RAPTURE TRAIN TO GLORY

Michael turns and pauses before answering.
"It is the Word of God that causes hope to rise in men's hearts. This is the way it has always been with those coming to YHVH/God. Newly converted saints are not sanctified immediately. Their responses to the inrush of God's new blessings and power is very often a mixture of the holy and the carnal. With this wonderful new hope in the covenant with God dreams and expectations of men spring forth in their hearts, minds, and motivations. With their spiritual expectations boosted their earthly and political expectations also tend to rise and sometimes break forth in the flesh as well. This can end up being quite socially disruptive of the status quo. The division is inevitable. Jesus Himself said that His coming would bring a sword of division between people, even those residing in the same household. -Mat.10:34-36 The Word of God cuts like a two edged sword. Truly the breaking forth of the Word of God is the engine of history. The elect of God are ever moving onwards and leaving new legends and stories behind them. The highway of holiness leads onwards and upwards. The vitality of this new wine is always requiring new wineskins. New wine bursts open the old wineskins if it is allowed to stay and ferment there. The pilgrims in passage cannot be kept too long encamped in old structures under the flags and standards of earlier castles of compromised religion. They must move on. So while denominations and old movements are desirous of keeping the bulk of the people together and comfortable in one place the fresh revelation of the Word of God is calling the chosen "called out" ones ever onwards. As pilgrims, life can be unsettling at times. This is how it must be. As the ekklesia, the (Gr.) "called out ones", the church or congregation of God is moving out along that ancient highway of holiness-Isa.35:10. Staff in hand the pilgrims journey on as sojourners just as our father Abraham did when he was called out of Ur four millenia ago. The breaking forth of the Word of God is always an embarrassment to that established religion which is built up humanistically into a culture. So instead of sharing the pure Word of God the shepherds have presumed to release attenuated weaker versions of scriptural truth in order to keep people together and to prevent them from "getting out of hand". Most importantly the crowds must be kept "quiet" for the sake of the ruling princes. So down through the ages the shepherds and their angelic rulers over Christendom have consciously or unconsciously conspired to authorise a continuous stream of scripturally unsupported special religious concessions and indulgences among men. Why? They do this in order to avoid offending and scattering the crowds. Inclusiveness is a foremost concern. And no pastor or evangelist wants to shepherd just the small percentage of fully committed saints and them only. They want to reach out to others and rightly so. But then again they do not want to have the more fully committed among their people becoming in any way disruptive of the social order. They are committed to maintaining the status quo. This is why the established church in England padlocked their pews against John Wesley and the 18th century evangelicals. They called them, "enthusiasts". Evangelicals were rejected as too "emotional". Churchmen felt the need to keep their subjects "under submission" and "quiet". Things haven't changed. Church sponsored edicts and doctrines are mixtures of Bible truth and the fancies of men. They are tailored for the average, "middle of the road" Christian. So this is why many endtime doctrines are compromised, unholy and untrue."

Our conductor looks down at the ticket I had offered him.
Then he fixes me in his penetrating gaze as he continues.

"The sales of this false Special Early Express Pre-Tribulation Rapture ticket here is just another case in point".

At that point I am badly shaken but still indignant.
Gamely I come back protesting loudly.

"Now just one minute, Michael!" I exclaim. "We are the church! We are not destined for the wrath of God! -1Thes.5:9. We are headed for glory!-Rom. 8:18 We are kings and priests before God!"-Rev.5:10

Our host replies,
"It is true you are not destined for wrath. And indeed you are destined for glory".
With that Michael looks across at us and his eyes flash as the fire of a furnace. "But dear saints, God is not mocked. You will never realise your true destiny in God until you stop trying to avoid your witness in Him. He has promised to be with you right through to the end of the age. -Mat 28:18-20 Your Saviour is waiting for you to take up your cross and follow Him. Only you can respond faithfully to His calling. And like your fathers before you, as they bowed before Joseph in Egypt, you must resolve this matter of the Cup of Christ. Please understand something here. You cannot be given authority at the end of the age unless you have taken up your responsibility in it. Whether you realise this yet or not, you are the blood covenant people of God. You are the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the threshold of the final showdown of the age is just up ahead. As such it is your responsibility to fulfill your witness in that New Covenant in Christ. The Saviour asks you to drink "all" of His Cup along with Him.-Mat.26:27 Your response is even as the Hebrew wedding betrothal. Your signature too will appear in witness on the New Covenant betrothal document if it is to be validated. You have been invited to drink the Cup along with your Beloved. How you respond to that invitation is your decision and yours alone".

I collapse back in my seat. This has completely blown me away. I mumble incoherently.

      At that point, Johnny has heard enough.
      "Now I see it!", he exclaims.
      "Those tribulation saints we are waiting for here in those front compartments of the train are surely the endtime church! Didn't the Apostle John say that "they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb"? -Rev.7:14 That sounds just like us, doesn't it? Hey, they may BE us in our future witness! Come on, there is work to be done! We must get "back to the future"! Time is short!"

      Johnny gets up and I follow him forward and off the train. I am feeling faint and shaky. It is like I want to fall down on my knees. I'm a pretty tough sort of a person but I can feel myself breaking up on the inside. So Johnny helps me to exit down the steps. The crowds are pressing in against us now to board the train.We, on the other hand, are going against the crowds. We are leaving the train and heading out. We pass Michael on the platform and he fixes us with an angelic smile. He says,
      "I guess you boys were inclined to go up and board the train a little early, eh?"
At that point Johnny and I can only nod as we head off.
      "Don't worry." Michael says.
      "I'll be coming to pick you up when it is time to board. I will be taking every last one of you out of here precisely on time and as promised".

I stop and turn around. "What good will that be?" I lament. "From what we have heard here today many of us may perish as witness/martyrs before that time comes."

"God will give you grace for the trials ahead", Michael says. You will be "kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."-1Pet.1:5 "Even as darkness falls you will be as lamps bearing the Light of His witness. You are "The sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, ...(and you will) shine as lights in the world". -Phil.2:15 The seed of Abraham, the myriad people of faith in Christ (-Gal.3:29) will pass onwards and upwards as a wedding party of shining lamps in the night, passing along a highway of holiness towards the Holy City. -Isa.35:8-10 You will "lift up a banner for the peoples". -Isa.62:10 "Surrounded by a cloud of heavenly witnesses you will run with endurance the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith"-Heb.12:1 You will pass on to realise your inheritance in realms of unspeakable splendour. No matter what happens in your passage of witness you will all enter into His ecstasy and transport at the resurrection-rapture of the "last day".-John 6:39, 6:44, 6:54, & 11:24 Mat.24:31 One way or another all of you will be there alive and changed in that final climactic explosion of glory.-Joel 2:28-32. And "not a hair of your head will be lost". -Luke 21:18

So fear not! We'll not be one millisecond late for our departure. We'll be leaving just as soon as the gang's all here. Right after I get the word you will hear my shout.
Then I will call out,

"All aboard!"

The Word of God ministers within us as we walk off along the platform. A little glimmer of hope begins to well up within me. I find myself strangely lifted in the Spirit. Turning around I ask our host one last question,
"So when will it be, Michael? When will that Day come when we finally get carried "outta here"?

Michael answers,
      "We'll all be pulling out of here together,
      "In a moment,
      in the twinkling of an eye,
      at the last trumpet,
      .....the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
      and (you) will be changed."-1Cor.15:52

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