TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Rapture vs. Second Coming: Does Jesus Christ Return Once or Twice?

Episode Date: August 23, 2022

Will there be one "Second Coming" of Jesus or two? The question sounds silly. If Jesus returns twice, the second "Second Coming" would have to be called the Third Coming of Jesus Christ. The obvious answer is: There is only one Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Why must such a ridiculous question be asked in the first place? Despite the question's absurdity, tens of millions of sincere Christians, who genuinely love the Lord, are confused about the answer. Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart. Airdate 8/23/22

This is True News, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God. I'm Rick Wiles. How many times does Jesus Christ return to earth? Once or twice? Will there be one second coming of Jesus or two? The question sounds silly. If Jesus returns twice, the second second coming would have to be called the third coming of Jesus Christ. Well, the obvious answer is there is only one second coming of Jesus Christ? Well, the obvious answer is there is only one second coming of Jesus Christ.

Why must such a ridiculous question be asked in the first place? Despite the question's absurdity, tens of millions of sincere Christians who genuinely love the Lord are confused about the answer. Today, Doc Burkhardt and I will help you discern the rapture cult's deception that has fooled many sincere Christians into thinking that Jesus Christ will return twice. The laws of mathematics do not operate the same way in all churches. In most traditional Christian churches worldwide, one plus one always equals two. But math is different in other churches, primarily Christian Zionist churches in the United States of America. For them, one plus one equals one, because the first one does not count. Are you following along? Well, which denominations and churches and seminaries use traditional math

in counting the number of times Jesus will return in the second advent. Generally, the list includes most conservative traditional Christian churches, denominations, and seminaries. For the sake of simplicity, let's call this group traditional Christians. They include Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Reformed, Congregationalist, General Baptist, Free Will Baptist, Orthodox, and that includes Greek, Russian, Eastern, and Assyrian, and the various Catholic churches, Roman, Melkite, Marianite, Armenian, Malabar, Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopian. Now on the other side of the math divide are influential denominations and churches and seminaries that teach one plus one equals one. This school of mathematics is evangelical Zionism math or easy math. Religious organizations that teach easy math include the Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God, the Church of God, headquartered in Cleveland, Tennessee,

Calvary Chapel, Church of God in Prophecy, International Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Dallas Theological Seminary, Moody Bible Institute, Bob Jones University, Liberty University, Master's Seminary, and Evangel University. Now, in fairness to both sides, godly men and women who love Jesus Christ and share the gospel with others, and faithfully await the second coming of the Lord, are in traditional and Christian Zionist denominations and churches and seminaries. However, they have a significant difference of opinion on two eschatological topics of extreme importance. Does Jesus come back to earth once or twice? Is God's Israel the Christian church or a Zionist political state? The core controversy revolves around a concept known as the rapture. The doctrine is the linchpin that holds in place other vital parts of evangelical Christian Zionism. Those parts include the

separation of the church and Israel, the millennial kingdom, and the timing of the day of judgment. If you remove the linchpin, Christian Zionism theology will collapse into a heap of religious junk. That's why evangelical Zionists become very irate when anybody challenges the rapture doctrine, they must guard and defend the linchpin where the religious rapture industry will implode. The rapture is the queen bee in Christian Zionism's hive. And from it, a lot of financial honey flows to prophecy teachers and authors and publishers and TV networks and seminaries. As explained by Christian Zionists, the rapture is the next big event to happen in the fulfillment of Bible prophecies. The rapture concept first appeared in Great Britain in the early 1800s through the teaching of John Nelson Darby, a disgruntled Anglican priest whose family owned a haunted castle in Ireland where ghosts and

goblins roamed its halls. Darby's relatives were necromancers. So is it possible that John Nelson Darby received his dispensational rapture theology from a spook? Mr. Darby was vehemently opposed in London by Reverend Charles H. Spurgeon. What preacher would dare to make Spurgeon his fiercest critic? The fiery Reformed Baptist pastor called Darby the Protestant Pope because of his dogged insistence that Darby's new theology was recovered knowledge that God kept hidden from the worldwide church for 1800 years and that everybody had to accept it as biblically sound doctrine. Mr. Darby also invented dispensationalism, a theory of biblical history that claims that God assigned different administrative principles to different historical ages, otherwise known as dispensations.

Darby's unorthodox eschatology attracted few disciples in Great Britain. He made several voyages to America looking for converts, but enjoyed limited success selling his novel ideas to American preachers. One person, however, who was intrigued with Darby's new systematic theology was Reverend Dwight Moody, the Chicago-based soul-winning evangelist. Moody's Bible school later hired Cyrus Schofield to write and edit Bible correspondence courses that taught Darbyism. After his death, Schofield appropriated Darby's ideas and, with the help of a powerful

New York City Jewish lawyer, acquired a deal with London's Oxford University Press to publish a reference Bible with footnotes inspired by Darby's doctrines. When the first copies of the Schofield reference Bible rolled off Oxford's printing presses in 1909, America's evangelical and traditional churches were still essentially unified in their beliefs about the second advent of Christ. The main differences were over issues such as the 1,000 years mentioned in Revelation 20. Does it mean a literal millennial kingdom after the Lord returns, or does it mean that Christ is ruling and reigning now through his saints on earth? Overall, the idea that Jesus would return twice was unheard of in most American churches in the 19th century. Sales of the Schofield Reference Bible fueled the slow but steady growth of the rapture sect in the United States of America during the first seven decades of the 20th century.

Oxford sold an estimated two million copies of Schofield's shoddy reference Bible in the first several years after its publication. Throughout those years, most American churches continued to preach and teach traditional Christian eschatology. However, the rapture movement took off like a rocket in the 1970s after Hal Lindsey and Carol C. Carlson co-authored the late great Planet Earth, which reportedly sold over 40 million copies. And then a second booster rocket propelled the rapture doctrine into orbit in the 1990s when the late Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins co-authored the wildly successful Left Behind series of fictional novels and movies. The Left Behind book series sold an estimated 80 million copies. Today, the rapture doctrine is settled law in tens of thousands of churches. Most Christian Zionist pastors and Bible teachers and church members assume that all Christians worldwide have always believed it. To this day, belief in the rapture

is still an American Christian Zionist concept that has little support in churches elsewhere in the world. Now, Doc and I will pose seven questions crucial for you to consider today. Number one, does Jesus Christ return to earth once or twice? Number two, are the rapture and the second coming the same or different events? Number three, if the rapture and the second coming are separate events, does not that mean Jesus Christ will return to earth twice? Number four, why did Jesus neglect to tell his disciples that he would return twice. Number five, why did the apostles never teach early Christians that Jesus's return would be a two-stage event spread out over seven years? Number six, why did the early church fathers not mention the rapture? And number seven, why did the Holy Spirit conceal the rapture for over 1800 years until the days of John Nelson Darby? If questioned, both Christian Zionists and

traditional Christians would concur that the dead in Christ will rise first and quickly be followed by those alive when Jesus Christ returns. Here's where the two camps disagree. Is that event the rapture or the second coming? Christian Zionists would reply that it is the rapture. Traditional Christians would say it's the second coming. Which is it? Unless the rapture and the second coming are the same events, it cannot be both. According to the Darby Schofield Moody School of Theology, the return of Jesus will be a two-stage re-entry spread out over seven years. Darby taught that the rapture would happen first. It will be secretive because only Christians will see Jesus in the rapture. Unsaved people will be stunned when hundreds of millions of humans

vanish with no explanation for their sudden disappearance. Tim LaHaye fanned the religious nonsense with his novels and fictional films that predicted driverless automobiles that would crash into other cars and buildings and commercial airliners without pilots that would plummet to the ground, and terrified fathers who would return home from work to discover that their wives and children vanished. Well, Christian Zionism teaches that seven years of great tribulation and the rule of the Antichrist will follow the rapture. At the end of the seven years, Jesus will return to earth again

to crush the Antichrist and establish his kingdom in Jerusalem. For Christian Zionists, it will be the official second coming. That's why one plus one equals one, according to Easy Man. They say the first appearance by Jesus, the so-called secret rapture. One plus one equals one, according to Easy Math. They say the first appearance by Jesus, the so-called secret rapture,

does not count as a second coming of the Lord. But his second visit seven years later, that should be recognized as the official second coming. Furthermore, Christian Zionists believe nobody will be caught up in the clouds to meet Jesus in His Second Coming. In Darby's world, all saved Christians will be raptured before the Great Tribulation. Well, the Darby Schofield Moody Bible Seminary Cafeteria menu Bible seminary cafeteria menu includes a fully loaded rapture enchilada. And you're not allowed to pick and choose the toppings you like, but you must eat the whole thing. The toppings tray comprises a wide assortment of events, prophecies, and timelines that they swear must happen. Among the most popular toppings are these. Christians will be taken to heaven for seven years.

The Holy Spirit will be removed from the earth. The time of great tribulation will last seven years. 144,000 Jewish male virgins will preach during those seven years about a revived Davidic kingdom. Gentiles will convert after believing the message of the Jewish male virgins. A spotless red heifer will be born in Israel. A third temple will be built in Jerusalem. The Darby Rapture enchilada toppings also include that the Antichrist will make a peace treaty with the State of Israel that he intends to violate. The Antichrist armies will encircle the State of Israel. The Battle of Armageddon will be fought at Megiddo to destroy the State of Israel. Jesus' second coming will be seven years after the rapture. Jesus will return to save the state of Israel from destruction.

Jesus will revive the Davidic kingdom and its worldwide headquarters will be in Jerusalem. Gentiles will be saved during the great tribulation, but they will not be given glorified bodies at the second coming of Christ. Also, saved Gentiles will dwell in mortal human the third temple to atone for the sins of Gentiles who will live during the thousand year kingdom. They also teach us saved Gentiles will give birth to children during the millennial kingdom and that saved Gentiles will die and be

buried during the millennial kingdom. They also teach that Gentiles who die during the millennial kingdom will be resurrected at the end of the thousand years. There's more. The Christian Zionists teach that Satan will be released from the abyss at the end of the thousand years. There will be a final confrontation between God and Satan at the end of the thousand years.

Some Gentiles who live during the millennial kingdom will switch their allegiance to Satan. The day of judgment will be after the thousand years. And God will not destroy the earth, but instead merely refurbish it. Well, the Darby Schofield Moody doctrine has three big problems. Jesus never said it.

The apostles never taught it, and the universal church never heard of it for 18 centuries. Dr. Raymond Burkhardt is here with me to join in this discussion of the rapture versus the second coming of Jesus. Hey Doc, when you see it laid out versus the second coming of Jesus. Yes, sir. Hey, Doc. I mean, when you see it laid out, it's so absurd that it's hard to believe that millions of people believe it. Right.

And like you said, on all those points on the enchilada, the rapture enchilada, you have to eat the whole thing. You cannot pick and choose out of those things what you want. So whether you're pre-trib or mid-trib, you've got to swallow the whole thing. Now, we come from a different perspective on this. Our perspective is that these events are simultaneous. They're the same thing. They're the same event.

But as you said, for now, a little bit more than a century, about a century and a half now, actually, the idea of a secret taking away, a secret kidnapping of saints has occurred, and that no one else sees it. And this was taught now for over 100 years. But it hasn't been taught for the previous 18 centuries before that. In fact, over the weekend, you and I, Doc and I, had the honor. We had a lunch with a well-known Reformed denomination pastor who was visiting here in Florida and came by to see us.

We went to lunch. He complimented me on my book. He had read Final Day. He said he was in agreement with it. He said, I understand your theology. But, Doc, this is what he said to me. I think you had already left, and I was driving him back to his car.

You and I both, when we came to salvation, we both, in different denominations, but we were taught Darbyism. Right. So you and I have had to deal with Darbyism in our heads to get it out of our heads. But this Reformed denomination pastor said to me, I've never heard, I've never was taught Darbyism. It's never been a problem for me. I've never had to wrestle with these concepts.

It never got in my head. And for the life of me, I can't even imagine that people believe it. And so as I was listening to him, it was confirming what I had written in the book, is that there are two camps in the American church world. One is infected with Darbyism, Schofieldism. The other camp has never, ever been infected with it and can't figure out why so many other churches are caught up in it. It seems foreign to them. Right. Now, there might be a lot of people out there that would be saying, well, what difference does it really make? Well, we're believers.

You know, I'm going to love you whether you agree with me on this particular issue or not. But what's happened now is that there is such an extreme belief in the idea of a rapture event that occurs at the beginning of a tribulation period of seven years, and that it has now impacted culture, politics. Foreign policy. Military decisions. I mean, seriously. Foreign policy. Because at the centerpiece of the rapture belief is Israel. That's the centerpiece of it.

Jesus returns at the end of the seven years. Not to save the church, but to save Israel. That's the centerpiece of it. Jesus returns at the end of the seven years. Not to save the church, but to save Israel. That's the centerpiece of Darbyism, of dispensationalism, that it all builds up to that event. And then the thousand years adds to that in that Israel is the centerpiece. From our perspective, we believe that we are Israel, that the church is Israel. We have been grafted in. Paul taught this, that we were grafted in. And just as surely as Israel was taken out, the physical Israel, we could be taken out too if we don't follow the precepts and principles of the Scriptures

and what God has commanded us to do. That's right. In other words, it's by faith. Yes. And so the two views here center about what do you believe about the church? The Darbyites, the Dipsyites, if you will, believe that the church ends at the rapture. That's it. We're done with it.

And yet somehow there's preaching that's going on in those seven years. I don't know what's being preached. And what are they converting to? And what, yes. And what is it that they are converting to during that period of time? And so there have been so many of these things that have been threaded together, like a patchwork quilt of scrap material that if you pull a thread at one place on it, the whole quilt will fall apart. Yes. So in a rapture, that's, that's it. That's the linchpin. So we mentioned Israel. So many American Christians have been taught that Israel is a political state. It's in the Middle East. It's a political state. That's Israel. But biblically, that's not Israel. In a simplified

definition, Israel is comprised of the people who believe God and obey God by faith. That's right. That's the simple definition of Israel. So the father of our faith is Abraham. And he didn't create a political nation. He was the father of a worldwide population of people who believe God, obey God by faith. By faith is the important thing. It's not that they obey God by religion, but they obey God by faith. And so throughout the Old Testament, throughout the Torah and the prophets of the Old Testament, Jesus

is present. He's taught. Isaiah is all about Jesus. The church is there. The church is Israel. It is the people who followed God. The people who believed God. And so in the kingdom of Israel, the political kingdom of Israel and of Judah, they were divided. Right. They were people who followed God, who obeyed God, and they were people who rebelled against God. And those are the people that we call the Israelites. And yet they were divided. They were a divided camp.

Israelites who believed God, Israelites who didn't believe God and didn't follow Him by faith. And both in Judah and Israel. Yes, in both Judah and Israel. By the way, if you're watching on broadcast, on cable, on DirecTV or whatever, you can watch the second part over at our website, truenews.com, because we have to check out of here in about two minutes if you're watching on traditional television. So you can go over to truenews.com and watch the rest of the program. And you're welcome, invited to come over every day. But what you need to understand about Israel is that when the Messiah appeared, the Son of God,

the Messiah is not, he wasn't just a good guy who didn't sin. Jesus Christ was God in human flesh. God in human flesh came to Israel, came to Palestine, born in a manger to save the human race. And during the ministry of Jesus Christ, there were Jews, there were Israelites who believed Jesus was the Messiah, and there were Jews and Israelites who rejected him. When he was crucified and resurrected from the dead, the Jews split. Some believed he was the Messiah.

Others laughed and scoffed at it and rejected the idea. Those who laughed and rejected Jesus and the idea that he was resurrected, they were removed by God as citizens of Israel. Right. They were now on the outside of Israel. They were kicked out of Israel. And the Jews and Israelites who believe that Jesus was the Son of God, that He was resurrected from the dead, they alone comprised the membership, the citizenship of Israel. And then the Gentiles came along. And then they went out and they began to preach.

And the Gentiles believed the Jews who said the son of God came to earth in human flesh. And when the Gentiles believed the Jewish message, they were grafted in to Israel. And they became one. One. They're not Jewish. They're not Gentile. There's one. It's a new creation.

It's a new man believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And together we are Israel. We are the church. This is the doctrine that we teach. This is traditional Christianity. This is the true gospel. I want to invite you watching on cable and satellite to come over to truenews.com

pick up this program and continue with this teaching we love you very much thank you for watching us and we will be over on the other side in just a few seconds we'll see you tomorrow. Okay, so we're back.

We'll continue this teaching. Rick, that was one of the most clear definitions I've heard of what transpired there at the beginning of the church. That Israel didn't disappear. what transpired there at the beginning of the church. That Israel didn't disappear. The church didn't replace Israel. So we're not teaching a replacement theology like a lot of people accuse us of doing. We're simply saying that Gentiles have been grafted into Israel.

That's not a replacement. The church was in the Garden of Eden. Israel was in the Garden of Eden. It's one and the same. Israel remained. But the population for a period of time was greatly reduced. Yes. Because only the Jews that believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God,

only they were in the eyes of God, Israel. Yes. And then God said, I'm opening, I'm opening the doors. All are welcome to become Israel. And so Gentiles who believed in the name of Jesus Christ, they were grafted in to Israel. Yes. They became part of Israel.

Paul even taught they were as much Jew as the Jews who were there. That's right. And he also told Gentiles, don't get cocky about it. Right. Because you're grafted in. Don't think you have some sort of special status because you were chosen and grafted in. Because you could be grafted out. And others were taken out.

And so that's one of the best definitions I've heard. And it debunks the idea of a replacement theology. It's not a replacement theology. If anything, it's a continuation theology. You know, I drew that out one time on a napkin from my son and daughter-in-law. And that was many years ago. And they still tell me today that their spiritual eyes opened that day. Right.

Looking at that drawing on a napkin and suddenly understood what Israel was and the confusion left and they understood Israel and the church is one and and so why are we talking about Israel because the political state of Israel is the purpose of the rapture. Yes. The people that are rapture crazy, you know, I mean fanatics, I'm not calling them crazy, rapture fanatics, the people who are rapture fanatics are also fanatical about the political state of Israel. Right. The purpose of the rapture was to get rid of the Gentiles so that the political state of Israel could rule the world. That was the reason. Right. So Israel could be restored, at least in their definition, and like you said, for them to rule supreme, if not here on earth now, in the millennial kingdom later. That's right. And so all those things that I read about the rapture enchilada toppings,

that's part of the rapture doctrine. And you have to take the whole enchilada. You have to believe all that stuff. You have to believe that Jesus Christ sneaks in. Nobody except the, you know, the rapture Christians see him because they really don't think Lutherans and Presbyterians are going to be caught up in the rapture. And you don't want to be left behind. According to them. Right. According to them. But, you know, if you really press them,

they don't think non-rapture-believing Christians are going to be raptured and taken up because it's kind of an elite group, you know. Right. You've got to be in on the secret. Right. So not only do you have to believe in Jesus, you have to believe in the rapture too. Yes, Your faith is in the rapture for salvation. Right. Isn't that the key that the faith is in the, in the rapture, in the event and not the Christ of the event. Yes.

And they're not looking for him. They're looking for the event. Right. And so all these things that transpire in history, in modern history now, that seek to affirm what they believe, they take as a sign that, look, God is fulfilling his prophetic time clock, his prophetic time piece. He's got a big old clock on the wall saying this has to happen at these events, at these times and everything. Not for the purpose of seeing Jesus Christ return, but for the purpose of saying, see, I told you I was right.

For the restoration of Israel. Right. If you hear a Bible prophecy teacher say God's prophetic time clock, 99% chance he is a rapture teacher because that's a buzzword for them right they believe now there's some variations most of them believe that god's prophetic time clock that it was stopped it was stopped at at the at the crucifixion of Christ. Or some of them actually believe, well, I would say most of them believe at the crucifixion of Christ or the resurrection

and that his clock stopped and it did not restart until 1948 when the United Nations established Israel. Right. And then God looked down and said, well, look at that. Hey, my watch is ticking again. How about that? My prophetic time clock is working again.

I've got Israel. See, what Cyrus Schofield and Darby and that gang taught was that the church, they called it a parenthesis. Yes. You know, parenthesis. You wear an add-esis. Yes. Yeah, a parenthesis. You wear an add-on. Yeah. It's a sideshow. The church is a sideshow.

That they taught, and I can show you, I have the old books in my library. Back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, Bible prophecy teachers in America who were connected with Darby and Schofield and Moody, they taught that Jesus failed in his mission. Yes. He failed.

That's what they taught. And that God stopped his prophetic time clock, that Jesus was supposed to deliver the kingdom to the Jews. He failed in his mission. Then God said, time out. And they called it a time out, a pause. God said, time out. I got a problem here.

My son Jesus was supposed to get the Jews to accept the kingdom. They didn't accept it. Time out. What am I going to do? Okay. I've got an idea. I've got an idea.

I'll get the Gentiles saved. Okay. God's like, okay, I'll make this a Gentile organization. I'll call it the church. And I'll get all these Gentiles in the church. And then when the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled, timeout will be over, and I'll just take away the church.

That's the rapture. Yes. Folks, I'm telling you, this is what they teach in these rapture seminaries. And for me, that is a great sacrilege because it makes the blood of Christ of no effect. That's exactly what it is. It means that the crucifixion, he only died for Gentiles,

right? That it was a failure that, that, you know, it was a failure doc. It's blasphemy. And so that's why we are, you know, very adamant,

very strong on this particular position here. I don't believe Jesus failed. I don't believe my Jesus failed at all. The cross is our victory. His crucifixion and His resurrection are our victory. That's what we can celebrate. That's what we can talk about.

And not just for Gentiles, for Jews also. Jews that believe that Jesus Christ died for them. They're saved the same way. You know, this current belief, rapture belief, leads, Rick, to a point in time where there's actually teaching that there's two ways to get saved.

That you can get saved by believing in Jesus, invite Him into your heart and believe in Jesus, or if you happen to be Jewish, you can be saved too. I mean, that's... Just by being Jewish. Just by being Jewish. Now, they won't come right out and say it.

They won't come right out and admit it. But they come awful close sometimes. And it's called dual covenant theology. Right. That there's a covenant for Gentiles and a covenant for Jews. And that God does not save the same way. And that's blasphemy because there's only one way you can be saved and that is by the blood of Christ at the cross. Everybody has to go to the cross.

Now, Doc, you and I, we both like old movies, old TV shows. We talk in our private discussions, we talk about old videos that we watch and films. So in 1950, there was a movie made by Jimmy Stewart called Harvey. Did you ever see Harvey? Oh, sure. I've seen that a number of times over the years. So Harvey was an invisible six foot three rabbit. That only Jimmy Stewart could see. Yes, and his name was Elwood Dowd.

Elwood Dowd was the character played by Jimmy Stewart and only Elwood Dowd could see Harvey, a six-foot-three rabbit. Now, Harvey was what was called a puka, which is a mythological creature. And so the whole movie, you know, is a comedy. Jimmy Stewart couldn't figure out why nobody could see Harvey when he could see him just as easy as anything. You know, he's my puka standing right there. Why can't you see my puka? There's Harvey, six foot rabbit. The evangelical Christian Zionists in America, they have a puka. They've got a puka pal. It's called rapture. And they can't figure out why you can't see their pukapow. And they'll tell you, Doc, it's right there in the Bible. And you'll say, where?

And they'll open up and they'll show you a scripture. And you'll say, no, that's the second coming. Oh, no, that's the rapture. And they're convinced. They're absolutely convinced that there's a rapture pukapow there. And when you tell them, no, there's no rapture pukapow in the Bible, they get very angry at you. And what happens is you can lose friendships.

You can get division in the family. You can be separated from people that you love because they are adamant. There's a puka pal. His name is Rapture. He's in the Bible. And you just have to stop trying to reason with them because they're adamant. There's a secret rapture in the Bible. And yet they can't point to one scripture that actually says rapture. Right. Or seven years before the second coming. And what's interesting in that movie on Harvey,

there were those that played along with Jimmy Stewart's character, Elwood Dowd. Just to get along with him. Just, you know, okay, well, should I set two's career, Elwood Dowd. Just to get along with him. Just, you know, okay, well, should I set two cups here, Elwood? Oh, yes. He won't drink it, but he'll be polite about it. Things like that. So they'll play along with it.

Knowing that they can't see the rapture, but they'll play along with it. I'm guilty of that. I was guilty of that because as a young minister, I looked up to pastors and teachers and Bible college professors and others that taught, you know, the standard dispensational doctrine, the rapture theory. And I believed them, but I was distraught inside because I didn't see it. And I thought something was wrong with me. I thought there was something wrong spiritually inside of me that I couldn't see the six foot three rabbit, Rick.

But you went along with it. But everyone else went. So not to argue with them. Right. And that carried over into pastoral ministry. And I was at a crossroads in my own life, my own ministry career, where I was not confident in being even able to preach on the last days, Rick, because I felt like I was missing something. Like I was, what key am I missing? What is it in the Bible I'm not seeing that everyone else is seeing?

And so I just didn't teach on it. You know, I let others do it. They're smarter than me. I mean, they do this for a living, right? So I'll let the prophecy teachers teach on that and, you know, figure it out. And maybe somewhere along the way, maybe one day I'll see the rabbit too. But I never did see the rabbit. But also I feel like I compromised on my ministry, Rick, because I didn't stand up for what I believed.

But you were in a denomination that insisted that you follow the party line. Right. And in fact, I had to sign a document that said, I didn't believe in the rapture, right? But the document itself said, you can believe that way if you want, but if you're going to teach, you're going to teach the rapture. So you could have private belief. You could be a pastor, you could have a private belief, but when you got in the pulpit,

you had to preach the rapture, the party line. And I say that not to be demeaning to the denomination I was with, but I think they were struggling with the very same issues, so they had to codify it at some point. So that was my experience. And I don't know, you know, I've heard bits and pieces of your experience. For me, that's where I was with it, Rick.

And it's only been really within the past 15 to 20 years that I've just gone, this is, it's not there. It's just not there. There is no rabbit. There is none. I would, as a young Christian, I would go to pastors and say, I'm having trouble. I don't, I can't see it. I keep reading the Bible and I can't see this rapture thing. And what they did to me was the patronizing approach, you know, arm around the shoulder. You know, older pastor, Rick, it's there. Just study the Bible more.

Ask the Lord to show you the rapture. It's there. Well, could you show it to me? Of course, they give you the same scriptures. And I go, but that's the second coming. No, that's the rapture. You just need to keep praying about it. You're going to see it. And so for years I had this internal conflict. What's wrong with me? I can't see it. Am I not

smart enough? When I read the Bible, I don't see the secret rapture. I just see Jesus comes back. Okay. But all these pastors I go to and talk to them, they all tell me it's there. It's you, Rick, that can't see it. It wasn't until after I left TBN as an employee in 1998, when I left, the Lord began to do a deprogramming in me and he had to pull out it was very difficult doc there were several years where he began to remove false doctrines I was highly informed in terms of news and civil affairs and things. Like I read a lot. So after the Lord brought me out of TBN and put me in ministry, he began to show me the lies that governments told, the false history that history books gave. And every

day was a new shock, a new revelation as I was being deprogrammed. Like, that's not true. That person was a Nazi? You know, I'm going through the whole process. But at the same time he started to show me about the rapture and false doctrines in the church. And it was a very difficult, unpleasant, unsettling time, two, three, maybe four years that this was going on in my life at the beginning of this ministry back in 98, 99, 2000. Yet I'm doing the radio show. And I'm learning as I go. But coming out of the rapture. And yet so many of the guests, I would say all the guests I had

that were religious, they were all rapture teachers. And I remember, Doc, it was was probably you were probably on the staff. So that would be what in the last eight years. Yes. Last nine. That I finally got the courage to say to one of my guests, I don't believe that rapture stuff. And they immediately turned on me and stopped talking to me and and one by one all of those preachers and Bible prophecy teachers and Bible prophecy authors that I used to have on the show they all disowned me

every one of them disowned me when I found the courage to say, I don't believe it. And you will probably, if you haven't gone through that rejection, it will happen to you. Some of you say, yeah, it already happened to me. I know what it's like. They will reject you. Listen, it is a cult. It is a cult grip on their minds. The churches can be very good.

Everything else that they're teaching can be sound doctrine. But when you get to this one topic, they just go cultish. And it's not a matter of you separating from them. They separate you. Yes. If you do not accept it, they would rather fellowship with a pedophile than the fellowship with a Christian that does not believe in the rapture and

does not bow down to the state of Israel. You're right. That's at the very heart of it there. They would rather fellowship with a pedophile because they have absolutely no good for you. Now, I'm going to take a few minutes and I want to talk about how they got this rapture word here. This thing comes down to the semantics. The word in the Greek, in the Bible, the Greek word is harpazo.

It means to catch, to pluck, to take. To kidnap, basically. No. No, it doesn't mean kidnap. Really? Okay, this is this. I'm glad you brought that up. This is going to be a good lesson. Harpazo means to snatch. That's the biblical word harpazo. It's Greek. It's a verb. It's not an action. It's not a noun. It's a verb. It's an action. It's not a noun. What the rapture people did

is they replaced harpazo a Greek verb. Right. They replaced it with a Latin verb, rapir. Yes. Which means kidnap. Right. It means rape.

Rapir is where we get the word rape. Rapture. And rapture too. And rapture. Rapir is, yes. So their rapture word is rapir. Rapir is, yes, so their rapture word is rapier. Rapier is Latin. It's a verb, but it means to kidnap, to rape.

It's a criminal, it's a violent word. Violent taking. Whereas harpazo simply means, hey, I snatched your paper, okay? I picked it up. Harpazo is an action. It does not matter with Harpazo whether you're snatched up, over, down. It doesn't matter. It's an action. The rapture people, Darby and Schofield and Moody

and all of them, they replaced Harpazo, the Greek word in the Bible, meaning to snatch, a verb, an action word. They replaced it with a Latin verb, rapere, meaning to violently kidnap, to rape. And then they turned the Latin verb into a noun and said it's the rapture. Right. An event. An event. Now the second thing that they did, it takes a while to see this. The word that the Bible uses for the second coming is parousia. Parousia is the Greek word for the arrival of a king. It is in olden times

a king or a prince would travel to a town a delegation of people from the town would go out to meet the king or the prince and be the official greeting party. And his arrival was called the Perugia because all of the pomp and glory and the majesty of the king and all the power of his kingdom, all of his glory, his trumpeters and his horsemen and all of them, this chariot. They were all together. And wherever the king was, the kingdom was there. Because it all traveled together. The Perugia. The Perugia. So what the rapture guys did,

talking about Darby and Schofield, Moody and these guys, they separated the parousia, the glorious appearing of our blessed hope. They made the blessed hope the rapture. They said that the blessed hope was the rapture event, this noun, the rapture. But not the arrival. Not the king. Yes. The glorious hope, our blessed hope, our blessed hope is Jesus himself.

Not the event. Not the event. But the king. The king. The king is our blessed hope and what they did is they took the parousia the arrival of the king our blessed hope and they split it down the middle now you've all seen either in person at a magic show or you've seen it on tv the magician, they bring a box out onto the stage. And a woman comes out.

And she lays down in the box. And they close the lid. And her head is sticking out at one end. Feet at the other. And her feet at the other end. And they spin it around. And they show you, you know. Maybe you bring someone up out of the audience to take a look at it.

It's her. And those are real legs there. And that's a real head there right and then he saws it in half cuts it and then he pulls it apart and her legs are over here and her head's over here how how did you do that okay that's what darby and scofield and moody did to the Perugia, the glorious appearing of our blessed hope, the arrival of the king. They cut it in half and they said, this half is over here and it's called the rapture, the kidnapping, the rape, the Latin word rapere,

a verb that we're going to turn into a noun and call it the rapture. And then the second coming is way over here. And there's a seven year gap between the two. That's been sawed in half. Yes, that's what they did. Who gave them the authority to cut in half the glorious appearing of the king? Who authorized them to do it, Doc? Who gave them divine authority to split in half the parousia and say that it happens in two parts? How dare they really how dare they do such a thing what an evil act his arrival is one time it's glorious it's mighty it's majestic

it's not split in half it's not spread out over seven years. It's one glorious, majestic arrival of the king. That's what this is all about. Amen. Hey, if you want to know more about it, I encourage you to read the book, Final Day. And you can get it on our website, truenews.com. And I'll be glad to autograph it if you want to get the autographed edition we have plenty of copies here and I go into detail in in this book and explain these things in detail it'll help you understand the second coming why

are we talking about this right now today on true news well think about what we talked about yesterday okay war drought famine sam you know electricity shortages civil unrest okay these are the signs the signs the birth pangs that the world is starting to wind down and christ is coming. That's why we're taking today and talking about this. We can't lose sight of what this is all about. If not, we just get caught up in news and we forget what this is all about. It's about the second coming of Christ. Never forget this.

Never forget that everything is about the second arrival of Jesus Christ. So all this information that we gather about the news and world events, it is meaningless if you don't know that Christ is coming. That's why we're taking this time today to talk about the second coming of Jesus Christ. One other thing before we go, I want to encourage you to do some serious thinking and praying about joining doc and me in jordan and we have a lot of the true news family who have already signed up it's great reserve their seats and we've got a few more seats left on the bus uh you've got until

i want to say september september 22nd't wait, because it's starting to fill up. Because everybody at the last minute will try it. So there are a few more seats left on the bus. Go ahead and get your money in. The moment you pay, you're locked in. The trip is $2,950 per person, and that covers everything except your transportation from wherever you live to New York City, John F. Kennedy Airport. We're meeting together.

Doc and I, we all will meet at JFK. We'll all leave together. We'll fly together, and we'll land together. We'll ride the bus together from the airport to the hotel. I'll be with you. Doc will be with you. We will be with you at all times. The only way that we won't be on the bus

is if we, at the last minute, there's a rush of people that want the last remaining seats because out of those 48 seats, we have reserved our own seats. And for our staff that's going with us, the cameramen, technicians, the production people, and if we get it to the last minute and there are people saying, hey, we want to go,

well, Doc and I will rent a car. We'll drive behind the bus. So we can have those seats for people that want to come. Yeah, people at the last minute. But don't wait until the last minute, okay? Get your seat now. But we will be there. And the price includes your hotel lodging.

Nice hotels. Doctor, we've already been there. We've checked out everything. That's why we went a couple months ago. We did the scout thing, and we went and checked out everything. Very nice hotels, nice, clean, safe hotels, nice restaurants. The price includes your breakfasts every day and your dinners. The only meal you'll have to get is lunch, and I'll take my word for it.

The breakfast will be so filling, you probably won't eat lunch. And that's the way it was for Doc and I. We seldom ate lunch. We just loaded up in the morning and went until evening. The food is delicious, and some people have asked Doc, is it possible to be a vegetarian and go on this trip? Absolutely. Yes.

Is it possible to be a meat eater and go on this? Yes. All right. If you're undecided, you can be both. Yes. Here's the thing about Jordan and their food. They do both, and they do both really well. It's a Mediterranean diet.

Just think about that. It's a Mediterranean diet. Just think about that. It's a Mediterranean diet. Lots of vegetables, lots of salads, lots of dips, lots of meat. But you can go either way. And the food is delicious. You don't have to worry about that. You will come home wanting to replicate

the recipes that you had. And I did exactly that. You will come home wanting to replicate the recipes that you had. And I did exactly that. I'd never, I've tried tabbouleh here in the U.S. before, but when I had it in Jordan, oh my goodness, fresh, homemade. And we we've made it a few times at home. I've just fallen in love with the hummus. Hummus you get in containers here. They're making it right. They're making it on site right there. They're frying the bread in front of you. Yes. On a rock.

Okay. It don't get better than this, folks. It's great. You will eat well. You don't have to worry about it. It is safe. I didn't see any crime. I never felt unsafe.

The people of Jordan are warm, friendly. They love Americans. They will come up to you and speak. Many of them speak English. What we found is that Jordanian strangers, they start a conversation, they'll ask you to go home with them and have dinner. They're so friendly.

They want you to come home and have dinner. You'll fall in love with the Jordanian people. They're just wonderful people. Weather should be, I would say, in November, should be in the 70s in the daytime, probably 50s at night. You want a jacket at night. You want to have good walking shoes. You do have to be able to walk if you're not physically able to walk.

You don't want to go on this particular trip because there will be a lot of walking. Buses will get you to the sites, but after that, we're walking. And you'll get a lot of exercise outside. It's going to be great. And Doc and I will do a Bible study every morning. So we'll be there in the restaurants with you in the morning for breakfast. We'll be in the restaurants at dinner. We'll be in the bus with you. We'll be at the historical sites. We're going to be with you for two weeks. And you're going to see us recording episodes of the Godcast.

And so you're going to be right there and you're going to be participating with this. How do you register? Well, you go to the True News website and we'll bring that up, show you right there at the top. You see that beautiful amphitheater there and one of our Jordanian, right in the center,

one of our Jordanian contacts, personnel standing right there in the center. So proud of him. But that whole image there at the top, if you just click that on the True News website, it'll take you to the sign-up page, and you'll have all the information that you need to get registered for this trip to join Rick and myself on a Holy Land tour in Jordan. We make it very easy for you. We've had several people ask us about flight times and things like

that at JFK, so you can coordinate, make sure you're there at the right time. It's on the website. Just about every question you can imagine is answered on the website. So go to True News, click on the top here, anywhere you see that amphitheater there, it'll take you over to the signup page for the tour. All your questions will be answered. And if there's a question that's not answered, we have a toll-free number there on the registration. You can call our tour coordinator, and they'll be able to answer any other questions that you might have.

And the itinerary is there when you go to that page. It shows you all the stops that we will be going to. We're going to the mount, the mountain where Elijah was caught up into the air. We're going to, gosh, we'll be at the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized. We're going to take you to where the oldest church in the world is that's been uncovered by archaeology.

We'll take you to that very spot and show you where it is. We'll take you to the mountaintop where Moses saw the promised land. Yes. Mount Nebo. You'll stand on the very rock he stood on. It is a wonderful trip. You're going to enjoy it. Don't forget Petra. And Petra. We're going to be at Petra at night. You'll see Petra lit up at night. It is awesome. I'm telling you, you're going to love this trip. By the night, you'll see Petra lit up at night. It is awesome. I'm telling you, you're going to love this trip. By the way, you mentioned about travel time. If you want help, Pilgrim's Tours is the group that we're working with.

They will book your flight for you to get from your hometown to JFK. Yes. All you have to do is call that phone number and say, I'm going on the trip, but can you help me get a flight from my hometown to JFK in time to meet the trip deadline, the departure. They'll take care of it for you. Some of you may have to get a hotel at the airport, depending on where you're coming in from. That's possible.

You may have to arrive the night before and get a hotel there and then come over to JFK. They'll help you with all that kind of stuff. That's what they're there for. You're going to have a great time. It's going to be an experience of a lifetime. It was for me when we first went. But what's going to be so much better this time is we're going to be with people that love

us and people that want to learn about what God has done in the Holy land and is doing in the Holy land. And it's going to be a trip that will change your life. It'll make the Bible come alive. I seriously, it'll make the Bible come alive for you. Hey, I'm going to tell you something. I hope he doesn't mind. I didn't ask permission. So my dear, I have a Jordanian son, okay? Doc knows who I'm talking about. He's my adopted son in Jordan.

And he watches True News every day. He's with us, okay, in spirit. He's a young man in Christ. And he called me a week ago on Sunday and told me what happened to him. He's, look, he went from being a Muslim to being a Christian and he loves the Lord with all his heart. Amen. And he was driving across Jordan, across the desert. He was in a car by himself and a dust storm came up and that's, that's common in the desert. A dust storm appeared. But he said the dust formed into the shape and image of Jesus Christ. He's driving his car

across the desert and Jesus is in the sky looking at him and smiled at him and then disappeared. Jesus is still walking the Holy Land. And you know what? I think that young man is a Palestinian. I think Jesus, when he was on the earth 2,000 years ago, Doc, I think Jesus knew that young man's ancestors. Well, I can honestly believe that.

And I believe out of his love, he visited a descendant of one of the early disciples. That's what I believe. I believe that young man is a descendant of one of the early disciples. He doesn't know it. There's no way to prove it. But I believe the reason that Jesus appeared to him is because of his love for the church. And Jesus is still walking the Holy Land. It's his stomping grounds. He knows it. He knows every nook and cranny of the Holy Land. He was walking around there for a while. He was walking those trails.

One more thing. Some of you may be saying, well, you know, 2950, I don't know if I can come up with that. Well, ask the Lord about it. We haven't talked much about miracle money in the past week, but we've still got a few days in our miracle money time period. The end of August is coming up here in just a few days. And I just encourage you that ask the Lord if He wants you to go.

And if He wants you to go, ask for the miracle money to be provided for you to be able to make the trip. There's nothing wrong in asking, right? That's right. There's nothing wrong asking your father for something good, right? Will he withhold something good from you? Well, let's find out. Ask the father for something good.

Make the vow that you will give half of the miracle money here to True News. You'll use the other half to pay for your trip. Right. Just say it like that. So if you need $29.50, basically $3,000, the Lord's going to give you $6,000.

Right. Believe. Just believe. And if it's a couple, then it's $12,000 and the Lord will give you $6,000. Just use faith. Remember, the church, the true church, Israel, is made up of people who believe God.

Yes. Who obey God by faith. So use your faith to ask for the money to go on this trip. I love you very much and would really like to see you. I'd like to get to know you. We'd have about 10 days to talk and get to know each other, and I'd like to do that on this trip. Do what you can to be there with us in November.

God bless. We'll see you tomorrow. God bless you.