From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 1997 8:14 PM
To: Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup
Subject: RE: The Harvest at the end of the Age - Part II
To: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
From: towelandbasin
Subject: RE: The Harvest at the end of the Age - Part I
Eddie,
We received a blank page for the subject: The Harvest at the end of
the Age - Part I. We received Part II. Can you re-send?
Anita Robertson
>From Eddie:
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Since I am resending Part I, I will also resend Part II.
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>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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