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Restoration Ministry

Restoration 2006: Prepare Me

Ron du Preez

Virtuous Valentine: The Love of Your Life

Communicating In Code: The Secret of the Scrolls

Trip Into the Trinity: Figuring the Unfathomable

Eric Walsh

Bible Study Hour

A Ransom for a Rebel: Bloody Business of the Beasts

Living it Up for the Lord: It’s Crazy to Cling to Cancer

Belonging and Be Living: Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Miracle Makeover: A Lifetime Warranty

The Quarantine Guarantee: The Rest of the Story

James Kyle

Let Your Lawyer Run Your Life: Acquittal is Assured

Griping Over God’s Gifts: A Prophet or a Loss

Interview with Leonard Brand

Secrets of Centenarians: Living Long in Luxury

Interview with Gary Frasier

Interview with Marge Jetton

The Medium is the Message: A Grave Turn of Events

The Ultimate Thanksgiving: Family Friends Forever

Richard Walton

Interview with Leslie Pollard

Cardiology of Commitment: The Heart of the Matter

Bible Ethics Question and Answer Session

Once more, and for the last noon meeting, I want to say personally, welcome to you.

God has led, God has blessed, and I am saddened, actually, in 1 sense.

Yes, my wife said to me just the other day, whoo, it's been too long, honey.

I think yesterday I was on the phone with her.

But you know, I have been blessed by being here and I've gotten to know so many wonderful people here.

I'm glad to have had this privilege to meet you and even if I don't have a chance to say it again, I say it right at the beginning, folks, I really do wish, especially with our topic today, I long for the day when there will be no more partings, when we will eventually always be forever with the Lord with each other.

Thank you for the many friends I've met here.

People who love you, people who are growing, people who are walking by faith and not by sight, focused on Jesus Christ.

Just to remind you our last message we had this 1 and I just said the dead rest in the grave till they are raised but today I'm gonna try I thought I was trying the impossible before, now I'm trying the totally impossible.

But I just want to whet your appetite because there's so much here.

Here was something Barbara Walters, heard of Barbara Walters?

December 2005 article, In search of heaven.

And she went and talked to different people on this whole issue.

Fascinating article how different people view heaven from radically different perspectives.

It's become very very popular now this whole idea.

Let me read you very briefly, very quickly here something that I came across and I eventually I shared this in a message and I eventually put it into the book No Fear for the Future.

So I'm going to actually read from this right here.

At the start of book 1 on a 747 jet bound to for Heathrow from Chicago the flight attendant suddenly finds about half the seats empty except for the clothes and wedding rings and dental fillings of the believers who have suddenly been swept up to heaven down in the ground cars are crashing Husbands are waking up to find only a nightgown in bed next to them and all children under 12 have disappeared as well.

By the way, I'm reading from Time Magazine.

It's easier than flipping through the pages.

The books, this is Time magazine speaking now, an article there July 1, 2002.

The books of the Left Behind series offer readers a vivid, violent, and utterly detailed description of just what happens to those who are left behind on earth to fight the Antichrist after Jesus raptures or lifts the faithful up to heaven.

The terrorist attacks which was just a few months before that not only deepened the interest among Christians fluent in the language of Armageddon and apocalypse It broadened it as well to an audience that had never paid much attention to the predictions of the doomsday prophet Nostradamus or been worried about an epic battle that marks the end of time or for that matter read the book of Revelation.

Since September 11, again still from Time Magazine, people from the cooler corners of Christianity have begun asking questions about what the Bible has to say about how the world ends.

The book of Revelation has always held its mysteries, But for millions of people, the code was broken in 1995 when Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins published Left Behind, a novel of the Earth's last days.

Now, I'm going to show you a picture in a minute, But I want to just rush ahead.

That was 2002 and there were 14, there's a 14 part series, as some of you might know.

Time magazine says, this interest in the end times is no fringe phenomenon.

Only about half of the left behind readers, those books, are evangelical, which suggests there is a broader audience of people who are having this conversation.

Actually, Time, CNN, did a poll in which they found out that more than one-third of Americans, more than 33% of Americans say they are paying more attention now to how the news might relate to the end of the world.

Fully 59% say the events in Revelation are going to come true.

Some of that interest is fueled by faith, some by fear, some by imagination, but all 3, faith, fear and imagination are fed by the left behind series of books.

Ok, and in case you weren't aware, let me just show you a cover now.

This is a Newsweek, that was Time Magazine I quoted.

This is Newsweek, the new prophets of Revelation.

That's what it's called, why their biblical left-behind novels have sold 62 million copies and counting.

This was Newsweek magazine, the date there, let's see, was May 24, 2004 and it's having an alarming impact around the world.

Listen to this, the 12th book that came out, glorious appearing, sold almost 2 million copies before it was published.

Okay, it wasn't even published, they sold 2 million copies.

We're happy if a book sells a few thousand after it's come out.

Newsweek says, Jerry Jenkins and Tim Leigh are quote, America's best-selling authors across the board.

Fiction, secular, they are the best-selling authors.

Make no mistake, their books, movies, CDs, greeting cards, games, children's books are having an alarming impact on people.

Newsweek has taken a poll and this is what they say, 55 percent, this is 2004 by the way, 55% of Americans in general across the board Christian, agnostic, atheist, secular, Muslim, across the board 55% of Americans believe, think that the faithful will be taken up to heaven in the rapture.

Because sometimes, listen to what happens, 1 dear 77 year old lady said, if we keep our eyes on Israel, literal Israel, there in the Middle East, we will know about the return of Christ.

In fact, 1 evangelical from Australia was so anxious to get Jesus to come, he went to the Muslim Al-Aqsa Mosque, 1 of the sacred shrines of the Muslims, and he set it on fire in an attempt to burn down the mosque so that then when the mosque would be gone the evangelicals and others could rebuild the third temple because they believe that you must rebuild the temple right there before Jesus can come.

Now listen to 1 more quote from the Time magazine I've mentioned.

To some evangelical readers the left behind books provide more than a spiritual guide they are a political agenda.

When they read in the newspapers that about the growing threats to Israel they are not only concerned for a fellow democratic ally in the war against terror they are also worried about God's chosen people and the fate of the land where events must must unfold they believe in a specific way for Jesus to return that combination helps to explain why some Christian leaders have also pressed their case in the Bush White House as if their salvation depended upon it interesting something I just got a year ago Jerry Falwell says the left behind series listen to this in terms up its impact on Christianity the left behind series is probably greater than that up any other book in modern times outside of the Bible.

A major impact these books have had unquestioningly.

So we cannot ignore the teachings and what's becoming.

I'm summarizing simplistically, yes, but 3 things the rapture theory teaches.

First, secret rapture can occur at any moment.

And no 1, only those who have been raptured will know that they've been raptured nobody else will know except their clothes might be left behind in something else but no 1 knows they're raptured except those who went up you'll find their personal effects number 1 number 2 after the rapture There will be a dreadful time of persecution that they call the tribulation.

But don't worry because God, all God's true believers will not suffer.

They'll be in heaven already safe and sound.

Third, if you miss the rapture, and remember 55% of Americans in general believe this, but if you miss the rapture, don't worry, you have a second chance.

And I brought with today, this is of course, you know those books are called fictionalized things, but in 1999, and I bought this book by the way I didn't bring it it's too heavy to carry all these books with me I have both my suitcases at 50 pounds they were loaded to the max so I just got some brought some photocopies I bought a book called are we living in the end times by LeHay and Jenkins and I've been looking at the book and they got some interesting material in it I think there's material that Christians in general agree with but then they go further and they say uncounted millions of men and women boys and girls will recognize that although they missed the rapture and thus will have to endure the terrors of the tribulation yet God is still wooing them to his side.

We believe these tribulation saints could well number into the billions with a B.

They've been left behind yes but God will not give up on them and then they go further on page 240 and they say there's a third chance at salvation if you are if you are not saved by the time Jesus comes on page 240 on this book and it's a book on prophecy it's not a fictionalized 1 They say this is actually a book on the theology.

So I'm giving you a quick idea here and then they say, if you are not saved by the time Jesus comes don't worry.

You'll have another 100 years to repent during the Millennium.

On page 240 they say, we believe the unregenerate will be given 100 years to repent and accept Christ as their Savior during the first 100 years of the Millennium.

So now you understand why I'm really concerned as a Christian pastor.

The Rapture Theory teaches, gives you the opportunity to put off salvation.

You have a second chance, you have a third chance, you can even be saved during the hundred years, in the millennium, by the way.

Now I don't have time to go into all that because, you know, I wanted to give you a visual example of that today.

I looked at materials that were put together on Bible study and guess what?

Today's sermon, they put into 5 separate Bible studies.

So you know what I'm trying to say today?

I'm going to try to give to whet your appetite only, because there's so much beautiful truths in Scripture.

You might be thinking I've been critical of my fellow Christians I stand guilty as accused I too in my enthusiasm have misquoted scripture and have talked about things and now I'm finding more I'm saying okay I'll give you an example Daniel chapter 12 let me share with you so remember I'm not being critical I'm just saying sometimes we ourselves have used scriptures in such a way, later on we dig further, we say, how come did I do that?

So, I'm hoping that all of us can be open to growing.

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Series

Restoration 2006: Prepare Me

The Ultimate Thanksgiving: Family Friends Forever

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Bits & Pieces

38m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

18 When the Day of Atonement Ends

50m

Morning Devotional

The Lord is Coming. Are You Ready?

45m

Revelation Made Simple

7. Revelation’s Great Escape

38m

What Jesus Said

14. The Rapture of the Saints

1h

The Most Precious Resource

1h 6m

Jim Ayer Weekend 2006

The Toenails of Time

32m

Ron du Preez: The 'Day' that Changed the World

The Rapture or Ripoff: What Got Left Behind in 1844

52m

False Virgin Mary Prophecy of End Time Conflict

36m

Let’s Go Home!

48m

Jesus on Prophecy

14 Jesus on Revelation’s Rapture

37m

Lets go Home

37m

Sound Doctrine