Title: Is the Coronavirus Cover for the Rapture?
Plot: Exploring the possibility the Coronavirus is an elaborate cover for the rapture
Notes: Turns out only one thing must happen first!
Listen to "Is the Coronavirus Cover for the Rapture?" on Spreaker.
Full Transcript
Hey, Welcome back!
Being the creative fiction writing thinker that I am, I decided to take a moment to consider what opportunity the Coronavirus afforded world governments. Apart from retarding a pandemic that I view as a total fiction, what advantage is there in having everyone stay home for a few weeks?
Of course you already know what I came up with based on the title for this message.
I would expect anyone who selected it to know that the rapture is the event where God returns to collect his people. Since little is said about it in Scripture, there are disputes and debates over the specifics, particularly the timing, and why it occurs. Some say it's to spare God's people the hardship of living in this fallen world, while others say it's to glorify God when he appears in the clouds in a grand display of grandiosity — lifting his people into the clouds to participate in his second coming. However, the one thing everyone can agree on is that the rapture is the event where God's people are collected together in mass and separated from the world.
While some people are no doubt imagining that world governments are using a world-wide shutdown as an opportunity to position troops and take the world by storm overnight, I asked myself the question: what advantage does everyone being at home afford the devil?
Remembering that he is, right now, the god of this world, I can imagine a scenario where he might call, the son of God a virus. And in a play-on-words fashion, since the brightest part of the sun is the Corona. You just join those two names together and you get Coronavirus, right? And I wouldn't put it past him to fake a contagion to explain why suddenly a large swath of the world's population went missing. And thus therefore, the evil Satan who calls good bad and bad good, would describe the rapture as the Coronavirus.
Most Christian rapture movies currently depict mass worldwide chaos when the rapture occurs. And this results in the inevitable obvious question: where did everyone go? And that leads to those being left behind being confronted with the reality that God is real and thus they therefore missed the lifeboat. But what if it's much quieter than that? After all, the Bible describes something that appears to go almost unnoticed as if it occurred in a dream. The description itself is easy to miss.
Matthew 24:36-44 says
36 No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it 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 were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come. But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.
For this podcast I will ignore the debates, about when it will happen or why it will happen. Because after all, God says no man knows the day or the hour. And I simply decided to ask myself the question: what does this coronavirus pandemic enable? What advantage is there in everyone staying home? If airplanes are grounded, traffic is at a virtual standstill, and people are living on the food they bought during their last shopping extravaganza, then the earth will become very quiet for at least a few days or a week. And that by the way, reminds me of this Scripture:
Revelation 8:1 says
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
And that description itself is telling, isn't it? That doesn't sound like the sort of airplanes falling from the sky event our movies depict. That sounds like something that almost goes unnoticed.
What's particularly interesting is what happens at the end of Revelation 7. For those of you where distracted by what I just said, Revelation 7 obviously comes before Revelation 8 and Revelation 8:1 mentioned the half hour of silence in heaven. I'll read it to you now. Here we go:
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
That sounds like the result of a rapture, doesn't it?
Of course that raises the question: but what came in Revelation 1-6? And is it possible that we right now find ourselves living in the moments right before Jesus comes like a thief in the night to collect his people?
Well, have you come to the right place, my friends! Revelation 1-3 is a series of letters from God to the seven churches telling them what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong. Revelation 4 describes God's Throne in heaven and so that means that only two other chapters stand in the way of answering the question:
Is it possible the time is right and the church is about to be raptured? What needs to happen first?
Revelation chapter 5 is entirely a Scripture of worship where we are taken to a scene in which John says,
Revelation 5:2
And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”
Of course Jesus Christ steps forward and does exactly that and the heavens cheer. Revelation 6 describes what happens as he opens each seal. And so we come to the matter of timing.
In Revelation 6 the first four seals unleash the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. The white, red, black and pale horses.
Now, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse is a study in itself, and given the situation at hand, I suppose I'll move that up in priority. But sufficeth to say, that one could argue the plagues they foretell could have easily already happened.
The fifth seal unleashed the voices of the martyrs who asked the question: "How long O Lord?" before judgement. And God said, they needed to wait until their number was full.
The sixth seal is a big one:
Revelation 6:12 - 15 says
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,
I'm going to say that hasn't happened yet, but that it could happen in a matter of a single day. And I would argue that if it did happen, it would likely trigger the silence that I mentioned. It would also be a perfect distraction for the thief to come in the night. And so that leaves us only with the first half of chapter 7 of Revelation that would need to be fulfilled before the second half is triggered which is in fact the raptured people appearing in heaven.
In addition to all of the things that I just mentioned is the fact that I noticed that I have been praying for things that are consistent with these Scriptures. Meaning I stumbled on a Scripture that suggested I pray for a white robe as a covering for my nakedness and so I prayed for that. And I find it fascinating that just a couple days after offering that unusual prayer, I noticed that those who were raptured were wearing white robes.
And so what does this mean?
I can't tell you how many times in my life some kind of event occurred that triggered a podcast just like this one. However, nothing is quite like this one. I always felt like the prior events were a bit of a stretch, while this one fits like a glove. Each time that happened it caused me to put my nose into the good book and read furiously and make meaningful life changes. There have been times where I have read the entire Bible in a week. Though the first time it took me nine months because there was so much I didn't understand.
If you are new to my channel, there are podcasts here that can help you understand the things of God on a deeper level in clear English. The Bible on Soulmates and the Bible on Submission are great example podcasts that will help you understand the more difficult parts of Scripture. However, I have created a new link on my website under Season 1 called Cramming the Bible. I have started and will continue the process of populating that location with the most helpful materials I can find to get you educated on all things Bible as fast as possible. Having experienced so many prior situations where I was told the second coming was here, I feel somewhat caught off guard. And so I will do my best to get as much useful material out there as I can as quickly as possible. But if you have not yet received Christ, today is the day and now is the time to get saved. The same God who created everything with words, will honor your words if you will only believe and say this prayer with me:
Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, but I believe you died on the cross for me and rose again from the dead. Now I turn from my sin and ask you to cleanse me from my sin, give me my new heart with you in it. I ask to be born-again. Be my Savior, my Lord, my God, my guide, and my friend. Please Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus name I pray. Shalom!
As always, thank you for listening! Have a brilliant week! And if y'all don't come back here, or if I'm not here, then we all know why.
God bless us all every one!
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