THE SONG OF SONGS

In our Bible readings, most of us have read the Song of Solomon, God’s greatest love story.  It is a beautiful instructional book on love and marriage, sex and the beauty of it as God intended it to be.  But, also, it was considered too risqué for anyone under age 30 to read by the ancient Jewish nation.  It is full of descriptions of what true love is all about from God's point of view and it is specific in its details.

It is also a less  read and even lesser preached book.  But, there is a way to look at the message in the Song of Songs, as it can be properly called, that is different from the usual way in which it is seen.

IT CAN (AND I BELIEVE MUST) BE VIEWED AS A MULTI-ACT STAGE PLAY WITH A DEFINITE PROPHETIC MESSAGE FOR THE END DAYS.  AND IT IDENTIFIES THE TIME OF THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH.

There is something of great import that must be considered.  That is the message of Jesus to the seven churches.  Primarily, to the 6th  and 7th of these.  In Revelation chapter 3 is the pertinent messages to this article.  The first is to the church of Philadelphia (brotherly love).  It is the “church of the (first) rapture.  It is the church of the hot Christians, those awaiting their Savior.  It is the escaping church which has set before it an open door that no man can shut.  It has little strength, but it has kept His word and has not denied His name. (Rev 3:7, 8).  The apostates will be forced to fall at the feet of this church and will be made to know that Jesus loved this church. (vs. 9).  

Jesus declares that “because you have kept the word of my patience (that is during the time of my delay with patience) I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation (that is testing), which shall come upon the whole world to try them that dwell upon the earth”.  (This is the great tribulation...vs 10).  Do you see  it?  The rapture will occur to take Philadelphia out of the world at or prior to the great tribulation!

Now, look at the church of Laodicea.  Neither hot nor cold.  Tepid...vomited out of the Lord's mouth. (vs. 15, 16).  The whole bunch left behind because they are tepid and unworthy of the (first) rapture event.  They are drunk with riches of this world and are apostate concerning the Gospel message. (vs. 17a).  They are also naked in terms of spiritual clothing, blind to their condition, and poor in terms of heaven's assessment. (vs. 17b). They are counseled to get right with Jesus before it is too late.  They must repent if they wish to escape along with or later join Philadelphia in the heavens.  (vs 18, 19).

Why has this been inserted here?  Because it is paramount to the message of the Song of Songs given so many centuries before.  

With this in mind, please consider the play this way.

                                                     
                                                      THE CAST

The characters in the play as listed on a Play Sheet  may be as follows:

The Shulamite (Gentile ) Girl…………………The Bride-to-be
The Shepherd Lover…………………………...The Bridegroom-to-be
Solomon the King………………………………The Tempter/Adversary
The Palace of Solomon………………………...The World System
The Daughters of Jerusalem…………………..Israel
The Little Sister……………………………….. Modern Re-gathered Israel

                                        THE SONG OF SONGS
                                                    By Jehovah

The play opens with the abduction of a gentile girl, a Shulamite of great beauty.  She is kidnapped and spirited away to the palace of Solomon, the world's wealthiest King.  He has seen her beauty and he cannot resist her.  He plans to make her his own.  But the problem is, that she has no such plans.  He knows this, but he has all the world’s treasures in his palace to heap upon her and with which to tempt her.  This, he believes, will turn her head toward him and his desires as he takes a poor, but beautiful gentile girl and heaps all his treasures upon her.  He literally offers her the world.  (Satan offered Jesus this lure in the wilderness also).

The problem is that she is in love.  There is a shepherd out there somewhere far away that has captured her heart.  He is “absent” in person, but she can “fly” to him at will on what she describes as “wings of faith”.  He dwells among the lilies in a field, which is a poetically descriptive phrase for heaven.

                         
                           THE DRAMA OF THE SONG OF SONGS  

Now enters the drama of it all.  The more Solomon pressures her and tempts her to come to him, the closer she gets to her Shepherd Lover, whom she must visit by faith because of His longtime absence.  Not only so, but she does not know when he will show up again.  She waits for His return, but she knows not exactly when.  She keeps herself pure, however, for Him.  And, her love, for him is without reservation.

              CLARIFYING THE CAST FOR PROPHETIC REASONS

At this point, the characters in the play may be re-identifed as follows:

The Shulamite (Gentile) Girl……………….The True Church of Jesus Christ
The Shepherd Lover…………………………Jesus Christ the Righteous One
Solomon the King……………………………The Usurper/Satan
The Palace of Solomon………………………The World System
The Daughters of Jerusalem…………………Israel re-gathered
The Little Sister……………………………….Israel after the rapture of the bride

          THE PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SONG OF SONGS    

The true Church (expressed here as all of them but especially Philadelphia being the (first raptured one) is in love with her Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.  He is, in turn, in love with her before she ever even thought about it.  But He has been away (absent) almost 2,000 years dwelling at the right hand of His Father, in heaven.  The only way for her to access Him is by prayer which must be done in faith believing.  The Usurper/Adversary, Satan and his minions control the palace, i. e. the world system.  Using every means at his disposal, Satan tries to woo the True Church away from Christ, her beloved, by wealth, fame, fortune, threat, destruction, sex, pornography, strong drink, envy, lust, etc.  There is not a stone unturned in his quest to “own” the True Church.  Why?  So that he can deny the Lord Jesus Christ his Bride-to-be and wreck forever the plans of God Almighty for his creation.

                                  A VERY SERIOUS MATTER UNFOLDS  

Everlasting and eternal promises were made by YHWH to Israel.  These MUST have a fulfillment or else God is not God.  He has placed the Holy Writ above His own name, so important are they.  God has often said that the Scriptures will never fail, no, not a word of them.  Thus, Satan has but one task, and that is to make just one word of the Holy Writ fail.  If he can do this, he wins.  So, he uses every wile, every lie, every deceit, and all means his evil mind can conceive to do this.  He has destroyed the souls of men over and over with every type of sinful practice and is ever more at it today.  And when he is cast down to earth from heaven, he will be on earth in person to destroy even more.

                                        

                                   ENTER THE TWO RAPTURES EVENT

But, here comes a plan of God that will really upset Satan’s applecart.  That plan is called the “rapture”.  It's New Testament description is found in I Thessalonians 4:15-17.  “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (precede) them who are asleep.  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (raptured) with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord”. The corollary passage describing how the saints are changed at the rapture event is found in I Corinthians 15:51,52.  “Behold, I show you a mystery:  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”.  And the Song of Songs says it this way.  In chapter 2 and verse 10, “My Beloved spoke, and said unto me, Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away”.  This is Jesus calling the Philadelphia church to Himself.  It is the rapture, phase 1, or number 1, as you please.  Jesus continues, “For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtledove is in the land”.  The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with tender grape give forth fragrance.  Arise my love, my fair one, AND COME AWAY”.  (vs. 11, 12).  This is the timing of the first rapture event using agricultural signs.  It is coming upon us very soon.  THE FIRST RAPTURE IS TO TAKE THE FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE REPENTED AND BEEN FOUND HONORING CHRIST IN THEIR WALK OF LIFE.  IT IS NOT FOR THE SLOVEN, LAZY, SELF SEEKERS WHO ARE, IN THE BIBLE CALLED “LAODICEANS.”
                        
                   WHAT ABOUT ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED?

Many godly men of God do not believe in this, however, the Scriptures seem to teach it.  So how can this be reconciled to the message herein?  

In the matter of salvation of the soul, the Holy Spirit never makes a mistake, of course.  But man has a free will, and we are told that man can “shipwreck” himself.  I Timothy 1:19,20 says this: “Holding faith, and a good conscience, which some , having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck; of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto satan that they may learn not to blaspheme”.  Does this mean that they has lost their salvation?  I believe no.  It seems to mean that they were excommunicated unless and until they straightened up.  Satan would see to it that their heavenly rewards would diminish or perish.  Proof of this is found in 1 Corinthians 3:11ff.  I quote: “For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble – every man's  work shall be made manifest; for the day (rapture day) shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; (great tribulation fire) and the fire shall test every man's work of what sort it is.  If any man's work abide which he hath built upon it, he shall receive a reward.  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but HE HIMSELF SHALL BE SAVED, YET AS BY FIRE”.  Know ye not that that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are”.  Here Paul is speaking of the temple in the same way that Jesus spoke of His body.  These defilers will go through the great wrath of God and may well be destroyed physically, BUT NOT THEIR SOULS AND SPIRITS FOR THEY ACCEPTED THE FOUNDATION WHICH IS CHRIST AT SOME POINT IN THEIR LIFE.

                                WHAT ABOUT THESE AND THE RAPTURE?         

In chapter 6 and verse 10 it starts the (second) rapture event by saying, “Who is she who looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners”?  This is a an obvious reference to the bride to be, the Philadelphian believers, the first army of raptured saints.

Laodicea's taking out could have come too, but she just wasn’t ready.  One time the Shepherd even put His hand through the opening of the door to free the latch, but, alas, she was asleep.  By the time she roused herself, He had departed.  Personal ease seemed more important than waiting for Him as she should have.  Read about this in Act V (chapter 5), a sad commentary on the readiness of the Laodicean's believers.  They are a church, just as the Philadelphians and all the prior ones as well, but they were not ready for the first rapture.

The Laodicean church now speaks of her readiness.  She is tired of persecution at the hands of satan and his crowd.  She is aware that her sister church has gone before and she has been left to the purifying fire.  So she says:  “I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.  Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib”.  In these verses 11 and 12, is seen the rapture of the remaining Bride-to-be.  An alternate reading could be “like the chariots of my princely willing people”.  Amminadib seems to not be a name, but rather refers to Someone famous for His chariots.  And who has more chariots than their precious Bridegroom?  Elijah saw a bunch of them at his own rapture.  Phase 2 of the rapture now occurs and she is joined to her sister,

Immediately after her departure, modern little Israel, called the daughters of Jerusalem, speak in their astonishment saying, “Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return that we may look upon thee.” In this verse 13, is seen the desire of modern Israel to have the Bride-to-be come back.  But she asks, “What will ye see in the Shulamite?”  In other words, she asks them why?  Their answer comes immediately saying, “As it were, the company of TWO armies.”  I think the two armies are Ephesus through Philadelphia taken in the first rapture and Laodicea, who has now joined them in Phase 2 or the second rapture as you please.  At the first rapture, it was a single army with banners in Song 6:10, but now at the second rapture it is two armies and all seven are now united and are the Bride-to-be.

                                               THE CRUX OF THE PLAY

So, the rapture event, which includes the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the taking of the living in Christ has here occurred in its fulness.  She, the Bride now, is gone to be with her Shepherd Lover, who is absent no longer.  He has come in the air and with the clouds to get her out of the ”palace” of this world’s ungodly system and away from Satan, the Adversary/Usurper.

                                                  THE WEDDING      

The seventh act, chapter 7 of the Song of Songs finds the Bride described by her Beloved husband.  He says in chapter 7 and verse 9, when I kiss your mouth, “the roof of thy mouth, (is) like the best wine”.  This describes the beauty of the Bride of Christ.  He truly loves her and His description of her is pure delight in her.  She is the most beautiful one in the universe as far as He is concerned.  She interrupts, saying, “For my Beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those who are ASLEEP to speak”.  (Perhaps this is a reference to the resurrected ones?)  And in verse 10 she continues and says “I am my Beloved’s and His desire is toward me”.  She is aware of her captivating power with this Beloved Groom.  So she continues by saying,  “Come my Beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth.  There will I give Thee my love”, vss 11-12.  This is the wedding of the Lord to His Bride.

                                                 THE HONEYMOON  

Here the marriage has occurred and the consummation of the marriage  is to take place.  The wedding feast is apparently over and she and her husband have started their honeymoon.  She is no longer the Bride to be, but now she is the Bride.  His consuming passion for her is to be fulfilled, and right now.

                                    
                                 THE ELEVATION OF THE BRIDE  

Finally, in Act 8, she speaks from a heart that recognizes that He is far superior to her socially, so to speak, but she realizes that He still loves her above all.  She will take her place at His side, both in the Kingdom Age and in eternity.  Her elevation is the fulfillment of many promises of the Bible.

                  NOW TO ISRAEL, GOD'S COVENANT PEOPLE

In chapter 8 and verse 8 the Bride speaks to her Beloved and says, “We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts.  What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?”  Indeed, what shall be done for Israel, the little sister that has not been around for 1,878 years and is now in the land again (in 1948).   By comparison to the age of the Bride, she is a sub-teen, if the count started in 1948.  The Bride has an answer:  “If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver; and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar”.  I think that this is saying that Israel will have her Temple in her Jerusalem, and in her Kingdom after all.  We call it the Millennial Kingdom and Scripture calls it a thousand years reign of Christ, and it will apparently be for 360,000 days or 1,000 perfect orbital years.  At this point, Israel has fulfilled Daniel 9:24.  After mourning the required 30 days for killing their own Messiah, Jesus, their King will cause them to do the seven following things:

>finish the transgression
>make and end of sins
>make reconciliation for iniquity
>bring in everlasting righteousness
>seal up the vision
>seal up the prophecy
>anoint the most Holy

                WHEN WILL THE RAPTURES LIKELY TAKE PLACE?

Jesus said in Matthew 24:37 that “as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be”.   There were three signs given Noah in Genesis 6, 7, and 8.  These sign were:

>120 years of 360 days to complete the ark
>7 days to load his family into the ark
>365 days, carefully delineated by the Holy Spirit into counts of days within the ark      before disembarking into the new world.

I believe that these signs will be repeated now.  I have already found one of them.

I have found the 120 years sign.  It overlays onto modern Israel and ends on Sept 23, 2015 extended by 75 days of Daniel 12 to December 7, 2015.  I have written extensively about it.  I will share my articles with any who wish me to.  The 7 days I can now identify and the 365 days I can also define.  My email address is at the end of this article.  Simply ask, and give me your email address for a return answer.

One saint of God may have been given the timing by our Lord.  After all, He said through the Apostle Peter on the day of the birth of the Church on Pentecost, that our young and old will prophesy, and will dream dreams and have visions.  We are seeing that happen now.  In one such vision, a lady saw a calendar matching March, 2015 as to the days of the week and the calendar was marked off until Friday the 13th.  That identifies the only year it could be as 2015 and the only months it could be as either February or March.  If this vision is true, then I submit the two remaining signs of Noah, that is the 7 days call into the ark and the year the family was afloat in the ark, can be determined as to date.  

Since February has come and gone, by using March 13 as the final day, then I add 7 more for Noah's second sign to come to March 20.  This is the Spring equinox which fits the Song's first rapture time of the church of Philadelphia.  The third sign is the 365 days corresponding to Noah's days in the ark.  I have written about these days as well.  Briefly they count as follows:

7 days call to get into the ark
40 days of devastating rains
110 days of floating on water then striking land
74 days of waiting for the waters to subside without success
40 days of beginning to uncover the ark
7 days for the raven to fly out and not return
7 days for the first dove to fly out and return with nothing
7 days for the second dove to fly out and return with an olive twig
22 days for final uncovering of the passenger section
57 days to allow the land to fully dry
1 day to exit the ark onto dry land.

365 days total.  This was one solar year.

I think the second rapture will be on or about August 18, 150 days or five months after the first rapture event, which fits the year count in the ark.  I think the agricultural signs given in chapter 6 of the Song places it about in August of the year.   This also fits the timing of the marriage and honeymoon given in the 7th and 8th acts of the Song.   All of this takes place in 2015.

    FINALLY MY WORD ABOUT GOD'S DEALING WITH  THE USURPER

Satan's mouthpiece, the Usurper is taken along with the end times false prophet,  and both are thrown alive into a lake of fire, and Satan and the demons are shut away so that they cannot tempt or harm anyone or anything during the 1,000 years of kingdom reign.  This world system is fully and completely destroyed.  Jesus Christ reigns absolutely supreme.  The Bride is by His side in the new Jerusalem, in stationary orbit above the earth during this glorious reign.  A highway is to be built from earth to the city.  David, resurrected and alive, will rule the kingdom under Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Amen.

Gerry Almond

E Mail   sgalmond@yahoo.com