We want, in fact, not so much a father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven: a senile benevolence who, as they say, “liked to see young people enjoying themselves” and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all.”
C.S. Lewis

Millions Disappear

Millions Disappear

MILLIONS DISAPPEAR!

FACT OR FICTION?

The material you are about to read deals with a Biblical, worldwide event that will affect you and your future. Examine it carefully.

Some of you will understand it completely while others may consider it science-fiction nonsense. However, Christians have looked forward to this event for almost two thousand years. It is now about to take place.

“BUT OF THE TIMES AND THE SEASONS, BRETHREN, YE HAVE NO NEED THAT I WRITE UNTO YOU. FOR YOURSELVES KNOW PERFECTLY THAT THE DAY OF THE LORD SO COMETH AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT. FOR WHEN THEY SHALL SAY, PEACE AND SAFETY; THEN SUDDEN DESTRUCTION COMETH UPON THEM, AS TRAVAIL UPON A WOMAN WITH CHILD; AND THEY SHALL NOT ESCAPE.” (I Thessalonians 5:1-3)

May God help you make the right decision–NOW.

MILLIONS DISAPPEAR!

FACT OR FICTION?

It is morning; the sun’s early rays are just beginning to touch the tops of the highest trees. Or perhaps it is daytime, with the sound of traffic and the rush of daily business. Or maybe it is evening, when you’ve put the children to bed and are ready for the news and a late snack. Suddenly, without warning, you hear an unbelievably loud sound that seems to come from everywhere at once. It is like thunder going off inside your head, or a trumpet blast in your ear. Perhaps it is a voice so incredibly loud that it drowns out everything; a waterfall of noise.

In the next instant, a blinding flash goes off, like lightning hitting the next room, or the explosion of an atom bomb that would blind you if you looked at it. Then another rush of sound, like twenty freight trains passing by at once.

The television newscaster is no longer broadcasting; maybe he’s hiding under his table. You rush in to check the children. All that remains is a pile of clothes and a crimson pool of blood.

Throughout the world, the mother looks for her children: they are gone, their bedsheets undisturbed. The businessman opens his office door; his secretary has disappeared, leaving behind a pair of glasses. People have disappeared from their automobiles, sending cars careening off the roads. Hospital beds are empty, job sites unattended, and houses vacant. Millions of individuals around the world have just suddenly vanished, with no warning, and no explanation. Government officials, teachers, children, doctors, farmers, factory workers, bums, clergymen, people with no obvious connection have all apparently been disintegrated at the same time.

Was it a military attack? Was it UFO’s? Was it spontaneous combustion? Was it a new disease? What was happened?

What you have just read sounds like the work of a writer’s imagination; the beginning of a science fiction novel or a comic book. In actuality, this is a description of a real event that will take place in the near future. The source of this information is the Holy Bible (AUTHORIZED KING JAMES VERSION), which is still the most remarkable Book ever written.

MILLIONS DISAPPEAR!

FACT OR FICTION?

The Bible’s ability to accurately predict the future sets it apart from all other books of any kind. It prophesies events in detail, hundreds of years (and sometimes thousands of years) before they take place, and it has never been wrong once. This is not true of any other class of “sacred literature” in the world, including the Hindu literature (Shastras, Puranas, Tripitaka), the Buddhist literature (Satons, Noble Eightfold Path), or the Moslem literature (the Koran). Prophets and prophetesses like Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and Jeanne Dixon have occasionally made some approximate “guesses” as to future events that came to pass, but even 90% of these were based on passages in the Bible. History written AHEAD OF TIME is proof that the Bible is not the product of human nature or human intellect, but is given by God.

There is never any guesswork with the Holy Bible. When it says a thing will take place, it will take place no matter who does not believe it, or who tries to prevent it from happening, or what means are used to prevent it. The prophecies of the First Coming of Jesus Christ were fulfilled to the letter, and there were forty-eight of them that were written on paper more than four hundred years before He was born (see Zechariah 9:9; Micah 5:2; Psalm 22; Isaiah 53; and Zechariah 11:12-13). The odds of that happening by accident are one out of ten to the 147th power: one with 147 zeroes after it. There are not that many ELECTRONS in two universes the size of our known universe.

Recent examples of prophetic fulfillment include modern automobiles and tanks, which were prophesied more than 2,500 years before they showed up:

NAHUM 2:4
“The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.”

ISAIAH 9:5
“For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.”

The United Nations was foretold at least 2,000 years before it was formed:

ZEPHANIAH 3:8
“Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.”

Israel’s return to the land of Palestine (1917-1949) was clearly written in the Bible at least 2,000 years before it took place:

EZEKIEL 34:13
“And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.”

EZEKIEL 37:25
“And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.”

The return of the Jews to their native homeland after centuries of dispersion among the nations is one of the most obvious proofs of Biblical authority and the providence of God. No other ancient nation has survived to our present day with the same religion, practices, language, and sacred literature, but the Hebrew people have been set apart by the Lord as an example and a warning to the nations. God controls history, and when He so desires He changes politics to fulfill His prophecies. Jesus promised that this warning would come just before the Second Coming:

Luke 21:29 “And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree {Israel}, and all the trees;

30 “When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.

31 “So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.

32 “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.”

The generation was born in 1949 (when the UN recognized the existence of the nation of Israel); this is the last generation before “the kingdom of God” appears at the Second Coming of Christ, which makes the reemergence of Israel the most important and surprising event since the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This article is about the next great shocking event which the Bible says will take place. Christians usually refer to it as “the Rapture,” although this word is not found in the Bible. The dictionary defines a “rapture” as something that takes one out of their ordinary senses and lifts them up (or transports them over) into another “state of being,” temporarily. It simply means an experience whereby the ego is drawn outside of the body into a state of enlightenment or “bliss.” This term was adopted by Christians to describe a physical event that the Holy Spirit said would take place in regards to Christians. (To understand the Bible use of the word “Christian,” see page 19).

To understand the RAPTURE, one must read the Bible and believe what it says. There is no way to find the truth in the Bible unless a person is honest himself when he reads it. The Bible should not be forced into theological brackets which some church or church leader set up. Any church or any church leader can twist the Bible to have it mean what they want it to say by three simple tricks: 1. TAKING A VERSE OUT OF THE CONTEXT. 2. ADDING WORDS TO THE TEXT OF THE WORD OF GOD. 3. SUBTRACTING WORDS FROM THE TEXT OF THE WORD OF GOD.

There are two main passages in Scripture which speak directly of the Rapture. Let’s consider them:

I Thessalonians 4:15 “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16 “For the Lord himself shall 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:

17 “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18 “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

I Corinthians 15:49 “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

50 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit corruption.

51 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, art the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54 “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

55 “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

The Rapture is that sudden coming of Christ down into the atmosphere to catch UP and catch AWAY a Body of believers who compose what the Bible calls “His BRIDE.”

The Rapture is clearly explained in the New Testament.

  • I —

There will be a flash of light like a cobalt bomb going off:

Matthew 24:27: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

Psalm 50:1 “The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

2 “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined….

4 “He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

5 “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

  • II —

There will be a clap of thunder like a hundred nuclear bombs exploding simultaneously:

Job 37:1 “At this also my heart trembleth, and is moved out of his place.

2 “Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth.

3 “He directeth it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth.

4 “After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard.”

John 12:28 “Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

29 “The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him.”

  • III —

The peal of a trumpet will accompany this thunder:

I Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord himself shall 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:”

I Corinthians 15:52 “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.”

  • IV —

In this peal every born again Christian on earth will HEAR HIS NAME CALLED (John 10:3), followed by “COME UP HITHER”:

Revelation 4:1 “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

2 “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.”

Revelation 11:12 “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.”

  • V —

“…and the dead in Christ shall rise first…” (I Thessalonians 4:16) Out of the graveyards and from the ocean and the battlefields of this world the bodies of saved sinners will come back together, atom to atom and molecule to molecule, as glorified bodies of “FLESH AND BONES” with no BLOOD in them (Luke 24:39; I Corinthians 15:50).

  • VI —

“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them…” (I Thesslonians 4:17). As the dead in Christ are caught up above the fifty thousand foot level, the living saved sinners will suddenly be transformed. They will lose their blood (I Corinthians 15:50), and their bodies will be made like unto Christ’s heavenly body (I Corinthians 15:42- 49; I John 3:2). Their atomic structures will be changed so that the bodies can pass through solid objects (Luke 24:31; John 20:19), and travel faster than the speed of light (John 20:17; and Matthew 28:9–Jesus Christ ascended to heaven and returned to earth in less than a few hours). These transformed Christians will be caught up WITH the resurrected saints in the air (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).

  • VII —

These glorified bodies will leave the Solar System faster than the speed of light and be carried up straight NORTH (Psalm 75:6-7; Psalm 48:1-3; Ezekiel 1:1-4; II Corinthians 12:1-4) into the Throne Room (Revelation 4:1-5) where the ESSENCE of God’s Presence inhabits “ETERNITY” (Isaiah 57:15).

There they will face “THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST,” to be rewarded for their good works as Christians and to suffer loss of rewards for their bad deeds as Christians (I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Corinthians 5:10). This judgment has nothing to do with anybody trying to find out whether they are saved or lost. These resurrected sinners have GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS–the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s own Son–and their works have no effect on their salvation one way or another. (More information on this will be given later in this article.) At the Judgment Seat of Christ they are dealt with about their SERVICE for the Lord AFTER THEY WERE SAVED. The Rapture, therefore, has no connection with “Judgment Day” or “The Last Judgment.” They are not even related.

So far we have discussed with the Rapture is, who will be involved in it, and what it is not. The next question is, When will it occur?

The Lord tells man ahead of time what He is going to do, and even gives advanced warning as to when He will do it:

ISAIAH 48:3 “I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass….

5 “I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee….

6 “…I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.”

One way God has given us of measuring time allows us to make a very close guess about when the Rapture will take place. True, it will still be only a “guess,” but it will be very, very close. This is a Biblical system in which the Holy Spirit Himself established His own rules for interpretation. This system is called “The Thousand Year–Day system” and it is given in II Peter 3:8.

II Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

This Biblical passage is the key that interprets Leviticus 23.

Leviticus 23:3 “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.”

If you follow the pattern given here and apply the Thousand Year–Day System, you see that man has to be here 6000 years, and then the last period of 1000 years HAS TO BE A “SABBATH” OF REST (see Genesis 2:1-3). This sabbath of rest, lasting a thousand years (Latin: “MILLENNIUM”), is mentioned SIX times in one chapter (Revelation 20:1-8). The “WHOLE EARTH IS AT REST” in Isaiah 14:7 after Satan is put down.

One of many scientific evidences available for these dates above is population growth rate. It has been calculated that an average growth of only one-half % per year, which is only one-fourth the present rate, would still yield the present population in just 4,000 years. A full explanation of this and other scientific data can be found in THE COLLAPSE OF EVOLUTION by Scott M. Huse, SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE by Henry Morris, THERMODYNAMICS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORDER by Emmett Williams and many more.

According to the figures, dates, and ages given in Genesis through I Kings, the period of time that extends from Genesis 2 (the creation of man) to the birth of Christ (Matthew 1) is four thousand years, or very near it. (Most calendars would indicate that Adam’s creation should be dated 4004 B.C., making the birth of Christ actually 4 years early, in order words, 4 B.C.)

The first coming was in Bethlehem four thousand years after Adam was created, and nearly two thousand years have elapsed since the birth of Christ. That places us virtually at the six thousand year mark, and on the threshold of the Millennium, or the seventh and final one thousand year period.

The Bible also declares that in the last days “MANY SHALL RUN TO AND FRO…” (Daniel 12:4). Until the 1800’s the horse was the fastest means of travel and in less than two hundred years we have 100 mph trains, automobiles, supersonic aircraft and have spacecraft to take men to the moon in a few days. And “knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4). This increase has brought about the radio, television, radar, computers, laser technology, and the list grows daily (see any of the current scientific publications).

Doesn’t the following passage describe our present society?

II Timothy 3:1 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2 “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 “Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4 “Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God….”

Obviously, time on God’s clock is running out. (To be included before time runs out, continue reading.) The Rapture is the next great event on God’s calendar. But can anyone determine the exact year and day?

In 1988, a man named Whisenant wrote a book called 88 REASONS WHY THE RAPTURE WILL TAKE PLACE IN 1988. This work did untold damage because it destroyed the faith of thousands of Christians in the Rapture. When the Lord Jesus did not show up that September to call his Bride out, many Christians dumped the Bible doctrine of the Rapture and went back to their old humanitarian ways: “making the world a better place.” They lost their “vision,” their faith in the promises of God. They quit “running the race” (see Hebrews 12:1-4).

Though we cannot determine the actual day or hour (Matthew 24:36), we can identify “THE TIMES AND THE SEASONS” (I Thessalonians 5:1), and be prepared for it. The Scriptures that deal with the Rapture place it at the most logical time any resurrection would occur: IN THE SPRINGTIME of Israel (Song of Solomon 2:11-13). The Rapture is most likely to happen on the Jewish feast day of Pentecost, for that is the day the Holy Spirit initially put the believers into one Body as a part of the Lord Jesus Christ, who had gone back to heaven about seven days earlier (Acts 2:1-4). This Jewish feast day comes fifty days after the Passover, which would put it in late May or early June. Genesis 24:61-67 describes this great event prophetically. The GENTILE BRIDES of Isaac, Joseph, and Solomon all picture the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, composed of saved heathen (Gentiles), and it is this call to the marriage (see Matthew 25:1-4) that is about to take place.

In this Old Testament passage, a conversation between the beloved (Jesus Christ) and His bride (the church) indicates a springtime Rapture.

Song of Solomon 2:10 “My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.

11 “For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

12 “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

13 “The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”

When the Rapture occurs, you will either leave this planet bodily, going straight up in the air faster than the speed of light, or you will be left exactly as you are now–a human being stuck in a material world that is heading into the greatest disaster in history. That world is described in Revelation 6 through 19. It is a world controlled by ONE DICTATOR whom the Bible calls “THE MAN OF SIN, THE SON OF PERDITION,” and the “ANTICHRIST.” In that world you cannot buy gas for your car, or milk for your baby, without taking the number 666. In preparation for the Tribulation, this number is already on license plates, on items you buy in grocery stores, and it is being placed on charge cards and on the products of the largest manufacturing companies. In this “brave new world,” whole populaces will be DRUGGED and attacked by MUTATIONS and MONSTERS (Revelation 9) and TWO WORLD WARS will annihilate over half the population of the earth (Revelation 6, 19).

These troubles, and all of the disasters mentioned in the book of Revelation, are soon to jump off the pages of the Scriptures and into the headlines of every newspaper. What the Bible says about the future is not “symbolic,” or “figurative,” but is a sincere forewarning to you from the Lord Himself. The information given in this booklet has been carefully prepared, directly from the Bible, as an urgent message to prepare you to meet the Lord Jesus at His Coming.

II PETER 1:16
“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ….”

Those of you who read this article are faced with a choice: to respect and believe what the Bible says about the future, or to reject the word of God as unimportant and ignore what the Lord has tried to tell you. Ultimately, your fate is entirely up to you, whether you wish to be part of the Rapture and go directly to heaven with Jesus Christ, or whether you wish to remain on the earth through the Tribulation without Christ, lost in your sins, and hell-bound.

The final question, then, is this: Which future do you prefer?

  1. Living with God in a perfect universe forever.

These are the only two options presented in the Bible, and the Bible (unlike you and I) has never been wrong about anything.

If you wish to live with God, then you have to accept His terms. If the Rapture has not yet taken place, then you are presented with the Gospel of the grace of God, or what we call “the plan of salvation.”

Since you as a human being cannot make yourself holy (“Not by works of righteousness which we have done…” Titus 3:5), the Lord is ready to give you His Righteousness instead. His Righteousness is contained in Jesus Christ, who went to the Cross “to be sin for us…that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (II Corinthians 5:21). If you receive Jesus Christ as your Saviour, then you receive perfect Righteousness and perfect Holiness so that you can please God and be acceptable in His sight. Any other attempt to gain God’s acceptance will not work–all other “religions” or “lifestyles” will fail, and even ignoring the subject is no protection. God now commands all men, everywhere, to repent (Acts 17:30). That means you have to give up your old way of thinking and living and turn to God. The Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). That is the invitation in THIS age. Jesus said, “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). There is no “church” involved, there are no “good works” involved, there is nothing you can do to improve yourself and no way you can save yourself; you must trust Jesus Christ alone, by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

You say, “How do I do that?”

It is very simple. Wherever you are this minute, (it doesn’t make any difference where), bow your head and pray this simple prayer:

“Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, and unless you save me I am lost forever. I come to you now, the best way I know how, and ask you to save me. I receive you as my Saviour and trust you to justify me and present me without fault before God’s throne in the day of Judgment.”

You say, “It can’t be that simple!”

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise…” (I Corinthians 1:27). The Lord has made salvation simple enough to be understood by a little child: “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). IT IS that simple.

If you pray like that, with a simple, childlike faith, meaning it from the heart, you will have made the greatest decision of your life–to choose God.

No one knows for sure when the Rapture will take place. Be prepared now. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Believe on Him NOW, before the Rapture, before it is too late.

If you now receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, don’t be ashamed, tell someone: “…Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (Romans 10:11) and write to us of your decision. FACT OR FICTION? P.O. Box 7135 Pensacola, Florida 32514 For further help or information please call: 1-800-726-4631