“The Gathering in Heaven”
His name is Jesus. He is Savior of the world, Crown Prince of Heaven and the Church’s cherished Bridegroom. He emerges from His dressing closet robed in the elegant garments that were fashioned for this very special occasion. His appearance is “like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle” (chest band) - (Revelation 1:13). On the earth, it is the Lord’s Day...(Revelations 1:10)… He has decided not to adorn His thorn-scarred brow, preferring to extend His welcome with warm and intense hugs. Later, He will put on the turban of the High Priest... He slips his bronzed feet into a pair of jeweled sandals. He is smiling. He is excited. He is regal. He has waited a long time for this day. The moment has arrived, and for the first time in 2,000 years, a door in heaven opens… (Revelation 4:1). In Israel, it is the midnight hour on the Lord’s Day…(Matthew 25:6). Jesus steps through the massive portal onto the grand portico of a golden, petal-strewn staircase. Cascading through the glittering galaxy and beyond the thick blanketing clouds, it is the same stairway to Heaven and earth that filled Jacob’s dream. Multiplied billions of angels are congregated next to the stairs, waiting for a royal command. With them wait the spirits of the righteous dead, those that have passed from life to life throughout the Church Age, those who have waited with Jesus for this memorable day. These saints are so excited they tremble in the face of such a moment, for on this day they will be reunited with their resurrected bodies. With their eyes fixed upon those drifting clouds they too wait for the command… To His immediate right stands the stately Gabriel, his shin-length robe gathered with a blue sash. Across his right shoulder drapes a soft blue wrap, falling front and back to a bare right foot. In his left hand he holds a splendid trumpet, preparing to sound the command when the signal is given. To the left of Jesus, stretching as far as the eye can see, are the Lord’s Host, His assembled armies. Michael glances in the Lord’s direction and for a brief moment their eyes meet... The palpable words, though unspoken, resonate through the gathered assemblies: “Behold! The Bride prepares herself. (Matthew 25:1-13) Let us go out quickly and steal her away…” Jesus takes a deep breath and looks longingly through the stars, the galaxy of earth’s outer space and the soft breaks in the clouds. In this final moment a spokesman for the trillions of stars offers to make the night exceptionally bright and glorious for the Bride’s journey. Jesus agrees that His Bride would like that and He thanks the stars for their thoughtfulness. Would the Lord like for them to sing as well? Again, Jesus thanks them but explains that the universe could not handle the volume of their singing all at once. The vibrations alone could shatter the balance of the galaxy and they themselves might fall from their places. The stars turn up their beams quietly as Jesus looks to Gabriel and gives him a knowing nod… Gabriel lifts the trumpet to his lips in one swift motion, releasing one long and penetrating blast, followed by two shorter ones. The trumpet will awaken the dead and alert the living but Jesus, who IS the resurrection and the life, will shout the command to rise. There is no pause between the first sound of the last trump and the Savior’s shout… “Arise,” He shouts, “Arise – and come up here.” The angels propel themselves into earth’s time zone at the sound of the first long blast, separating and disappearing into the four winds, to gather the saints of the Lord. The spirits of the righteous dead are instantly transported to their graves and their resurrecting bodies. United, they become new, perfect, whole and glorified. They rise… Then the living righteous, together with all children under the age of accountability, even the newborn and those being aborted in their mothers’ wombs, will vanish from the earth as they rise up together with the resurrected saints. They are assisted, carried and escorted by the angels and Michael’s armies, and are personally welcomed by Jesus. When the last saint has passed through the open portal into the vast ante-chamber of Heaven, Jesus Himself shuts the door, lest any among the foolish come knocking. This entire event will happen in the twinkling of an eye…and that is why it is referred to as, “the big snatch”… The door had been opened on this occasion to receive the faithful Bride of the Church Age. It will not open again for seven more years at which time Jesus will lead the saints and the armies out of Heaven and back to Jerusalem in His second appearing to the men of earth (Rev. 19:11). On that day He will be wearing robes dipped in the blood of his enemies… He will appear on that day as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah – fierce and powerful. But for today…appearing now before all of Heaven as the Lord’s Lamb that was slain…(Genesis 22:8)… He anticipates and presents the beautiful Bride He gave His all for, an elegant, spotless, flawless, sparkling white-robed Bride, who is every inch the reflection and expression of her glorious King… She is robed in His righteousness and beautifully arrayed in His holiness. She has prepared her garments with works that will last, startling the stars with her brilliance. And because she adores her Lord, she casts her crowns at His feet. She will submit to Him alone, today, tomorrow and forever. She will reflect His goodness, express His love, and devote herself to His joy in their eternity together…
I invite you to consider these with me… I was born in September 1932, in the generation of babies that were prophesied to be the generation that would see the return of Jesus Christ. World War I began in August 1914, eventually engulfing more than 30 countries in four long years of bloodshed and to this day no one can tell us why. They say it started over an insignificant assassination in a remote town in a remote country in the Balkans. How that started a world war is beyond me, but there you have it. What I do see however, is startling… The armistice was signed at the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. The stock market crashed eleven years later, in 1929, following the prosperous and celebratory years of the Roaring 20s, dropping the world into a chasm of dread and a pit of lack. My generation opened it’s baby blues at the same time, born in a time of tremendous sorrow. August 1914 marked the beginning of “wars and rumors of war.” November 11, 2008 will mark the 90th anniversary of the end of WW1.There are no veterans of WW1 living today but there are a few descendants of those veterans still living and these descendants have descendants. These are the 1929-1940 (eleven years) descendants – and those that follow - that represent the last generation… We came into this world with the Great Depression, famine, a polio epidemic, sicknesses and diseases that were basically fatal before the discovery of the Salk vaccine and Penicillin in the 1940s. It was hard times, a time of daily bread lines and soup lines in every city and town across America. Indeed, it was the same story across the world. In the United States FDR’s New Deal, the WPA, the CCC program and the founding of Social Security were helping some folks in some areas but the country as a whole still had a long way to go (Matthew 24:7). I remember a story about a man in the late 1930s whose 11-year-old son was suffering appendicitis and needed a surgical appendectomy. The man did not have the $25.00 the operation would cost. And the surgery could not be performed without payment ahead of time. Consequently, the son died of a ruptured appendix. In 1950, I could buy my whole week’s groceries for $5.00. But as the years went by, and the cost of living gradually rose, I found myself complaining on one weekend trip to the market about the rising cost of food. The prices had shot up to an unprecedented $25.00 a week. It was then I remembered the helpless father who did not have $25.00 to save his son’s life. There I was, standing in line at the supermarket, preparing to pay $25.00 or more for a week of groceries and complaining about it. The $25.00 was in my hand and my family would eat that week. But oh, how I grieved just remembering the story. If only I could have gone back in time and given that man my $25.00. I would have gladly gone without for a week. Unfortunately, in the 1930s and 40s his story was just one of many such stories… In 1939 Hitler’s armies invaded Poland and World War II began in Europe. One by one the nations of Europe fell to the black boots of the Third Reich. The Jews in every country were rounded up, questioned, taken from their comfortable homes and placed in ghettos, concentration camps, and put to death. Entire families disappeared (Mark 13:9). I was seven years old… On December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the U.S. into World War Two. The people of Germany, the sympathizers and traitors in all of Europe’s occupied lands, were encouraged to betray their friends and neighbors, especially if they were Jews or suspected of being sympathetic to Jews. The Jews in Germany were forbidden to work, to hold pubic office, to teach or to practice medical, scientific or legal professions. Children betrayed parents, brothers betrayed brothers, teachers betrayed students and students betrayed their teachers. And so the blood flowed in every European household, on every cobbled street and in every town square (Mark 13:12). It flowed in the fields and in the mountains. It didn’t happen in America that time, but the next time we will not have the strength to keep them from our shores. Our leaders today are anti-war, anti-defense, and anti-immigration restrictions. The next time, our enemies will walk in and take us without a fight. On Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, I was nine years old. For exactly forty-two months (three and a half years), until May 8, 1945, when Germany surrendered, untold evils stalked the innocent and unbelievable cruelties sickened a post-war world. I believe that was a sign that the first war in the last days had previewed the Great Tribulation that is coming… May 8, 1945 became known as V-E Day – Victory in Europe. Concentration camps had been liberated and the world went into shock at the extent of Hitler’s Final Solution. In August of 1945 the Empire of Japan also surrendered. Their formal surrender was signed on my birthday, September 2, in Tokyo Bay, aboard the USS Missouri. I turned thirteen years old that day. Thousands of Jews were gathered from among the devastations of Europe and transported to what was then called Palestine. On May 14, 1948, for the first time in 1,900 years, Israel became the chosen re-gathered nation of God’s prophetic Word. Isaiah had prophesied it when God said, “Can a nation be born in one day? Who has heard such a thing?”(Isaiah 66:8). But it had happened, just as God had said it would, and I was fifteen years old when it happened. In 1967 Israel was attacked by a coalition of Arab nations from the north, the south and the east. Three days later Israel began driving them back, pushing deep into enemy territories, crushing Syria, Jordan and Egypt in a miraculous six-day defeat and regaining some of the territories of historical Israel. For the first time in nearly 1,900 years Jerusalem was again in the control of the Jews. They took the West Bank, the Temple Mount, and strategic territories that provide security against ongoing attacks (Matthew 24:32-33). Today the world wants Israel to give it all back. Shame on the audacious world… Israel has had good leaders. Israel has had lousy leaders. Israel has forgotten their God and forgotten the miracles of this miracle generation. It is time for Israel to stand up for their Covenant, for the majesty and sovereignty of their God and for all their rights as a people and a nation. Forty years have passed since 1967, a significant bookmark year. In this year, 2008, sixty years will have passed since May 1948, another significant bookmark year. Both spans of time are used in the scriptures to indicate generations but the generation that has seen the fig tree put forth leaves (Matthew 24:32) is the generation that is in their mid-late 70s and early 80s. I have two aunts left, one is 86 and the other is 94. My one surviving brother is 83. They are a part of the prior generation. They have seen and they are still seeing God’s Word coming to pass in their lifetimes. I believe they will see the Rapture of the Church. The events that have filled the generation of my youth and my old age declare the integrity of the Word of the Lord: “This generation shall not pass till all these things are fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34). This is why I believe Jesus is coming soon. We must, however, keep our eye on the fig tree that is Israel, and the leaves of its branches with prophetic understanding… Joan Krempel
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