MATTHEW 24!--Part 2!--Post-Trib Rapture! GP 1505 13/3/81
1. PTL! HALLELUJAH! TYJ! WE'RE CONTINUING NOW THE STUDY OF MATTHEW 24 in which Jesus Himself tells us exactly what's going to happen during this period, this last three-&-a-half years of World history, the last three-&-a-half years of the Antichrist reign, the Great Tribulation. He tells us exactly what is going to be the cue when it begins, & that will tell us exactly when it ends, because it lasts exactly three-&-a-half years. This is said several times in the Bible, which you've already studied, both in Daniel & in Revelation & a few other places. PTL!
2. WE'VE ALREADY STUDIED THE FIRST HALF OF THE CHAPTER IN WHICH HE TELLS US THAT IT WILL BEGIN WITH THE SETTING UP OF THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, the Image of the Beast, in the holy place. He speaks of it as the Abomination of Desolation & we find out it's an Image of the Beast in Revelation, 13th Chapter. And Daniel speaks of it as well, & they all speak of it as occurring at the same time, exactly in the middle of the seven-year reign of the Antichrist, at the beginning of the last half, which is three-&-a-half years. And we have studied how He says that then, at that point will begin the Great Tribulation.
3. WE'VE ALREADY STUDIED IN THIS PASSAGE SOMETHING ABOUT WHAT THE TRIBULATION IS GOING TO BE LIKE, & then how, during the Tribulation things will get so bad that many people will think it's time for Jesus to come, especially the Church people who were taught that He was supposed to come before the Tribulation. They're going to wait & expect to see Him come any day!
4. BUT JESUS WARNS NOT TO EXPECT HIM SOONER THAN HAS BEEN PREDICTED, but that there will be many people who will try to deceive the people, false Christs & false prophets who will try to deceive you into thinking either that they are Christ or that Christ is coming nearby somewhere, He is here or there. And He finally says, "Don't believe any of them, because when I come you'll know it!" The sky will light up like permanent lightning from one end to the other, & there will be such a sign in the Heaven that you couldn't possibly mistake the fact that Jesus is coming!
5. NOT ONLY THAT, THE GREATEST SIGN THAT JESUS IS COMING & HAS COME IS THAT YOU WILL START FLOATING, YOU WILL START LEVITATING! Suddenly your feet won't be able to touch the ground, you'll start floating upward. And He will gather you together to His Body, & we will meet Him in the air! This is spoken of a number of times in God's Word. It is spoken of in the first chapter of Acts also, spoken of in 1st Thessalonians 4th chapter, & many of these places we may have time to get into perhaps. We have been studying the Tribulation, this time we're studying more the Second Coming of the Lord.
6. SO WHEN IS HE GOING TO COME? Scofield & the Brethren & the Cooneyites, I think they were called, & now today most of the Fundamentalist Evangelical Church having followed Scofield's Bible, have been erroneously teaching that Jesus was going to come before the Tribulation & rapture them out of the Earth before all this trouble begins, before the Antichrist appears. But that's not so! By reading this one chapter alone you can see that that is not so.
7. BECAUSE HE SAYS THAT THE TRIBULATION WILL BEGIN "WHEN YE SHALL SEE THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place." When you see it standing there you'll know the Tribulation has begun. And He doesn't say a word about taking you out of here immediately then at all! All He says is He warns everybody to head for the hills! You'd better run, get to your refuge or hiding place, your survival goods! Get out of the cities & out of the populated areas where there's going to be lots of trouble.
8. GET OUT WHERE YOU'VE GOT YOUR FOOD HIDDEN & YOUR HIDEAWAY! Stay away from officers of the law of the World kingdom of the Antichrist who are going to try to kill you if you don't worship the Beast & His Image, the Antichrist & his idol. And you won't be able to buy or sell, buy groceries or sell anything to get money to buy them with, so therefore you'd better have'm stashed away someplace where you can find'm & where nobody else can find them!
9. PTL! HE'LL TAKE CARE OF HIS OWN, DON'T WORRY, BUT HE EXPECTS YOU TO DO SOMETHING towards trying to take care of yourself. God doesn't wash your face for you. He doesn't wipe you. He doesn't dress you & undress you. You're not a baby any more. God expects you to do something for yourself. And when He has warned you time & again to be prepared for those days, then it's time you were prepared & you have a hiding place picked out & your survival goods stored there so that you will be able to survive this period as long as possible.
10. BECAUSE JESUS IS NOT GOING TO SAVE YOU OUT OF IT DURING THAT THREE-&-A-HALF YEARS. He may protect you in it, keep you in it, because He needs a witness, & lots of witnesses there to tell the World what's happening!--Even to tell the Church what's happening, because even the Church will be mystified, because most of them have gotten into that false doctrine, at least the Protestants, that Jesus is going to come before the Tribulation.
11. HE'S DEFINITELY GOING TO COME BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM! We are definitely pre-Millennialists! We are not post-Millennialists. We don't believe that the Church Age today is the Millennium! We do not think that this period from Christ's first coming to the next coming is the Millennium. Because if you read the description--as we will later as we study the Millennium--in many other places & particularly Isaiah, you'll certainly see that if this is the Millennium, you & I don't want any of it!
12. BECAUSE DURING THE MILLENNIUM, JESUS IS GOING TO REIGN & RULE IN PERSON USING US AS HIS INSTRUMENTS! There's going to be Worldwide peace & Worldwide plenty & no more war! So, if this is the Millennium, then the Prophets sure were wrong! Frankly, I believe God's Prophets, & I think their interpreters, some of the more Modernistic Churches, are wrong who have interpreted that because this Church Age came into such power & such rule over governments, they thought they had struck the Millennium for sure! Well, they're finding out now things didn't turn out as well as they expected & the Church people aren't still running the World as they were for awhile. The Devil's people are now running the World!
13. SO THIS IS CERTAINLY NO MILLENNIUM! Thank God it's not the Millennium! If this is the Millennium, I don't want the Millennium! We believe the Millennium will follow the next coming of Christ, that's what the Bible teaches. So therefore we are pre-Millennialists, if anybody wants to know the theological term for our doctrine. That means you believe Jesus is coming back again before the Millennium. We are not post-Millennialists, we do not think this is the Millennium & that Jesus is going to come at the end of it! This is not the Millennium! This is almost the Great Tribulation already! And to prove it, I'll give you Jesus' Own Words.
14. FIRST OF ALL, HE SAID THE TRIBULATION WOULD BEGIN WITH THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, RIGHT?--Which is the Image of the Antichrist & a compulsion by law to worship it & to take his Mark in your hand or forehead. And then He warns you what you should do during it--flee! We've been telling you that for years: Flee! [EDITED: "Mat.24:15-20"] You who have already fled to other places & out in other countries & so on will have a head start on all the rest.
15. REMEMBER, THIS IS JESUS HIMSELF TALKING! Was He wrong? Could He have made a mistake? Maybe He forgot to read the Scofield Bible! Maybe He should have listened more to one of these Fundamentalists & Evangelicals who teach that He was supposed to come & take'm out of this mess before the Tribulation! And a lot of them are going to be very upset because He failed to rescue them before He put them through such a trial!
16. AFTER ALL, THEY'VE HAD IT PRETTY GOOD HERE!--Their fine churches & comfortable cushioned pews & air-conditioned sanctuaries & nice beautiful sweet music & little 10-minute sermons & get-it-over-in-an-hour-&-go-home-&-live-for-themselves-&-the-Devil-the-rest-of-the-week kind of religion! Since God has made it so soft & easy for them now, they can't imagine, how could He dare to make it any worse for them later! But He'll dare!
17. HE'S GOING TO TEST THEIR FAITH TO SEE IF THEY REALLY HAVE REAL FAITH, if they really do believe, & if they're really going to be willing to witness for Him before others--or are they going to be ashamed of Him, or are they going to try to save their lives by not witnessing?
18. GOD'S GOING TO PUT YOU THROUGH THE MILL, BELOVED! He's going to really put the Church through the grinder! Not so much for our sake who are already busy witnessing & pleasing the Lord & obeying Him & going into all the World preaching the Gospel & doing what we're supposed to be doing, I think He's going to be especially good to us! That's what I think. Because we're doing what we're supposed to be doing already.
19. BUT YOU WHO ARE NOT DOING IT, you Church people who are not really sacrificing & giving all, forsaking all or even 10% & are not witnessing to your neighbours, are not passing out literature on the street corner & who are not going into all the World to be missionaries, God's going to sock it to you when the Tribulation comes!
20. THAT'S GOING TO BE YOUR HOUR OF TRIAL & TRIBULATION & TESTING! In a way it's going to be the churches' time of the Wrath of God administered by the Antichrist! It's going to be God's chance to spank the Christians & the churches who have not done a good job & have not obeyed Him! So I believe God is really going to allow the Tribulation for the sake of the Church & Church people, Christians & believers who have been disobedient & failed Him. He's going to purge them & refine them with fire, He says, to make them white. (Da.11:35.)
21. IN A WAY, YOU'RE REALLY NOT READY TO GO TO HEAVEN, YOU'RE NOT READY TO MEET JESUS BECAUSE YOU'RE SUCH A MESS! He wants to clean you up a little bit before you are raised to Heaven lest you besmirch that place too & be such a helluva mess as you were here! He's got to clean you up a little before He can even take you up! He says so! "To purge them & make them white," it says over in Daniel, & even here He says some of the same things. The next chapter, the 25th chapter, tells you all about what it's going to be like in the Kingdom of Heaven & so on, & how that some people aren't going to be ready.
22. GOD'S GOING TO HAVE TO REALLY PURGE YOU BY FIRE & TRIAL & TRIBULATION!--Not that you're not saved, not that you might miss the Rapture. No! Nobody who's saved & loves Jesus Christ & has Jesus in their heart is going to miss the Rapture, not one of you! Everybody who is saved & loves Jesus is going to go up in the Rapture.--But not before the Tribulation! You're going to go through that first. And that's very clear in the Bible. Even the Catholics didn't get off on that one!
23. THE DEAR OLD CATHOLICS & THE OLD CATHOLIC BIBLE HAVE TAUGHT FOR CENTURIES what the Catholic Church has always accepted as being the fact & the truth, because that's what the Bible teaches, that the Church is going to go through a period of Great Tribulation under a horrible Devil-man called the Antichrist. This is what every good Catholic believes if he knows anything about Bible Prophecy, & I'm sure it's what the Pope believes! They're straight on it! So are the Seventh-day Adventists, thank God, & so are the other Adventists, those who believe the Bible.--And that is, that the Church is going to have to go through a period of tribulation & purging & purifying to clean it up before it's really ready to be taken up to be with Jesus.
24. I'M SORRY IF YOU'RE DISAPPOINTED! I'm sorry if you're one of those Church people who thought you had made being a Christian so nice & easy here & so comfortable & so pleasant with such lovely programs & nice music to go to sleep by & preachers who just tickled your ears, & you thought, therefore, that Jesus certainly had made it good for you & you helped Him make it good for yourself, & you were sure He'd come & rescue you before anything terrible happened. Well, He's not!
25. HE'S GOING TO LET YOU GO THROUGH SOME TERRIBLE THINGS IN ORDER TO PURGE YOU & PURIFY YOU & KNOCK ALL THAT SHIT OUT OF YOU--especially a lot of that dirty Church propaganda--& get you really cleaned up & purged & purified & made white to love the poor, to love the hippies, to love the poor drunks & drug addicts & prostitutes & want to love them into the Kingdom of God! That's the kind of people Jesus hobnobbed with--drunks & harlots, publicans & sinners--because He loved the sinners & He wanted to save them.
26. HE HAD VERY LITTLE TO DO WITH THE HIGH-FALLUTIN', RICH-ROBED, CHURCH LEADERS, SCRIBES, PHARISEES & THE JEWISH LEADERS OF THE CHURCH OF THAT DAY, except when they insisted on annoying Him with their questions, trying to trip Him up & catch Him & trying to get Him to say something against the law so they could take Him off to jail. He had very little in common with the Church people, very little in common with the Church leaders of that day. They weren't His. He told them flat-out to their faces: "You're liars! You're not of God, you're of your father the Devil!" (Jn.8:44.)
27. WELL, I'M SORRY TO SAY, THAT SEEMS TO BE TRUE OF A LOT OF CHURCH PEOPLE TODAY, TOO, & so-called Christian pastors & leaders. So Jesus is going to have to really divide the sheep from the goats & the tares from the wheat & show who really is a Christian & who was just pretending & was nothing but a faker & hypocrite all the time! Because the period of the Tribulation is going to try you like fire, & those who have the real thing are going to come through like pure gold!
28. BUT THOSE WHO DON'T HAVE IT ARE GOING TO BURN UP LIKE CHAFF, & THEIR WORKS ARE GOING TO BE BURNED! They might be saved themselves if they love Jesus, but the ones who really love Jesus are going to be really really made into real witnesses in that day! If you never loved Jesus before, if you never witnessed like you should before, if you never obeyed before, you're going to have to then, if you want God to help you at all, because He's going to purge you & try you & purify you, God's Word says so, & make you white! Praise God!
29. THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE'S GOING TO MAKE YOU A WHITE! You can be any colour of the rainbow as far as He's concerned, that doesn't make any difference! We're not talking about your skin, but your soul or your spirit, & your mind!--Your dirty filthy mind! Yes, God has to do some brainwashing to purify people's minds from all this propaganda they've been hearing all their lives!
30. AND ONE OF THE DIRTIEST PIECES OF THE DEVIL'S DIRTY PROPAGANDA has been to deceive Christians into thinking that they're going to get rescued by Jesus out of this World before the Tribulation! They're going to be totally unprepared for it & shocked by it & it's going to shake some of their faith! A lot of Christians who are expecting to get raptured by the Lord & His second coming before the Tribulation are going to get the shock of their lives, because He's not going to do it! He Himself said so! He says right here in the 29th verse, as plain as day:
31. "IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS shall the sun be darkened & the moon shall not give her light & the stars shall fall from Heaven, & the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven: & then shall all of the tribes of the Earth mourn, & they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power & great glory!" ... "And then He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, & they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of Heaven to the other."
32. THAT'S WHEN JESUS IS GOING TO COME: AFTER THE TRIBULATION! It says it as plain as day in that 29th verse. Immediately after the Tribulation of those days. It says after the Tribulation shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven. After the Tribulation, then shall all the tribes of the Earth mourn. After the Tribulation they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power & great glory. After the Tribulation He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet & they shall gather together His elect. That's when Jesus is going to come back for His elect, to rapture His Saints, to gather them together!
33. THAT'S WHEN JESUS IS GOING TO COME FOR YOU & FOR ME, AFTER THE TRIBULATION! In fact, at the very end of the Tribulation, thank God! Not before. Not a day before! He's even got the days numbered in the Scriptures several places we've already studied. The exact number of days from the setting up of that idol of the Antichrist in the holy place in Jerusalem it's going to be 1260 days to the day, God's Word says so!
34. DON'T BLAME IT ON ME! Don't get mad at me because I'm teaching you that Jesus is going to come after the Tribulation & not before the Tribulation. If you want to get mad at somebody, get mad at Jesus! He's the One that said it! Get mad at the Bible! A lot of people do! They don't like it when I preach'm the Bible. A lot of people get mad at me & they can hardly believe that I'm even reading from the Bible when it's right here, plain as day, it says so! After the Tribulation!
35. WHEN IS JESUS GOING TO COME?--AFTER THE TRIBULATION! When shall His sign appear in Heaven?--After the Tribulation! And when shall all the tribes of the Earth see Him & mourn? You know, they say it's going to be a secret Rapture, nobody's going to see Him except the saved, nobody's going to know He's come. All of a sudden a bunch of us are just going to disappear & they won't even know what's happened to us! That's what these Secret Rapturists teach! That's what these Cooneyites teach--they're a little bit looney if you ask me! Kooky, or Looney, whatever!
36. THAT'S WHAT THESE SCOFIELDITES TEACH, Moody Bible Institute, Los Angeles Bible Institute, the Brethren Denomination & virtually all the Full-Gospel & Fundamentalist & Evangelical Churches are teaching this Pre-Trib Rapture!--And they got it straight out of Scofield's Bible, a Bible that has led millions of people astray from the Truths of Bible Prophecy! (--The KJV with Scofield's notes & interpretations!)
37. IT'S A GOOD BIBLE IN SOME WAYS, good & strong on Eternal Salvation, good & strong on the coming of Christ, & it talks about the Antichrist & his period & all of these things. But it's just very sadly wrong on that one thing, badly wrong because that was his pet theory, his pet doctrine, & that's why he had that Bible printed, was to lead you all astray on his pet doctrine.--And that is that the Church is going to be raptured before the Tribulation! And it's not so!
38. THE CHURCH NEVER EVEN THOUGHT OF SUCH A THING UNTIL ABOUT 200 YEARS AGO WHEN THIS FALSE DOCTRINE FIRST APPEARED IN ENGLAND. Think of that! Back in the late 1700s as I recall. The Church had never thought of such a thing. But all of a sudden it sounded so good, "Oh boy, we won't have to go through the Tribulation after all!" In fact, I think some Pentecostal preacher got some false prophecies & messages in tongues & interpretation that the Church wouldn't have to go through the Tribulation after all! Well, he didn't get that from the Lord & he didn't get it from the Bible, so I don't know where he got it from!
39. NOW DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME, I BELIEVE IN THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT, BUT THAT GUY REALLY GOT THROWN A RINGER & THAT WAS A REAL DUD! Because it's not so, it didn't check with the Bible! But he began to cheer up a lot of Christians who were a little bit worried about not being able to make it through the Tribulation. He said, "Don't worry, Jesus is going to come & take you out before the Tribulation." Well, that naturally became a very popular doctrine, just what everybody had been waiting to hear! Just what all the Church had been waiting to hear to be relieved, they thought, of having to be tested & tried & purified & purged & made white during the Tribulation.
40. THEY'D JUST AS SOON GO TO HEAVEN DIRTY LIKE THEY ARE!--The stinking filthy, dirty, sinning Christians that they are! Disobedient, rebellious, selfish, not sacrificing, not helping missions, much less becoming a missionary, not forsaking all for the Lord to serve Him, not witnessing, not winning souls, not litnessing, not passing out tracts, they don't want to do any of these things. They've been just living selfishly for themselves & their pretty little church & giving their pretty little pennies! My Grandfather used to come home from church when he was a poor preacher & look at the offering & quoted with the Apostle Paul: "Alexander the coppersmith hath done me much harm." (2Ti.4:14.) 'Cause it was mostly pennies!
41. WELL, IT'S CERTAINLY TRUE, SUCH PEOPLE ARE NOT REALLY READY TO GO & they certainly wouldn't stand up very well in the Tribulation, so they want Jesus to come & rescue them out of it before. So this became a very popular doctrine, the Pre-Trib Rapture, & it just spread like wildfire all across the World & across the ocean, clear into America & all over America, & particularly the Brethren denomination took it up. And when they took over Torrey Bible Institute in Los Angeles & Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, they started teaching it there too.--Scofield was its Pastor!
42. THEY BEGAN TO INFILTRATE ALL BIBLE INSTITUTES & BIBLE COLLEGES IN THE UNITED STATES, TEACHING THIS SAME DOCTRINE. And then Scofield did his masterful piece of deceit & got out his Scofield Bible, & that really finished it up! It misled nearly every Christian in the United States into thinking Jesus was going to come before the Tribulation & rapture him out of it.
43. WELL, AS YOU CAN SEE BY WHAT WE'VE READ HERE, JESUS SAID AFTER THE TRIBULATION HE'S GOING TO COME! After the Tribulation you'll see Him in the heavens! After the Tribulation He's going to gather together His elect. After the Tribulation! Not a minute before, not a minute before the end of it. It's going to last three-&-a-half years & you're going to have to go through all of it or die, one or the other! So take your choice.--Or die before it.
44. NOW THIS IS OBVIOUSLY WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT, EVERYTHING HERE IS A SIGN OF THE SECOND COMING, because this passage fulfills all the other signs & all of the other Scriptures. Turn with me for a moment to Acts, the first chapter. There's a good one right there for you! Got your Bible, I hope! This is a Bible Study class, & it says here in Acts, 1st chapter, 9th verse:
45. "AND WHEN HE HAD SPOKEN THESE THINGS, WHILE THEY BEHELD, HE WAS TAKEN UP; & A CLOUD RECEIVED HIM OUT OF THEIR SIGHT." Now get that, He went up in the clouds. "And while they looked steadfastly toward Heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven." Now what are they saying here? You've read it, there it is in the Bible. Two men in white apparel stood by.
46. WELL, OF COURSE, EVERYBODY HAS AGREED THOSE ARE ANGELS, BUT THEY COULD HAVE BEEN ANGELIC HUMAN BEINGS, DEPARTED SAINTS! Many departed Saints are acting as Angels nowadays & are doing the work of the Lord on the other side, in the Spirit World. We have much evidence of this throughout the Bible in which departed Saints appeared & were helping the poor dumb Earthlings. And who could understand us poor dumb Earth people better than former Earthlings who have gone on into the Spirit World?
47. IT DOESN'T SAY THESE TWO WERE ANGELS, IT JUST SAYS THEY WERE TWO MEN IN WHITE APPAREL. This is the kind of apparel they all wear in Heaven, Angels, human Saints, everybody. I've seen it time & again on these Spirit trips the Lord has given me into the heavenly places & into Space City, the Holy City in Heaven, etc., they wear these beautiful white shining shimmering gowns, they almost sparkle! They're not too covering either, they're rather revealing! You women really look pretty in them, a very pretty see-through & sort of Grecian-type of gown.
48. THOSE GREEKS REALLY KNEW THEIR ART, YOU KNOW? I'll tell you, you see those statues of the type of clothing the women have on in the Greek statues, if they had any on, & it's beautifully draped & natural & hanging just from the bare shoulders or the bosoms, or half on & half off.--Beautiful!--Just enough drapery to frame the beautiful picture!--Just enough drapery to accentuate the beautiful curves & flowing lines of God's gorgeous creation, the human body! So that's what we're going to wear, those beautiful white gowns! White shimmering gowns of glittering light!
49. WHY DO THESE WOMEN ALWAYS WANT TO WEAR THESE EXPENSIVE GOWNS MADE OF SEQUINS? They're trying to imitate the gowns of Heaven! But they're a damn poor imitation because they look more like a suit of armour to me, like overlapping steel plates so you can't even get at'm! But the kind of beautiful gowns they wear in Heaven are those filmy, more veil-like gowns of beautiful white shimmering sparkling light! It's hard to describe! No wonder they just kept saying they had on white robes, white gowns or clothed in white, or clothed in light! Really, that's what it's like, they're clothed in light!
50. YOU'LL STILL BE ABLE TO SEE EACH OTHER, RECOGNISE EACH OTHER & YOU'LL STILL HAVE A HUMAN FORM, BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Beautiful! As I say, you really look pretty in'm up yonder, PTL! I don't think that you get to go to God's Boutique & pick out your own & try it on & have a good fitting, etc.! But I have a feeling that God knows best & just like He created you, that is, He gathers you Homeward one by one, & all of us together, that we just suddenly begin to shine with those white scintillating sparkling gowns of light that He clothes us with. He says, "in an instant, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall all be changed." (1Co.15:52.) Well, you're going to have a change & have a change of clothing too, right? After all, if He can change your body, He can sure change your clothes! We'll get to that one pretty soon!
51. BUT HOW DID HE GO AWAY? He was lifted up into the clouds, right? So He says the same way He went away, He's going to come back! He's going to come back in the clouds! Isn't that what we read back there in Matthew 24 a moment ago? He's going to come in the clouds of the sky! Well, PTL, there you are!
52. WELL, WE JUST MENTIONED ABOUT THE CHANGE, LET'S TURN TO 1ST CORINTHIANS, THE 15TH CHAPTER, 51ST VERSE! Thank you, dear Cameramen, for turning the Bible pages for us. That's a real blessing! I want you to look at this big Bible so you can read it through the camera. It would be hard to read my Bible. It's got so many markings on it that you'd have to be trying to figure out a puzzle for sure! So He's coming in the clouds, that's what He said in Matthew, didn't He?
53. ALSO, ST. PAUL NOW TELLS THE CORINTHIANS, THE GREEKS WHO WERE LIVING IN CORINTH--an area of Greece, by the way, which has had a lot of Gospel & has known about Jesus for centuries! And yet just recently they had a huge earthquake in Greece that destroyed that part of Greece more than any other part! They said it hit Athens & all around Greece too, but it just nearly wiped out Corinth & the Corinthian part of the Corinthian canal & so on, because it's become one of the wickedest parts of all Greece. So, you see, any place that's had that much light & that much truth & has sinned against it & rejected it, then God is judging it.
54. OH, BY THE WAY, SOME OF OUR OWN FAMILY WERE THERE BEFORE & they stopped them from witnessing, forbade'm to witness, ran'm out, put'm in jail, persecuted'm! Hum! Do you think God's going to put up with that?--No! He let'm do it just to get'm out of there where they wouldn't have to waste their time & their breath on those hard-hearted Corinthians any longer who've had the Gospel there now in the Word for 2000 years! So He got our children out of there, our Family out of there, & then He really shook'm up & destroyed thousands & thousands of their homes & many were killed!
55. YOU'VE GOTTA WATCH OUT ABOUT LAYING A FINGER ON GOD'S CHILDREN OR OUR FAMILY OF LOVE! Look out! Because he that touches you, He says, touches the apple of Mine eye! "Touch not the Lord's anointed & do My prophets no harm, for he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of Mine eye!" (Ps.105:15; Ze.2:8.) He says, "You're sticking your finger in My eye when you touch My Prophets, touch My children, My Family--watch out!" So as soon as He got us out of there He really socked it to'm! Praise God!--The Corinthians. And we're reading in their book right now a letter that Paul wrote to them 2000 years ago, think of that!--51st verse, 15th chapter he says:
56. "BEHOLD, I SHOW YOU A MYSTERY!" Now he's been talking all about the resurrection, what it's like & what it's not like, what it's going to be. He's trying to explain it & it's pretty hard to explain because how are you going to explain that an old corrupt rotten body that's been in the grave for thousands of years is going to come to life & be perfectly whole & even better than it was before? How're you going to explain that?
57. HE SAYS IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOWING A SEED, & THEN WHAT COMES UP OUT OF THE SEED. How are you going to explain that? He says it's going to be new & different, & yet we'll recognise each other, "we'll know even as also we are known." Definitely the disciples recognised Jesus after He was resurrected, right? Not always, He was enough different that sometimes they didn't, but that was only because He was even more beautiful & more perfect & more holy, if that's possible, because He had a new spiritual body that would never die again.--And that's what we're going to have!
58. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE OR WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO BE LIKE AFTER THE RESURRECTION, YOU'RE GOING TO BE LIKE JESUS WAS & IS NOW AFTER HIS RESURRECTION. That's what you're going to be like! Were they able to see Him? Yes! Were they able to usually recognise Him? Yes! And did He walk with them & talk with them? Yes! He even ate with them, drank with them, think of that! He even cooked for them once. (Lk.24:43; Jn.21:9-14.) How about that? In your new resurrection body you can eat, sleep, drink, make love, but you can do some things you never were able to do in your natural body!
59. HE WAS NOT ONLY ABLE TO DO ALL THESE NORMAL NATURAL THINGS, but when they were in a locked room with the doors all barred, all of a sudden He came walking right through the door without unlocking it! (Jn.20:26.) You'll be able to walk through walls, doors, fly up through ceilings & appear & disappear just like Jesus did. You'll be able to travel, not just with the slow speed of sound or light, but with the speed of thought from one place to the other! Well, we're getting ahead of our story here now! We're getting into the Resurrection & what you're going to be like afterwards, when we haven't even finished the Resurrection yet!
60. "WE SHALL NOT ALL SLEEP"--51ST VERSE--"BUT WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED!" Praise God! You're going to get a change then! The main thing that's going to be changed is your body. And if He's going to change your body, He's certainly going to change your clothes! Contrary to what some believe, He's not going to resurrect you stark naked! You might be a bit embarrassed, especially some Church people! Our Family might not be embarrassed, but some of the dear Church people I'm sure would be quite bashful. We'll be clothed in a robe of light, a robe of righteousness! "We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump!"
61. AHA! THERE'S ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE SIGNS OF THE COMING OF THE LORD! What's going to happen? He says there's going to be light shining from the East to the West in the sky like lightning. You've seen when the whole sky lights up with lightning? Well, that's just a flash in the pan!--A flash in the sky! The whole sky's going to light up & stay lit when Jesus comes, while we're gathered up to meet Him in the air! And the whole World is going to watch it! "Every eye shall see Him" God's Word says in Revelation. (Re.1:7.)
62. DON'T GIVE ME THIS SECRET RAPTURE TRIPE THAT THE SCOFIELDITES ARE TRYING TO TEACH YOU! It's a bunch of baloney! It's a bunch of hooey! Hooey-blooey! Too gooey for those sickening sweet Church people! No. We are going up & every eye shall see us, & all the tribes of the Earth shall mourn because they're going to know what's happening! That's a part of our glory, our glorification! (Mt.24:30)
63. A PART OF OUR TRIUMPH IS OUR RAPTURE, OUR GREAT EXODUS FROM THIS WORLD! Like Moses & the children of Israel, a part of their triumph over Pharaoh--a type of the Antichrist--& his evil forces--a type of the Antichrist kingdom. They didn't just vanish into thin air! What satisfaction was there in that? That way they would have escaped also, but this way they got the glory over the defeat of their enemies. They got to pass right out from under their noses through the Red Sea on dry ground & then stand on the opposite side & watch all of their enemies drown! And they all watched'm as they escaped so that God could be glorified & the World would know that God is God & able to save His people.
64. AND LET ME TELL YOU, WHEN JESUS COMES, THIS WORLD IS GOING TO KNOW ABOUT IT! The sky's going to light from one end to the other & Jesus is going to appear in the clouds of Heaven in power & great glory, Jesus said so! I just read it to you! (Coughs!) My throat's not even able to stand the power of such statements! I'd like to shout it from the housetops! But I'm already getting hoarse from just shoutin' at you!
65. LIGHT! THUNDER! LIGHTNING! JESUS! CLOUDS!--AND SUDDENLY YOU'RE ALL CHANGED! All Christians dead or alive--He said some people would be in bed, some people working in the fields, some people here & there--but wherever you are, you'll suddenly instantly be changed! Right along with all the dead in the graves who are going to pop out of those graves & out of those tombs! No walls, no chests, no coffins, no caskets are going to be able to restrain them!
66. BOY, FROM WHAT I'VE SEEN OF SOME OF THESE MAUSOLEUMS & what I've seen of some of these huge concrete block bunkers that they buried some of the dead in, I think some of the people wanted to make sure they weren't resurrected!--Because they were afraid they were going to the wrong place! They're going to get a sad surprise! Well, they aren't going to be resurrected at this time, only the Saved. Only those who went to sleep in Jesus, who died in the Lord are going to be resurrected this time.
67. THE WICKED DEAD WON'T BE RAISED FOR ANOTHER THOUSAND YEARS, UNTIL AFTER THE MILLENNIUM, because they will be suffering their punishment & torment in Hell & the Lake of Fire & Purgatory & a few other places, being punished for their sins. The Rapture will only be a resurrection of the righteous, a resurrection of the Saved. It's only a resurrection of Christians, those who love Jesus.--Only Christians.
68. NO SAVED ARE GOING TO BE RESURRECTED IN THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM because that is the resurrection of the unsaved. And if you lived before Christ & were a saved Bible-believing, Messiah-believing, Moses-obeying Jew, & a Jew who kept the commandments & the laws, & were a good Jew & yet knew you couldn't save yourself that way but you had to trust God & the coming Messiah before the time of Christ, you've already been resurrected! "What do you mean, already been resurrected?"
69. WELL, THOSE JEWS WHO WERE JEWS BEFORE THE TIME OF CHRIST & THE CHRISTIAN ERA, WHO WERE SAVED, THEY WERE ALL RAISED WHEN JESUS WAS RAISED! We read that in our Bible here in "The Easter Story" not long ago. (No.972.) Read it for yourself. It's right over there in some of those passages, you just look up those passages on the Resurrection. "Well," you say, "I don't believe that." Let's just turn to it right now real quick so you'll know.--Matthew the 27th chapter.
70. THIS IS ALL IN OUR NEW "EASTER STORY," BY THE WAY, & you'll find it in our Magazine all about this, "The Easter Story." We get into a lot of these amazing mysteries about how the four-inch thick veil of the Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom by fire of God when Jesus was crucified. Here it is in the 51st verse. We were in the 51st verse of 1Corinthians, now we've jumped over to the 51st verse of Matthew 27! That's an easy way to remember it, huh?
71. "AND BEHOLD, THE VEIL OF THE TEMPLE WAS RENT IN TWAIN FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM; & the earth did quake, & the rocks rent." Even the rocks cracked open! "The rocks rent." Now don't you children get the wrong idea, that doesn't mean they started renting rocks, like you've had to rent your house! "Rent" means tore, were torn.--And the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom! That thing which was thicker than the carpets on your floor--which was probably about eight or ten times as thick, four inches thick, about twelve centimeters thick, think of it--was suddenly rent in twain when Jesus was crucified! And the old history & tradition of it was that it was rent by a flame of fire!
72. MAYBE IF YOU SAW CECIL B. DeMILLE'S FIRST "KING OF KINGS," YOU SAW IT HAPPEN! You saw that flame go from the bottom to the top, or top to bottom, I've forgotten which. But that was a flimsy old veil of a curtain he used compared to what the Temple veil really was! It was a big thick huge hanging that thick, clear across the Temple! It cut off the holy of holies from the holy place & nobody went back in the holy of holies except the High Priest.
73. AND THERE STOOD THE ARK OF THE COVENANT where had been the tables of stone of Moses, Aaron's rod that budded, manna & several other souvenirs of the days of their Exodus. And also between the wings of the golden angels over that Ark of the Covenant hovered this bright light, the Shekinah Glory of God which showed that God was there, which represented the presence of God with His people.
74. BUT FROM THE MOMENT THAT JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS & [EDITED: "THEY"] KILLED HIM & CRUCIFIED THEIR MESSIAH & rejected Him as their king, suddenly that veil was rent in two & the people who were worshipping there on that high Holy Day, the Passover, were able to look right into the Holy Place. And you know what had happened? God was gone! The Shekinah Glory had disappeared!--And the Ark of the Covenant was gone too! The place was empty! The most sacred thing in the whole Temple had vanished, the Ark! And the sacred presence of God Himself--His Holy Spirit represented by the Shekinah Glory--was gone! Vanished!
75. AND FROM THAT MOMENT ON [EDITED: "THE"] TEMPLE WORSHIP WAS AN EMPTY HOLLOW DEAD CARCASS, as empty & dead as that holy of holies was when God ripped the veil open when they slew Jesus! At the moment His flesh was being torn by the dogs around His cross--I mean, the Scribes & Pharisees & the Romans--at the moment His flesh was rent, that veil of the Temple which represented His body also was rent & the room was wide open & empty & you could see inside that God was gone!
76. THE VERY THING THAT REPRESENTED HIS PRESENCE, THE ARK OF THE COVENANT, WAS GONE! That bright shining light which had been a pillar of fire by day in the Exodus, was gone! The Temple was empty, the Ark was gone, God was gone, the tables of stone were gone & they were never seen again, not on this Earth! You can read it for yourself in the Book of Revelation. You know where the Ark is now? It's with the Lord in the Heavens! (Re.11:19.) God caught it up to be with Him! He wanted a souvenir too! He couldn't trust [EDITED: "them"] with it any longer, & the Christians didn't need it, so He took it!
77. HE TOOK IT ALONG WITH HIM WHEN HE LEFT! It was His gold-covered box & He wasn't going to let [EDITED: "them"] keep it after they crucified Him, killed Him, slew Him, tortured Him! Why should He let them keep on with this fakery & mockery of pretending to worship God, pretending to believe in His Word when they'd just finished killing their King & crucifying their Christ? No! God was not going to have any more of it!
78. HE RIPPED THE VEIL OF THE TEMPLE IN TWO & SHOWED THEM THAT HE WAS GONE! God was gone from their religion, & their most sacred & holy of all ceremonial things was gone, the Ark of the Covenant was gone! God was gone! The Temple was empty & bare as an empty coffin, an empty tomb, & just as dead! And has been ever since! And only 40 years later He sent the Romans down & destroyed the Temple itself! Well, I didn't mean to get off on that, but here it is, 51st verse of Matthew 27:
79. "AND THE EARTH DID QUAKE, & THE ROCKS RENT, & THE GRAVES WERE OPENED; & MANY BODIES OF THE SAINTS WHICH SLEPT AROSE, & CAME OUT OF THE GRAVES!" Well, if you just read that part you'd think, "Well, that all happened when Jesus was crucified, when He died." Uh oh! Some of it did, but watch this: "And came out of the graves after His resurrection."--After His resurrection! "And went into the Holy City, & appeared unto many." How about that? Well, there it is, right there in your Bible. Read it for yourself.
80. MANY OF THESE THINGS HAPPENED RIGHT AT THE TIME OF HIS CRUCIFIXION, OBVIOUSLY, BUT THESE SAINTS WERE RESURRECTED AFTER HIS RESURRECTION! In fact, probably very close to His resurrection. Jesus, God's Word says, was the firstfruits of the Resurrection (1Co.15:20,23), & then after that the Old Testament Saints were raised from the grave. All of them got to have their resurrection a long time ago, after Jesus rose, & He's been enjoying their fellowship ever since in the Heavens just like He promised!
81. AND HE SAID ALL THOSE OTHERS [DELETED] WHO PRETEND TO BE JEWS BUT ARE NOT but are of their father the Devil & the synagogue of Satan, He said they'd be cast out! [EDITED: "Rev.2:9; 3:9; Mat.8:11,12"] And they were, right then & there! They were completely cast out of any even pretence of being in His kingdom as far as God was concerned! The Temple was a hollow empty shell that was soon to be totally destroyed! So the Old Testament Saints have already gone to be with the Lord. They already had their resurrection back there when Jesus was resurrected.
82. WELL, WE READ THAT JESUS WAS TO COME BACK IN THE CLOUDS, THAT'S ONE SIGN, RIGHT?--And the lightning!--And the fact that we'll all be changed! We'll certainly know it then, won't we? If suddenly you're walking around through town witnessing & litnessing & all of a sudden you feel a sudden wonderful change go over your body & all the aches & pains & weariness disappear & you feel light as a feather like you could fly & maybe you start floating--you'll know it, won't you!
83. AND YOU LOOK DOWN AT YOUR CLOTHES & instead of that old dirty pair of pants or that old house dress or whatever you had on--I hope you don't go out litnessing that way, but whatever--compared to the robe of light that you suddenly discover you have on, anything else would look dirty & old! Because you're going to have a new robe, a beautiful robe of light & righteousness!--White robe, white raiment from the Lord!
84. ALL OF A SUDDEN, JUST THINK OF IT, NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE--in bed with your wife or out on the field working or on the streets litnessing--you're suddenly going to look down & notice that you're all in a beautiful new robe, a brand new dress, robes of righteousness! In fact, you may be so busy looking up at the sky at what's happening up there & all the lightning & thundering going on & Jesus appearing in the clouds that you may not even have time to look down & see what you're wearing! But you'll sure feel different because you'll "all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump!" Praise God! (1Cor.15:52)
85. TRUMP!--OH, THERE'S ANOTHER SIGN! There's going to be a trumpet sound, there's gonna be another big noise! There's going to be the sound of a trumpet! A trumpet is going to be blown. You're going to hear something that's going to sound like the biggest P.A. system you ever heard! The voice is going to come out on that louder than you ever heard it at your trailer park or the ball park or the circus or the political rally or wherever, because this is going to be the biggest rally that was ever held!--Non-political, even non-religious, just the folks that love Jesus & that Jesus loves! All of us sinners saved by grace are going to be rallied, taken up to meet Jesus in the air! How about that? Isn't that wonderful? PTL! Hallelujah!
86. WELL, WE'VE JUST GOT TO FIND A STOPPING PLACE HERE! It's getting to the most exciting part, isn't it? Huh? We've gotta finish up with all these signs of His coming so you'll know that that's when Jesus comes, just like He said, at the end of the Tribulation.--After the Tribulation! OK, there's another place where it says one of the signs of His coming is that we're going to hear that trumpet. You're going to be raised from the dead, if you are dead, or raised from the Earth if you're on the Earth. And He's coming in the clouds! And if we want to know some more about the coming of the Lord we've got to turn over now to 1st Thessalonians, 4th chapter, 13th verse. Got your Bible? Are you looking it up? You oughtta find it & mark it like I have!
87. "BUT I WOULD NOT HAVE YOU TO BE IGNORANT, BRETHREN, CONCERNING THEM WHICH ARE ASLEEP, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." He says, "I don't want you guys to be so dumb you don't know what's going to happen when Jesus comes! I don't want you to be so dumb about death that you don't realise there's going to be a resurrection! You're not going to stay in that coffin, that fancy box!" What do they call'm? There's another word for that box they put you in before they stick you in the ground--casket! It's a casket, all right, they lock you in & I think some people want to be locked in & hope they'll never have to get out to face the Lord or the Devil!
88. BUT PAUL'S TRYING TO TELL YOU "DON'T WORRY ABOUT DEATH & don't sorrow for those who are gone, like the people who have no hope to ever see'm again." But he said, "For if we believe that Jesus died & rose again"--14th verse--"even so them also which sleep in Jesus"--those who've died in the Lord--"will God bring with Him." With whom? Who's coming?--Jesus!
89. GOD'S GOING TO BRING ALL YOUR DEPARTED LOVED ONES & RELATIVES & that dear mate & father & mother & grandparents & all the dear folks that love Jesus, all your dear friends & family & children that have gone on to be with the Lord, God's going to bring with Jesus when He comes! So don't worry about it. You'll see'm again! You'll come up to meet'm flying in the air! It says so right here! You don't believe it?--Read it! Read that 15th verse now. They're going to be with the Lord, see? So now at the end of the 14th verse he says all those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him when Jesus comes.--What a Family Reunion!--The biggest ever!
90. "FOR THIS WE SAY UNTO YOU BY THE WORD OF THE LORD, THAT WE WHICH ARE ALIVE & REMAIN unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent"--or go before--"them which are asleep." The Lord's not going to let us beat them to the punch or jump the gun in this race to get up into Heaven to be with Jesus! He's not going to let them say, "Well, now wait a minute, Lord, we had a lot more problems getting out of that grave & from under that heavy tombstone & getting in our new resurrected body & clothes & stuff, we had a little further to go than those folks who were already out on the surface! It's not fair, they got there first!"
91. SO THE LORD SAYS HE'S GOING TO LET THEM BE RESURRECTED & RISE FIRST! It says so right here! The folks who have died in the Lord & have gone on to be with the Lord, they're going to go first. "For the Lord Himself"--16th verse--"shall descend from Heaven with a shout!" Aha, here's another big noise! No secret Rapture here! "And with the voice of the archangel." Jesus is going to shout, the archangel is going to shout, "and with the trump of God!" Hallelujah! The trumpet's going to sound!--Three big loud noises to wake you up!
92. AS THE OLD COLOURED PREACHER SAID: "GABBY'S GONNA BLOW HIS BUGGLE, & WE'RE ALL GONNA RISE FROM THEM SALPUCKERS!" Well, you who don't know the Bible, I'd better interpret it to you right: "Gabriel is going to blow his bugle, & we're all going to rise from the sepulchres!" But the dear old coloured preacher, he wasn't very well-educated & he says, "Gabby's gonna blow his bugle, & we're gonna rise from them salpuckers!" Well, Gabriel's going to blow his bugle, all right, only it's bigger'n a bugle, it's a trumpet, & we're going to rise from the sepulchres, that's for sure! Hallelujah!
93. "THE LORD HIMSELF SHALL DESCEND FROM HEAVEN WITH A SHOUT! And with the voice of the archangel & with the trump of God!" Three great big noises, how about that? It doesn't sound like a very secret Rapture, does it? "And the dead in Christ shall rise first." What do you think the World's going to think when it sees all these dead people rising out of the graveyards & out of the ground? That's no secret!
94. THEN WE WHICH ARE ALIVE & REMAIN SHALL BE CAUGHT UP TOGETHER WITH THEM IN THE CLOUDS, TO MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR." They're going to go first, because they had to go through the experience of death & be buried & all that. The Lord's going to give them a little extra edge on us because they sort of had to suffer a little bit more by all that, whereas we who are still alive & remain won't have to go through all that trial of dying & being buried, etc. The Lord's going to raise them first & then He's going to catch us up together with them--in what? In the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, & so shall we ever be with the Lord! How about that?
95. THERE'S A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE OF THE COMING OF THE LORD! Anything but a secret, anything but quiet. No secret Rapture, no sudden disappearance of the Saints. In fact, there's going to be a sudden shocking appearance of a whole lot of dead Saints that they didn't even know were around!--A lot of Saints suddenly appear!
96. AND THEN WE'RE ALL GOING TO RISE RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES! They're going to watch us go up into the sky to meet the Lord in the air in a glorious, well-lighted Rapture! Nothing secret about it! A great triumph over our enemies, a great triumph over the demon forces of the Devil & his Antichrist & False Prophet!--Right out of the Tribulation! Right there at the end when they're trying to kill us & torture us & wipe us out, the Lord's going to Rapture us! HAL!
97. RAPTURED?--YES! ECSTASY?--YES! THAT'S WHY IT'S CALLED THE RAPTURE! It's the Marriage of the Lamb with His Bride! It's compared, in other words, to a marriage, a wedding, the joining of the Bridegroom to His Bride. Like a sex orgasm! What do you feel when you have a sexual orgasm? You feel rapture! You feel ecstasy! Boy, this is going to be the biggest orgasm you ever had!--The greatest rapture, the greatest ecstasy you ever felt when Jesus, your Bridegroom, lifts you, His Bride, to be with Him in the air! And you're going to be joined to Jesus right out in public before the whole World, right in the sky! "Oh! Tsk tsk tsk tsk! Lord, isn't that a bit embarrassing? Isn't that a bit risqué to have this sudden joining with our Bridegroom right in the air before the whole World?" Well, that's the way it's going to happen!
98. NOW WHAT ARE SOME OF THESE SIGNS? Clouds, the light in the air, noises, trumpets, gathering together of His elect. Let's turn back to Matthew 24 & see if Jesus was talking about the very same thing. Right back there to Matthew 24 in that 29th verse: "Immediately after the Tribulation of those days." Right after the Tribulation.--When? How come it didn't say immediately before the Tribulation?--That's what Scofield & all the Scofieldites teach, immediately before the Tribulation. How come He didn't say that, huh? Well, He didn't, because right here's what He says! He didn't say before, He said after.
99. "IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS shall the sun be darkened & the moon shall not give her light, & the stars shall fall from Heaven, & the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." I mean, there's going to be a big shakeup then! Everybody's going to know something's happening! Terrific! "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven, & then shall all of the tribes of the Earth mourn!
100. "AND THEY SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN!"--There's the clouds again!--"With power & great glory!" There's that brilliant light shining from one end of the Heavens to the other! "And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet"--there's that trumpet again! It's gotta be the Rapture! It's gotta be the coming of the Lord & the gathering together of His elect! Yes! "And they shall gather together His elect." There it is right there in the middle of that 31st verse! There it is!
101. DON'T TELL ME THIS IS NOT THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD! Don't tell me this is not the Rapture of His Saints! It's just as clear as can be! And Jesus Himself said it happens immediately after the Tribulation! There it is plain as day! It couldn't be any clearer. Amen? Praise God? Hallelujah? Do you believe it? It's Bible, Beloved, the true Bible, the Holy Bible! It says so right there. So it's gotta be right if it's Holy! Amen? So we've read you a lot of Scriptures this time about the Second Coming of the Lord. We've proved a lot of things about it so far, haven't we? We've proved that it's going to happen at the end of the Tribulation, "after the Tribulation of those days."
102. OH, WE HAVEN'T READ YOU THIS ONE YET: "EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM!" Aha! Here's another one--no secret Rapture! Let's turn to Revelation, first chapter! That's going to be a revelation to some Church people, I'll tell you! A real revelation for sure! Because they're going to be surprised to find out that they're not going to go sneaking off, slinking off like they wish they could have, but turn to the first chapter of the Book of Revelation. I always used to call this "Revelations," but it's The Revelation. There's a lot of revelations in here, that's for sure! We haven't time to deal with the whole Book of Revelation right now but we just want to zero in on this 7th verse:
103. "BEHOLD HE COMETH WITH CLOUDS, & EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM!" Doesn't that sound like the coming of the Lord we've just been reading about? I'm reading you all the verses there are about the coming of the Lord. Did I knock your earphones off that time? I'm yelling so loud I'm about to knock the tape out of the machine! I get excited when I think about the coming of the Lord!
104. THAT'S GOING TO BE OUR GREAT GLORIOUS DAY OF VICTORY when we can rise right out of the hands of our torturers & our slaughterers & our persecutors & our enemies. [DELETED] We're going to rise right in front of them & they can't even touch us any more! They try to swat us & their hand will go right through us, just like that! We'll be out of their dimension then!
105. WE'LL BE LIKE GHOSTS TO THEM THEN!--Very real to each other, but in another dimension. We can love & kiss each other in this next dimension! It's very real, very substantive in the next dimension! But the one we're leaving, this dimension of this World, time & the things of this Earth will disappear for us.
106. HOW'S IT GOING TO HAPPEN? You're going to be out working or you're going to be out litnessing or witnessing or in the field, as Jesus said, or you're going to be in bed asleep & suddenly all the noise outside is going to wake you up! If it didn't, you might miss the Rapture! Ha! Don't worry, there's not a chance you'll miss it!
107. YOU KNOW, WHEN I WAS A BOY I WAS TAUGHT BY ALL THOSE PREACHERS IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A SECRET RAPTURE: "Some day you'd come home & find all your loved ones had disappeared & gone!" And boy oh boy, several days I came home from school like that & nobody was home & I thought, "Oh my God! The Rapture has occurred! My dear sweet mother & father have gone to be with the Lord, & all those dear Christians that took care of me, & my governess & the cook & everybody, they were all ready, they loved the Lord & they weren't naughty & bad like me! They weren't such terrible sinners like me & they've already gone to be with the Lord & here I am left behind all alone in this big house all by myself!" And I'd practically cry! Because I was taught that false doctrine. What a horrible thing!
108. WHAT A TERRIBLE THING TO TEACH LITTLE CHILDREN, that even if they loved Jesus & are saved, that if they're not good enough, if they didn't go to church enough, & if they do anything naughty like dancing [DELETED] or going to a movie or wearing rings on their fingers or their skirt a little too short or cut their hair or things like that, that they're not going to be ready for Jesus when He comes! They're not going to be ready for the Rapture!--The preachers said! "They may be saved, but they'll be left behind in that terrible Tribulation because Jesus is going to take up in the Rapture just the good people, just the good Christians, just the saved & sanctified!"--I'd say sanctimonious, self-righteous!
109. THIS IS WHAT THEY TAUGHT! And that the rest of us poor sinning saints would be left behind! Only the perfect ones would go, only they'd be ready. That's a lot of hooey! That's a lot of baloney! That's a lot of malarkey! It ain't so, it's not in the Bible! That's just what they liked to teach us to try to scare us little boys & girls into being good.
110. BUT I THINK IT'S A TERRIBLE WAY TO FRIGHTEN CHILDREN to tell you that Jesus loves you & has saved you & has come into your heart & that when He comes you're going to be with Him, & then tell you on top of it, "Well, yes, providing you're good enough!" Nobody's ever good enough! Nobody can ever love Him enough. Nobody can ever be perfect enough, clean enough, pure enough, holy enough, except by the blood of Jesus Christ, & that's already done! You're already saved when you received Jesus as your Saviour. You're already a Saint in His eyes, perfect by His blood, purified by His sacrifice on Calvary.
111. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT WHETHER YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH OR NOT! Don't worry, you're saved, because Jesus is the One that saves you, not yourself!--Not your own goodness, not your own righteousness. That's like filthy menstruous rags to the Lord. (Isa.64:6) Your own righteousness doesn't mean a thing, it's worse, it gets in the way. A lot of these self-righteous, hypocritical, Pharisaical Christians are going to discover that they're going to be a bit ashamed when it happens, because some of them are going to be raised to everlasting shame & contempt for teaching such horrible doctrines to little children, that Jesus would come & take some of the big Saints & leave them alone behind in the home because they'd been naughty! What a horrible thing to teach children! But I actually used to come home when nobody was there & be afraid that the Rapture had already happened! Think of that!
112. DON'T WORRY, CHILDREN! JESUS ISN'T GOING TO LEAVE YOU BEHIND!--No matter how bad or naughty you've been!--It doesn't make Him feel good when you're bad & He's sorry, & you're going to be sorry too if you've been naughty & you haven't been as pleasing & as obedient to Him as you ought to & if you haven't loved Him as you should, you're going to be sorry, but you're not going to be left! Jesus is not going to leave you behind all alone without Mama & Daddy & without the family just because you were a bad girl yesterday, or just because you were a bad boy today.
113. I'M SURE YOU'RE SORRY, & I'm sure even every time you're bad you must be sorry, because you know you hurt Jesus who loves you & died for you. And I know you love Him. And if you know Jesus loves you & you've taken Him into your heart & you feel such love for Him, even if you've been bad, He forgives you. And Jesus is going to take you up to be with Him in the air when He comes, no matter what!
114. NOBODY'S GOING TO BE LEFT BEHIND THAT LOVES JESUS! Nobody's going to be left behind that has received Jesus as his Saviour! No one is going to be left behind who is saved! Not a single genuine, Bible-believing, Christ-trusting, Jesus-loving Christian is going to be left behind, not one! For "we shall all be changed," Paul says, "in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, at the last trump." And we will all be raised! Jesus said He'll send His angels out to gather us from everywhere, from the four winds, from all around the whole Earth, everywhere, & He won't leave one behind! He won't forget one, not one! Isn't that wonderful? PTL?
115. JESUS IS NOT GOING TO FORGET YOU! He's not going to leave you behind when He comes. No matter where you are or what you're doing. If you're asleep in bed He's going to wake you up & take you. And if your wife or your husband are unsaved & don't love Jesus & rejected Him & refused to receive Him, He's going to leave them behind right there in that same bed! "Two shall be working out in the field," the next verses tell us all about this, & some will be taken & some will be left behind. (Mat.24:40,41)
116. BUT NOBODY WHO LOVES JESUS IS GOING TO BE LEFT BEHIND! No one who trusts Christ for his salvation is going to be left behind. When Jesus comes at the end of that Great Tribulation He's going to take all of us who love the Lord, all of us who are saved to be with Him forever! Hallelujah! TYJ! Aren't you glad? Amen. It says so in all these Scriptures we've been reading to you. What are these signs of His coming? This is what the disciples were asking Jesus, so He told them. He said what? Want me to sum it up for you again? Now we'll put all these verses & all these signs together we've been reading out of all these various verses, shall we?
117. SUDDENLY THE SUN'S GOING TO BE DARKENED, ON THE SIDES OF THE EARTH WHERE THE SUN'S SHINING, & THE STARS SHALL FALL FROM HEAVEN! How're you gonna know that, you can't see stars in the daytime? Well, on the night side of the Earth the stars are going to fall from Heaven. On the day side of the Earth the sun will be darkened. On the night side of the Earth the moon shall not give her light. See, no matter whether it's day or night, no matter which side of the Earth you're on when Jesus comes, there's going to be signs in the sky, signs in the Heaven! If you're on the daylight side at that particular moment, the sun's going to be darkened. If you're on the night side, stars are going to start falling from the heavens & the moon will be darkened!
118. "AND THE POWERS OF THE HEAVENS SHALL BE SHAKEN!" There'll be a great earthquake! You'll hear rumblings & thunderings & mighty sounds! Let me tell you, you'll know something's happening! You'll see the whole sky light up with permanent lightning--not just a flash & then gone, but stay lit! If you stay lit for Jesus, you'll be happy! PTL? If your oil hasn't run out & you haven't lost your fire & your flame & you're witnessing for the Lord, you're going to be all lit up too! PTL? With that wonderful robe, that new white-light scintillating robe of righteousness that He's going to Rapture you in!
119. IT'S YOUR WEDDING DRESS! YOUR WEDDING GOWN! Hallelujah? Praise God? That's why women get all dressed up in those beautiful clothes when they get married at a wedding, it's a type of the kind of clothes you're going to wear to meet Jesus! How about that? Think about that! That's beautiful, huh? All those beautiful wedding gowns! Well, now if they were just sort of see-through & you could see quite a bit through them, & sort of filmy & thin & gossamer-like & flowing like the wind & sort of sparkling like light, then you'd have an idea about what this wedding dress is going to be like! Isn't that beautiful? That's one of the signs you're going to know it, because you're going to see your wedding dress!
120. I'M PATTING MY MICROPHONE TOO HARD, I'M GETTING TOO EXCITED! I hope I didn't box your ears out with that noise! Ha! If I want to cause an earthquake "and the powers of the Heaven shall be shaken" & thump thump thump thump thump thump, you're going to get some noise, huh? Ha! Did that sock it to'm? Did you get that? OK, it's going to be sorta like that when Jesus comes! My mike really makes a lot of racket, doesn't it? Hallelujah! Praise God!
121. "BEHOLD, THE LORD COMETH WITH TEN THOUSAND OF HIS SAINTS!" Well, that's just across the page in Jude!--Ha!--In the 14th verse of Jude. But we've already gotten clear to the Revelation & I don't know where you are now, where are you? "Every eye shall see Him," the 7th verse of Revelation, 1st chapter, & it's not going to be any secret. The sky will light up, there will be great noises, thunder, lightning, you're going to hear Jesus shout & call you to come! You're going to hear the voice of an archangel shouting, "Come!" You're going to hear a trumpet blown!
122. WHEW! WHAT A NOISY TIME! YOU COULDN'T POSSIBLY MISS IT! You're not going to be able to miss the Rapture, don't worry! There's going to be so much noise going on, all these big sounds!--Jesus shouting, the Archangel Michael shouting, the Archangel Gabriel blowing his trumpet & the thunderings of the Heavens & the shaking of the Earth & the stars falling from Heaven & the moon darkened & the sun darkened & great earthquakes! How could you miss that? Huh? That's no secret! No secret! And you'll see Jesus coming in the clouds!
123. "AND EVERY EYE SHALL SEE HIM," IT SAYS RIGHT THERE! Right there 7th verse in the 1st Chapter of Revelation, plain as day! "And they also which pierced Him." Hey, hey! Don't give me that rot that it's not so! I get tempted to say a naughty word! I don't like that word shit, but it's shit nevertheless [DELETED] what those Church people tell you, that the World's not going to see Jesus when He comes & they're not going to see us rise to meet Him in the air. That's a lot of baloney! Right here in Revelation you tell'm & show it to'm in the 7th verse of the 1st Chapter:
124. "AND ALSO THEY WHICH PIERCED HIM!" Think of it! The very Jews & those who crucified Him & who would crucify Him again if He came back today! They would kill Him again, reject Him again. [DELETED] (He.6:6.) [DELETED] They would crucify Him again if they could get their hands on Him. Because they're not of God, they're not of the Lord, they're not of Jesus! They're of their father the Devil of the Synagogue of Satan! They're going to see us rise & meet Him in their air, though!
125. "AND ALL KINDREDS OF THE EARTH SHALL WAIL BECAUSE OF HIM!"--When they see us rising to meet Jesus in the air out of this horrible Tribulation & this terrible Antichrist kingdom, right in front of the Antichrist & the False Prophet & all the Beast-marked followers, when they see us rise to meet Jesus in this tremendous Rapture, this glorious, thunderous, lightning-like, Earthshaking, Heaven-quaking event that raises the dead from the graves & the live from the ground! Huh! You think they're not going to be scared? You think they're not going to be frightened?
126. THEY'RE GOING TO BE SCARED HALF OUT OF THEIR WITS, ALMOST TO DEATH, BECAUSE THEN THEY KNOW THAT THEY HAVE BEEN WRONG! Then they know that we have been right & that Jesus has come to rescue us & to save us out of all their persecution & torment & all the terrible, horrible tribulation that they have caused us. And then do you know what God's Word itself says? He says then God is going to recompense them. He's going to repay them. They which trouble you, He says, I'm going to tribulate them! They that tribulated you & gave you tribulation, I'm going to trouble them! That's from another one of the Epistles here, in the 1st Chapter of 2nd Thessalonians. (2Th.1:6.) That when He comes with all His Saints He's going to really give our enemies a rough time!
127. JESUS COMES BACK WITH ALL THE SAINTS THAT HAVE GONE TO BE WITH THE LORD ALREADY THROUGH DEATH! And why do they come back with Him?--To pick up their dead bodies! To pick up their, really, new body, resurrected body. It has to have something to do with that old buried body, isn't that funny? God wants to prove that He can raise the dead, so He's going to raise you from the dead, really, but in a new body. A new resurrected body like the one He rose in that's going to be beautiful, arrayed in white garments like a bride! Beautiful, scintillating! A more beautiful wedding gown than any bride ever had!
128. YOU'RE GOING TO FEEL LIGHT AS A FEATHER! I've had that feeling when I've died, you feel like you could just float right up to the ceiling, & that's exactly what you're going to do! But not just up to the ceiling, you're going to go right through it if you're inside! If you're outside, you're going to float right up into the sky, into the clouds to be with Jesus!
129. ALL THAT LIGHTNING, ALL THAT THUNDER, ALL THAT EARTHQUAKE, lots of stars falling from Heaven & the moon darkened & the sun not giving its light & all these things happening, do you think it's going to be a secret? Do you think it's going to be quiet with the Lord Himself shouting & the Archangel shouting & Gabriel blowing his trumpet & them calling us from all parts of the Earth to come meet Jesus? Do you think that's going to be quiet? Do you think it's going to be a secret? Everybody's going to know it! "Every eye shall see Him & all the tribes of the Earth shall mourn." There it is, we read it right to you, we showed it to you in the Bible, right?--Exactly as Jesus said. That's what the Rapture's going to be like!
130. I GUESS TONIGHT'S SUBJECT WAS THE RAPTURE, PRAISE GOD? We've been talking about the Tribulation enough, I'm almost sick of talking about tribulation! I'm almost sick of hearing myself talk, & some of you are probably sick of hearing me talk, too! But somebody's got to tell you! And it takes a little time to tell you! I've gotta describe it to you & explain it to you, because I've found a lot of our own Family are pretty dumb about it! They don't know what the score is & what the Tribulation's going to be like, when it begins, when it ends, nothing!
131. WELL, WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THE TRIBULATION FOR A LONG TIME & all about when it begins, when it ends, what it's going to be like, how it's going to start, & now we're telling you how it's going to end! Praise God! That's the good news! First we gave you the bad news, now we're giving you the good news. Praise God? Well, for the wicked it's not going to be good news, it's going to be bad news! We first gave you the bad news for you Christians though, & then we gave you the good news, & this is the good news! PTL! Hallelujah? TYJ!
132. JESUS IS GOING TO COME THEN IN THE CLOUDS WITH LIGHTNING & THUNDER & EARTHQUAKE & STARS FALLING & MOON DARKENED & SUN BLACKED OUT!--Why?--So that the World will know they didn't just happen to suddenly stare at the sun & get blinded & think it was the sun, or they didn't get suddenly moonstruck or something & somebody tried to explain it away afterwards: "Oh, it was just lightning! Oh, it was just a sort of a sudden flare of the sun or a sudden little flare-up of the moon or something." God's going to blot all the other lights out so He can shine! Jesus can shine!
133. SO THE WHOLE WORLD'S GOING TO KNOW SOMETHING VERY UNUSUAL & VERY APOCALYPTIC IS HAPPENING! And it's going to be the Apocalypse for sure!--The revelation of Jesus Christ Himself coming in the heavens, in the clouds, in great power & glory, with the voice of the archangel & the trump of God, & Christ Himself will shout & call us from every part of the Earth & we'll be gathered together to be with Him! "And so," He tells us, "shall we ever be with the Lord!" PTL? (1Th.4:17)
134. AREN'T YOU GLAD YOU'RE SAVED? Aren't you glad you're going to be there? Wow! Won't that be some feeling when all of a sudden you see & hear all of these things going on around you & all of a sudden your clothes are changed to that beautiful wedding gown, & suddenly you feel your body is changed! You feel like a young bride longing for her lover & you jump into the air & you don't come down again! You jump for joy for Jesus & you go sailing right off into the air clear on up into the clouds to be with the Lord! Praise God? Hallelujah? TYJ?
135. YOU ARE GLAD THE TRIBULATION'S OVER THEN & JESUS HAS COME & we go to be with the Lord at the great Wedding Supper, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in Heaven in that wonderful Holy City we've been telling you about! We're going to take a space trip first crack! I love space movies because I'm always thinking about how we're going to be travelling around space one of these days. I like those sci-fis where you travel through space, but I don't like those stinky, thundering, horrible, thunderous space ships! Those are man-made monsters!
136. WE'RE GOING TO TRAVEL NICE & QUIET & BEAUTIFULLY WITH THE SPEED OF THOUGHT right on out through space to meet Jesus in the air, & then we're going to go on up with Him to Space City, to that wonderful Heavenly City that's riding down through space right now on its way here! Hallelujah!--Where He's gone to prepare a place for us & in our Father's house are many mansions. (Jn.14:2.) Well, now we're getting into the story about what's going to happen afterwards & we'd better quit here while we're ahead & while we're with Jesus.
137. WE'LL TELL YOU MORE NEXT TIME ABOUT WHAT'S GOING TO BE HAPPENING UP THERE IN THE SKY & TO US WITH JESUS & in our trip to heavenly realms & that wedding feast, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the biggest shindig that you ever will have heard of! It's going to be better than the Tribulation was bad! Now that's about the best thing I can think of to say about it! We've been studying so much about how bad, gory & horrible the Tribulation is, well, that Marriage Feast, that wedding reception, that wedding party is going to be some shindig, & when I say shindig, I mean there's going to be dancing!
138. THEY USED TO CALL A DANCE A SHINDIG BECAUSE YOU KICKED EACH OTHER IN THE SHINS SO MUCH! They really got kind of wild in the old-fashioned pioneer days when they danced in those old square-dances, & so on, round dances, & kicking out, & every now & then somebody got kicked in the shins, & they called it a shindig! Well, we're going to have a shindig then! Only nobody's going to aim wrong & kick anybody in the shins. We're just going to dance & be wild & free & have a wonderful time & love each other up!
139. WE'RE EVEN GOING TO HAVE SEX IN HEAVEN! HOW ABOUT THAT? Isn't that wonderful? Love all the girls you want to & all the handsome boys you want to & love all you want to & never get tired, never be impotent, never have a headache, never get hungry, never get sleepy, no pains, no VD, no nothin' except joy & praise & hallelujah & lots of fun with your Bridegroom & all your friends & loved ones & family of God, His Family of Love, His Children of God in Heaven when Jesus comes! Hallelujah?
140. IT'S GOING TO BE SO WONDERFUL YOU'RE GOING TO FORGET ABOUT ALL YOUR TROUBLES IN THE PAST! It's going to be so wonderful you're going to forget about all those things that happened before, those terrible things you've been through! Hallelujah? TYJ! (Sings:)
"It will be worth it all when we see Jesus!
Life's trials will seem so small, when we see Christ!
One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase!
So bravely run the race, 'til we see Christ!"
Hallelujah? TYJ!
141. AND YOU KNOW, DEAR OLD SOL HOOPI* WROTE A BEAUTIFUL SONG IF I COULD REMEMBER IT, the dear Hawaiian Saint of God who invented the Hawaiian steel guitar. He was playing, leading a beautiful Hawaiian orchestra at the Garden of Allah in Hollywood, California in the days of the big bands. He had a whole Hawaiian band, they were all guitar players with Hawaiian steel guitars & so on, & he was the star! He had invented that guitar, he had a right to be a star of the steel guitar! [EDITED: "*Note (07/95): Originally published as "Sol Opi"--but "Hoopi" is correct spelling."]
142. BUT SOMETHING FUNNY HAPPENED, SOMETHING VERY PECULIAR HAPPENED! His wife didn't always go to the club, she was sometimes too tired, & besides, it didn't satisfy, she was hungry for something more! She heard about a woman preacher in town that preached at a temple there in Los Angeles called Angeles Temple, Amy Semple MacPherson. Some of you have seen the movie we have about her. She was a woman of God! Let me tell you, don't believe those lies of the [EDITED: "ACs"] who try to lie & say her whole kidnap was a fake & a hoax! It was not! If she said it happened, it happened! The [EDITED: "ACs"] probably did it to try to discredit her. They hated her because she was winning so many to the Lord. [DELETED]
143. SO MRS. HOOPI, SOL HOOPI'S WIFE, DECIDED SHE'D JUST GO & HEAR THIS WOMAN PREACH! And she was so thrilled with the message of Love & Amy Semple MacPherson's sample of Love & voice of Love that she walked right down & received Jesus, walked down to the altar & accepted Christ, knelt down & prayed for Jesus to come into her heart. At the time she was a drunk, an alcoholic, a chain-smoker, half-sick, but the Lord completely healed her & cleaned her up & she went home a changed, different woman!--So changed that although she was afraid to tell her husband about it, when he came home from the club that night he noticed suddenly there was something different about her!
144. HE SAID, "WHAT'S COME OVER YOU? WHAT'S HAPPENED TO YOU, ANYWAY? YOU'RE DIFFERENT, YOU'RE CHANGED, YOU'RE NOT LIKE YOU WERE! You're not drunk as usual, for one thing! You're not sitting there chain-smoking again! And you look happy instead of always moping around so sad like you were. What happened to you?" And so she finally told him. He said, "Is that right? Well, if it can make a change in you like that, I'd like to go hear that woman preach too!" And he went, & he got saved the first night he heard the Gospel!
145. HE'D NEVER HEARD ABOUT THE LOVE OF JESUS LIKE THAT BEFORE! He never saw anyone love like Amy could love people! She just loved them into the Kingdom! She just loved them down the aisle & loved them down to their knees & on the altar, & loved them into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ! She was a marvellous woman of God who really loved Jesus, loved souls & won literally tens of thousands of souls to the Lord! And that night she won Sol Hoopi to Jesus & he accepted Christ in his heart & became a changed man!
146. HE WAS SICK OF SERVING THE DEVIL! He was sick of playing his heavenly music for that bunch of drunken & wicked sots at the Garden of Allah in Hollywood, California. So he told the folks at Angeles Temple: "I want to give up all that shit & I want to serve Jesus! I want to get out of all that stuff! As soon as my contract ends at the Garden of Allah, I want to quit that horrible business, playing in nightclubs to those wicked people, casting my pearls before swine & to the dogs, & I want to just work for Jesus! I want to just play for Jesus!"
147. SO HE BEGAN TO PLAY FOR JESUS AT ANGELES TEMPLE! Then he went from church to church playing for the Lord. And I'll never forget the first night I ever heard him. I'll tell you, he looked like an angel, he sang like an angel, he played like an angel & I thought for sure he was going to float right up & go through the ceiling like an angel! When he'd look up, I'm sure he could just see Jesus!
148. AND HE'D PLAY THAT SONG ABOUT "WHEN JESUS COMES!" I can't sing it like he did & I'm no instrumentalist like he was, but would you like to hear the song anyway? I'll try to sing it for you. I can't sing it in that heavenly angelic high Hawaiian voice that he had & with that beautiful slide steel guitar like Jeremy plays--they just make it talk, they make it sing!
149. I THINK JEREMY'S THE FIRST ONE I'VE EVER HEARD THAT COULD PLAY ANYTHING LIKE SOL HOOPI, OR COME CLOSE TO IT. I'm gonna pray, Jeremy, that Sol Hoopi will be your helper, help you to play that guitar that he invented! And he'd sing with it the song that he himself composed, or that the Lord gave him. He was inspired, it was an inspired song, & that song I've never forgotten, it's always gone with me. I hope I can remember it now. (Sings:)
150. "WHEN JESUS COMES, THE EARTH WILL SHAKE & HEARTS WILL QUAKE, BE READY!
When Jesus comes, His face we'll see eternally, be ready!
Has your soul been filled with His power of the Holy Ghost?
Are you saved & ready to meet the Lord of Hosts?
When Jesus comes, His face we'll see eternally, be ready!"
Hallelujah! TYJ! PYJ! Hallelujah! (Weeps.) I hope you are ready already. I hope you have Jesus in your heart now.
151. IF YOU HAVE THE LORD NOW, YOU ARE READY! You won't have to worry about if you're good enough, or if you've been too bad, or if you're perfect, or if you always do the right thing or not.--Try! You should try to be good, you should try not to be bad & you should try to do the right thing, try to obey the Lord & try to be perfect in His sight because you have Jesus in your heart, but whatever you do, have Jesus & then you're ready! Amen?
152. IN JESUS' NAME, HELP THEM, LORD, TO BE READY WHEN YOU COME! Help them to get ready right now, this very moment, by receiving You in their heart, in Jesus' name we ask. You know, you could take Jesus right now! All you have to do is pray a little prayer with me right this minute. If you can't pray it out loud, pray it in your heart. Would you like to receive Jesus in your heart right now? Lift your hand, will you, wherever you are! It doesn't matter if you're in a crowd or home alone or watching your television or you're in a group watching one of our TVs, just raise your hand & ask Jesus to come into your heart!
153. SAY, "DEAR JESUS, PLEASE COME INTO MY HEART, FORGIVE ME FOR MY SINS! I believe You're the Son of God, that You died for me. Please save me now, in Jesus' name, & help me to tell others about You. Help me to be a faithful witness. Help me, Lord, to be found ready & witnessing & loving You & loving others & still trying to get them ready, Lord, when You come. In Jesus' name we ask for Thy Glory. Amen!" PYL! TYJ! If you meant that, He has come in your heart already! PTL? TYJ? Can you say, "Thank You Jesus? Praise the Lord? Hallelujah?" TYJ! PTL!
154. THANK YOU FOR THIS TIME OF STUDY TOGETHER, LORD! Bless it, Lord, & make it a blessing, & may they pass it on to many so that many will be blessed with Thy Love & the wonderful wonderful event which is going to take place soon when You come to take us out of this awful World & into the heavenly places! They'll be ready, Lord, because they have You, Jesus, in their hearts already. We're already ready when we have You, Jesus, Thank You Lord! In Jesus' name. Amen! PTL! Hallelujah!
155. NOW GO OUT & TELL THE WHOLE WORLD ABOUT HIM! AMEN? Tell all your friends & loved ones & family & business folks & guys at work, in school & play! Tell everybody about Jesus, how they can have a part in this glorious, wonderful, marvellous, miraculous, supernatural Rapture of the Saints at the coming of the Lord, in Jesus' name! Amen? PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! ILY! GBY! X! Bye-bye! See you next time, next Bible study! Amen? Bye-Bye! (End of video--but audio continued:)
156. HALLELUJAH! TYL! ISN'T THAT GOING TO BE WONDERFUL? Boy, it was almost like I could see it tonight! What a time! Hallelujah! Well, I must have run over my time a little bit, I'm sorry. I don't want'm to miss the Rapture! PTL? TYJ! You know, I haven't sung that for years & I wasn't sure I could remember the words at all, & I just prayed & prayed: "Now Lord, You make this a testimony, don't You let me forget the words, You help me!" And just as I'd come to the end of one phrase I still couldn't remember the next one, & then the minute I had to hit it, there it was!
157. IT WAS A MIRACLE, A REAL MIRACLE THAT I REMEMBERED THAT OLD SONG! I mean, I don't think I've sung that thing for 20 years! Have I ever sung it for you? Isn't that a beautiful song? You should have heard him play that guitar with that song & look up!--You just thought Jesus was going to come right then!
158. EVERY TIME I EVER WENT TO HEAR HIM I JUST CRIED & CRIED! GOD BLESS HIM! But you know, the church people didn't really appreciate him. They almost starved him to death & broke his heart. He finally just went to be with the Lord, TTL! I was glad. They were fighting over him, you know, this big star, & they were cheating him out of money & out of his songs & all kinds of crookedness going on.--Typical church people! I mean, it just broke his heart! He thought it was going to be Heaven on Earth till he got acquainted with the church people. TYJ! Hallelujah! Where's my crying towel? So you don't think that was out of place in a Bible study? (Family: Not at all!) TYJ!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family