SOME DENY THAT THE CHURCH EXISTS TODAY.

For centuries, perhaps twenty, people have been talking about the return of Jesus to remove His Church.  Jesus spoke of it in John 14:1-3; Paul wrote about it in 1 Corinthians 15:50-54 and in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  Following our being taken up in the Rapture, there will be the seven-year Tribulation (Mt. 24:29; a.k.a. The Time of Jacob's Trouble and Daniel's Seventieth Week - Jer. 30:7; Dan. 9:24-27)!  Clearly, the time of God's wrath is meant to bring Israel to repentance, as the Church is not appointed to experience His wrath (1 Thes. 5:9).


Recently, my friend Scottie Clarke has proposed that Revelation 12:1-5 is speaking of the birth of the Church.  He believes that at the time "the woman delivers," she is "birthing the Church,"  which is the Body of Christ.  According to Scottie, the event which took place on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) was the "conception of the Church" and the past 2000 years is the "gestation period."  He suggests that the Rapture will take place on the Feast of Trumpets which next occurs on September 23, 2017. 


My belief is that only the Feast of Pentecost, out of the seven annual feasts (Lev. 23), applies to the Church.  It is the only one that includes leaven in two baked loaves of bread; the two loaves picture the Church made up of Jewish believers and Gentile believers in Christ.  The leaven is a picture of sin in the Bible, and clearly members of the Church still sin (Rom. 7:15-25; 1 Jn. 1:9).  The Spring feasts:  Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits are pictures of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ during His first Advent.  I suggest that the last three feasts, the Fall feasts:  Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles, will be played out in relation to His second Advent.  Trumpets will be His call to Israel to return to the land; Atonement will picture the discipline of the Lord on His chosen people; and Tabernacles refers to the 1000 year Millennial Kingdom.


To suggest that the Church will not "be born" until a Feast of Trumpets, violates the precedent of the Spring and Fall feasts dealing with Israel, and that they represent Christ's First and Second Coming.  That view also denies that Acts 2:1-47 shows the birth of the Church, and its growth the very first day:  Acts 2:41 says:  "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."  In verse 46-47, it is clear that the souls were added to the Church; it says:  "And they, continuing daily with one accord....Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved."  

TO BELIEVE THE CHURCH WILL NOT BEGIN UNTIL IT IS BIRTH AND IMMEDIATELY RAPTURED, IS TO REJECT THE 2000 YEAR DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH ON EARTH.