Class Notes: 3/4/2015

Mark 13:37; Doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture conclusion; Doctrine of Awareness Part 1

In our study of Mark we are in Mark 13:37; where Jesus commands His disciples and by extension all Church Age believers to be on the alert watching for His sudden imminent return.

Based on this we have taken up a study of the imminency of the exit resurrection of the Church aka the "Rapture."

As we were closing last time we noted that imminency means that there is no prophecy to be fulfilled in the Church Age and that this makes the Church the age of potential.

Potential for maximum blessing and prosperity from God as we have been blessed with in the USA as well as potential for maximum adversity and discipline as happened with the Jews of Jesus generation.

These up-trends and downtrends are determined by the people's volitional choices regarding the truth of God's Word. Belief and acceptance of the truth results prosperity and up-trends of history. Unbelief and rejection of the truth results in adversity and the downtrends of history.

This is why our nation has been blessed while others have not and now that we have joined with those who have rejected truth in unbelief we are becoming partners with them in adversity and loss of freedom.

The more believers reject God's Word and develop locked in negative volition the larger the anti-pivot becomes and the more government tyranny is asserted under the principle of as goes the believer so goes the client nation.

I use the term "anti-pivot" to refer to those who have rejected the truth of the Word of God to the point that God has given them over to negative volition to be disciplined. Rom 1:26-32; Heb 10:28-31;

The anti-pivot is locked into deception so they are deceived to the point that they reject truth in spite of the fact that there is clear evidence that their ideas are wrong and do not work.

Instead of recognizing the failure of their ideas they justify their thinking, deny that it is wrong and blame others instead of simply changing their mind and believing the truth.

In their locked in arrogance they never get to the principle found in 2Chron 7:14;

At this time the anti-pivot is ruling our nation and the anti-pivot seems to be growing so be expecting that God will ramp up the intensity of the cycles of discipline on our nation.

No prophecy between the baptism of the Spirit and the Rapture means that the Rapture is imminent so it could occur at any time and no one on the earth knows the exact time.

The resurrection of the Church, like our death, is completely out of our control. Just as we have no control over the time and manner of our death, so we have no control over the time and manner of the Rapture.

The resurrection of the Church is totally beyond our control because it is a victory that our Lord gives us in His perfect timing. 1Cor 15:57; "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

While the Rapture is imminent, the Second Advent is not. Before Jesus returns to the earth in the Second Advent there are many prophecies that must first be fulfilled including the Rapture, the Tribulation, and the Believer's evaluation at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

The Rapture could have occurred at the time of James or of Paul or anytime between then and now because no prophecy has to be fulfilled before the resurrection occurs.

The distortion of the doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture results in instability and foolish speculation about the time of the Rapture by people who should know better.

This is why, James admonishes us in James 5:7-8;. "Therefore, brethren, have patience until the coming of the Lord ( at the Rapture). The farmer waits with anticipation for the valuable production of the soil, constantly being patient until it has received the early and the late rains.

Have patience, become stabilized in your thinking because the coming of the Lord ( the Rapture) is near (imminent). Near or imminent is the perfect active indicative of the Greek work "engizo"

The perfect tense tells us that nothing else has to happen for it to happen. To have patience means to keep on applying what you know. Patience is a persistent and consistent system of thinking Bible doctrine. It is a system of concentration that results in the application of doctrine to our circumstances.

It means that, "As long as I'm alive, I have control over my life. I can choose to have positive volition, to believe God's Word and execute God's protocol plan or I can choose to have negative volition, reject God's Word and become my own worst enemy because I have rejected God's Word of Truth.

The farmer invests by sowing seed. He must first break up the soil and sow the seed, then he must wait. There's nothing he can do while waiting; the seed will either come up or not.

He may have production or maybe not. Production depends upon having the proper weather conditions that the farmer does not control.

In verse 8 James tells that patience requires a stabilized confident viewpoint that is established from God's Word.

"Imminent" means it could happen at any time. The Rapture could occur at any moment. While we wait we still have control over our life as long as we live. We have control in the sense that we can choose to apply God's Word or not.

Because there was no unfulfilled prophecy before the Rapture can occur, the early Church expected the Rapture to occur during their lifetime.

Paul describes this in 1Cor 1:4-8; "I always thank my God concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus,

v5 that in everything you were enriched by Him by all Word and all knowledge,

v6 even as the testimony concerning you was confirmed in you.

v7 You were not lacking any of the spiritual gifts. You should be eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ (at the Rapture),

v8 who will establish you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." (at the Rapture)

Many of the believers in the church at Corinth were negative to Paul's teaching of God's Word but regardless of this Paul thanked God concerning them because they were the beneficiaries of God's phenomenal grace, they were positionally in union with Christ, and as a result they were "enriched by means of Him."

Every believer has a portfolio of invisible assets, every one has his very own base of operation (the operational divine power system), every one had the indwelling of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and the power of the omnipotence of God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit within God's power system.

Believers are established in the Christian life by means of God's Word and knowledge not from work and Christian service. Without knowledge of doctrine God is not honored by the believer's work and Christian service.

Most of the Corinthian believers had rejected doctrine so they were not honoring God by advancing in God's plan. They were operating in their own plan of arrogance.

Based on the context being "established to the end" does not refer to the end of their lives, it refers to the end of the Church Age in the "day of our Lord" Jesus Christ that begins with the exit resurrection or Rapture of the church,

Since they died before the Church Age ended it means that every believer has equal privilege and equal opportunity to execute God's protocol plan while they are still alive.

God's plan cannot be executed in human power, dynamics, energy, works, or personality. God's plan is executed exclusively within God's power system by means of knowledge of doctrine and in the omnipotence of God the Father, in the omnipotence of Jesus Christ, and in the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit.

During the entire time the omnipotence of Jesus Christ personally preserves history and perpetuates it, and guarantees that the Church Age will completely run its course.

There is no need for believers to be concerned about global climate change or any other kind of disaster because even if it is true it doesn't matter. Believers are to be exclusively focused on the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His immutable Word. Phil 3:8-11;

Jesus Christ is controlling every detail of history for the maximum application of His Word that results in the maximum glorification of God during one' life on this earth.

God makes every believer regardless of volition "blameless" forever in a resurrection body.

So while the Rapture is imminent, no one knows when it will occur. In the meantime, the royal family of God lives in the dispensation of historical trends with its maximum potential.

In the book of Revelation Jesus uses the phrase, "I am coming soon" three times. Rev 22:7,12,20;

Remember that, to the Lord, a day is a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. John recorded this statement in A.D. 96, and in A.D. 2015 almost 2000 years have elapsed.

"Soon" refers to the Rapture of the Church that is the next prophetical event to occur in history. This means that "soon" must connote imminency, not immediacy.

Titus 2:13; "We wait with happy fulfillment of our confidence in the glorious appearing (the Rapture) in the glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus."

How do you wait with confidence? You wait through thinking; you wait with patience which is the application of doctrine because you know with absolute certainty that the Rapture is coming.

It may not occur in your lifetime, but you still know it's coming. In this way you apply doctrine, so you are occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, you have God's +Happiness, virtue-love, and absolute confidence, so that you have a wonderful life and death no matter what happens during your lifetime on this earth.

The glory of this world passes away because it is based on the achievement of man. But we are called to advance to spiritual maturity that is based on the achievement of God and be ready and waiting and watching with anticipation for Jesus to come for us and to be with Him forever in eternal glory.

Come Lord Jesus!!!!!

Mark 13:37; This brings us to the doctrine of awareness or being on the alert.

Awareness is the status being in a heightened state of alertness that comes from the perception of God's Word and includes the motivation to learn and to use the ten problem solving devices of God's protocol plan for the Church Age believer.

Awareness recognizes that in eternity past, God provided the perfect solution to every problem in life and that We have the opportunity to choose between God's perfect solutions or man's imperfect solutions.

Awareness motivates us to have the discipline to persistently learn God's Word. This includes motivation to learn the problem solving devices and develop the perceptive capacity to apply the problem-solving devices as circumstances demand.

Awareness connotes a wide knowledge, accurate interpretive ability, and vigilant application. Interpretive ability belongs to you as a believer as you accumulate metabolized doctrine in your own stream of consciousness that enable you to solve your own problems autonomously from a position of strength.

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