Saturday, September 20, 2014

The Bride of Christ

(A distinction between the Rapture of the Church and the Return of the Lord with His all His saints)

The Rapture (a Latin word) is a New Testament mystery not prophesied in the Old Testament; or taught in the four Gospels. The Rapture pertains to Christ’s descension to meet with His Church (the Bride) in the air… at the end of this Church Age. Unlike the return of our Lord in the Kingdom Age, Christ never sets one single foot on the Earth during the Rapture of the Church. The Rapture implies the Bridegroom's calling out of His Bride (the Church) from the unsaved world’s worst condition in history. The Rapture of the Church is a testimony to Israel about the truth of the return of the Messiah with all the saints to set up the promised Kingdom in Jerusalem. The Rapture a calling out of the saints is the deliverance of the Body of Christ from future judgment prophesied to come upon Israel during the Great Tribulation. The Rapture takes place before the Great Tribulation. This tribulation is God’s last effort to offer final redemption to His elect...Israel. When the Church is caught up to meet with Christ in the air, consummation is made in Heaven between the Bride and Bridegroom. Mercy is found by the Bride of Christ as they escape tribulation, wrath, and the Great White Throne Judgment. When Divine mercy from God is withheld after the Church is taken out, Israel thus faces a prophetic and catastrophic period of time taught in the Old Testament as a time of “Jacobs Trouble”.

Since the death of Christ the present Church, the Bride of Christ is unification through the Holy Spirit between both Jew and Gentile. This unification offered through the mercy of God that radiates from the cross, is given for the Bride to escape the seven year Tribulation prophesied to come upon Israel. The Great Tribulation is an event foretold in the seventieth week of Daniel. This Great Tribulation is when the hinderer of God’s Mercy, the Holy Spirit steps aside and allows the Anti-Christ to confirm his covenant under the reign of Satan for seven years of wrath and Judgment upon the earth. The ministration of the Holy Ghost is not limited to sanctification and the new birth only. The mercy of God that is presently extended to the human family from Christ at Calvary is ministered through Holy Spirits withholding presence of Divine Wrath. “After the Rapture of the Church” when the Holy Spirit steps aside the Anti-Christ under the reign of Satan will confirm the Holy Spirit's departure of mercy from the earth. Christ thus returns to the Mount of Olives at the end of the seven-year tribulation to consume and destroy the man of sin or Anti-Christ.

2 Thess 2:3-8…that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.

The Church birthed and purchased by the blood of Christ is simply God’s common ground of unification for Jewish people that believe in Old Testament promises about Christ; and Gentile believers in Christ who are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and never given a promise from God. The New Testament teaches the body of Christ is the common thread of the Holy Ghost that sews the new birth and sanctification through the Spirit to the hearts of both Jewish and Gentile people who accept the truth about Christ. Remember… the Church was never prophesied and the Gentiles were never given Promises, Prophets, or Priesthood in the Old Testament! Only Israel who was given the oracles of God would understand a future tribulation, judgment, and wrath that will come upon the earth and then usher in the return of our Lord. The Old Testament teaches that when the Messiah returns He has his all saints with Him! These married saints are the Lamb's Bride and Christ is the Bridegroom!

The prepared heart of a Child of God understands a present readiness to meet with the Bridegroom at the Rapture of the Church. Even Gentiles who were never given a single promise in the Old Testament understand this mystery. Why? It is revealed to the heart and soul of any believer in Christ…through the Divine presence of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost reveals the truth about Heaven to hearts of men and women through a consciousness to the presence of Christ by faith. The Holy Ghost simply prepares the Bride to meet with the Bridegroom at the Rapture of the Church.

Even more beautifully at the end of Daniel’s prophetic seventieth week (or seven years known by any learned Jew) the Bride returns with the Bridegroom to set up the Kingdom on Earth prepared from the foundation of the world. This return and future Kingdom Age is when Christ physically sets foot on the Earth. Unlike the Rapture of the Church, at this return Christ does not call out the saints to meet with Him in the air, but Christ has the saints with him as confirmed in many Old Testament prophecies. The Rapture of the Church offers mercy to the children of God: the promised return of Christ with His Bride minister’s wrath and judgment upon the Devil, the Beast; the Anti-Christ; and the Jewish people that reject Christ at that time. At the end of the seven year Tribulation… in the beginning of the 1000 year reign of our Lord, the saints or the Bride of Christ will accompany Christ in this Millennial Kingdom to execute Judgment and renovate the Earth. God’s seven year tribulation upon Israel only continues to offer mercy to His elect Israel because of His foreknowledge and Israel’s genealogical background of the Holy Scripture.

Here’s a prediction of the fierceness and wrath of Christ when the Bridegroom returns with His Bride as written by John in the Revelation of Christ.

Rev 19:7-13…Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, these are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

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