Biblical Forensics©

“Deliverance before Judgment”

Part 4

A point that was made at the close of Part 3 bears repeating - the Scriptures are abundantly clear: The “Day of Wrath” and the “Great Tribulation” period are the same event in God’s economy. They are different terms describing the same event. Likewise, this event can be seen as being simultaneous with that of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. As we close in on the “Season of the Rapture”, we see global events of profound horror looming just ahead. The culmination of a number of events will take place virtually around the beginning of the “Seven” year period, known as Daniel’s 70^th Week.

God will judge wickedness and a period has been established when that will transpire. One of the final reasons for this “Day of Wrath” is to reach the inhabitants of Earth’s unrighteous. This awesome day will instill the fear of God in mankind. The prophet Isaiah said, “With my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early: for when Thy judgments are in the Earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” (Isaiah 26:9)

It has never been part of God’s plan to pour out His wrath on His obedient children. While there is always a community effect of evil and judgment – the lives of everyone in every culture are impacted by wickedness – this is distinctly different from a direct act of God’s wrath. The Scripture makes that abundantly clear. The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the churches, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1^stThessalonians 5:9). If the Great Tribulation is the Day of His Wrath, and it certainly appears clear in Scripture that this is the case, then the saints cannot be on Earth during that period. To speak of Christ’s very Bride (Church made up of Jewish and Gentile believers) on Earth during any portion of the Seven Years of Wrath is to defy every principle of Biblical harmony, not to mention the character of God or the consistency of His Holy Word!

God hath delivered us “From the wrath to come.” (1^stThessalonians 1:10) The Spirit of prophecy boldly states, “We are not appointed unto wrath.” (1^stThessalonians 5:9). Revelation 19:10b states: “…for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” The Blood of Jesus was shed because Jesus Christ took upon Himself our wrath by a devoted act of substitution, His death was for atonement of our sins. It is virtually impossible for us to identify and reconcile ourselves with Jesus Christ in His Redemptive role as our Savior and still be subject to God’s Wrath. There can be no greater inconsistency with the Word of God! Paul said, “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:9-10).

There will be a blessed day of escape for the righteous servants of our Holy God. I might add that there is nothing inherently wrong with the term “escape”. Rightfully understood, we should all desire the escape that comes with the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Before the Son of God sends His angels to judge wickedness and rights the multiplied wrongs of this world, He will come to get His Bride (Church). John the Revelator, spoke as the Holy Spirit gave him his vision. He promised, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the Earth.” (Revelation 3:10).

There seems to be an enormous misunderstanding in the comprehension of the word “deliverance” among some circles of society and the actual meaning implied by deliverance. The larger picture of deliverance has nothing to do with an exorcism of a demonic spirit. Rather it is specifically about salvation through the power and act of a loving God that will set the believer free in the fullness of Christ Jesus.

This is only one of many promises made to the believer in Christ Jesus, but it is sufficient for the conclusion of this article. The faithful will be removed before the “hour of temptation, which shall come” begins. This “hour of temptation” is synonymous with the Great Tribulation and the Day of Wrath. This world is about to see the “cup of God’s Wrath”. When it is concluded after the fulfillment of Daniel’s 70^th Week of “Seven” years, there will be no doubters. The Scriptures promise that a remnant of Israel will be saved from that day of wrath. Then the inhabitants of this Earth will learn righteousness. The body (the Bride made up of Jews and Gentile believers) will be with her Bridegroom as this Earth sees a picture of God’s Holiness that no man will ever forget.

The Body (Bride or Church made up of Jewish and Gentile believers) will be removed in the Rapture prior to the Great Tribulation. The Jewish remnant are those who come out of the Great Tribulation. This means they will go through the Day of Wrath. The promise for them is the preservation of their blood line. These are the ones who will once again fill the earth and become like the sands of the sea. In the Holocaust of WWII, one third of the Jews died. In the Great Tribulation, two thirds will die. This includes unbelieving Gentiles who are left behind, as well as the nation of Israel or the Jewish people.

There are approximately two dozen events in Biblical history described throughout the Bible when Lucifer thinks he has the Israelites where he wants them, in order to destroy them. But suddenly God intervenes and delivers a remnant to preserve the Jewish blood line. At present, our best understanding, is that the remnant will flee into Jordan and will be divinely protected at Petra.

Time and time again I hear or read something that an author will state something to this effect, “that the word “Rapture” cannot be found in the Bible”. This is a misinformed, short sighted statement because it does not consider or examine the fact that the English translation of a particular word may be rendered in a number of ways. This is one major reason that so many folks do not agree on the meaning of a variety of passages found in many Bible translations that are related to this topic. Greek and Hebrew is far more explicit than English!

In this series “Deliverance before Judgment”, I will address all the arguments used in the attempt to discredit, discourage, and to defame the Biblical message about the Rapture. We are going to take a look now at the Hebrew text of the King James Bible, because it is here where we first find the word “Rapture” in the Old Testament. It is not specifically translated that way, however, but it appears in as many as thirty or more different words.

Even the first six English bibles that preceded the 1611 KJV Bible used the word “Departure” rather than the words “Falling Away”, as most modern translations have shown it translated. The concept of “Rapture” or “Deliverance” is found in the Hebrew Old Testament over 300X times. If one were to do an exhaustive search of the various words that address this theme, you would soon discover, collectively that they number just short of 1,000 renderings. The change from “Departure” to “Falling Away” is the result of Jesuits meddling in the affairs of the Church of England. At the time the KJV Bible was translated, the Vatican was engaged in efforts to restore Papal dominion and Roman Catholic authority. Given the nature of the circumstances that were taking place at that time in England, it is unlikely that the KJV translators would have ever conceded to a watering down of the textual translation or its interpretation other than for the issues afoot which were instigated by the Jesuits. The Jesuits were attempting to sow discord amongst the English people with the goal of undermining the Reformation not yet seventy years old and still in its infancy. The purpose was to manipulate a return to Roman Catholic authority.

The Hebrew word “natsal” appears approximately some 190X times. It conveys the basic meaning “to separate”, “to be separated”, and it does so by adding the ‘Hiphil’ stem, which means “to be taken by force, to remove by force, to be separated by force”. Even Hebrew scholars will tell you that the word “natsal” expressed means “to be removal by force”. Various cognates in Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopian, and Aramaic help to confirm this truth. Cognates are words in two languages that share a similar original meaning, spelling, and pronunciation. The word “natsal” in Hebrew appears as:

ויצל

My Hebrew fonts on my version of Microsoft Word are not equipped with the linguistic devices, dots, and dashes, known as ‘diacritics’ that appear beneath or within letters that determine their pronunciation, but those devices do not affect the meaning as such. In the example above, taken from a Hebrew Interlinear Bible for Genesis 31:9, we find it translated in English as, “and He has taken away”. Many times the ‘Hiphil’ stem is used to show “force” and is being applied or brought out like what might occur if one were abruptly removed or during an act of deliverance. Some additional examples include Isaiah 44:20 and Ezekiel 3:19. They (linguistic devices) have nothing to do with reading Hebrew, but rather determine whether a word has a soft or hard sound, etc. They are there to provide a means whereby one might obtain the correct or proper pronunciation.

Exhaustive Search of “deliver” with Derivative Words & Their Frequency – King James Bible

The root word for all of the derivative words above is “Natsal”. Concerning how they (the derivative words) are spelled in the Hebrew text is determined by such things as the grammatical categories of gender, case, voice, mood, tense, and the context of its use.

The late Messianic Rabbi, Yakov Rambsel, authored at least a half dozen books on the subject of the ‘Bible Codes’. In a guest appearance on the late J.R. Church’s program: ‘Prophecy in the News’, I recall Yakov Rambsel remarking that he found the word “Natsal” numerous times encoded within the Old Testament text. He was speaking about the word “Natsal” appearing in the ‘Bible Codes’.

The point to be stressed here is that while it is true that the word “Rapture” is not found in any Bible other than the old Latin Vulgate, that fact does not preclude or diminish the presence of the idea, concept, or theme, existing in the Biblical languages. At this point, I have thoroughly addressed the major word used in the Old Testament which speaks to the theme of being delivered by force. I have yet to deal with the Greek New Testament, which uses the word “harpazo”. It also means to be “snatched out by force”.

Those who want to argue that the Rapture can’t be found in the Bible simply do not know what they are talking about. Their ignorance is revealed by a lack of understanding and education of the Hebrew and Greek text. More importantly, most if not all of those who want to argue this issue have, for the most part, no formal Bible College or Seminary Biblical language training. This is a critical point that often gets overlooked. Here below is a table reference of the New American Standard Bible concordance listing how the word “Natsal” is translated in English. I use the NASB translation as an example, since it is the closest or nearest to [word for word] translation in accuracy to that of the KJV Bible, or a [word-for-word] translation. Only the KJV Bible and the NASB Bible provide the reader with a true [word for word] translation. All other modern translations are really transliterations [thought for thought] translations. This fact is extremely important when you are searching for people to believe and teach an accurate understanding of the Bible, and what it means for us today. With more than 200 modern translations available today, it becomes virtually impossible to maintain a common and consistent understanding as to what the writer says in regard to what the author meant or really said. “Newer” does not always necessarily mean “better” and this fact is just as true when it comes to Bible translations.

Methods of Translation

• Literal translation (word for word): Attempts to keep the exact words and phrases of the original. It is faithful to the original text, but sometimes hard to understand. Keeps a constant historical distance. Examples: King James Version (KJV), New American Standard Bible (NASB).

• Dynamic equivalent (thought for thought): Attempts to keep a constant historical distance with regard to history and facts, but updates the writing style and grammar. Examples: New International Version (NIV), Revised English Bible (REB).

• Free translation (paraphrase): Translates the ideas from the original text but without being constrained by the original words or language. Seeks to eliminate historical distance. Readable, but possibly not precise. Examples: The Living Bible (TLB), The Message.

The NASB definition for “Natsal” is: “to strip, plunder, deliver oneself, be delivered, snatch away, deliver.”

The Following English Words Used to Translate “Natsal”

Christian believers can trust in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture!!!

Pastor Bob