The Rapture Connection to theSign of the Son of ManBy Helena Lehman of thePillar of Enoch Ministry (POEM)http://pillar-of-enoch.com
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This article is being written as an addition to my original article posted as a web page on my POEM Web Site entitled “Why the Post-Tribulation View of the Rapture Doesn’t Make Sense”. This article was also posted to my POEM Blog on January 5th, 2011. If you have not read that article before reading this one, you might want to read it before reading this one further by clicking either of the preceding hyperlinks. You may also click the next embedded link to download the PDF version of the same article at my POEM web site. The above listed article shows why the “tribulation of those days” spoken of in Matthew 24:29 is likely not referring to the final seven-year Tribulation described in the Book of Revelation, Chapters 6 through 16. My argument for this partly rests on the matter of intensity. The tribulation of the Gospel writers speak of earthquakes, wars, rumors of wars, famines and pestilences “in various places”, suggesting many comparatively small disasters with a limited area of coverage. Secondly, this tribulation is reported as the beginning of sorrows, not the end: “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” - Matthew 24:7-8 Another key to understanding the 24th Chapter of Matthew
are the two distinct questions that the disciples posed to Yahshua when He
told them that the city of “And Jesus said
to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one
stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’ Now as
He sat on the Note here that the disciples asked Yahshua two distinct
questions. In asking: “Tell us, when will these things be?”, the disciples
were seeking to know how to recognize when the destruction of the The point here is that the disciples had no idea that the two questions covered two distinctly different time periods in history that were to be separated by over 2000 years! This means that Yahshua’s reply has to be seen in this light, with a portion of it pertaining to their current time in history and a portion of it pertaining to ours. Thus, though Yahshua warned his disciples to “take heed that no one deceives you” in Matthew 24:4, they had already been deceived by their former Jewish religious leaders. In an attempt to warn His disciples that they were confused, Yahshua did not answer their first question initially, but their second one. But until the Holy Spirit was sent to baptize the disciples and Apostles on the Pentecost or Shavuot after Yahshua’s death and resurrection, they did not understand Yahshua’s reply in context. Furthermore, those without the Spirit are still having trouble figuring out what Yahshua meant today. Let’s examine Yahshua’s prophetic words in light of the two different time periods being referred to. In verses 5 through 14 of Matthew Chapter 24, Yahshua is citing the trouble that began in the early church when Pagan Rome and the Jewish leaders saw all the new believers in Yahshua and the rapidity at which this new philosophy spread among the Gentile nations as a major threat to the established order. This era saw a huge rift form between the Jewish synagogues and Gentile Christian congregations as the Jews who rejected Yahshua’s free gift of Grace insisted on keeping all the ancient religious rituals that they loved alive. In order to do this, the Jews forcibly expelled the new believers in Yahshua from their synagogues if they did not see a need to keep the same rituals or remember the Jewish Feasts in the same way. As a result of this rift, the Gentile believers that had rejected many Jewish religious restrictions and developed their own unique rituals and view of theology based on New Covenant principles suddenly found themselves without public places of worship. This caused the schism between Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians to deepen even further, and many Jews began to hate and betray their Christian brethren by turning them in to their Roman overseers, who mercilessly raped, pillaged, imprisoned, martyred and enslaved all of the peace-loving new believers that had the misfortune of being caught. Eventually, though Gentile coverts fellowshipped with one another in their homes and in secret meeting places, some of them also began to congregate publicly in the synagogues of the Samaritans, who neither persecuted nor rejected Christian believers, but openly accepted them. As a result, some Gentile believers were deceived because the Samaritans had erroneously mixed Pagan and Jewish religious ideas together. As a result, some believers eventually rejected sound theology, taking on Pagan customs that the Roman Emperor Constantine would tragically also embrace. Nonetheless, though verses 5 through 14 of Matthew Chapter
24 pertained to the
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” - Matthew 24:9-13 The false prophets mentioned in this passage are also are easy to identify in our age. These were the warped intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries that inspired such religious philosophies as Mormonism, Theosophy and Rosicrucianism, and political ideologies such as Nazism and Communism. Though resembling Christianity, Mormonism professes a different Messiah than the Christ of the Bible and defines salvation in a completely different way. Adding to this deception, the two non-Christian religious ideologies that rose up back then profess the false belief that Christ was not a divinely sent Messiah but only a wise man who became a wise spirit-being or ascended master upon his death. They also erroneously teach that everyone eventually finds salvation and ascends to a higher spiritual reality like Christ did and no particular religious ideology is superior over any other. In addition, the two major political ideologies that arose in the 20th Century developed fanatical leaders that viewed Christ and those who followed Him in truth as enemies of the state. The religious, social and political unrest of the Twentieth Century was triggered by the rise of these destructive religious and political ideologies that led to the deprivation, imprisonment and death of many Christians and Jews in World Wars I and II. Nonetheless, throughout that terrible time of trouble, some of those who were unjustly imprisoned and brutally treated were given opportunities to witness to others about their enduring faith in Yahweh God and His Son - even in the midst of terrible suffering. The major wars that severely affected forty years of the Twentieth Century were then followed by many devastating smaller wars such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Six-Day War, and the Gulf War. Out of these wars, amidst much pain and shedding of blood, the current east-west ideological division between the Christianized moderately socialistic Western nations and the communistic, Islamic and Paganistic Eastern nations has been forged. This has placed all the world’s political powers on a steep precipice of antagonism and hate from which there is no escape, and that can only lead to their eventual catastrophic demise in the wake of the Antichrist’s desire to place the entire world under His evil and totalitarian control. When this happens, the next stage of Yahshua’s prophetic
words will be fulfilled, for as the Antichrist maneuvers himself to take
control of the world, the 144,000 and Two Witnesses will join the Tribulation
Saints in winning over millions into the “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” - Matthew 24:14 Before the destruction of “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of
desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place
(whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in The preceding Scripture is clearly teaching about the destruction
of the But I question the validity of this theory. Could it be
that abomination of desolation of this age has to do with the Al Aqsa Mosque
atop the References to the past with allusions to the future can be seen in these passages, which show the dichotomy of Yahshua’s words through to verse 18 of Matthew Chapter 24. After verse 18, however, the tone of Yahshua’s sermon changes dramatically. In the next verses, He alludes to a future time that sounds quite reminiscent of the past century, when so may false christs appeared and tried to deceive the world: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” - Matthew 24:19-27 This Scripture makes it clear that the Messiah we should be expecting won’t be found on Earth in any ordinary situation such as living in a house like Yahshua did during His First Advent, or out in the desert like John the Baptist. Instead, He will be seen returning from out of the heavens and coming in the clouds with great glory and the swiftness of lightning. By mentioning this, Yahshua makes it clear that verses 19 through 27 of Matthew Chapter 24 aren’t directly alluding to the events of the First Century AD. Instead, since the very first verse mentions a great tribulation that will be far worse than anything that has troubled humanity since the beginning of the world until that time, it appears that Yahshua is speaking about the Great Tribulation described in the Book of Revelation. In this tribulation, the entire world will be plunged into a living hell of suffering and misery that would extinguish all life if it were not brought to an abrupt end by Yahshua’s return with His angels and saints to fight at the Battle of Armageddon. Since Yahshua was referring to the Great Tribulation in verse 19, it is natural to assume that the next verses pertain to the Great Tribulation also. Therefore, when verse 29 speaks of “the tribulation of those days”, it seems logical to assume that the tribulation it is referring to would be the period immediately after the Battle of Armageddon. But, if Yahshua is referring to the Great Tribulation, then why does He mention all the tribes of the Earth being present to mourn as if they will all still be alive and well at that time? In truth, this will certainly NOT be the case at the end of the Great Tribulation, when all the cities of the Earth will already be reduced to rubble, every island and mountain will have disappeared, and every fish, tree and blade of grass will have perished! The Great Tribulation will be the most destructive and violent period in Earth’s history both in natural disasters and in mankind’s hatred of God and His people. Therefore, a huge majority of the remaining people on the Earth will either be dead or living in abject misery - their bodies covered with loathsome sores, their cities toppled into piles of rubble, and their poisoned and fruitless farms scorched to cinders by the Sun. With this in mind, let’s read the passage in question pertaining to the Sign of the Son of Man: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” - Matthew 24:29-31 After “the tribulation of those days” in verse 29 is mentioned, we are told that “the sign of the Son of Man” will appear in “heaven,” meaning the physical heavens that surround the Earth. Thus, it will be a celestial sign connected to the Gospel in the Stars that will come during a lull in the massive fighting amongst nations seen in World Wars I and II. In addition, we are told that Yahshua will gather His elect from one end of the heavens to the other shortly after at that time. But this will not be the case after the Battle of Armageddon, since Yahshua’s elect will accompany Him to fight that battle riding on white horses. Who, then, are Yahshua’s angels being sent to gather up? In other words, “the tribulation of those days” is not referring to the End Time Great Tribulation, but to the century of major wars that occurred in the 20th Century. One major clue that this is indeed the case is where the saints are when the world sees the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. Since the angels are sent out to gather all the elect, who are those who were predestined to be saved, from one end of earth to the other, it means that the dead and living saints have not yet been given their resurrection bodies, or been taken to Heaven in the Rapture. If this is so, the angels will be gathering up those who are to be taken in the Rapture at that time, so this coming of Christ at the time of the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven will be at the time of the Rapture, and NOT at the time of the Battle of Armageddon, when the elect will return riding on white horses with Yahshua: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.” - Revelation 19:11-14 In the Book of Revelation, this army of saints is
identified as the wife of the Lamb of God, meaning Yahshua’s Bride the “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” - Revelation 19:7-8 Now, it pays to note here that there is no mention in any
of the parallel passages in Matthew, Mark or Luke that describe Yahshua’s
visible coming in the clouds that suggests that Yahshua is going to vanquish
the wicked at that time in the Battle of Armageddon. There is, for example,
no mention of Yahshua touching down on the Mount of Olives or going to the Instead, these passages all suggest that Yahshua is going to come down to the level of the clouds of the heavens to visibly show His Glory while His angels gather His elect saints from one end of the Earth to the other. We can therefore infer that Yahshua is not coming to fight the wicked at this time, but rather to collect and transform those who are anxiously waiting for Him to take them to Heaven in the Rapture. This parallels Yahshua’s Ascension into Heaven exactly ten days prior to Pentecost or Shavuot. Before continuing, it must be stressed here that the Jews count the 49 days between the time of the firstfruits offering and Shavuot incorrectly from the day of Passover rather than the first day of the week following the regular Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Because of this, their Feast of Shavuot or Firstfruits is on the wrong day. If figured correctly, the offering of the firstfruits of
the barley harvest would have been made in the Now, though the First Rapture is tied to Pentecost and the Summer wheat harvest that follows it as a marker of the end of the Age of Grace, no one knows the exact day or hour of the Rapture. Furthermore, Yahshua said that He would come at a time when we least expect it. This means that it will likely not be exactly on Pentecost or any other prescribed holy day such as Yahshua’s Ascension day that was ten days prior to Pentecost. Nor will it likely be on the Summer Solstice, despite the fact that many monuments that are connected to the Messianic constellation called Orion point to the Summer Solstice. What all of the Summer Solstice and Orion-oriented ancient monuments like Stonehenge, Thornborough Henge, the pyramids at Teotihuacán, and the Pyramid complex at Giza in Egypt do strongly suggest, however, is that the Rapture will occur in the summer months between mid-June and mid-September. There are also biblical clues in the Book of Ruth and the Song of Solomon that the Rapture will be in the summertime before the Autumn Jewish Feasts. In addition, the Rapture may come in two stages. I clearly explain my reasons for believing this in my article “Come Up Here and Come Away” (available free at my POEM web site here: http://pillar-of-enoch.com/essays/index.html#Maranatha). Now, in regard to Yahshua’s Second Coming, is it possible that Bible Scholars have been mistranslating Matthew Chapter 24, verses 29 through 31 as describing the Second Coming of Christ to do battle with the wicked when it is actually speaking of the Rapture? Could this be the time when Yahshua will come to save the elect from having to suffer through the Great Tribulation, which refers only to the last three and one half years of the seven-year Tribulation? The context of Yahshua’s words in Matthew Chapter 24 in relation to the Book of Revelation suggest that the elect saints being gathered up are not going to immediately fight the wicked at that time, but that they will go to Heaven to be with Christ for a time beforehand. In Chapter 24 of Matthew, there is another clue that the Sign of the Son of Man will appear just before the First Rapture. This clue is given where it says: “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then 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. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” - Matthew 24:37-44 The above passage appears immediately after Yahshua
mentions the Sign of the Son of Man and the gathering up of His Bride the In Matthew 24:37-44, Yahshua makes it clear that those taken to the Third Heaven in the Rapture will be living and working alongside people that they share friendships and familial relationships with but who will be left behind. This strongly implies that these people have similar values and beliefs. Since not all of them will be taken in the Rapture, however, it implies that some are not spiritually ready. Despite the fact that they will likely share conservative Christian cultural values with those who are taken to be with Yahshua, they will not be included because they are carnal, apostate or simply not born again and will need to be refined in the fire of the Great Tribulation, which was referred to by the prophet Jeremiah as Jacob’s Trouble: “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” - Jeremiah 30:7 Jeremiah also
prophesied that this time of trouble for Jacob’s descendents would occur
after “I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their exile. Jacob will again have peace and security, and no one will make him afraid. I am with you and will save you,’ declares Yahweh.” - Jeremiah 30:10-11 It is my belief that Jacob’s Trouble is connected to the Tetrad of Blood Moons of Full Lunar Eclipses that will occur in 2014 and 2015 on Passover and Sukkot in both years. To see exactly when these Blood Moons will occur, and what they might mean prophetically, see my Revised 2013 Tribulation Time Chart by clicking on this embedded link. If the time of Israel’s greatest distress falls somewhere during these Blood Moons, then this will be a time of spiritual and physical terror for both believing Jews and Gentiles who will become the Tribulation Saints and it is rapidly approaching. Indeed, we are certainly living in the very last moments of this apostate age, and soon Yahweh God will destroy the governments of this world and set up a righteous theocracy that will last for a thousand years. But, as Yahshua so eloquently warns in Matthew’s Gospel, not everyone that calls themselves a believer will get to reign and serve as priests with Christ during the Millennium: “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” - Matthew 24:45-51 Though there are many Non-Christians on this planet that
reject and revile the message of the “Behold, the day of the LORD (Yahweh)
comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their
constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going
forth, And the moon will not cause its light to
shine. “I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity…” ~ Isaiah 13:9-11 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” - Matthew 24:29 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” - Mark 13:24-26 According to the Scriptures listed above, the Sign of the Son of Man will occur shortly after the Sun is darkened, the Moon is turned to blood and the stars fall from heaven. As I described in my previous article “Heavenly Signs of 2010 and 2011,” the Sun was darkened in a Total Eclipse over Easter Island on July 11th, 2010 and the Moon turned to blood on December 21st, 2010 over the sword of the Messianic Sign Orion, which is one of several powerful Signs of the Son of Man coming in power and glory that can be found in the Gospel in the Stars. Now all that may remain is for the world to see the stars fall from the heavens, perhaps as in a meteorite shower that will precede the Sign of the Son of Man. This massive meteor shower could be associated with one of several annual meteor showers that are visible in Earth’s skies at various times in the year. Significantly, two of the most visible meteor showers annually are the Perseids and Leonids, which are both associated with the Comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids radiate outward from the Messianic sign of Perseus the Breaker, which is above the sign of Taurus. These are prominent in late July through mid August every year. Later in the year, around November when Comet Elenin will be prominent in Earth’s skies, the Leonid meteorite shower originates in the region of the sky governed by the constellation Leo the Lion that signifies Yahshua coming as a conquering king. Significantly, these two meteor showers both fell between the Solar Eclipse of July 11th, 2010 and the Blood Moon of December 21st, 2010 and were reported to be unusually heavy last year! If the Rapture will be sometime in the summer of 2011 or 2012, Scripture suggests that we should expect a heavenly disturbance such as an impressive meteor shower and an accompanying celestial event that will serve as the Sign of the Son of Man in the heavens. If the Rapture is coming soon, it is possible that the sign preceding it will be more spectacular than a simple line-up of planets in the Messianic Zodiac Signs. If so, it may include one or more comets, a Supernova, and/or some strong planetary configurations such as are found in a heavenly Grand Cross like the two that have already occurred in June 2010 and June 2011 (See My Tribulation Time Chart, linked to 2 paragraphs below…). Yet, though the Rapture will likely be marked by a Sign of
the Son of Man in the heavens surrounding the Earth that the whole world will
see, there is also likely going to be another powerful sign marking Yahshua’s
true Second Coming to conquer the wicked at the Battle of Armageddon. I
believe that this Sign of the Son of Man returning as a conquering king will
center on Orion’s connection to the pyramids at An illustration depicting this sign can be seen centrally located on my Tribulation Time Chart, which shows the Signs in the Heavens over the next seven years of human history and their connection to the Hallel Psalms consisting of Psalms 110 through 119. These Psalms are traditionally read in Jewish Synagogues on every High Holy Day and appear to be prophetically connected to the years 2010 through 2019. The chart can be viewed by clicking on the following link that leads to my POEM web site:
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