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The Rapture of the Saints. True, or False?
The Rapture of the Saints. True, or False?
The Rapture of the Saints. True, or False?
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The Rapture of the Saints. True, or False?

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Some Christians believe that there will be no rapture of the saints, as it was a heresy developed by the Roman Catholic Church. Some believe there is no such word as the rapture. Some believe that the doctrine of the rapture is only a “modern” doctrine. Some believe that the church has “replaced” Israel in God’s plans and purposes. Some believe that all believers should return to their “Hebrew Roots”. Some believe that all believers are physically part of the tribes of Israel today. Some believe that Israel will be in the rapture. Some believe that Israel will not be in the rapture. Some believe the church must go through the tribulation to suffer for its sins. Some believe the church will not be in the tribulation.
Is it possible that the Bible can prove whether each and every one of those views are true or false? There is no doubt about this fact. The Bible contains all truth because the Word of God, Jesus Christ (Yeshua ha Maschiach) Himself IS the Truth.
If you have ever wondered about any of those things, please make a very careful study of this book, keeping your Bible and a notebook next to you, and in prayerful conversation with the Holy Spirit (Ruach ha Kodesh) of God, as He is the only one who can convict us of sin, righteousness and judgement according to John 16:8.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 12, 2017
ISBN9781370752072
The Rapture of the Saints. True, or False?
Author

tiaan gildenhuys

Tiaan Gildenhuys has been in full-time ministry as an evangelist since 2003. He has ministered across church-denominational borders in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland, Malawi and Scotland, and wherever else the Lord Jesus Christ may send him. He and his wife also lead regular spiritual tour groups to Israel. In 2014 he received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Team Impact Christian University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, as a result of the work he has done in the Kingdom. He has published 43 books, and a large number of CD's and DVD's both in Afrikaans and English, which can be viewed at www.oicb.co.za under: "eshop/tiaan gildenhuys". He also has an active YouTube channel which can be viewed at:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBtAiDFZJm09SFs3N6b0IAAll honour and glory for all this goes only to our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

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    The Rapture of the Saints. True, or False? - tiaan gildenhuys

    THE RAPTURE OF THE SAINTS

    (True, or False?)

    tiaan gildenhuys

    Copyright © 2017

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means without written permission by the author.

    PREFACE:

    It is with deep gratitude in my heart to God the Father that I could experience this book. For many years I and others like myself who preached this message have prayed that the Lord Jesus would raise up a new generation of criers regarding the rapture and the rest of the eschatology.

    While the mainstream church has fallen asleep, especially regarding the rapture, Matthew 25:6 reads: And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

    This book is one of the most comprehensively researched and true-to-Scripture books regarding the rapture that I have read and I trust and pray that a new generation of criers will come who will help to distribute this book widely in order to awaken the virgins who have fallen asleep.

    May this clarion call excite every reader anew regarding the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ. MARANATHA!

    Past.Thys Smit (ret.) (a servant of Jesus Christ)

    Apostolic Faith Mission

    Potchefstroom, RSA

    *******

    I thank Jesus Christ of Nazareth for the privilege of writing this preface to this book written by my brother in Christ, Tiaan.

    So many people argue these days whether the Bible is true or not, how we must interpret the Bible or in what context it was written. This keeps us away from the truths, guidelines and warnings contained in the Word of God. It is written in 2 Corinthians 1:13: For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end. This means that we can read and understand the Bible as it is written. With the Bible I refer to the King James Bible as many other translations have been altered and manipulated to lead us astray.

    The Bible is the only book containing fulfilled prophecies and prophecies regarding the future. Please study for yourself how hundreds of prophecies in the Bible have already been fulfilled to the letter. So why then would the prophecies regarding the Rapture and the persecution on earth (the wrath of God) not also be true and why will it not also be fulfilled to the letter? Everything will come to pass just as it is written. We are so caught up in opinions of people that we do not make time to read God’s Word and ask Him to confirm it through His Holy Spirit. Please go through your own Bible and see if you can find the Book of Opinion. If not, let us read and the Bible as it is written, also regarding things to come!

    Dear reader, I pray that you will read this book with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I pray that only the Holy Spirit will convict you and that He will help you to be in line with God’s Word so that you will be prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ. I pray that you will have an urgency to warn others so that they too will be prepared.

    May you be blessed and prepared by the warning from God our Father through this book.

    Cobus van Heerden

    Authority in Christ Ministries,

    Roodepoort, RSA

    *******

    Eschatology is one of those very intricate subjects where one can never exactly know for a fact what would happen in the end times and many Bible scholars differ in their various approaches concerning Biblical understandings relevant to the end times. I personally have studied dozens of different viewpoints over the last two decades and never found a one hundred percent satisfactory exposition on the entire subject until I read Dr. Tiaan Gildenhuys’ book: The Rapture of the Saints (True, or False?)

    The material contained in this book is not the result of verse-juggling, nor is it just rough conclusions about some sort of absurd idea or perception. It is definitely not founded on mythological viewpoints or allegory as some postmodern theologians proclaim.

    The information in this book is very meticulously researched over a wide spectrum of disciplines and provides insights in such a comprehensible way that one is astounded at the chronological method by which my brother Tiaan managed to compose the facts and confirmation of the statements based on true contextual understanding of scriptures and Biblical prophecy.

    By understanding the paradoxical differences between Israel and the Bride of Christ one cannot refute the evidence Tiaan presented from Biblical confirmations through parallels or shadow narratives in Old and New Testament texts that reflect directly on the huge difference between the end time consequences for Israel and the Bride of Christ.

    Tiaan even went further and proved through Biblical assertion and derivation that in the Church structure, not all participants are bride nor will all people who call themselves Christian necessarily be raptured to join the Bridegroom (Jesus) in Holy Matrimony.

    One other outstanding section of the book that intrigued me personally, is the simple but significant revelation concerning the tabernacle and its formulated layout of objects therein, the process that priests had to undergo before entering the Holy place daily and the chronological procedure the High priest had to undertake to eventually end up in the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement. All this detail given to reflect on the spiritual and physical cleansing process to become Bride of Christ and partake in the marriage supper of the Lamb.

    Finally, in the last chapters of the book concluding the discussion of all topics and narrowing it down to one culminating challenge to every believer, ARE YOU READY FOR THE RAPTURE?

    This book will be a great benefit to eager-hearted Christian believers who have a passion to know the truth and are earnest in their faith to conform to God’s standards and to break away from traditional carnal viewpoints and vague opinions regarding this very important subject.

    Dr Frans Nortje

    Turning Point Counseling Network

    Doornpoort, Pretoria, RSA

    *******

    The rapture of the bride of Christ is very similar to gravity. How can you compare the rapture to gravity, you may ask? Well, gravity is a physical law that we cannot see but it exists. You don’t have to believe in gravity, but the fact remains that when you jump off anything, you will fall to the ground. Even if you don’t believe in it, it remains an absolute truth. The same applies to the rapture of the bride of Christ. It is an absolute truth.

    Any serious Bible scholar who understands God’s pattern/s will know that throughout the Word of God, we find the pattern of the rapture from Noah in Genesis, through to Revelation. In this book, Tiaan has shown that pattern and with all the supporting Scriptures we can be assured that the rapture is real, is God’s truth and as the prepared bride of Christ we can look forward to Yeshua’s (Jesus) imminent return.

    The critical factor to this is that the bride needs to be prepared. As Tiaan has mentioned in detail in the book, it is not the entire church that will be bride, but only the bride who has prepared herself for the imminent coming of the Groom. The question is, are you prepared?

    As I have mentioned before, we need to follow God’s pattern to understand His plan of

    salvation and also who will qualify as the bride of Christ. The American evangelist, Dick Reuben, once said: If the pattern is right, the glory will fall. This means that when we understand Abba Father’s pattern we will be able to experience the glory of His salvation.

    God gave us the pattern of who will qualify as the bride in the story of Abraham, sending his servant to fetch a bride for his son (Genesis 24). Abraham sends Eliezer away with gifts and 10 camels and instructs him to fetch a wife from his own people. He insists that the bride must come to the groom. When Eliezer arrives at the well, he agrees with God that the bride will be the one who gives water to him as well as the camels. When the bride follows him back to Isaac the groom, she rides upon the camels, led by Eliezer. On arrival, the groom meets the bride and the marriage is consummated.

    What is the pattern that we need to see? Abraham represents God. Eliezer represents the Holy Spirit, for he is the one bearing the gifts. As bride, we need to be part of the body of Christ, be baptized in water and the Holy Spirit to receive the gifts of the spirit. The 10 camels represent the 10 commandments. So, the bride will be identified as those ones, focusing on and giving attention to the Holy Spirit as well as the Word/law /instructions of God.

    The bride will be led by the Holy Spirit and will rely on the Word of God to prepare herself as holy and blameless before the Lord. She will go to meet the Groom. He will not come to the earth, but we will meet Him in His domain or as scripture says, in the air. Then will the marriage be concluded.

    It is important that the believers in God understand the importance of being prepared to be bride or at least to be part of the wedding guests. If we are not prepared and ready to meet the Groom, we will stay behind and experience the terrible time of the tribulation.

    Tiaan has given us a detailed explanation of the rapture and being prepared to be worthy of being the bride of Christ. After reading this book, no serious child of God should have any doubt about the rapture or the timing thereof and we should all be prepared and await the imminent return of Yeshua, the Groom, with eager anticipation.

    The groom is coming. Be prepared and ready.

    Matthew 25:6: And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

    Dr Chris van Niekerk

    Christ the Way, Truth and Life Ministries

    Centurion, Pretoria, RSA

    TABLE OF CONTENTS:

    PREFACE

    1. Introduction

    2. The Signs of the Times

    3. The Book of Revelation

    4. Rapture? What rapture?

    5. What is the Roman Catholic view of the rapture?

    6. Tribulation vs. Wrath

    7. Examples in the Bible of the righteous being protected and the unrighteous being destroyed

    8. He will come FOR His saints....

    9. ...And He will come WITH His saints

    10. Our Bodies will Change

    11. As in the Times of Noah

    12. The Apostasy and the Antichrist

    13. Israel versus The Church

    14. Joseph and his brothers. Jesus and His Jewish brothers

    15. The Ancient Jewish Marriage Ceremony.

    16. The Seven Feasts of the Lord

    17. The 144 000

    18. One Wedding Supper, two brides

    19. Learn from the Ten Virgins.

    20. Saved during the tribulation

    21. The Imminent Return of Jesus

    22. Various Trumpets

    23. What will Happen to the Nations?

    24. Who will we rule over?

    25. The End from the Beginning

    26. Is the Pre-Tribulation Rapture a Modern doctrine?

    27. False Rapture

    28. Problems with the Post-Tribulation Rapture View

    29. The Proof of Luke 21:34-36

    30. Conclusion

    31. Aftermath. Message to those who stayed behind...

    1.

    INTRODUCTION

    "Father, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. I come to You now in the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord, You are the God of all gods, You are the King of kings and the Lord of lords. There is no other God like You and there is no other God but You. You are the Great I am, the one who is and who was and who is to come. Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, You are the Name above all Names, Yahweh and Yeshua (Jesus), our heavenly Father and our heavenly Brother.

    Lord I pray that Your Holy Spirit will now take charge of the writing of this book, that You will take me out of the way, so that it will not be me writing this book heavenly Father, but that your Holy Spirit will speak through me in this book.

    I pray that you will use my fingers:

    "Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my FINGERS to fight…" (Psalm 144:1)

    to write this book to Your glory and to help many of Your children be set free from the lies that abound in the world regarding this very important message Father.

    Be glorified in me, through me and by the revelation of this message to those who have not understood the importance of this message yet, or those whose eyes might still be veiled by the god of this world according to 2 Corinthians 4:4. I specifically pray against and bind the demon spirit of religion and the spirits of doubt, error, division, laziness and mind control, who will try to steal this message from the hearts of Your children Lord. Please render the working of these spirits ineffective as people read this book, I pray in Your Name Lord Jesus.

    Father God, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I pray that You alone will be glorified through this book and through the revelation of Your Word, in Jesus Name. Amen."

    *******

    I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus on August 28th, 1999. And since then the Holy Spirit started revealing awesome truths in the Word to me. Things like 2 Corinthians 1:13:

    "For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end…"

    Since the Holy Spirit showed me this verse, I started reading my Bible in a total new way. I learned to read my Bible as it is written, to understand what it says, and then to DO what it says. And since I started doing that all the awesome truths in the Word became real to me in my personal life.

    In this book we will read what the Bible CLEARLY says regarding the rapture of the believers, and the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need not do any strange interpretations or contextual contortions to try and understand what the Bible says about this very important subject. You will see for yourself what the text says just as it is written.

    The second thing I soon learned after being born-again is that I - like most believers - did not know my Scriptures, as Jesus warned in Matthew 22:29:

    "Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God."

    The more I speak to other believers, also regarding the message of this book, the more I see the truth of this verse. People, including Christians, don’t know their Scriptures and because they don’t know their Scriptures, they don’t know the power of God, neither in their personal lives, nor regarding the prophecies about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the question is WHY don’t they know their Scriptures? The answer is because they don’t know the AUTHOR of the Scriptures on a personal basis. That was my own problem previously. I was so busy with dead religion that I never knew that I may also have a personal relationship with the living God. Only when I met the Lord Jesus Christ personally did I realize that religion is DEAD, only intimate relationship with Jesus Christ is and gives LIFE!

    May this book help you the reader receive new knowledge and a plainer understanding of this very important end-time message because it only came alive in my own life after entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and being set free from the demon spirits of religion and of doubt and unbelief in my life.

    To start, I would like to show you this little picture I drew myself to try and show you some of the different views in the world regarding the rapture and/or the end-times.

    1. The arrow in the middle depicts the time-line, from the beginning of time, into eternity.

    2. 2000 years ago Jesus came to earth for the first time, died on a cross and returned to His Father in heaven. Since then we entered the period we call the Church dispensation, the time of the church in which we still are living today.

    3. Then we have the view of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, which believes that the Lord Jesus Christ will remove His obedient followers from the earth PRIOR to the seven year tribulation that is to come, according to the Bible. I personally believe in this view myself and in this book will show you how the Lord revealed it to me from the Scriptures itself and with confirmation from other sources.

    4. Another view held by some believers, is that there won’t be a pre-tribulation rapture, but only a mid-tribulation rapture, meaning the believers need to go through one half of the tribulations that are to come before they will be removed from earth by the Lord Jesus, and that they will then escape the last half of the seven year tribulation.

    5. Then there is the view that there will only be a post-tribulation rapture, meaning that all believers need to go through all seven years of the tribulation and after that the Lord Jesus will come down, that we will meet Him halfway in the air and immediately come back down with Him to be with Him here on earth.

    6. Upon Jesus’ return after the seven years of tribulation, the thousand years of Jesus’ Millennial reign starts. I will discuss some of the things that will happen during the millennium in detail in this book.

    7. Below the timeline you will find some other differing views on the end-times:

    7.1. The Preterists believe that the book of Revelation came to an end when the second temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD and that it therefore was only applicable to the first century believers.

    7.2. Believers in futurism believe that the book of Revelation is still to be finalized as from Chapter 4 thereof and onward. I personally believe this view and will share this view in this book.

    7.3. The Amillennialists e.g. the Seventh Day Adventists don’t believe in a thousand year period with believers being here on earth, but rather that we will only be in heaven during that time.

    7.4. The pre-millennialists believe that Jesus wil return before the thousand years.

    7.5. The post-millennialists believe that Jesus will return only after the thousand years.

    As you can see, there is quite a lot of DIVISION and CONFUSION out there regarding the specific details of the second return of Jesus Christ… And of course division and confusion is NOT of God.

    "For God is NOT the author of confusion…"

    (1 Corinthians 14:33)

    That obviously means that all the division and confusion regarding the rapture is from the devil himself! And just that thought alone should let many people re-evaluate their views regarding the rapture. Unfortunately many millions of Christians participate in perpetuating all that confusion…

    But the point is:

    Jesus IS coming back! Are…YOU…ready?

    In order to give a short and concise explanation of the times we find ourselves in and will still experience in the future, I would like to also use the following little graph, which you can come back to every time as you work through this book, as these will be the things I will discuss in more detail during the course of this book:

    1. Firstly we see that Jesus came to earth from heaven two thousand years

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