entertainment

The largest city in the state of California is Los Angeles, which means ‘The Angels’ in Spanish. Often times I think its the ‘City of Fallen Angels’ or ‘LOST Angeles’… The ‘Entertainment Capital of the World’, where the majority of television and film production companies reside, is responsible for most of the trash that comes into our homes through the electronic portal we know as television. Los Angeles is also less than 20 miles away from the San Fernando Valley, which has the regretable distinction of being the ‘Pornography Capital of the World’. Having lived in Los Angeles for 20 years I’ve seen a series of disasters and tragedies which I’ve always thought of as God’s attempt to get the peoples attention; major earthquakes, community destroying fire storms, mud slides, riots, blackouts…whats next I wonder?
Just a few weeks ago over 3500 homes were reduced to ashes by wild fires in Southern California. Then, just a fews days later, a freak thunder storm lingered over South Central Los Angeles during rush hour, dumping over 5 inches of rain in 2 hours, pelting cars with hail stones nearly the size of golf balls, unleashing 150 lightning bolts, and turning many of the streets into torrential rivers 3 feet deep, stalling thousands of cars knocking out street lights and traffic signals resulting in countless accidents. Hundreds of homes which were never before considered to be at risk were flooded with sewage and water that poured in through the doors and walls. Former Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency, but the stories of tragedy and personal loss have already been forgotten by the local news. South Central Los Angeles is an area (principality) plagued by crime and poverty. Crack and prostitution are rampant, and the bullets from drive-by shootings or gang rivalry have an uncanny tendency to randomly kill children and babies. Many of the people who live in this area of Los Angeles feel helpless to do anything about the moral decline of their neighborhood, while many other people have no regard for life or property.

The day after the storm as I watched the inner city children on the local news playing in the piles of snow-like hail on a sunny day, I wondered if God has gotten the attention of the people of South Central. This kind of storm just doesn’t happen in Los Angeles.

Just when I thought I’d read or heard everything there was on the Rapture, about a week ago I heard a new teaching on the radio that has inspired me to do a short study on the Old Testament scriptures which were covered, which foreshadow the upcoming Rapture of the Church. Check back here for more in the days ahead…

Hosea 6
After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.

Exodus 34:2
…Be ready in the morning, and then come up…
“…forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

Numbers 10:1
The LORD said to Moses: “Make two trumpets of hammered silver, and use them for calling the community together and for having the camps set out.

Matthew 24:30
“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

1 Thess 4:14-18
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Revelation 8:1-2
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

Revelation 10:7
But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed– in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

The First Trump of God deals with Israel and the Law (Ex 19). The Last Trump of God deals with Grace and the Church being gathered up to heaven.