From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 1997 12:17 AM
To: Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup
Subject: The Harvest at the End of Age -- Part II
>From Mark Wilson
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: End of Age
THE HARVEST AT THE END OF THE AGE - Part II
At the wedding feast there will be a great multitude in attendance but
there will only be one bridegroom and one bride, which is His body.
At this time, in the middle of the tribulation, the bride or the
overcomers have already been raptured and are in heaven. The Lord
Jesus Christ will return for this group, the five wise virgins, at the
midnight hour. At the darkest time of the night in the middle of the
great tribulation. These will be late comers to the wedding feast which
started 3 1/2 years previously. These are the group in Revelation 7
that have come out of the great tribulation and are comparable to the
ones Jesus spoke about in Luke 12.
LUK 12:35-40 "Be dressed in readiness, and {keep} your lamps alight.
And be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns
from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open {the door} to
him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom
the master shall find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you,
that he will gird himself {to serve,} and have them recline {at the
table,} and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes
in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds {them} so, blessed
are those {slaves}. And be sure of this, that if the head of
the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have
allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready; for
the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect."
The Lord returns for this group after the wedding feast has already
begun. "Returns" suggests that He has already come once and is now
coming again. The first time was a secret coming and not announced
so there was no time to even discuss oil. There was none to cry out that
the Bridegroom comes or to prepare at the last minute in the secret
coming because it was over in the blink of the eye.
In the middle of the tribulation there will be time as the believers finally
realize the hour in which they live. These believers will be killed and
therefore will need all the oil they have. The five unwise will also be killed
but after the midnight coming or in that last 3 1/2 years. This group
corresponds to "the rest of her offspring that keep the commandments of
God and hold to the testimony of Jesus" in Rev. 12:17. The midnight
return will be a resurrection and not a rapture. It may be possible
that the five unwise might be resurrected to the New Earth but certainly
have no part in the wedding feast.
MAT 25:11-12 "And later the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord, lord,
open up for us.' But he answered and said, 'Truly I say to you, I do not
know you.'
LUK 13:25 "Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you
begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, 'Lord, open up to
us!' then He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know where you are
from.'
The five wise represent the main harvest while the five foolish virgins
represent the gleanings that follow the main harvest.
Israel was not permitted to harvest everything in the field but had to reserve
the corners of the field and all that fell during harvest. Later the poor,
the widows and the orphans were permitted to gather up the gleanings.
The picture is with Ruth and Boaz.
LEV 23:10-11 "Speak to the sons of
Israel, and say to them, 'When you enter the land which I am going to
give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of
the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. And he shall
wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after
the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
These FIRST of firstfruits are "the sheaf of the firstfruits". Before the
main harvest was ripe there was a few heads of the harvest that ripened
before the rest. They went into the fields and pulled all the ripe heads of
grain and bound them into a sheaf. This sheaf was brought into the house
of God and waved before the Lord. Later the main harvest was gathered
and stacked into shocks until the 50th day after the sheaf of the firstfruits
was gathered. This began a new feast called "the feast of Harvest" or the
feast of the 50th day. In the New Testament this is called "the Feast
of Pentecost". On this day the gathered harvest was threshed and the
grain was brought into the house of God. The first was the sheaf and
the second was very best of the threshed grain. The grain was beaten
very vine and baked into two loaves with leaven. Then the two loaves
was presented to the Lord.
LEV 23:15-17 'You shall also count for
yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you
brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete
sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the
seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the
Lord. 'You shall bring in from your dwelling places two
{loaves} of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths {of an ephah};
they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the
Lord.
LEV 23:22 'When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall
not reap to the very corners of your field, nor gather the gleaning of
your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am
the Lord your God.' "
In the seventh month began the final harvest of the agricultural
season. After the harvest was complete, during the Feast of Tabernacles
(or Booths) there was another feast of rejoicing.
LEV 23:39 'On
exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered
in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for
seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.
LEV 23:40 'Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the
foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and
willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for
seven days. LEV 23:44 So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the
appointed times of the Lord.
We could put this into the perspective of preparing for that day with
TIT 2:11-14 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all
men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and
to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great
God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He
might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself
a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
2PE 3:11-14 Since all
these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought
you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and
hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens
will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense
heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new
heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be
found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,
PHI 3:7-14 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have
counted as loss for the sake of Christ. PHI 3:8 More than that, I count
all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and
count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may
be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from {the}
Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which
{comes} from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him,
and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the
resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained
{it}, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may
lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of {it} yet;
but one thing {I do}: forgetting what {lies} behind and reaching forward
to what {lies} ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize
of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
In these verses Paul says a curious thing; "That I might obtain to the
resurrection from the dead". Everybody, including the unrighteous, will
be resurrected from the dead. You don't even have to try. However,
Paul is not speaking of the general resurrection. This is the only time
this word is used in the New Testament. It is EXANASTASIS. EX means
from or out from or literally "the out resurrection from the
dead".(Vines Dictionary). The key is "If by any means I might ATTAIN."
KATANTAO means "to reach or to arrive at". Paul's whole goal of his
life was to reach "the out resurrection" or attain to the rapture. This
is when the dead in Christ will rise first. This was considered as "the
prize of the high calling of God".
1CO 15:20-23 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first
fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man {came}
death, by a man also {came} the resurrection of the dead. For
as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who
are Christ's at His coming, Each will be resurrected in his own order.
If all were resurrected together there would be no order to the
resurrection. REV 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until
the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Some
translations have a comma after Christ, the firstfruits, after that
those who are Christ's at His coming. Christ is the very first of the
firstfruits but not all the firstfruits. REV 14:4 These are the ones
who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves
chaste. These {are} the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These
have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the
Lamb. These are standing in heaven during the tribulation. They not
only were betrothed to Christ but they were also presented to Christ as
a chaste virgin.
2CO 11:2 For I am jealous for you with a godly
jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might
present you {as} a pure virgin.
JAM 1:18 In the exercise of His will He
brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were,
the first fruits among His creatures. Christ is not coming for a harlot
church but for those who have kept themselves only for Him.
Even the five foolish virgins were not harlots but they didn't have
enough oil. The meaning of Luke 12:35-40 is if you are not caught up as
firstfruits then keep your lights burning and be alert and be ready to
go into the wedding feast immediately when He returns. At least you can
be a wedding guest to the greatest event ever to take place in the
universe. If you are not ready for the rapture, be sure you are ready
for the end of the second watch, at the midnight hour. Even if those
who are taken in the third watch will be blessed, even if they end up on
the New Earth.
MAR 13:24-26 "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be
darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars
will be falling from heaven, and the powers that are in the heavens will
be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in
clouds with great power and glory.
This is not a secret coming because
every eye will see Him. Here He is not coming as a thief in the night.
After 7 1/2 years of the great tribulation all who have any light at all
will be expecting His return. Even after 3 1/2 years it should be no
surprise. All you have to do is count out 42 months. All ten of the
virgins were expecting His return but got tired and began to sleep.
Many are asking; Will it be a secret coming or a visible coming. It
will be both. Even the coming at the midnight hour will not be visible
to everybody.
One thing is clear about the firstfruits coming, it will not be a
matter of where you were working in the harvest field. One will be
taken and another left. The firstfruits will be those who have kept
themselves virgins and not been whoring after every thing that moves.
They will be those who have followed the Lamb wherever He went. No lie
was found in their mouth and they are blameless. They will stand with
Christ on Mt. Zion in the heavenly Jerusalem. They have been changed
from what they were into what they had to be to attain to this
resurrection and to this glory. They will reign with Christ in the same
character as Christ. This resurrection will be on the basis of our
character, our maturity, and by the degree that we are conformed to the
image of Jesus. They will be sanctified and cleansed by the washing of
water with the word and they will be holy and blameless.
Many times in the past years men of God have figured out when the
bridegroom was going to come for the five wise virgins and have warned
their believers to go out and meet the bridegroom. The only time this
will work is in the first half of the tribulation. It won't be too
difficult to figure out then. Now we must be warning believers to get
ready because we will have no way to know when He is coming. No one
will know in advance. The firstfruits will not suddenly have a lamp
lighting revival. They will have been seeking God to discipline and
change them for years. At the rapture there will only be the voice of
the archangel and the sound of the trumpet and it will be all over.
Just in the blink of the eye and it will be over. We have to ask will
there be any warnings given? Yes! We are giving it now! There will be
another warning at the midnight hour for the ten virgins. Then
martyrdom will be the only open door to the wedding feast. The five
wise virgins were comparably wise in respect to the five stupid virgins
but not as wise as the firstfruits. It is interesting to note that all
10 of the virgins held to the same eschatology. The amount of oil
necessary was their only doctrinal conflict. Otherwise they had a
relatively good doctrinal unity. This seemed like a very small thing
since they all agreed that they must have oil in the lamps and the lamps
had to be burning.
Those who seek to know the exact day of His secret coming use the
scripture that God will not do anything without first telling His
prophets. That is true. He has already told them they won't know the
day or the hour and that it will be a secret coming and happen so fast
that no one can prepare after a warning.
MAT 24:43-44 "But be sure of
this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night
the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have
allowed his house to be broken into. For this reason you be
ready too; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think
{He will.}
If you think He will, He has already said He won't.
SOS 6:8-10 There are 60 queens and 80 concubines and virgins without
number but my dove, my perfect one, is but one. This puts the visible
church in perspective. The rapture is designed for "the one".
PSA 45:8-15 All Thy garments are {fragrant with} myrrh and aloes {and}
cassia; Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made Thee glad.
Kings' daughters are among Thy noble ladies; At Thy right hand
stands the queen in gold from Ophir. Listen, O daughter, give
attention and incline your ear; Forget your people and your father's
house; Then the King will desire your beauty; Because He is
your Lord, bow down to Him. And the daughter of Tyre {will
come} with a gift; The rich among the people will entreat your favor.
The King's daughter is all glorious within; Her clothing is
interwoven with gold. She will be led to the King in
embroidered work; The virgins, her companions who follow her, Will be
brought to Thee. They will be led forth with gladness and
rejoicing; They will enter into the King's palace.
The virgins will also enter into the King's palace but "The Kings
Daughter" will be led to the King and she will be clothed with special
garments. The virgins will rejoice but they are not the bride.
REV 19:7-8 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the
marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself
ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright
{and} clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
I will just present one more picture for us to see the very essential
requirement of preparation for the coming of the Lord. The church has
done a great disservice to the true believers by presenting some gospel
that said all that was required was forgiveness of sins. A pastor in
our area told a friend of mine that there was no need to get caught up
in all this evangelical doctrine about being born again. He said all
that was required was to ask forgiveness just before he died. He died
of a heart attack a few years ago. This is why I have very little faith
in death bed repentance for those who have heard the truth and decided
to wait.
REV 21:24-27 And the nations shall walk by its light, and the kings of the
earth shall bring their glory into it. And in the daytime (for
there shall be no night there) its gates shall never be closed; and they
shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into
it; and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination
and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are
written in the Lamb's book of life.
Only those whose names are written
in "the Lamb's book of Life" will be permitted to enter into the New
Jerusalem. Many will mistakenly preach that when you are born again
your name is written in "the Lamb's Book of Life" because they think
that is the only record book in heaven.
REV 20:12-15 And I saw the dead,
the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were
opened; and another book was opened, which is {the book} of life; and
the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books,
according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into
the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was
thrown into the lake of fire.
Having your name in the "Book of Life" is the minimum requirement for
your fire insurance. There are many books keeping records in heaven.
REV 3:5 'He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I
will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his
name before My Father, and before His angels. Multitudes are content
just to have their name in "the Book of Life" because they don't know
there is another possibility. Some are trusting in once having their
name in the "Book of Life" and do not even know it can be erased.
No one can participate in the New Jerusalem, the bride of Christ,
unless their name is written in "The Lamb's Book of Life". This book
contains the names of all those who have totally and completely given
themselves to Christ and are exclusively His. The necessary work of
perfection will be directed toward these who are absolutely given to
Him. How can He perfect those who are always resisting the Holy
Spirit?
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