The Real Church

While the various organizations and denominations may have in their midst true members of the Church of Jesus Christ, the real Church is made up of born again believers only. The Church is His brethren, His friends, His Bride, His Temple, His Body.
The Apostle Peter defines the Church with these words: “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). We are lively stones, which make up the spiritual house, being active as priests and offering up spiritual sacrifices unto God by Jesus Christ.
The Church dwells in God, and God dwells in the Church.

Real Citizenship

The Apostle Paul confirms the adding of the Gentiles to the Church in Ephesians 2:19: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.”  
That is a lesson many need to learn. The citizenship of the saints is really all that counts. It matters not which nation you are subject to or citizen of. It is virtually insignificant. One may belong to any of the 200 plus UN-recognized sovereign nations of the world, but in the end, it is all useless. Those of us who are proud of our nation, flag, national anthem, history and position in the world will be deeply ashamed of such things when Jesus comes.
In his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul enumerates his advantages which, incidentally, none of us can touch: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5). He indeed could state, “I am proud to be an Israeli, proud to be of the tribe of Benjamin, the first one to be integrated into the royal tribe of Judah. Proud to be a Hebrew, the people to whom God spoke directly, the nation from which the prophets came.” As a Pharisee, he belonged to one of the proudest groups in Israel’s religious class, yet in verse 8, he makes this statement: “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” All the things he could have been proud of, as countless nationalistic Christians are today, he summarizes with four words, “count them but dung.”
This statement should help us to realize our position in Christ, our heavenly citizenship, instead of continuously indulging in perpetual self-applause about our nation. We are, in reality, “strangers and foreigners.” If you don’t feel like a “stranger and foreigner” in your country, then you should allow for the possibility that you are not following Christ but Churchianity.
Citizens of Heaven
Paul continues: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 20). The Church of Jesus Christ is not built on a political philosophy, or some kind of old constitution; the Church is built upon the existing foundation of the apostles (that’s the New Testament), the prophets (that’s the Old Testament), and Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone.
Spiritual House
Now we come back to the spiritual house Peter wrote about and the Apostle Paul confirms: “In whom all the building fitly framed together growth until a holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2: 21-22).
When will the Rapture take place? When our heavenly place is prepared and when the Church on earth is complete. That can happen at any moment. When the last lively stone is added to this spiritual habitation, the Church of Jesus Christ will be removed from planet Earth.
Whenever the surprise element is taken out of the equation, then something is wrong; it’s not biblical. For example, the Mid and Post Tribulation teaching of the Rapture is immediately exposed as an error because it takes away the surprise elements. In plain words, when I believe in the Mid or Post Tribulation Rapture, I am not believing that Jesus could come back at any time; that violates the principles and the spirit of the teaching of Holy Scripture.

4. The Signs of the Rapture

This statement may cause some confusion, because we have already mentioned that the Rapture could take place at any time, without any sign preceding it. However, when we read the whole Scripture collectively and take notice of the various indications of the Lord’s coming, we should be alerted to the nearness of Christ’s return. Hebrews 10:25 reads: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Romans 13:11 says: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” This was written by the Apostle Paul almost 2,000 years ago. Timewise, the coming of the Lord has progressed. Thus we see again, the spirit of waiting and expectation for the coming of the Lord was alive and well at the very beginning of the Church.

The Return of the Fig Tree

We already spoke about Matthew 24:31—the gathering of the elect. The one thing it does not mention is the place where the angels gather together the elect. It simply says, “gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
But then comes something significant, a parable: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh” (verse 32). Why does the Lord picture the fig tree without the fruit as a parable, immediately after speaking of the gathering of His elect?
First, we must realize that the fig tree provided shade for the Israelites. It was a symbol of rest, blessing, and accomplishment.
Under the rulership of Solomon, when peace and prosperity prevailed, we read: “And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon” (1 Kings 4:25).
Indeed, the fig tree, with its broad leaves, served as an excellent cover from the heat of the day. But we may ask, why is no fruit mentioned? We find the answer in Mark 11:13-14: “And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.”
The fig tree, as we said, is a symbol of covering. This was true back at the beginning in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, it says in Genesis 3:7, “…and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” The fig leaves served as a sin covering.
Jesus approached the fig tree full of leaves. He expects fruit and, quite unreasonably, we may say, because it was not the season for figs. It would certainly be unreasonable to expect peaches in the middle of January in South Carolina, or pecans in the height of summer. Every tree and, for that matter, all vegetation is designed for certain seasons in certain areas.
Here, the fig tree quite correctly shows only leaves, but no fruit. What is the message? The Lord awaits fruit at any time. He expects us to have the “fruits” of waiting; He insists that we are ready at any time. That is a hidden sign for the Rapture.

Who Is the Fig Tree?

Doubtless, this is referring to Israel under the Law, which brought forth no fruit, or as we read in Galatians 2:16: “For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

Resurrection of the Fig Tree

We learn from this parable of the fig tree that Jesus begins where He ceased to work for Israel. He cursed the fig tree, and that was the last miracle He did in relationship to Israel.
Before He cursed the fig tree, Jesus prophesied of the destruction of the Temple, Jerusalem, and the nation of Israel. In 70 A.D., the Roman legion came and indeed destroyed the Temple, Jerusalem, and the independent nation of Israel came to end.
Jesus followed the will of the Father: He was arrested and condemned, crucified, buried, and arose on the third day. Then for almost 2,000 years, Israel did not exist as a nation.

The Budding of the Fig Tree

Many theologians, even in modern times, have rejected the interpretation that the Jews will come back to the land of Israel to establish a nation on their soil. The reason given is that Israel needs to believe in Jesus first before anything can be fulfilled. Other theologians totally spiritualize the resurrection of the land of Israel and the return of the Jewish people by applying these promises to the Church.
But such interpretation requires the deliberate ignoring of the geographic description, including the names such as Zion, Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Israel, etc.
They point to Scriptures such as Matthew 23, where Jesus speaking of Jerusalem says, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (verse 38), and then makes the statement in verse 39: “For
I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Therefore, the logical conclusion is that only after the Jews accept the Lord, will prophecy be fulfilled. Thus, they say the political identity of Israel in our time has no validity.
Such statements are rather shortsighted because Jesus is speaking to the Jews in Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem, they will say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” That means they first must return to Jerusalem and the land of Israel before that conversion takes place.

The Desolate Land

For the Jews to return to the land of Israel was all but impossible for the last two millennia. There is ample documentation showing that Israel was a desert-like area, useless for agriculture and unable to support but a few Bedouins and some religious institutions.
Yet, the promise is crystal clear that God will bring back the Jews to the land of Israel. For example, Ezekiel 34:13: “And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.”
But how would the agricultural situation change? “Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD: Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about” (Ezekiel 36:4). These verses clearly identify the land of Israel as “desolate wastes.”
Then the reason for speaking to the topographical land is given in verse 8: “But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.”
Although rainfall has not increased to any measurable level in the land of Israel, and no new sources of water have been discovered, we can’t deny the fact that Israel today is agriculturally self-supporting. Was it miraculous? Was it a supernatural intervention by God? Was it the Jews’ innovation to make use of available resources?
I think it’s all of the above.

The Required Change of the People

Later in that same chapter, we read something profound: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (verse 26). This indicates that the Jew who comes to the land of Israel will receive a new heart and a new spirit.
Those of us who have gone to Israel often, can testify that the Israelis are not to be compared to the Jews back home, those who are still in the Diaspora.  The Jews in Israel who became Israelis were changed, with a new heart and a new spirit. They have become what the world never believed they could, farmers and soldiers. It would not be exaggerating to say they are the best in the world today.

“Thy Spirit”

But that’s not the end. God’s aim is to restore the land for the people, and then restore the people to become His people: “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (verse 27).
The prophet Jeremiah spoke of the New Covenant: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31). This covenant is based on the Spirit of God, which becomes quite evident two verses later: “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (verses 33-34).

The Church Must Be Changed

The Church too must be changed; we are on our way to the great gathering in the presence of our Lord.
We, the Church of Jesus Christ, the lively stones, His Body, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, are awaiting completion.
It will take place at the same moment the last one has been added to the Church. Then will be fulfilled what is written in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55: “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?”

Changing of the Guard

When the Church has been removed from planet Earth, Israel will stand alone, at least temporarily, until God calls the two witnesses and seals the 144,000 from the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
The fact that God has begun the regathering of the Jews to the land of Israel is the great end-time sign for the Church; that the changing of the guard will take place. That means, when the Church is gone, God will directly and supernaturally intervene in the affairs of Israel. Israel collectively is still awaiting the great change, the rebirth of the whole nation, the greatest event in all of Israel’s history.
The Church must be raptured in order for Israel to be saved, as is documented in Romans 11:25-26: “…blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved….”
What are we, the true Church of Jesus Christ, to do in view of this great end-time sign, the return of the Jews to the land of Israel? The Apostle Paul concludes this chapter with these words: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).