Deception: A False Rapture

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On September 25, 2016, I had this dream which is playing out in my mind again.

Someone was telling me that she was trying to look in the eye every man she met because she thought the Messiah had probably returned and was among us. I told her she was wrong to assume that the Lord had returned. Looking out and pointing up to the sky I told her that no one would miss His return for He would come in the clouds with great signs. While still speaking and looking up, I saw clouds forming like chariots and coming down so fast that I exclaimed, “Just like that!”

I realized that the Lord could be coming already as I also saw people going up into the sky. I thought I had to go with them. Excitedly, I ran towards the direction of those people going up in the clouds. As I reached the platform, I got confused especially when I lined up with others on the wooden and narrow steps. But I climbed the stairs somehow. I was waiting for my turn while I wondered why the rapture was taking so long for others including me. As I got to the third and final step, I looked ahead; adjusting my eyes in the dark I saw that those who went before me were being lifted on what looked like the tip of a wooden ship that tilted up. Then I realized it was not what I expected. I turned around and tried to tell everyone that it was not real but nobody seemed to hear me. I was concerned, more so because I saw a woman directing the whole incident. She told someone to send me away for I was disrupting their plan. I stepped aside trying to understand what was going on. I looked to my right and noticed straight ahead something like a wide tunnel that was dimly lit. I looked intently and realized that those people I saw going up to the clouds earlier were actually sent there and others were still going. I felt so bad that they were oblivious and seemed to not notice at all. They were like walking dead, hypnotized, and I knew that this was a deception recalling how they could have created those cloud formations that I saw and made it appear from a distance that people were actually going up into the sky only to be sent down to the long tunnel.

What concerns me about this dream is the condition of those people I saw in the platform and in the tunnel. It’s like the Holy Spirit made sure that I saw that they were helplessly deceived.

There is no doubt about the second coming of the Lord, in fact, I am excited that I pray daily for His return. But this dream is certainly a warning of a false catching away.

I believe that when the Lord returns the saints will meet Him in the air but I do not believe in a rapture other than and apart from His glorious appearing to reign as King. Consider the message of Paul as he describes the coming of the Messiah and the saints meeting Him in the air:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul mentioned again the coming of the Lord and the saints gathering together to Him, further describing the signs that precede the event:

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ[a] had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin[b] is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God[c] in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He[d] who now restrains will do so until He[e] is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Will there be a false rapture, a false alarm for the believers? I do not know but we must take note of Yeshua’s warning about false christs and false prophets who will use signs and wonders to deceive even the elect if it be possible. He also describes in plain language the manner in which He will return:

Matthew 24:23-31

23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand.

26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

John also spoke of the lawless one, the beast who will perform great signs to deceive those who dwell on the earth.

Revelation 13:13

13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.

The second coming of the Messiah is a glorious event that no one on earth will ever miss it. If this dream is indeed prophetic, then the Lord is warning us about watching for a rapture that is not also about His coming back to reign as King.

Fix your eyes on the Messiah, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Get to know Him intimately and learn to recognize His voice so that you will not be deceived. The way to recognize the fake is to be so familiar with the genuine. And as the Lord admonished us, let us watch and pray.

Love in Yeshua,

Cynthia