First posted in 2013.
Bruce Baber
(14 Oct 2013)
"The Days of Noah versus
The Days of Lot and their parallels"
My personal belief is that the rapture is a progressive
event, or perhaps it is better to say that it is a
multiple event.
The
barley harvest is first. Barley is sepated from the
chaff by tossing it in the air. The wheat harvest is
next and it is separated from the chaff by brusing it with
a tribulum (think tribulation). The final
harvest is the grape harvest where the grapes are pressed,
staining the Harvester's robes red like blood. Perry
Stone first (to my knowledge) showed these comparisons, or
parallels. I agree with the sequence though I differ
with him somewhat on the groups involved.
Barley
Harvest of the Bride seen in Matthew 25...
"Behold
the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all
those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the
foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our
lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so;
lest there not be enough for us and you: but go ye rather
to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.And while they went to buy,
the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in
with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying Lord, Lord
, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say
unto you, I know you not."
Now read Luke 12:36. These characters missed out on
the wedding. They are servants waiting for their master to
return for them
after he has been to the wedding!
The
Wheat Harvest
35
"Be
dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning,
36 like men waiting for their master
to
return from a wedding banquet,
so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open
the door for him. 37 It will be good for those
servants whose master finds them watching when he
comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to
serve, will have them recline at the table and will come
and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those
servants whose master finds them ready, even if he
comes in the second or third watch of the night.
Notice
that by the time Jesus comes back
from the wedding banquet that their lamps
are to be lit. They are waiting and watching for the
master. They are listening for the knock at the
door.
If
their lamps are lit it would mean that the Holy Spirit has
been granted though they weren't ready when He came
the first time.
Because they will be here for a period of intense
persecution, the Holy Spirit may be given in double
portion. This would explain how they endure
persecution of the antichrist. Notice in this next
passage how
they are identified as servants like in
Luke 12 as cited above. In Joel, the servants are
given the Holy Spirit in such quantity that the old men
dream prophetic dreams and the young men see
visions!
Read
Joel 2.
“And
afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see
visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men
and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
Notice
that they are identified as
servants after they have missed admitance to
the wedding though by this point they will have the Holy
Spirit granted.
In
my essay "The Two Feet of the Body of Christ," I
concentrate mainly on these two groups. The first
group who is ready to go to the wedding and the second
group who is taken by Christ before God's wrath occurring
probably around mid-tribulation.
"Days
of Noah" and the "Days of Lot".
Perhaps
both raptures are alluded to in Luke 17.
26
“Just
as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the
days of the Son of Man.
27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and
being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the
ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
28
“It
was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and
drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur
rained down from heaven and destroyed them all."
The
account of Noah is usually cited as a parallel to the
first rapture. Noah is given 7 days advance
warning before God's wrath was poured out (Genesis
7).
Lot
on the other hand had to be ready
immediately. God's wrath was rained
down on Sodom immediately upon his departure.
Notice
the wording in the account of Lot in Genesis
19...
2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to
your servant’s house." Later in the same
chapter it says... "15
With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot,
saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who
are here, or you will be swept away when the city is
punished.”
To
me, the account of Lot is a better parallel to the
second rapture (just prior to the bowls wrath being poured
out).
Jesus
was (at least in part) rejected because He didn't come as
the conquering Messiah as prophecied. The prophecies
of the two comings of the Messiah were sometimes
interwoven in the same verses. I believe the two
raptures are like that too. Luke 7 mentions
both the days of Noah and the days of Lot,
but I don’t believe they are the same singular event.
I
stated my case in more detail in the Two Feet of the
Body of Christ. I related the
two times that Jesus's feet were anointed
with costly perfume representing a parallel to the two
times the Holy Spirit is showered on the church. I
showed how the body of Christ is born like the birth of a
baby with the head (Christ) first followed by the body in
progressive stages with the two feet
(representing the end-time church) being the last part.
It
is my personal belief that the time is very
short. If I am right about there being two raptures
(occurring in stages) then I think it is time for others
to recognize it.
YBIC
Bruce
Baber