To My Parents, Jack and Marilyn s1

337

The Rapture

Don’t Be

Deceived

FIRST PRINTING

Billy Crone

Cover Design:

Chris Taylor

To my parents, Jack and Marilyn.

Before the beginning of time and the foundations of this world,

the Lord knew that you two were to be my caretakers.

You have given me life and you have given me love.

You have shaped me into the man that I am today.

Thank you Mom, for my sense of humor and instilling within me

the ability to always look on the bright side of life.

Little did you know that on the day you showed me how to feed

those ants pieces of bread instead of smashing their home

that you would also be giving me a heart of compassion.

Thank you Dad, for my attitude of being a responsible man

and instilling within me the ability to work hard.

Little did you know that seeing you remodel our house

day after day, month after month, year after year,

that you would also be showing me a living example of

perseverance and dedication in finishing a project once you begin.

For these things and many more, I praise the

awesome sovereignty and profound wisdom

of God Almighty

for both of you.

I love you.

Contents

Preface………………………………………………….. xii

PART 1: The Introduction to the Rapture

1. The Importance of the Rapture……..…….………....... 11

2. The Basis of the Rapture……………..………………. 23

3. The Purpose of the Rapture…..………………….…… 35

PART 2: The Timing of the Rapture

4. The Jewish Wedding Ceremony………………………. 93

5. The Unknown Hour...………………….……………... 107

6. The Absence of the Church….……………….……….. 129

7. The Location of the Church……………………........... 141

8. The Promises to the Church…….................................. 163

9. The Removal of the Church……................................... 163

10. The Purpose of the Tribulation……........................... 163

PART 3: The Objections to the Pre-Trib Rapture

11. The Red Herring Objections…………........................ 179

12. The Unfair Objections.…..….…………..................... 131

13. The Spurious Objections……………………………. 143

PART 4: The Problematic Positions on the Rapture

14. The Problems with Post-Trib……………..…………. 191

15. The Problems with Pre-Wrath………………………. 205

16. The Problems with Mid-Trib.……………………….. 219

PART 5: The Point of the Rapture

17. The Proper Attitude Towards the Rapture………….. 240

How to Receive Jesus Christ………….. 247

Notes…………………………………..... 249

Preface

When I was a “brand new” Christian I was busy doing what I figured all Christians should do and that is, witnessing. I was learning new and exciting information each day as I had enrolled in Bible College eight weeks after being saved. One day, I was engaged in a conversation with my brother Jim concerning the Book of Genesis and the conditions of the Garden of Eden, prior to the fall of man. As we continued to talk, I was challenged with the classical response of, “How do I know its true?” This hit me like a ton of bricks. I knew the Bible was God’s Word but this was the first time that I was asked for “proof.” I stumbled through the rest of the conversation and left shortly thereafter. That night I prayed a prayer that changed the course of this life. I cried out, “God, I don’t want to be a ‘copy cat Christian.’ I do not want to merely repeat or ‘copy’ what I learn about the Scriptures from my instructors, even though I do not doubt their integrity, but I want to know for myself, why I believe what I believe.” From then on, I began to not only study the truth of God’s Word but to understand it from all angles, skeptic and non-skeptic alike. This has proven to be a powerful force in enabling God to use this life right on up to today in “giving a reason for the hope that lies within me.”

Now, even though this is clearly a mandate for all believers to fulfill, I have noticed that over the years, although there are volumes of apologetic books out there to equip the Christian to give a proper defense and aid them in effective witnessing, many people still will not pick them up. Some might buy one or two in their lifetime but they seem have a hard time in reading them due to the “technical” language that are by necessity contained within. The constant complaint seems to be “It’s too hard to understand, it’s too boring.”

Therefore, the purpose of this book is not to merely hand you yet another apologetic book on popular questions raised by the skeptic, but one that is easy to understand and follow, and believe it or not, actually fun to read! My desire is that you will not only finish this book, but that you join me in a passionate pursuit of God’s truth and sharing it with every soul that the Lord would put in your path. One last piece of advice. When you are through reading this book then will you please READ YOUR BIBLE? I mean that in the nicest possible way. Enjoy and I’m looking forward to seeing you someday! Billy Crone

Las Vegas, Nevada

2016

Part I

————————————

The Introduction to the Rapture

Chapter One

————————————

The Importance of the Rapture

Imagine the following scenario. You wake up one morning only to realize that your family has totally disappeared. You scramble, you look around, you run into the living room turn on your TV to see what in the world is going on. And there you watch a special worldwide global news report declaring that millions of people all over the planet are missing, not just your family, but literally millions of people. And as this slowly begins to sink in, you look down and spy your loved ones Bible sitting right there on the coffee table and suddenly it dawns on you that your Christian family was right after all when they kept telling you over and over again about this Rapture thing. And so to your horror, you realize, oh no, you have been left behind and you will now be catapulted into the 7-year Tribulation that’s coming upon the whole world. In fact, maybe that initial news broadcast will look something like this.

“Christina Bronson reporting on today’s Breaking News. We are getting last minute reports from all over that world that thousands of people have just vanished. I repeat, thousands of people from all over the globe have just disappeared.

The total of number of people that have disappeared have not yet been confirmed but it is expected be a lot higher than what had been initially reported. According to authorities the number are expected to be in the millions.

Many flights have been cancelled because of security fears. According to reports there have been plane crashes all over the world because some pilots have simply disappeared midflight.

Chaos has also spread the road with a great number of traffic accidents being reported. Hospitals have not been able to cope with the number of patients coming in. Many parents are in complete despair about their children who have also disappeared.

Many believe that this could have been an alien attack and there are those that believe that Jesus raptured these thousands of people. Witnesses believe to have seen a bright flash followed by huge thunderous sounds and a being like a man in the clouds.

Here are some images caught on CCTV cameras showing people literally disappearing. The images you see now are from CCTV cameras all over the world. These images have been analyzed by experts and they are genuine. CCTV footage from parks, shopping centers, parking lots, churches, and traffic monitoring systems are indeed real and frightening. We are receiving images like these non-stop from all over the world.

We are yet to hear from heads of state from all over the world who are in shock and have not released any statements. Members of various churches are saying this is the rapture of the church. When asked why they also hadn’t disappeared many cried with regret that hadn’t taken Jesus more seriously before.

We are closing this new bulletin here and will report more news as and when it happens.1

Now folks, you can laugh and scoff all you want, but a news broadcast just like that, really is coming to our planet, and dare I say, much sooner than most people realize. And so the question is, “Will you be around to see that kind of news broadcast yourself? Will you be left behind!” And that’s part of the reason why we’ve entitled this book, not just The Rapture but The Rapture: Don’t Be Deceived. If there’s one thing you don’t want to be deceived about, it’s the truth concerning the Rapture. The Bible says for those who are left behind, they will be thrust into the 7-year Tribulation and that is not a party. It’s an outpouring of God’s wrath on our wicked and rebellious planet. It is mankind’s worst nightmare! In fact, speaking of news broadcasts, maybe this will be one of the weather reports during that horrible time frame the Bible talks about. Let’s take look at that.

“We’ve got some big changes here for the upcoming workweek starting tomorrow we are going to have a volcanic eruption right near Charlottesville and it’s going to make things rather toasty across the area.

We are going to see lava spill out into Central Virginia and make temperatures in Richmond at 350 degrees Fredericksburg at 345, Charlottesville the hot spot at 400, not as hot off towards the tide water.

A little bit more comfortable with highs near 100 degrees. The reason why is we’re going to have tidal waves moving in.

Ahead of this, a global super storm developing off towards the Atlantic Ocean. This thing is headed our way. We can see maybe about 1 to 200 inches of rainfall with wind gusts up to 1000 miles an hour.

Overnight it looks calm but going into the weekend there will be some slight changes. Starting Friday the Southeast will see heavy rain and wind speeds topping 700 miles per hour.

That will spot a F5 tornado headed westward across the southeast all the way to the west coast.

In the west temperatures will decrease to about 300 degrees below freezing. It says an ice sheet has been forming in California. This would be a good time to stock up on food as this extreme weather will compromise the food supply indefinitely.

Those along the Canadian border look out for zombies. They are moving southward out of Canada.

Saturday would have been a great day for beach goers in the east but looks like the Avian Flu outbreak and the recent Zombie attacks, you may want to stay indoors for a while.

Don’t forget to wear your masks and only drive in the daylight hours if you’re driving along the I95 corridor.2

Okay, that doesn’t sound like a very good time. And folks, all kidding aside, the Bible really does talk about that kind of crazy searing heat, volcanoes exploding, massive weather problems and even a drug induced population acting like a bunch of zombies during the 7-year Tribulation! And that’s still just the tip of the iceberg! You tell me if you want to be around during that time! Let’s look even more at what the Bible says about that horrible time.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 7-YEAR TRIBULATION

Seal Judgments

· 1st Seal - White Horse – Global False Peace

· 2nd Seal - Red Horse – Global War

· 3rd Seal - Black Horse – Global Famine

· 4th Seal - Pale Horse – Global Death – 1/4th of Mankind Killed by…

· Sword

· Famine

· Plague

· Wild Beasts

· 5th Seal - Altar of Souls – Global Persecution

· 6th Seal – Beginning of Great Tribulation which unleashes…

· A Global Earthquake

· Sun Turns Black

· Moon Turns Red

· Asteroids Fall to Earth

· Sky Recedes

· Mountains/Islands Removed from Places

· Global Fear of God’s Wrath

Trumpet Judgments

· Opened by the Seventh Seal – Silence in Heaven

· 1st Trumpet - Hail/Fire - 1/3rd of Earth/Trees & All Green Grass Burned Up

· 2nd Trumpet - Huge Asteroid – 1/3rd of Sea Dies & 1/3rd Ships Destroyed

· 3rd Trumpet - Blazing Comet – 1/3rd of Rivers & Fresh Water Bitter – Many People Die

· 4th Trumpet - Solar Smiting - 1/3rd of Sun, Moon & Stars Struck – 1/3rd Day & Night without Light

· 5th Trumpet - Satan Releases Demon Horse of Locusts – People with Mark Tortured 5 Months

· 6th Trumpet - Four Angels Loosed from Euphrates – 1/3rd Mankind Killed

Bowl Judgments

· 1st Bowl – Ugly Painful Sores on Receivers of the Mark

· 2nd Bowl – All the Sea Turns to Blood – All Sea Creatures Die

· 3rd Bowl – All the Rivers & Fresh Water to Blood

· 4th Bowl – Sun Scorches People with Fire – People Curse God

· 5th Bowl – Kingdom of Antichrist Plunged into Darkness

· 6th Bowl – Euphrates Dries Up

· Prepares Way for Kings of East for the Battle of Armageddon

· Three Evil Frog-Like Spirits Deceive the World for Armageddon

· Out of Mouth of Satan

· Out of Mouth of Antichrist

· Out of Mouth of False Prophet

· 7th Bowl – Final Pronouncement – IT IS DONE

· Greatest of all Earthquakes

· A New Look for Jerusalem - Split in Three

· All Cities Collapse

· A Cup of Wrath for Babylon

· All Islands and Mountains Gone

· A Massive Hailstorm – 100 lbs. each

· Angel Harvest of the Righteous

· Angel Harvest of the Unrighteous – Blood as High as Horses Bridle (4 feet deep) for 1,600 Stadia (200 Miles)3