The Chosen Mantle - Part 3

     Despite what you may have been taught, this is how Scripture describes Christ’s second coming. “And in that Day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south” (Zech. 14:4).        
     Hopefully by now you know that the Day in question is the Day of the Lord, the 7th and final Day in God’s prophetic great Week. We know this because verses 6 and 7 describe the same final sign of celestial darkness that will signal His second coming, as Jesus taught in the Olivet Discourse. We’re meant to make the scriptural connections so we can glean more details about this earth-shattering event.
        End-Time Lesson: The final sign of darkness has halted the initial invasion of the Antichrist that has killed one-third of the Jews in the surprise attack. They thought they were at peace and safe.  The war for Jerusalem has begun. Israel cries out to God to come down and save them. He does, in the form of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.
        Zechariah’s prophecy goes on to say that the Jewish remnant flee through the newly-formed valley escape route. We see this same scene in Revelation 12. When the male Child is caught up to Heaven (the rapture), the woman (Israel) is “given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent” (vs. 14). The time element given here is the first 3½ years of Christ’s millennial reign that correspond to the last half of Daniel’s 70th Week.
       When Jesus descends to Mt. Zion, the whole world sees Him coming. “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him [the Jews who called for His crucifixion]. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him” (Rev. 1:7).
       Our Lord issues two commands: “Arise and Shine.” The first command releases the earthly bodies of the dead in Christ from the earth while the second command instantly changes the mortal bodies of those who are alive in Christ at His coming. In a twinkling of an eye, the entire Body of Christ receives our glorified, immortal bodies.
        When the Jewish remnant sees Jesus taking us back to Heaven to be seated as the heavenly court, they finally recognize Jesus as the Messiah. A crucial detail is that they not only see Jesus, they also make their “blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” confession of faith. That is, they finally acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, the firstborn from the dead through His resurrection. Thanks to the gathering, He is the firstborn of many brethren (His Body, the Church).  Those who make this vital confession of faith are now called saints (Rev. 13:7), set apart unto God. The resurrection of the Body of Christ triggers their acceptance into the family of the redeemed.
         Our Lord takes His Bride to our prepared place in Heaven before the throne of God as promised by Jesus (John 14:1-2). The newly revived Jewish saints escape to their prepared place in the wilderness to be nourished by the 3rd Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. Because they have seen and declared as Elisha did, the prophet Zechariah affirms that they shall receive a double portion of the Church’s mantle. “Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone” (Zech. 10:1).
      When the Church was established, it received the early rain at Pentecost—the outpouring of the Spirit to empower them to be His earthly witnesses. At the last Day, when the Church is taken to the 3rd Heaven, the newly revived Jewish saints shall receive the latter rain—the outpouring of the Spirit to empower them to take over our assignment of preaching the Gospel and making disciples.
      This is when the earthly kingdom is restored  to the Jews as promised to David.  They become the delegated head of the nations under the direction of the heavenly court of Christ and His joint-heirs. Jerusalem becomes the praise of the earth (Is. 62:7).
       This prophetic scenario clears up the third misinterpretation of end-time events alluded to in the previous blog. (3) The whole world sees Jesus coming to gather His Church. The remnant of Jews see this as well, despite them missing their visitation and piercing Him. They see and cry out as Elisha did for his “father.”  The Jewish saints finally recognize Jesus as the Son of God, which means they also finally acknowledge God Almighty as God the Father. So what’s the big deal? This means there cannot be a so-called secret rapture. It’s time for the Church to see and declare God’s true end-time scenario as given in the Scriptures. We need to see both the signs and God’s appointed times to be in the know.