https://thepreachersword.com/2017/09/22/is-the-rapture-coming-tomorrow/
Is the Rapture Coming Tomorrow?
The world won’t end (Saturday), “but the world as we know it is ending,” David Meade, told the Washington Post in a recent interview.
Meade is a self-described “specialist in research and investigations.” Apparently, his doomsday claim has some people nervously eyeing tomorrow, September 23, 2017, as the beginning of catastrophic events that will begin to befall Earth. His claims have been reported in Newsweek, Fox News, the Huffington Post and several other media outlets.
The basis for Meade’s calculation is based on last month’s eclipse. He said the rapture would occur 33 days later. Here’s his explanation. “Jesus lived for 33 years. The name Elohim, which is the name of God to the Jews, was mentioned 33 times [in the Bible],” Meade told the Post. “It’s a very biblically significant, numerologically significant number. I’m talking astronomy. I’m talking the Bible … and merging the two.”
Really? You can’t make this stuff up.
Furthermore, Meade believes global catastrophes will be caused by a secret planet called Nibiru passing the Earth on Saturday. NASA has repeatedly debunked stories about Nibiru as a wayward planet. They “are an Internet hoax,” the space agency said. “There is no factual basis for these claims.
Religious leaders from various groups are “calling out Meade and others over the latest doomsday predictions.” “Meade’s views are not endorsed by Roman Catholic, Protestant or Eastern Orthodox branches of Christianity,” Fox News reported.
“Meade is a made-up leader in a made-up field, and should not be on the front page of anything, let alone Fox News,” Ed Stetzer of Christianity Today wrote.
This latest end of the world prediction is based upon a false doctrine and faulty Biblical exegesis.
There are many different theories about “the rapture” propagated by various cults. They are all based on an incorrect understanding of the book of Revelation and the Old Testament prophets.
End of the world predictions are nothing new. Three theologians said the world would end in 500 A.D. Various clerics predicated Christ’s coming at the end of the first Millennium, January 1, 1000. Past predictions have targeted the years 1260, 1370, and 1700. Charles Taze Russell, the first President of the Watchtower Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses, said Christ would come in 1874. The “Witnesses” have made several other failed predictions through the years.
In more modern times the end of the world has been predicted by religious leaders Herbert W. Armstrong, Jerry Faldwell, Harold Camping and Jack Van Impe. In fact, there have been well over 200 documented predictions regarding the end of the world. Obviously, all such prophecies have not come to pass.
The apostle Peter affirms by inspiration that the “Day of the Lord” will come “as a thief in the night.” (2 Pet. 3:9-10).
When the apostles asked Jesus what would be the signs of the His coming He responded this way. “Watch, therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.” Then he used the thief analogy to illustrate His point.
“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.” (Matt. 25:42-43)
Indeed Christ is coming again. But nowhere does the Bible teach we will be raptured for 7 years, then return to reign with Christ on earth. Here’s what the Bible says.
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
According to the apostle Peter “day of the Lord” will bring an end to this world, “in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”
Time will end. The world will be destroyed. Both the righteous and wicked will be raised (Jn. 5:28-29). Jesus will deliver the Kingdom to the Father (1 Cor. 15:20-27). And heaven will become an eternal reality for the righteous (Matt. 25:46)
John’s warning is appropriate when considering Meade’s predictions and others of his ilk. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 Jn. 4:1).
–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman