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What
are your views on the Rapture?
It is
clear that there will be a Seven Year Period Of
Trouble that precedes the return of the Messiah.
It is also clear that those saints who are still
alive when Yeshua descends from Heaven will be
caught up with those saints who have died, and
all of us will meet the Lord in the air. I lean
toward the position that this will occur before
the Seven Year Period Of Trouble begins, but I
am not absolutely sure that it will take place
then. Over the years, I find myself less concerned
when it will take place, and more concerned that
I am found faithful to the Lord, doing His work,
fulfilling my responsibilities whenever He comes.
I think a good attitude is to expect the Son of
God to return soon; to pray that we be spared
the worst of the Seven Year Period Of Trouble,
but also that we be willing to suffer and even
die if called upon to sanctify God's name.
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I
know that the majority of Christians are not
Dispensationalists, and I have heard Dispensationalists
mocked. Where do you stand regarding Dispensationalism?
Dispensationalism
teaches that the Word of God is to be understood
in its historical/grammatical context, and is
not to be interpreted symbolically, unless the
primary historical/grammatical sense doesn't make
sense. Therefore, it concludes that there is a
difference between the Church and Israel - that
the Church is not the same as Israel, and that
the Church has not replaced Israel. It teaches
that God will literally fulfill His many promises
to the Jewish people, and that these promises
can't be expropriated by the Church. Dispensationalism
recognizes that God has made different demands
of different peoples at different dispensations
(periods, times). It sees a progression in salvation
history. For example, what God expected from Adam
and Eve before the Fall differed from what He
required of them after the Fall. What He expected
from people before the Flood changed with the
covenant found in Genesis 9. With the calling
of Abraham, God expected new things from a new
people. With the covenant at Sinai He added new
demands to His people. With the coming of the
Messiah, there is now a New Covenant between God
and mankind, with new requirements. In the Millennium,
there will yet again be a new way of doing things.
Lastly, in eternity, in the New Heavens, the New
Earth and the New Jerusalem, we will experience
the final expectations that God has for us. If
we are to avoid misunderstanding, disappointment
and confusion, it is important to understand that
God has different requirements and rewards for
different people in different ages. For example,
there are "prosperity teachers" who
arrogate God's promises to the Jewish people who
lived under the covenants made with Abraham and
Moses. They take promises meant for Israel such
as, "No good thing does He withhold from
those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11),
and wrongly claim that God has promised every
Christian financial prosperity and perfect health.
But God does not apply the same physical blessings
for faithfulness to us today as He did before
Yeshua came. He promises us our daily bread, enough
to meet our needs, as well as trials along the
way. While there are some teachings among extreme
Dispensationalists that are wrong or imbalanced,
in general I consider myself a Dispensationalist.
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What
happens to a person when they die?
When man
was first created, he was made from both material
and immaterial parts. The Lord God formed Adam
of dust from the "adamah" (ground),
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
After sin entered the world (but before Messiah
Yeshua came), when a human being died his body
returned to the dust from which it came, but his
soul went to a place that is most commonly called
"Sheol." Other Biblical names for this
"holding place" for the dead are called:
Hades, Death, the Pit, the Grave, Abaddon, Destruction,
Paradise, and Abraham's Bosom. The idea of going
to Sheol is indicated by the oft-repeated phrase,
"he was gathered to his people." Sheol
is like a waiting room. It is the intermediary
and temporary state that takes place after death
and before the Day of Judgment. It is not to be
confused with either Heaven or Gehenna (Hell),
which are the final states of the righteous and
the wicked. Before Messiah came to Earth, all
people - the righteous and the wicked, went to
Sheol when they died. For the righteous, Sheol
is characterized by inactivity and a sort of dreamy
reflection. It is variously described as a place
of thick darkness, a place of forgetfulness, an
abode of silence, or a place of rest. For the
wicked, it is a place of regret and distress.
The Son of God made it clear that there are two
sections within Sheol, one for the righteous and
the other for the wicked. Upon their death, the
righteous (those who share the Faith of father
Abraham) go to Abraham's Bosom, and are gathered
into His presence. At their death, the wicked
go to another area - a place of regret, remorse
and torment (see Luke 16:19-31). There is a chasm
fixed between the two sections so that there is
no crossing over, so that the righteous and the
wicked are permanently separated. A detailed description
of Sheol is found in Isaiah 14:9-18. Isaiah informs
us that the wicked dead have some consciousness
when they are roused. Their personalities remain
intact. They are still the same being, the same
person. They still have some recollection of their
life on Earth. They still have some title or position
that was connected to their life on Earth. They
are aware of each other and able to recognize
one another. They have some awareness of their
condition in the unseen world. They realize that
they are weak compared to their previous power
on Earth. The book of Job informs us that the
dead do not know what is happening among the living
(Job 14:21). Intercourse between the two realms
is cut off. When people die they are not allowed
to return to this world, this realm. They do not
know what is happening here, nor can they influence
events here in any way, without the express consent
of God, and only in rare instances, such as in
the case of King Saul and Samuel (see 1 Samuel
28). This means that there is no such thing as
"ghosts" as they are portrayed in popular
culture. When a righteous human being dies, it
appears that good angels are involved in his death.
Messiah Yeshua, when referring to Lazarus, said
that there was an angelic escort for the righteous
to Sheol (see Luke 16:22). And it seems that the
Malach ha-Mavet - the Angel of Death, is involved
in the death of the wicked. Revelation 6:7-8 describes
a rider on a pale horse whose name is Death -
an angel who has been given authority over the
physical death of men. There is another angel
following him called Hades, who has power over
the souls of those in Hades. Even the Messiah
went to Sheol. He said to the repentant thief
on the cross: "this day you shall be with
Me in Paradise," which I understand to be
the good part of Sheol. In Peter's first letter
(1 Peter 3:18-20) he revealed that Yeshua went
and made a proclamation to the spirits who were
in prison. One way that may be understood is that
Yeshua descended to Sheol and proclaimed His victory
over sin, death, Satan and Sheol. He may have
said something like, "I have died, and God
has redeemed you, His righteous ones, from this
place of waiting. I have conquered sin and death.
Death no longer has its power or sting. I now
hold the keys Sheol and Death. This place is under
new management!" Indeed, the Son of God holds
the keys to Death and Hades (see Revelation 1:18),
and with those keys He locks and unlocks, opens
and closes, releases and restrains. Yeshua's possession
of the keys to Death and Hades tells us that He
earned the right to release those who were imprisoned
in Sheol. Ephesians 4:8-9 may hint at this release.
"When He ascended on high, He led captive
a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.
Now this expression, ‘He ascended,' what
does it mean except that He also had descended
into the lower parts of the Earth?" One possible
interpretation is that Yeshua emptied Abraham's
Bosom and took the souls of Abraham and all those
who had been gathered with Abraham, and took Paradise
itself with Him when He victoriously ascended
to Heaven. Matthew 27:52-53 suggests this release
of the captives: "The tombs were opened,
and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep
were raised; and coming out of the tombs after
His resurrection they entered the holy city and
appeared to many." Since the resurrection
and ascension of the Messiah, when a Believer
dies, he still goes to Paradise, but Paradise
is now above (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). For the child
of God, to be absent from the body is to come
immediately into the presence of the Lord. The
unbelieving, the God-ignoring and the self-willed
still go to Sheol (the holding place), to wait
for the time of final judgment. On the Day of
Judgment they will be raised from Sheol, stand
before Messiah Yeshua's Great White Throne, and
there be judged and thrown into Gehenna (Hell,
the Second Death, the Lake of Fire), the eternal
destiny of the wicked. Then, when they have served
their purpose, Death and Hades will themselves
be destroyed by being thrown into the Lake of
Fire (see Revelation 20:14) This is the Second
Death - permanent, and eternal destruction and
separation from God. Then only Heaven and Hell
will remain. Because of Messiah's life, death,
burial and resurrection, death has been swallowed
up in victory, and we can say, "O Death,
where is your victory? O Death, where is your
sting? Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah"!
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