Doves,

 

I promised you that I would make the connection between the timings of the rapture and the Ezekiel 38 and 39 war but before I get to that I would like to reinforce my Muslim eradication scenario from parts 1 and 2 that I believe God is going to enact. This short video by Dr. James Hutchens of The Jerusalem Connection speaks to prior and future scenarios enacted by God that have and will completely destroy His or Israel's enemies. I believe that Dr. Hutchens video will bring credence to the scenario I proposed that will happen at the Ezekiel 38 war from God and God's exceedingly great army.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThyuqisTHls#t=497

 

To also reinforce this whole scenario about God gathering up the whole house of Israel and reuniting the tribes of Judah and Ephraim as is spoken of in Ezekiel 37:15-23 we see the same references to that event in Isaiah 11:11-16. It also speaks to the destruction of the adversaries of Judah being destroyed and a coalition of Judah and Ephraim working together to defeat what appears to be their Muslim enemies. (Philistines, Edom, Moab, and other peoples to the east and west)

 

Like I stated in part 2, I believe the plans Islam has for the infidels (anyone who is not a Muslim, especially Jews and Christians) will be reversed and that eradication will be dispensed to the planners. In this case all who have accepted Allah as their god.

 

Also one other loose end.......

It appears that whenever this great resurrection of the whole house of Israel happens in the coming months Ezekiel will be there. Ezekiel 37 takes place during the end time scenario and when one reads Ezekiel 37 it is presented in a present tense. Ezekiel himself interacts with all the participants during the time when this happens. The significance of this in my mind is that it makes him one of the two end time witnesses. He is presented as being there to witness the happenings and also interacting in them. Or will there be more than two end time witnesses? Two "formal" witnesses and maybe other informal witnesses.

 

Onto the timings......

Most people who are familiar with rapture verses would choose 1 Thessalonians 4 or 1 Corinthians 15 as their "go to" verses concerning the rapture. My favorite author and chapter is Isaiah 18 and I have posted numerous articles to Doves concerning this chapter and its vast source of end times information. Not only does it speak to the rapture and the season of the rapture but also something that happens just after the rapture that I believe references the Ezekiel 38 destruction.

 

In Isaiah 11:10 we see that the Root of Jesse (Jesus) will stand as a banner (or rallying point) for the Gentiles who seek Him or are looking for the rapture. And then it says that this resting place where He takes the Gentiles (us) will be glorious. Now in Isaiah 18 we see that when the rapture does happen there will be no doubt concerning what happened, for Isaiah says...... when God puts a banner on the mountains everyone sees it and when God blows a trumpet everyone hears it.......and what is implied by those verses is that when God decides to take His church in the rapture and to intervene on Israel behalf....... that there will be absolutely no doubt that God himself was the orchestrator.

 

In the next verse God tells Isaiah that it is now time to take His (God's) rest. To me that says that He promised to prepare a place for His Church /bride and He has and it's time for Him to take His rest from that mission.

 

The next verse says that He is looking from that resting place and sees two things rising. Figuratively I believe that these two things represent the dead in Christ rising first and then we who are alive rising second.

 

In the next verse we get the timing...... for the Lord says that before the great end time harvest, when the bud is perfect. And the sour grapes (Jews) are ripening in the flower, He will do two things. He will first cut off the sprigs (those to be raptured) with pruning hooks and take them away (rapture or remove them). And second He will cut down the branches. Who are these figurative branches?

 

To answer that lets go back again to God's chosen family the descendents of Abraham. To continue with God's orchard analogy and speak figuratively He planted a crop of grapes. In this crop He had a favorite vine, just one vine from the entire orchard. This was the the vine of Abraham.

 

Contained in this vine were productive parts or sour grapes ripening in the flower, unproductive parts or branches and productive parts that were grafted into the vine (sprigs) that were pruned (taken early before the general harvest) and taken away.

 

The sour grapes that were ripening in the flower are the descendents of Isaac and Jacob who are God's chosen but are still sour (haven't sweetened to who Jesus is) at the time of the rapture because they are still blinded to Him as their savior (as per scripture).

 

The sprigs of this vine are the productive grafted in parts. Scripture tells us that we (followers of Christ) have been grafted into Abraham's family tree or vine. In verse 5 we see that we sprigs are pruned early before the general harvest and taken away.....raptured. I posted an article to Doves in 2013 concerning these "sprigs" and the extended meaning of the term. Link below....

http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/may2013/johnb518-2.htm

 

The branches of this one vine of Abraham represent Abraham's lineage that wasn't productive. Namely the hundreds of millions of the descendents of Ishmael ( Isaac's brother) and Esau (Jacob's brother) who now comprise the Arabs and other tribes who have embraced Allah as their god and not the God of Isaac and Jacob.

 

Now take note what happens to these branches or the followers of Allah and when it happens. These branches are cut down or destroyed and it happens before the general majority harvest and just after the sprigs (Church) are taken away (raptured).

 

Verse 6 tells us that after these branches / peoples are destroyed that their corpses will be feasted on by the birds of prey in the summer and that there will be corpses for the beasts of the earth to feed on in the winter.

 

Does this agree with Rev.9, Joel 2, Isaiah 11 an Ezekiel 38 and 39? Yes, yes, yes and yes

 

We established in parts 1 and 2 that a third of mankind is killed by an exceedingly great army ...God's army....and the description of the peoples that are killed are followers of Allah. They are completely destroyed and it appears that it will take months for God's army to complete their total eradication. We know this because the birds of prey will feed on the corpses in summer and months later the beasts of the earth will winter (feed) on them. Notice the same description in Ezekiel 39:4 and Isaiah 18:6 concerning the corpses being feasted on.

 

Now as per timing........God tells in in Isaiah 18:5 that the sprigs (church) will be taken away when the sour grape is ripening in the flower.I would call that late spring or early summer. In The Song of Solomon 2:10-13 (another rapture area) it says ......the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing has come, the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land, the fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines will have tender grapes and give off a good smell. And the very next words are.......Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away.

 

These are two scripture verses that tell us the rapture will happen in late spring or early summer.

 

Using these scriptures and time frames the very next thing that happens after the rapture is God destroys the "branches" or eradicates the Muslims which obviously from the text states that it starts in the summer and lasts several months into winter. This agrees with Ezekiel 39 which states it will take the house of Israel seven months to bury the dead after God and God's army kills them.

 

An obvious question is how are 6 million Jews who now live in Israel going to bury 2 billion Muslims (Gog and all his multitude 39:11) in a valley in Israel (the valley of Hamon Gog) ? First of all the birds of prey and the beasts of the earth will harvest the flesh and then don't forget as per Ezekiel 37 there will now be hundreds of millions of resurrected Jews to add to the 6 million living that will help with the burial process. The bible says that they will work continually burying the remains for seven months and burn the weapons of the enemy for fuel for seven years.

 

So this puts the rapture in late spring or early summer and the start of the Ezekiel 38 and 39 war at the same timeframe.

 

In this timeframe that we are looking at.........that is, the rapture and destroying of the branches (Muslims)....... what else does the Lord say is going to happen at that very same time? At that same time there will be a world wide earthquake. Ezekiel 38 states.......Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall and every wall shall fall to the ground........At that very same time in Joel 2 who is speaking about the same event (the eradication by God's army),

 

God says that......it will be a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness....the sun and moon will grow dark and the stars will diminish their brightness....... This whole enactment is also portrayed in Isaiah 13 where God and His army destroys the followers of Allah, every man ,woman and child. It portrays the same conditions of the sun, moon and stars. And He will shake the heavens and shake the earth so hard that the earth will move from it's place.

 

Ok... so all of this is happening at the timeframe of the rapture. So wouldn't it be logical to assume that if you had the exact same circumstances happening in another area of scripture you could logically assume that that was referring to the rapture as well? Logically to duplicate this elaborate scenario at another time in the last of days would be very unrealistic in my mind. So I am saying that it would be safe to assume that if we found these same elaborate conditions elsewhere in scripture we could rather safely assume that those verses were as well speaking to the timeframe of the rapture. Do other verses with the same elaborate conditions to this rapture timing exist? Yes

 

In Revelation 6:12 at the opening of the sixth seal we find the same elaborate conditions, circumstances and events happening to the earth in the end times scenario. There's a worldwide earthquake. The sun, moon, stars and heavens are reacting the same way. The occupants of the earth are reacting the same way with great fear and are trying to hide themselves.

 

If the great resurrection / rapture does indeed happen at the opening of the sixth seal, is there convincing proof of that displayed in scripture? Yes

 

First.... God promised that His Church would not experience His wrath. In Rev.6:17 at the end of the sixth seal God states that His great wrath has begun. The rapture has just happened so God kept His promise we would not see His wrath. He also states His great wrath has begun in the other areas we just researched Joel 2, Isaiah 13, Ezekiel 38............ again tying everything together.

 

Second....If this great resurrection / rapture does happen at the opening of the sixth seal shouldn't there be a huge mention in scripture of that fact.....shouldn't it be the headlines of the next verses of scripture?? Yes and yes it is....

 

In the next verses we see what God's first priority is. His first priority from this resurrection is to take His first fruits from His harvest of mankind. He tasks four angels to hold back the four winds from blowing life into the whole house of Israel who He has just resurrected along with His resurrected church before or until He can take the first fruits or the 144,000 people from the whole of Israel. These 144,000 are the cream of the human crop, the reddest apples on the human tree (so to speak) from this great resurrection. These 144,000 the best of the best are those that will follow Him henceforth where ever He goes as per Rev.14:4

 

His second priority is His Church or His bride. So the very next thing you see happen in Rev.7:9 is us. We all show up at the throne in heaven from all over the planet. A great multitude which no one could number from all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

 

So that is "the concurrent timing" of the rapture and the rise of God's great end time army, the mission of the army and affiliated events.

 

From His Word we now know the season of these events but not the year. We do know it is getting much closer due to the world events that are staring us in the face. The ramping up of evil is at an unprecedented level and pace. The complete lawlessness is everywhere and growing even in our beloved America.

 

I believe this scenario I have outlined (where scripture has lead me) portrays a prewrath rapture. It appears to happen shortly after the midpoint in the seven year period. I say this because when God's army finishes it's mission in Rev.9 it says twice in verses 21 and 22 that the rest of mankind would not repent of their sins meaning that the 1260 day ministry of the two witnesses had preceded this event. And no one after this event will be saved from God's great wrath.

 

So you can back tract from this event to the ministry of the two witnesses when people are still getting saved. I sketched out a timeline entering all the timings God has given us for the end times and it seems to make sense when you take into consideration other end times events. But that will have to be in another post.

 

I know I probably will upset the apple cart for those who believe in a pretrib (pre-seven year) rapture and those who believe that the rapture happens in Rev.4 but if one follows the Word as I did I believe it discounts and disqualifies both a pretrib rapture and a rapture that happens in Rev.4. If you see where I have completely mis-discerned all the multiple scriptures I listed that describe these same events please feel free to point to the scriptures where you believe I am in error.

 

Blessings Doves............John B

 

P.S. I just discussed Isaiah 18:3 from a figurative prospective. If one were also to take it literally then just before the rapture we would hear a trumpet which we know will happen from the rapture verses in 1Corinthians 15:52 and 1Thessalonians 4:16.

 

If we also take Isaiah 18:3 literally concerning seeing a banner just before the rapture...... then what would be the banner?

 

In Isaiah 11:10 it states.....

 

"And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse (Jesus)

Who shall stand as a banner to the people;

For the Gentiles shall seek Him, (we are sure seeking Him)

And His resting place shall be glorious." (same as Isaiah 18 as per the resting place or hidden place where He takes His church during the tribulation)

 

So.... it appears that we may also get a heads up just prior to the rapture when Jesus somehow displays Himself as a banner or sign that will alert the people (us) who seek Him. Will He or His sign (cross) appear in the sky at some point prior to the trumpet blowing to alert us of the impending rapture? It appears that He may when one combines the texts from Isaiah 11:10 and Isaiah 18:3

 

Or will there be a time gap between the dead in Christ rising and the alive in Christ rising at the rapture? Will the dead in Christ roam the earth like those who arose with Christ at His resurrection after His crucifixion for 40 days appearing to loved ones. Maybe if this happens again now they (the dead in Christ) will stand as Christ's banner or have His mark or sign alerting the people of the impending rapture. If this happened, I guess you could say that these walking dead would be "good zombies instead of the bad zombies we see on TV.

 

For those who want to re-read parts 1 and 2 the links are below.....

http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/june2014/johnb629-1.htm

http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/june2014/johnb629-2.htm