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony (Rev. 12:11).].

The Coming World War III

·     [11] In the months or years following this season of peace in the Middle East, the window of peace will again be shattered and Syria will attempt to push Israel into the sea.  In both desperation and retaliation, Israel will destroy Damascus (Isa. 17:1; Jer. 49:24-27), making it the most hated of all nations of the earth (c/p. Matt. 24:9).

·     [12] The wealth generated from discovery of oil and gas in Israel and fall of Damascus is the hook in the jaw (Ezek. 38:4) which will bring Gog and the chief princes of Meshech, Tubal and Rosh—the spiritual forces which control Russia [and some or all of the nations of the former USSR]—down into Israel, together with the armies of a confederacy of nations [possibly a European controlled United Nations military operation similar to the recent United States controlled U.N. expeditions in Kuwait, Yugoslavia and Iraq; see Ezek. 38:1-6; c/p. Dan. 10:13; see also A United Nations' Confederacy Will Come Against Israel].

·     World War III—the war of Ezekiel 38-39—is the result of this confederacy's attackIsrael is miraculously delivered from the armies of Russia [Rosh, Mesheck & Tubal (Ezek. 38:1)], Iran [Persia] and Germany [Gomer] (Ezek. 38:5-6)], Ethiopia, Libya and a confederacy of nations who come to take a spoil of the restored wealth of the nation (Ezek. 38:10-13). God will supernaturally destroy five-sixths of the armies of these nations (Ezek. 39:2).

 [This cannot be the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 16:16; Rev 19:11-15, Rev. 19:19) which occurs when Jesus returns to establish His 1000-year reign over the earth (Rev. 20:4), because:

            [1] Only 5/6th of these armies are destroyed, whereas at Armageddon all armies are destroyed (c/p. Ezek. 39:2 with Zech. 12:3-4, 9; 14:12-13),  

            [2] Notably absent from this war are the armies of Iraq [Babylon], Syria, Egypt, and the kings of the east (Rev. 16:12; c/p. Zech. 12:3); and

            [3] The war of Ezekiel 38-39 is fought on the mountains of Israel (biblical Samaria or today’s West Bank; Ezek. 37:22; Ezek. 38:8; Ezek. 39:2-4, Ezek. 39:17), whereas the battle of Armageddon is fought in the valley of Megiddo in northern Israel (Zech. 12:11; Rev. 16:12-16). See also Ezekiel 38 and 39 is not a description of the battle of Armageddon from Ezekiel 37-39 In Verse Outline]

            [4] For the coming revised Roman Empire (Rev. 17) to be established according to Bible prophecy, the armies of Russia and Germany must be destroyed, as the old Roman Empire even at its height never ruled either of these nations, and neither of these nations will be part of the revised Roman Empire yet to come [see How To Quickly Locate the Antichrist in Scripture; see also Endnote #9 on Revelation 13:3 and Endnote #28 on Revelation 17:18, The Chronological Revelation, for a detailed explanation of what the revised Roman Empire in fact will look like]. 

·     [13] Israel, as a result of the war of Ezekiel 38-39 and its miraculous deliverance by God from destruction, returns to national worship of The Lord Jehovah under the re-instituted Law of Moses, with its Levitical priesthood and restored animal sacrifices (Ezek. 39:22; Dan. 9:27).

·     [14] Israel rebuilds the temple in Jerusalem (Dan. 9:27).

·     [15] After the supernatural destruction by God of the armies of Russia, Germany and the other nations who come against Israel in the Ezekiel 38-39 war [see above], 10 nations of Europe and Asia will realign to become the 10 horns (kings) of the revised Roman Empire [This is the final division or realignment of nations inside the territories of the old Roman Empire (Dan. 7:8, Dan. 7:20, Dan. 7:24; Rev. 12:3, Rev. 13:1, Rev. 17:3, Rev. 17:16-17).  Neither of the territories of modern Russia or Germany ware ever ruled by Rome; and until God destroys the military might of these two nations, the revised Roman Empire cannot come to power.  The 27 nations of the European Union—27 nations as of January 2008—are but the forerunner of the 10-horn kingdoms of Bible prophecy [see Endnote #9 on Revelation 13:3, The Chronological Revelation, for an explanation of why this final 10-nation confederacy must include nations from both the Middle East and Europe].

·     [16] The 10-horn revised Roman kings are given a head (king) , which will continue but a short space (see Rev. 17:10, The Book of Revelation In Verse-By-Verse Outline )—apparently the first 3 ½ years of Antichrist Covenant Week of Years [the last seven years of this the age of grace; c/p. Dan. 9:24-27].  

·     [17] Mystery Babylon comes to prominence as the great prostituting whore city of the revised Roman Empire [see Rev. 17:18, The Book of Revelation In Verse-By-Verse Outline; see also Endnote #28 and 29 on Revelation 17:18, The Chronological Revelation].

·     [18] The Antichrist arises as head of a nation that was part of the Roman and Grecian and Assyrian empires. He is the Assyrian of Isaiah 10:5, and king of the north from Syria (Dan. 11:6) [see How To Quickly Locate the Antichrist in Scripture]

·     The little-horn Antichrist of Daniel 7:8 (see also Dan. 7:20, Dan. 7:24; Dan. 8:9) rises to power, and subdues by flattery (Dan. 11:21-24) three of the revised Roman kings. He thus establishes the revived Grecian Empire, the eighth and final world kingdom to oppress God’s people Israel (see Rev. 17:8, Rev 17:10-11, The Book of Revelation In Verse-By-Verse Outline).

·     [19] Literal Babylon is presently being rebuilt in Dubai, United Arab Emiratis; and shall become the great commercial center of Revelation 18: Babylon the great. [See: Dubai Projects, and Two Babylons/One City.]

·     [20] In the Church, the prophesied great apostasy or falling away of believers gathers momentum, in part, because many in the Body of Christ have been misinformed as to the actual timing of when Jesus will return to take His Church out of the earth (2 Thes. 2:3; c/p. Matt. 24:5-12; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; 1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Pet. 3:3-4; 1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-3; Jude 3-4; 11-19; see Rev. 6:12, The Book of Revelation In Verse-By-Verse Outline).

The Last 7 Years of This Age

[The Antichrist Covenant Week of Years]

·     [21] The Antichrist, also known as the king of the north and the little horn of Daniel—a Syrian and initially a man of peace executes a 7-year treaty with Israel in fulfillment of Daniel 9:27 (see also Dan. 8:23-25; Dan. 11:6, Dan. 11:11-16, Dan. 11:21-24; c/p. 1 Maccabees 1:29). This begins The Antichrist Covenant week of years. God's prophetic clock is turned on, as it has been turned off since the resurrection of Jesus and day of Pentecost. The last 7 years of the age or dispensation of grace has begun (Eph. 3:2).

      [For an understanding of the distinctions between Daniel’s 70th week of years and the Antichrist Covenant week of years, please review Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, and the accompanying notes on Daniel 9:24-27.]

·     [22,23,24 and 25] Jesus opens the first 5 seals of Revelation during the first 3 ½ years of The Antichrist Covenant week (Dan. 9:24-27; Rev. 6:1-11).

·    1.5 billion [more] people die from: war, famine, plagues and the beasts of the earth  [hungry because of the famine (Rev. 6:7-8)].

·     False Christs [false Messiahs claiming to be anointed] shall arise. There will be wars, rumors of wars, nation against nation [ethnic group against ethnic group] , kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. Jewish Christians [especially] shall be called on the carpet for their faith [because of the now restored Law of Moses in Israel, which is at peace with the Antichrist] , killed, and shall become the most hated people on the earth for sake of the name of Jesus. The Jewish Church [especially] shall be plagued with offense, betrayal and hatred; false prophets shall arise and deceive many; sin shall run rampant and the love of many shall wax cold (Matt. 24:5-12; c/p. 2 Thes. 2:3; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; 1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Pet. 3:3-4; 1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-3; Jude 3-4; 11-19)

·     The great apostasy or falling away in the Church at large prophesied in  2 Thessalonians 2:3 gains momentum, as many Christians become offended at God when widespread persecution and killing of Christians increases, and the Church is not Raptured [caught away] before these things begin [see Two Prerequisites for the Rapture from The Thessalonian Letters In Verse Outline; see also The Offended Prophet from Seven Prophetic Pictures of the Rapture for an example of what can happen to God's people when they allow offense to take hold of their life]. 

·     Mystery Babylon of the revised Roman Empire—its religious harlot—secures a lock hold on at least 10 of the governments of the old Roman Empire (Rev. 17) [See Rev. 17:9-10, The Book of Revelation In Verse-By-Verse Outline; see also Endnote #28 and 29 on Revelation 17:18, The Chronological Revelation ].

·     The gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then the end comes (Matt. 24:14).  [Just as happened in the Book of Acts, it is persecution of the Church that causes the gospel to be fully preached in all the world (c/p. Acts 8:1-4)].

·     The Church began as a Jewish church on the day of Pentecost.  There will be a latter day ingathering harvest of Jews back into the Body of Christ before the return of Jesus (Exo. 23:14-16, Rev. 6:9-11; c/p. Matt.20:16).

·     The great prostituting whore city of the revised Roman EmpireMystery Babylonis destroyed by the 10-horn confederacy of revised Roman nations (see Rev. 17:16, The Book of Revelation In Verse-By-Verse Outline). The 10 horn / kings of revised Rome then give their power, strength and kingdom to the Antichrist. The revived Grecian Empire is thus formed (see Rev. 17:10-11, The Book of Revelation In Verse-By-Verse Outline). [See also, The Mystery of Mystery Babylon Revealed,]

The Rapture of the Church at Midweek

·     Between the 5th and 6th seals of Revelation the Church is raptured; it is seen for the first time in heaven in Revelation 7:9, having been "snatched out" of the earth during the great tribulation [literally, the tribulation, the great: the first 3 ½ years of The Antichrist Covenant week]: caught up to meet the Lord in the air (Rev. 7:14; 1 Thes. 4:15-17. See also The Midst of the Feast, and The Body of Christ from Seven Prophetic Pictures of the Rapture). 

·     Jesus opens the 6th seal: all creation praises the Lord. The rocks cry out! (Luke 19:40; Rom. 8:19-21). All men remaining on the earth know the wrath of God has come—because they can't find any Christians! [see Rev. 6:12-17, The Book of Revelation In Verse-By-Verse Outline ]

© 1997-2009 Walter J. Taylor, Walter James Taylor

  

[For the events that follow the Rapture of the Church, see:]

 [Coming Events in Bible Prophecy 2] [Coming Events in Bible Prophecy 3]  

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