(Comments by Joan Boney)
Joel spoke of that which God would do in the New Testament Church. Joel also spoke of the Day of the Lord, the Wrath of God that would come in the last days on this present earth.
Joel 1
15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
The "wrath of God" comes as a result of the iniquity on this earth.
Romans 1
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
II Thess. 2
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
This describes the apostasy in the churches that came as a result of the removal of portions of scripture.
NASB refers to this as the apostasy.
Apostasy is defined as:
* abandonment or renunciation of religious belief
* turning away from Bible
Many scriptures have been renounced by today's churches but none more than the following:
Mt. 5:32 ... Jesus said ... But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
Paul explained the following to be "the commandment of the Lord" for the NT church:
I Cor. 7:10-11 ... And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
Churches have renounced these commandments and today permit divorced women to remarry, men to marry divorced women, and divorce to go unchecked in the churches.
How is this not the apostasy? the falling away from scripture? leading to the coming wrath of God, the great tribulation.
The great delusion sent from God to those people in churches who go the way of revolt against scripture, is the delusion that they will not in any way go though the great tribulation for they say "Jesus is Lord", so they consider no matter what they choose to do everything for them is fine.
Those person who refuse the rejection of scripture and hold fast to the doctrines of the Bible are the ones who will be counted "worthy" to escape that which is coming upon this earth.
The vast number of people who sit in churches today where they have cast aside scripture and lawlessness reigns against portions of scripture, have fallen asleep (died) though they look like they are living.
God gave me the following dream to show the living dead inside the congregations.
The poison gas dream:
Destruction was everywhere.
A man was speaking to a group of people. I went into the room and began to listen.
Another man rushed into the room and said: "Stop ... Wait ... Can't you see? ... It's too late ... It's already begun."
The first man resumed speaking.
I looked out the windows to see what had "already begun."
I was very shocked at what I saw!
There was a tall pole with a yellow civil defense type warning speaker on top of the pole. Out of the speaker was coming a gas that was poison. It was coming directly toward us. I knew it would kill us.
The speaker that was set there to warn us was the device being used to gas us to death.
I looked at the man sitting next to me. He had a big smile on his face. But he was a corpse. He was already dead. I looked around the room at the other people. They were dead too, though they seemed to be alive. And as I sat among them, I began to feel sleepy and I knew as I sat there with them, the gas coming from the speaker was killing me too.
God was showing me the conditions of the church groups at the time of this dream, 1979. It is much worse in churches today.
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II Thess. 2 (NASB)
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed
The ONE restraining the man of lawlessness was Jesus, THE WORD, the scriptures.
As soon as scripture, even a portion of scripture, was removed, the restraint which held lawlessness back from the churches was removed so antichrist could move into the churches and lawlessness could reign inside the churches.
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Joel 2
1-2 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
30-31 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
144,000 ... 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel ... will not take on the mark of the beast. (Rev. 14)
Most, during this time, will curse God for the troubles and will not repent.
Revelation 9
20-21 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
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Joel 3
13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
Revelation 14
19-20 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.
Joel 3
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
Matthew 24
21-22 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30-31 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And HE shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
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Does this mean the elect will go through the great tribulation?
The 144,000 will go through the great tribulation and they will be gathered together by the angels sent by Jesus.
There are two other resurrections before the great tribulation.
I Thess. 4
13-18 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with HIM.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (precede) them which are asleep (dead).
For the Lord HIMSELF shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
First, the dead in Christ will be raised.
Then those who belong to God and are still living on this earth will be changed "in a twinkling of an eye" (I Cor. 15). They will be given new, spiritual bodies and then they will be raised to meet Jesus and the others in the air.
Then the wrath of God comes on this present earth and those who have cast aside scripture will go though the great tribulation along with the people of this world.
After the great tribulation, God will destroy the present heaven and earth.
II Peter 3
10-14 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to HIS promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (see: Revelation 21)
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of HIM in peace, without spot, and blameless.
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