Preparing for the Day of the Rapture According to Scripture
Hello John and Doves,
Dear brothers and sisters, I would like to consider how we should be prepared according to Scripture for the day of the rapture. It is generally said that it is enough to wait patiently and look forward to that time. However, no one explains in more detail what the expectation of the coming of the Lord should actually look like for the bride and how to prepare for the wedding day. We may have different opinions, but God's view as found in Scripture is always the best. It is good to find out why the bride in the Song of Songs was left behind and the groom left her.
Song of Songs 5:2-6. Verse 2,3: “2 I sleep, but my heart wakes. My beloved knocks, saying, ‘Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled one. My head is covered with dew, and the drops of the night are on my locks.’ 3 I have taken off my clothes, and shall I put them on again? I have washed my feet, and shall I defile them? 4 My beloved put his hand through the opening, and all my heart trembled before him. 5 I rose up to open to my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers dripped with myrrh upon the handle of the lock. 6 Before I opened to my beloved, my beloved had turned aside. My life fled from me when he spoke to me. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he did not answer me.” Here is recorded the confession of the bridegroom (Jesus), where he speaks of this woman as his sister, his friend, his dove, his blameless one, and he is in love with her.
From today's perspective, she is a faithful, born-again Christian filled with the Holy Spirit (a dove) and one could say that she is a great example of life and faithfulness to the Lord for other Christians. How is it possible that this woman was left behind and the bridegroom left her? There is only one explanation, she had no oil. In this case, the oil does not mean that it is the Holy Spirit, according to the bridegroom's confession, she had it, but the fuel for the lamp to burn. She thought she had the fuel when she said in verse 2, my heart is awake, but in reality she had no oil, because that day she slept instead of watching.
This attitude represents a general waiting for the rapture for a long time, but this waiting is without oil and the lamps are barely burning. She deceived herself so much by her attitude that she was unable to recognize the day of her bridegroom's visit in that state, and instead of girding herself, taking her staff, and putting on her sandals, she did the exact opposite, taking off her clothes, and washing her feet.
This story clearly shows that a general long-term expectation of Jesus' coming is not enough, but there must be such a level of expectation that the bride recognizes the day when she should gird herself, take her staff, and put on her sandals, and thus wait for her bridegroom, so that she will be able to open immediately when the Lord comes for her.
The Bible clearly speaks of how the preparation for the day of the rapture is to be carried out. Luke 12:35 to 40 “35 Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning. 36 And you yourselves be like men waiting for their master, when he returns from the wedding, so that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him IMMEDIATELY. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds watching when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will gird himself and make them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 And if he comes in the second or third watch and finds them so, blessed are those servants. 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man WILL COME AT AN HOUR YOU DO NOT KNOW.” In these verses, God clearly reveals to us what the expectation should look like. In verse 35 it says: let your loins be girded. What does this mean? We know that Roman soldiers girded their loins when they were preparing for a specific event, such as a day of battle or guard duty. They did not walk around with their loins girded for days. When the Lord Jesus says that we should have our loins girded, He clearly has in mind a specific day of event, in this case the day of the rapture. Jesus tells us: wait for your Lord with your loins girded, so that when he comes and knocks, you may open the door immediately (we can sense the urgency of the situation in this). Jesus further teaches that blessed are those disciples whom the watchman finds on that revealed day. In verse 38 He speaks of the event taking place in one night, during the second or third watch. This is confirmed by verse 39, where it is said that the householder does not know what hour of the night the thief will come - he must watch all night. This is then confirmed by the Lord saying that he will come at an hour you do not expect. He does not speak of the day, but of the hour. In previous videos it was taught that the people who were saved (Noah, Lot, Elijah) knew the day, but did not know the hour. So everything takes place at a time when the disciples are girded on their shoulders, watching and waiting for Jesus all day. The same story is described in Matthew 24:42 to 44, where it is also written that the householder would wait for the thief only one night and that the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect. Again, it is not written there on a day you do not expect.
Let’s look now at Matthew 24:48-51 “But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, 51 and will cut him in pieces and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
The same story is in Luke 12:45-47 “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and appoint him his portion with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will, but did not prepare himself or do according to his will, will receive many blows.” This bad servant misses the coming of the Lord because he does not wait for that day. When we turn this to the good servant, it becomes clear that the good servant is waiting for that day. However, neither the bad nor the good servant knows the hour. The bad servant knew the will of his Master, but he did not want to submit to God, he wanted to do his own thing and act according to his own will. He deliberately rejected God’s revelation. It is written in verse 45, he began to beat his servants. How did he beat them? By giving them not the food of God's word to eat, but only his own ideas and wisdom. He gave them drink and made them drunk so that they lost the ability to see things as they really are, i.e., they were unable to see the reality of God's word, but only the opinions of the bad servant. According to verse 47, such a servant will be beaten very much by the Lord.
The story of Israel at the time they came out of Egyptian slavery clearly shows that the loins must be girded only for a specific event, Ex 12:11 "And you shall eat the lamb in this way: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's feast of the lamb." The Jews, of course, had known for a long time that God would lead them out of Egypt through Moses, they had already seen nine plagues of God upon Egypt, but of course they were not girded on their loins all the time. Likewise, we know for some time that we will be raptured, but we are not girded on all the time. Girding up our loins always signifies entering into some action, in the case of Israel the beginning of the journey out of slavery into the promised land, and for us also the coming out of a foreign land and entering into the promised land, but this time into the heavenly one.
Except for a direct command from God, on that one particular day the Jews girded themselves, took their staff in their hand, and put on their shoes, so that they could go out of slavery into the promised land. This is how the bride must look on the day Jesus comes for her. She must gird up her loins in her heart, take her staff in her hand, and have her shoes on. This can be done for just one day, not for a long period of time. This is well expressed in the story in video number 4, which you can listen to (the link to video number 4 is in the description of this video). Just a short summary of the story. We know that the train we are waiting for will arrive, i.e. we have a knowledge of the rapture and that is our long general wait. Then we will know on which day the train will arrive, and we must be at the station with our loins girded and our staff in our hands. This is a true biblical expectation and only then can we board the train, i.e. go with the Lord to the wedding feast of the Lamb. In the 6th chapter of the book of Ephesians, it speaks of the full armor of God, Eph 6:14 "Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth ..." Here it speaks of the first part of the armor that a soldier puts on when he is in battle and that is girding your loins with truth. We are constantly, in every area of our lives, confronted with lies brought to us by Satan in distorting the truth of God's word. If we do not have the revealed truth of Scripture, we cannot stand, and then the whole armor of God becomes meaningless and it is impossible to put on another piece of equipment. Truth, which can be defined as God’s opinion on anything, is the first and most important thing that our enemy focuses on and tries to bring deception upon. It is his main and most important tool against God’s people of the Old and New Covenants.
In Hebrews 10:25, the second part of the verse says: “... but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” This verse speaks of our being able to see - to know that day. It is not talking about some extended period of time here, but about a specific day. However, it is clear that full understanding could only come at the very end of probation, when the knowledge of this day is current. Thank you, Lord, for revealing to us in this last time that day of rapture from Scripture, so that we can encourage one another.
Human wisdom, which claims that knowing the day of the rapture does not matter, stands in direct opposition to the wisdom of God, which considers the revelation of that day important. We may not understand in detail why this is so important, but it is always the best choice to submit to God's word with childlike faith.
You can also watch a video that contains the above facts. Also, videos that talk about the specific day of the rapture revealed to us from Scripture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJgKvCJXPdc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0FdgD1COCA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC1p1N9a-h0
Blessings, Petr