Hello Mike,

Thank you for fowarding me those scriptures, and yes, we all want to be delivered and escape from the vials of the seven angels but the truth is:

Ecc 9:2 all things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

I have been studying about the false doctrine of the secret rapture. I even watched one of the videos on your page and saw you speaking about it. I remember you reading from Mat 13:30 on how it clearly says the (Tares) were gathered to be burnt (FIRST) then you asked, Does this sound like the secret rapture to you? It is so true, but I couldn’t stop laughing. I also saw that clearly heaven is on earth. If it were not, then Enoch would not have died if he was really taken to heaven.

Gen 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him

It is amazing how he died even though it says God took him. I was talking to a friend and asked him how did Enoch die if he was taken? He answered, he died because he was changed into spirit. It is not scriptural for what he said, but I had compassion on him and saw myself before believing everything he had said, but it is SO true when Jesus says: (To them it is not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom). I did point out to him he is dead wrong and we read the scripture together where it says:

Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

So yes, I thank God that he has separated me from these false doctrines and had mercy on me. I just think to myself, ‘God has had mercy on me for some reason, out of so many people, he chose to show these things to me’ and I ask “why me”, you know? It is very humbling to know what we know and the mercy upon us. I just wanted to ask about 1Th 4:17. I can see that being caught upin the (Air) is really on earth, but can you help me understand the BEING CAUGHT UP part? The Lord does not change, I mean after hearing about we were going to be raptured from so many sermons and I began to have these dreams that I was being caught up with Jesus, Now that I see how I used to believe these dreams of mine I have come to see that:

Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

After I starting dreaming about that I TOO, was going to be raptured up out of here, here is what God was doing with me:

Eze 14:4 (c) I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.

I was never given to see that:

Pro 10:30 The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.

What does a rapture- believing minister do with this scripture above? I really don’t see how they can twist and pervert that scripture into being taken away. Truly it is already written on what people would do with that kind of scripture and others.

Gal 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

I just want your help on the being (Caught Up) part in 1Th 4:17. Please explain this to me. I hope all is well with you and your family, Mike. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.

Your brother In Christ,
Y____

Hi Y____,

I am very happy to see that you have been given the ability to see through all the Babylonian idols of the heart which hold us all captive for so long.
You ask about the meaning of being “caught up to meet the Lord in the air…”?

1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1Th 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Being “caught up” has nothing at all to do with physical geography, and neither does have to do with any physical direction. “Up” in Biblical terms is best described by this verse:

Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So we don’t have to worry that the saints in Australia will have to go down into the earth to get to a Christ who is returning to Jerusalem instead of being ‘caught up to be with the Lord’. Up is no more literal than is Jerusalem.

Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

This is the Jerusalem to which Christ will come as her husband, and that ‘Jerusalem’ stands in sharp contrast to the Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children”.

Gal 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman [ was] by promise.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The words “coming down from God out of heaven” is no more literal, or geographical, than are the words “caught up together with them.” The Biblical truth of this subject is that we are already caught up together with Christ, into the heavens, just as Christ Himself was in heaven even as He stood in a body of flesh upon this physical earth:

Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly [ places] in Christ Jesus:

There is no Greek for the word ‘places’. It reads “in the heavens in Christ Jesus”. So then we, like Him are both in heaven, as well as being on this earth:

Joh 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

Just as Christ is in you and in me, in spirit, He is also in those in Australia and South Africa and England and Holland, etc., and just as “Christ in you” speaks of your thoughts and not your geographical location, so does “caught up together” to be with Him after a resurrection from among the dead. It is speaking of being in the realm of the spirit and possessing the thoughts and ways of God.
I am well aware that the natural man will not be able to examine or process such a thought, but that is to be expected.

1Co 2:11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I hope these verses of God’s Word server to help you to spiritually discern the meaning of being “caught up to meet the Lord in the air”. It is deliberately written as if it is physical and as if we are meeting the Lord in the physical atmosphere, but those who are given to be “taught by the holy spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” will understand that the direction “up”, and the location “in the air” are both spiritual code words discerned by spiritual minds meaning that at the resurrection of the dead, the dead will rise first and any saint who happens to be still in a body of flesh will forfeit that flesh and take on a spiritual body with spiritual thoughts which are far above our carnal ways, because they will not be in the physical ‘air;’ but they will be in the spiritual realm.
Your brother in Christ,

Mike