Saturday, September 7, 2013

Collateral Damage

What is the timing of the Rapture?

When nations go to war unintended people are often killed.  Sometimes this includes those on the side that is attacking.  This occurs for a number of reasons.  Sometimes the target cannot be clearly identified. Sometimes a combatant hits the wrong target by accident.  Sometimes one of the enemy combatants fire upon the friendly combatants from the middle of friendly territory.  This leaves their opponent little choice but to fire back sometimes killing those on their own side in the cross fire.

However, there are other cases where generals know that in order to achieve a military objective they will likely kill some on their own side no matter how hard they try to avoid doing so.  One example of this is carpet bombing by the Allies in World War II.

The bombs of this era lacked any kind of guidance system and were simply dropped out of a plane.  No matter how carefully the bombardier aimed the bombs would still get blown off course on the way down.  A single bomb aimed at a factory could hit a war prison that was nearby and miss the factory completely.

So eventually a strategy was developed of a row of planes dropping a series of bombs at the same time in a single pass over the target area.  The bombs would form a grid shape and destroy everything inside the grid when they landed.  This was usually effective in destroying the target.  Needless to say, this process of carpet bombing not only destroyed the target but also everything near the target including the war prisons.

In some cases, there were war prisons that got hit in the carpet bombing by the Allies which contained American, French and British prisoners.  The prisoners were not bomb proof and were sometimes killed inadvertently in the effort to destroy the war making capacity of the German army that had imprisoned them.  They were referred to as collateral damage by the Allied generals because they were not the intended target even though they were still killed.  The generals knew that this collateral damage was inevitable but they consider this to be an acceptable loss that was necessary to win the war.

Like those generals there is a Great General that must also deal with the issue of His own people being embedded in the area of conflict.  The Father of Truth (YHVH aka God aka THE LORD)  is the greatest warrior that will ever be (Exodus 15:3).  He will go forth and defeat His enemies (Isaiah 42:13).  He is the Great General.

The Great General has the greatest army that will ever fight.   This army will bring terror, great pain and destruction to all of His enemies in the Final Battle (Isaiah 13:6-9).   This army will not be like any army that mankind has fought against before (Joel 2:1-3).  Their appearance will bring terror to all that see them (Joel 2:4-6).  Those in this army will not break rank and they will not be wounded when they are struck by any weapon in the Final Battle (Joel 2:7-9). 

The Great General has commissioned the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) to be the Captain of His army (Joshua 5:13-15).  His Captain will lead an army composed of the Children of Truth (those who obey the Father of Truth because they love Him) and the Angels of Truth from Heaven to bring destruction in the Final Battle (Isaiah 13:2-5).  His Captain will come with the Angels of Truth when he leads His army in the Final Battle (2 Thessalonians 1:7).

The Children of Truth will come with His Captain to execute judgment on the wicked in the Final Battle (Psalm 149:6-9).  His Captain will come with the Children of Truth when He appears again on the Earth in the Final Battle (1 Thessalonians 3:13).  His Captain will come with the Children of Truth to destroy the Children of Lies in the Final Battle (2 Thessalonians 1:9-10).  The Children of Truth will be with the Captain of His army in the Final Battle when he executes judgment on the wicked (Jude 1:14-15).

The heavens will give no light and the Earth will be shaken when the Great General pours out His wrath in the Final Battle to destroy every one in the world that does what He calls evil  (Isaiah 13:10-13).  The heavens will go dark and the Earth will tremble when He leads His great army in the Final Battle (Joel 2:10-11).  The heavens will go dark and Earth will be shaken when this Great General roars out of Zion to defend Jerusalem in the Final Battle (Joel 3:14-16).  The Children of Truth are coming with this Great General in the Final Battle when He causes the heavens to go dark (Zechariah 14:5-7). 

This Final Battle does not occur until the very end of the Tribulation  (Matthew 24:29-30).

The Tribulation is the Great War that leads up to the Final Battle.  The Tribulation will not come until the Gospel has been preached to every single ethnic group on Earth (Matthew 24:14).  Everyone on Earth would die in the Tribulation if the Great General did not cut it short for the sake of Israel (Matthew 24:21-22).  The Tribulation will come upon every Jew and Gentile that does evil (Romans 2:9).

The Man of Lies (The Antichrist aka The Beast aka The Man of Sin) rises to power at the beginning of the Tribulation by causing a war that will kill one in four people on Earth (Revelation 6:2-8).  Then the enemies of the Great General will know that His wrath has began (Revelation 6:15-17).  His wrath will be completed in the last seven plagues of the Tribulation (Revelation 15:1).

His wrath will be poured out on the Children of Lies in the Great War (John 3:36).  His wrath is for those that refuse to believe the Word of Truth regardless of the evidence (Romans 1:18-20).  His wrath is for those that have hardened their hearts against Him (Romans 2:5).  His wrath will be poured out on the Children of Lies that do the things that He says are wicked (Ephesians 5:5-6).  His wrath will come upon the Children of Lies in the Great War because of what they do (Colossians 3:5-6).

This Great General does not accept collateral damage.  His wrath is reserved for His enemies (Nahum 1:2).  He will not leave the Children of Truth in harms way when He pours out His wrath upon the Earth in the Great War (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11).  He will bring the Tribulation upon those that trouble the Children of Truth (2 Thessalonians 1:6).  The Captain of His army will take vengeance on the Children of Lies that do not know Him and will not obey His Captain (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

How will the Great General prevent there from being any collateral damage?

The Great General will do it in same manner as when He poured out His wrath in the Great Flood.  First He warned Noah that His wrath was coming (Genesis 6:11-13).  Then He told Noah how he could escape His wrath (Genesis 7:1-4).  Noah was separated from the danger before His wrath came down (Genesis 7:15-16). Noah was lifted above the Earth, the place of destruction, when His wrath came down (Genesis 7:15).  Noah was taken out of the way before destruction came because he was a righteous (Hebrews 11:7).

The Great General operated the same way when He poured out His wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah.  First He warned Lot that His wrath was coming (Genesis 19:13). Then He told Lot how he could escape His wrath (Genesis 19:14-15).  Lot was separated from the danger before His wrath came down (Genesis 19:16).  Lot would have been lifted above the valley, the place of destruction, when His wrath came down if Lot had not asked to go to Zoar instead (Genesis 19:17-20).  Lot was taken out of the way before destruction came because he was righteous (2 Peter 2:6-8).

The Great General has warned the Children of Truth of His coming wrath (Luke 21:34-35).  He has told them how to escape His wrath (Luke 21:36).  They will be separated from the danger before His wrath comes down just like Noah and Lot (2 Peter 2:5-9).  They will be lifted above the Earth, the place of destruction, just before His wrath comes down (1 Thessalonians 4:17). They will be taken out of the way before destruction comes because they have turned to righteousness (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).

This process of removing the Children of Truth from the Earth before His Wrath is poured out occurs in The Greatest Play Ever as well.

The Feasts of the Father of Truth together form the Greatest Play Ever (Leviticus 23:4).   Each of these Feasts are an act in the Greatest Play Ever that tell the story of the Man of Truth, His dealings with the nation of Israel, and His dealings with the Children of Truth.

The last act that has been played out in the history of the Children of Truth was that of Pentecost (Shavuot).  In that act the Children of Truth were baptized in the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost) so they could have the power to bring the Gospel into all of the Earth (Acts 2:1-4).  There is a long intermission between that act and the next act in the play.  During the long intermission between that act and the next act the Children of Truth have been busy using that power to carry out the work of the Man of Truth throughout the Earth (Mark 16:15-18). 

Soon the long intermission will be over and the Day of Alarming (Yom Teruah aka The Feast of Trumpets (mistakenly called Rosh Hashanah by the Rabbis)) will begin.   This next act in the Greatest Play Ever tells of His plan to prevent collateral damage.

In the rehearsal of this fifth act, the shofars (trumpets) are blown produce the sound of alarming to call people together (this is what Teruah means) and then the people are gathered together to meet with the Father of Truth (Leviticus 23:24-25).

In the rehearsal of the sixth act everyone fasts as a sign of mourning for their disobedience and the atonement that was made for their disobedience to the Father of Truth (Leviticus 23:27-29).

This day is also known as Judgment Day (Romans 2:5-6).  On this day every person will get what their deeds deserve (Romans 2:5-6). The wicked will be destroyed on Judgment Day (2 Peter 3:7).  Those that have repented and became the Children of Truth will be rewarded on Judgment Day (1 John 4:15-17).

The intermission between the sounding the alarm with the shofar (trumpet) and Judgment Day is called the Days of Awe when people have one last opportunity to repent before coming before the Father of Truth on Judgment Day.

The blowing of shofars serves a warning of the approach of the Judgment Day when the Final Battle will occur (Joel 2:1).  When the Final Battle is over then Israel will mourn for their disobedience to the Father of Truth and their treatment of the Man of Truth who made atonement for them (Zechariah 12:10-14).

The period between the blowing of the shofars (trumpets) to gather people to meet the Father of Truth and the Final Battle is the time of the Tribulation.  This is the time of terrible trouble that will come upon the whole Earth (Daniel 12:1).  Some people will repent during the Tribulation before the Father of Truth judges the whole world after the Final Battle although it will cost them their lives to do so (Revelation 6:9-11).

Just like how in the fifth act of the Greatest Play Ever shofars (trumpets) are blown to call people to meet the Father of Truth so also shall the Children of Truth that have died shall meet with the Man of Truth to prepare to fight with him in the Final Battle (1 Thessalonians 4:16).  Just as Yom Teruah ends with one last great blast of the shofar (trumpet) that signals the end of the gathering people together to meet the Father of Truth before the Days of Awe begin so also shall the last shofar (trumpet) blast cause the Children of Truth that are alive to be gathered together to meet the Man of Truth before the Tribulation begins (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).  In fact the Man of Lies cannot even be revealed to start the Great War until the Children of Truth are taken off the Earth so that he can operate unhindered (2 Thessalonians 2:7-9).

The Greatest Play Ever plainly shows that the Great General will take the Children of Truth out of the Earth before He unleashes the Great War known as the Tribulation.  The Great General does not take collateral damage and He does not consider destroying some of His Children when pours out His wrath to be an acceptable loss.

Before the Children of Truth are taken off the Earth to meet the Man of Truth there will be a great falling away among those that call themselves followers of the Man of Truth (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3).  This great falling away will happen because their love for the Man of Truth will have grown cold due to the growth in iniquity that comes right before the Great War (Matthew 24:12).  In this great falling away most that call themselves believers are consumed with materialism and have become lukewarm (Revelation 3:14-17)  This is the final phase of the long intermission between when the Spirit of Truth was poured out at Pentecost and when the Children of Truth will be taken off the Earth at the sounding of the shofar (trumpet) (Revelation 1:10-11).  After the Church age has ran its course then the shofar (trumpet) will sound and the Children of Truth will be brought up by Spirit of Truth to view the Great War from Heaven (Revelation 4:1-2).  When the last of those that will repent during the Tribulation have came up to Heaven as well then the Children of Truth will return to the Earth in the army of His Captain to fight in the Final Battle (Revelation 19:11-16).

Of course, it makes no difference when the Great General will remove His Children from the Earth if you have not come into the House of Truth.  You have an appoint with death and you will participate in Judgment Day whether or not you come into the House of Truth (Hebrews 9:27).  You will certainly keep this appointment with death unless you are among that come into the House of Truth in the last days before the Great War and never experience death (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).  You are not guaranteed tomorrow or even the rest of today so you need to come into the House of Truth right now (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).  You need to come into the House of Truth right now by deciding to follow every order of His Captain that was raised from the dead by the Great General  (Romans 10:9-11).

Come into the House of Truth.


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