1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 - “For the Lord Himself will descend form heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

“Maranatha” is a Hebrew/Aramaic term meaning, “The Lord is coming soon.” God has called us to preach about the Rapture of the church. How do we define “The Rapture”? The meaning of “the Rapture” in the original language was “snatching up.” Biblically, it is the event described in the passage above, where Jesus suddenly snatches his faithful church out of this world to meet him in the air. We will go to heaven with him. Those faithful servants who are alive at the time will not face physical death, but will go directly to heaven with him. The world plunges into a period of terrible judgment known as the Great Tribulation, which lasts seven years. At the end of those seven years, Jesus returns again, with all the saints with him, to set up his Kingdom on earth. We call that event “the Second Coming,” because it will be the second time Christ actually lives and walks upon the earth – at the Rapture he does not actually reach the earth. Jesus lands on the Mount of Olives, north of Jerusalem, and enters the holy city, which will become his capital, the place from which he reigns on earth for 1000 years. This is the meaning of “The Rapture.”

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Revelation 5:1; 6; 8:1-2

(NIV) “Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals…“

(KJV) “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals…”

The Seven Seals are a series of events (mostly judgments) that have been slowly unfolding in approximately the last century in preparation for the return of Jesus Christ. Here we look briefly at the meaning of the Seven Seals in the Book of Revelation.

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Zephaniah 1:7 – “Be silent before the Sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice; he has consecrated those he has invited…”

Zephaniah prophesied about the destruction of Judah (the southern kingdom of Israel) that occurred in 586 B.C., but many of his prophecies also point forward to the final judgment that comes in the Last Days.

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Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 – “…Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them…”

We live in the last days before the Rapture, when the darkness in this world grows increasingly prevalent. We must remember our Creator (and Redeemer), Jesus Christ. We must do so through constant fellowship with the Holy Spirit now, in the days of our spiritual youth. We cannot allow ourselves to age spiritually and lose our blessing.

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Genesis 7:13 - On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 

Matthew 24:37-39 - As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

 Jesus said that the days before the Rapture would be similar to the days of Noah.  It comes on the world unexpectedly, when everyone is still making plans for the future (getting married) and celebrating.  Only Noah and his family knew what was coming; they had the revelation.

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INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS:  Most of the book of Revelation is a prophecy about the Last Days, far into the future from the New Testament era.  It does not reveal the future events in chronological order.  Instead, the events predicted in one chapter can occur simultaneously with events in previous chapters.  This “cyclical” style of writing was very common in ancient Israel – the Book of Hebrews follows a similar structure.  This is why we see in Revelation some overlap with the seals, bowls, and trumpets – they are describing the events occurring at the same time in the Last Days. continue

Matthew 13:33 –  He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”  

Revelation 2:20-25 - ”Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.  By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols…”

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There are three sets of dreams in the Joseph stories from Genesis 37-42.  Each set has two dreams that have related meanings. 

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Genesis 41:15-24  -  Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”   

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Genesis 50:24-25 – Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and will take you up out of this land, to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”  And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place…” 

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