Double Portion Inheritance - pretribulationorposttribulationrapture

Pre-Tribulation or Post-
Tribulation Rapture Theory?
  By Maria Merola

For 23 years, I had believed in what many in the
church today call the Pre-tribulation Rapture
Theory.

But in August of 2004, YHWH opened my eyes to
something that changed my views on this.

It started with 1st Corinthians 15:50-52 where it says that we shall be raised "at the last trump." And so I began studying the 7 trumpets in Revelation as well as the 7 trumpets in Joshua when the walls of Jericho fell. I began to see that there is always a pattern in prophecy that matches with the Law of Moses. That is why Yehoshua/Jesus referred to the fulfillment of "law and prophets" before "heaven and earth pass away…" (Matthew 5:16-18).

Until there is a new heaven and a new earth, the Law of Moses will continue to guide us through the fulfillment of prophecy.

You see, the Law of Moses will always validate prophecy. God commands those of us who are in covenant with him to keep his holy feasts "forever, throughout your generations..." because he calls these "convocations" meaning "rehearsals" of prophetic future events to come (see Leviticus 23).

That is why the Christian Church for the most part has prophecy "skewed" because instead of using God's rendering of "times and seasons" they are keeping pagan sun god worship days (i.e. Christmas & Easter) patterned after the pagan solar calendar and astrology.

Now let's first take a look at the word "Rapture."

The word "Rapture" is no place in scripture. It is a Latin word Rapturo which means: to seize, snatch, carry away.

This is the same exact word used in 1st Thessalonians 4:17 when we shall all be "caught up to meet the Lord in the air." That word is the Greek word Harpazo which means the identical thing as Rapturo. Harpazo in 1st Thessalonians 4:17 means: to seize, catch away, pluck, pull, take (by force).

It is the same Hebrew word "laqach" for "taken" in 2nd Kings 2 when Elijah was "taken" in a chariot of fire:

#3947 laqach law-kakh' a primitive root; to take (in the widest variety of applications):--accept, bring, buy, carry away, drawn, fetch, get, infold, X many, mingle, place, receive(-ing), reserve, seize, send for, take (away, -ing, up), use, win.

I am pointing all this out because there are some that would try to argue that there is no such thing as a "Rapture" but they are wrong. The word Rapture or Harpazo or Laquach all mean the exact same thing as when the Bridegroom comes and seizes his bride and carries her away to the marriage. Those who go into the marriage are "taken" and those who did not have their lamps filled as the 5 foolish virgins are the ones who are "left."

And so with that foundation laid, let us see what our Jewish Messiah had to say about the resurrection of the believers:

Matthew 24:29-31:

"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:

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. "

Originally I used to think that the "elect" here were the Jews only because God refers to the Nation of Israel in Isaiah 45:5 as "Israel mine elect." But then the Lord took me to 1st Peter 1 where he refers to the churches as "Elect after the foreknowledge of the Father, sprinkled with the blood of Yehoshua Messiah and sanctified by the Spirit...."

Here is where my eyes were opened and I realized that in order to be part of the election, one has to be "sprinkled with the blood of Yehoshua Messiah & sanctified by the Holy Spirit." Under the Old Covenant the natural born Israelites were called the "elect", but under the New Covenant we are all citizens of Israel and joint heirs to the promises of Abraham through Messiah. The Gentile believers in Yehoshua are spiritually grafted in together with natural Israel. I am NOT teaching what is called "Replacement Theology." Replacement Theology purports that God has disinherited the Jews from their promises and has now given those promises to the church instead. But this is a lie from the Devil. What I am teaching here is the "engrafting" of both the church and Israel into "one new man" (Ephesians 2).

Now going back to Matthew 24:29, I noticed that Yeshua said "immediately after the tribulation" (3.5 years) he would "gather his elect" (Rapture) and he said it would happen "with a great sound of a trumpet"....Then I remembered, that we shall be gathered "at the last trump" (1st Corinthians 15:50-52). And so this trumpet that Yehoshua spoke of when he gathers his "elect" has to be the "last trumpet" because there are no more trumpets after the last trumpet!!! Ponder that for a moment!

As a supplement to a study I did on "Daniel's 70th week," I did a study on the 33.5 years of the life of Yeshua. I also discovered through a research done by Dr. Ernest L. Martin in a book entitled "The Star that Astonished the World" that this constellation was seen at no other time in history when Yeshua was born on September 11th in 3 B.C. This landed precisely on a Holy Feast Day of YHWH called "Yom Teruah" or Feast of Trumpets. Most Messianic Jews believe his birth to have occurred 15 days later on the Feast of Tabernacles, but Dr. Ernest L. Martin's research shows exactly 180 days (6 months) from his cousin John's birth who was born on Passover. So how do we know this? Well, it can be calculated through scripture as I will illustrate. We also discover from this same research that Yehoshua was conceived on Hanukkah December 13th 4 B.C. This can be validated through scripture by calculating the time of birth of his cousin, John the Baptist who was exactly 6 months older (See Luke 1).

How Can We Calculate the Birth of Yehoshua from Scripture?

John the Baptist's Father Zechariah was a Priest in the Temple after the division of "Abijah." In 2nd Chronicles 24 we find what time of year the division of Abijah would serve in the temple. Therefore when the angel Gabriel announced to Zechariah that his wife Elisabeth would conceive a son, we know what time of year that was and from that we know when John the Baptist was conceived. So we count 271 days forward (normal gestation period) and we find that John the Baptist was born on Passover in 3 B.C. We count 180 days (6 months) forward and we find that Yehoshua was born on "The Feast of Trumpets" that year (being that it was a leap year). In any other year, it would have landed on the Feast of Tabernacles (called Sukkot) but that year was a leap year so the announcement of his birth came 15 days earlier on a Holy Day of Israel called "Yom Teruah" (Day of Blowing Trumpets, Leviticus 23). The constellations which guided the wise men to Yehoshua on that day were seen at no other time in history. The "sign" which the wise men saw was a "woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet" (Revelation 12). What these wise men saw was "Virgo the Virgin" (Bethulah in Hebrew). And they saw the constellation of "Ariel" the Lion of Judah, aligning at the same time, showing that "the woman (virgin) was about to give birth to the Lion of Judah (manchild), who would rule all nations with a rod of iron. (Revelation 12).

*Note: The reason why 271 days was used to calculate the exact timing of the births of Yehoshua and his cousin & John (Yochanan) the Baptist, is because the Hebrew word for pregnancy is "herayon" which has a numerical value of 271 when added up in Hebrew Gematria.

Now, getting back to our study:

The Roman Emperor Constantine invented "Christ Mass" in the 3rd Century as a political strategy in order to assimilate Jesus to the pagan sun god that was always "reincarnated" each December 25th on the winter solstice in astrology! "Tammuz" was this pagan sun-god also known as "Baal." God showed this to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 8 that they were worshiping this pagan sun god in Israel and he said it is an Abomination!

So why is this so important? Because Yeshua's real date of birth validates prophecy! The Bible tells us in Revelation 19:10:"...the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

Now by understanding all this, I came up with an exact time-line of "Daniel's 70th Week" from the "going forth of the command to rebuild Jerusalem" (Daniel 9:24) which was the decree given by King Cyrus in 457 B.C. There are 70 weeks X 7 years = 490 years for the length of this prophecy. The word "weeks" here in Daniel 9:24-27 is the Hebrew word "Shebuah" which means a "seven year period" hence "Seventy Weeks" means 70 times 7, which is the exact same formula that Yeshua gave his disciples when they asked him "how many times we should forgive our brother?" In other words 70 X 7 = FORGIVENESS!

When the 490 year prophecy is completed, there will be completeness to Yah's atonement for sin towards all of mankind. Some will receive it and some will reject it, but it will be finished in the earth!

Okay, so if we subtract 3.5 years (for the final tribulation period) from the 490 prophecy, we get 486.5 years. So, let's add 486.5 years to 457 B.C. and we come to the exact date that Yeshua died on the cross which was Wednesday, April 3rd, in 30 A.D. This day was the Passover on the Biblical Hebrew Calendar. There is no such thing as "Good Friday." Good Friday discredits Yehoshua and makes it appear that he lied when he said he would be "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Good Friday puts him in the heart of the earth only 1 day, not 3.

The day after his crucifixion, was an annual Sabbath called the "Feast of Unleavened Bread" and then 2 days later was the weekly Sabbath.

From these dates we find that Yehoshua fulfilled the first 3.5 years of Daniel's 70th week leaving only 3.5 years to complete of this 490 year prophecy. The last half of Daniel's 70th Week (3.5 years), picks up with the Antichrist setting up the "Abomination of Desolation" in the 3rd Jewish Temple, and this is when the "Tribulation" period actually begins. (Matthew 24:15-21) Concurrently, the "two witnesses" in Revelation 11 will also have a ministry that lasts for 1,260 days (3.5 years).

The Antichrist speaks blasphemies for 42 months (3.5 years) and "Jacobs's time of Trouble" is for "a time, times and a half" according to Daniel 12 & Revelation 13. The word "time" in Hebrew and Greek means "one year" and so "time"= 1 year "times" = 2 years "half times" = 6 months, hence 3.5 years. There is no place in scripture that says that the Tribulation is 7 years!

Some people misinterpret Daniel 9:27 where it says "and he shall confirm the covenant with 'many' for one week...." They think that the "he" here is the antichrist that "confirms" "the covenant." But in the previous verses in Daniel 9:25-26, the subject is "Messiah the Prince" and then the other subject is "the people of the prince." So when Daniel 9:27 says "he", we can only take that to mean the "he" in the previous verse which is "Messiah the Prince" because "the people" are a "they" not a "he."

Further more, it was Yeshua who said at the last supper the night before his crucifixion, "this is the blood of my covenant shed for 'MANY' " and he did this within the last week of Daniel's prophecy. Because "in the midst of the week" literally according to Daniel 9:25-26 Wednesday (middle of the week) and prophetically in the "middle" of the last 7 years of this prophecy, Yehoshua was "cut off" according to Daniel 9:25-26. So who else could the "he" be talking about in Daniel 9:27? It is Yehoshua Messiah who "confirms the covenant" with "many" for the entire duration of his 3.5 year ministry and continues right up until his second coming when the last 3.5 years of Tribulation are concluded in the final "week" of this 490 year prophecy!

In order to "confirm" something like a covenant, there has to be a covenant already in place and there is only one covenant and that is the same one YHWH made with Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. Yehoshua "confirms" this same covenant! And it is called THE COVENANT. Not "A" covenant. The word "The" here implies the one and only covenant that God makes with his people! *Note: King James uses "the covenant" while other corrupted Gnostic versions use "a covenant".

In the parable of the 10 virgins, (Matthew 25), when the 5 foolish virgins went to buy oil, the 5 wise virgins were ready when the bridegroom came so they were "accounted worthy" to escape the wrath of God as they went in to the marriage and "the door was shut"! (No more people get saved after that).

Likewise, Noah and his family had suffered "tribulation" while building the ark on dry land. They were mocked and persecuted by the unbelievers. The word "tribulation" literally means "persecution." Noah's family endured "tribulation" and then the "wrath" of God came in the form of rain. When all 8 of them were in the ark, "the door was shut"! (No more people were saved after that).

So you see, Yehoshua said that his second coming would be "as in the days of Noah." When the 5 wise virgins went in, "the door was shut" and no more were saved after that! As in the days of Noah, once the door was shut to the Ark, no more people were saved from the flood! The pattern is there!

So this is the conclusion that I have come to:

Yeshua tells us when the tribulation begins in Matthew 24:15-21 "when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.....for then shall be great tribulation...."

The first 486.5 years of Daniel's 490 year prophecy has already been fulfilled leaving only 3.5 years of the 490 years. So when they build the 3rd Jewish Temple, I believe a Jewish Catholic Pope will sit in the temple and make an image (possibly a clone) supposedly of "Jesus." There is already some rumor that they have cloned "Jesus" from the DNA found in the blood from the "Shroud" of Turin (which is supposedly the burial cloth of Jesus).

This will begin the 3.5 years and then the "two witnesses" in Revelation 11 will also begin their evangelistic outreach to the world, as many will be saved and many will be martyred for their faith in Yehoshua. But now let's get something straight here. These "two witnesses" are NOT Moses & Elijah as many theologians have taught us. Neither is it Enoch, which many people speculate on. They are 2 groups of people: The Gentile Believers & Jewish Believers which makeup the whole of Israel. How do I know this? Read Revelation 11:4 and the angel tells John who these "two witnesses" are. He says they are "the 2 candlesticks & the 2 olive trees..."

Olive Trees are likened unto the nation of Israel in prophecy and 2 of them symbolize the Southern Kingdom of Israel (Judah) and the Northern Kingdom of Israel (Ephraim & Joseph) (See Ezekiel 37:16). The Apostle Paul also describes "two olive trees" in Romans 11, when he refers to the "wild olive tree" (Gentiles) and the "natural olive tree" (Jews) being grafted into one olive tree.

Then in Revelation 1:20 Yeshua calls the "seven churches" CANDLESTICKS! There are only 2 churches that Yeshua commends and finds no fault with. These are the Church of Philadelphia and the Church of Smyrna, hence the "Two Candlesticks" are representative of these "overcomers."

There are several reasons why Elijah, Enoch or Moses cannot be the "two witnesses" literally speaking:

1.) In order for the Antichrist to kill them after 1,260 days of prophesying, they'd have to put on corruptible flesh again which means reincarnation and the Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 "...it is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment."

2.) Elijah was taken up in a chariot but he had to put on incorruptible flesh in order to inherit the kingdom of God because the Bible says in 1st Corinthians 15:50 "...flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."

3.) Moses died although there was a dispute over his body between the angels (Jude 1:9). But Joshua 1:2 says "Moses my servant is dead...." So we know that he died.

4.) At the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses & Elijah appeared with Yeshua, so we know they already have an incorruptible body. They cannot put on incorruption again to be killed by the Antichrist!

Okay, so we have established that the Gentile Believers and the Messianic Jewish believers are the "two witnesses" and these two groups are a powerful force that prophesy against the Antichrist for 1,260 days. After they are killed in Revelation 11 it says that the two witnesses get "taken up"! (Rapture) And it says "the 7th trumpet sounded"!!! Guess which trumpet that is? That is the same "last trump" in 1st Corinthians 15:50-52 and Matthew 24:29 when Yeshua gathers his elect with a "great sound of a trumpet"!

And Yehoshua said this all happens "Immediately AFTER the tribulation"!! In order to ascribe to "pre-trib" we would have to believe in "two raptures" for the saints but the Bible says in Revelation 20 that there are only 2 resurrections:

1.) One for the righteous, this is called "the first resurrection."

2.) One for the wicked after the 1,000 years are finished.

Okay, so we know that 1st Thessalonians 4:16-17 says: "the dead in Messiah shall rise first, then we which remain shall meet them in the air"....now YHWH showed this to me and it is mind-blowing:

There is no "time" in heaven. Yeshua is Alpha & Omega, the beginning and the ending...he is TIME! He is eternity. There is NO TIME in eternity!

The resurrection of Enoch & Elijah, the resurrection of Yehoshua, the future resurrection of the saints (rapture) are ALL ONE EVENT in eternity! Past, Present & Future all coincide into ONE RESURRECTION!

Daniel 12 confirms this:

Daniel 12

1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Notice that this "time of trouble" is "such as never was" ....the same thing as when Yehoshua said in

Matthew 24:21:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

Both Daniel and Yeshua use the phrase: "such as never was" or "such as was not." This is the same event. And then the angel tells Daniel that "at that time thy people shall be delivered" and he clarifies who "his people" are by saying "everyone that shall be found written in the book"!!

That means everyone whose name is written in the book gets delivered all at once! One resurrection! And it happens "after" the "time of trouble"!

Okay so let's recap:

I once used to believe in a “Pre-Trib” Rapture until 2004 when YHWH showed me that there are no scripture references to a 7 year tribulation—none!

In the book of Revelation, we see that the Antichrist will speak blasphemies for 42 months (3.5 years).

The “woman” (Israel) in Revelation 12 and in Daniel 12 is preserved during this period called Jacob’s Time of Trouble, and this is called “time, times and a half times.”

Time = Mowadah in Hebrew = 1 year
Times = 2 years
Half Times = 6 months
Hence, Times, Times, Half Times = 3.5 years

We see that during this time the two witnesses will have a ministry of 1,260 days (3.5 years)

Yehoshua had a 3.5 year ministry
Elijah had a 3.5 year ministry

It is fitting that the end time “two witnesses” will also follow this pattern of a 3.5 year ministry concurrently while the Antichrist tries to mimic Yeshua with a 3.5 year false ministry.

WHO ARE THE TWO WITNESSES?

When I read Revelation 11:4 and saw who these two witnesses are, I understood that there are 4 objects used to describe these two witnesses. The Angel tells John “these are the two candlesticks and the two olive trees.”

And so 4 objects cannot be referring to two individuals.

Yehoshua tells us the mystery of the “seven candlesticks” in Revelation 1:20. He says that they are the 7 churches. And so if we read the first 3 chapters of Revelation, we find that of those 7 only 2 churches were found to be overcomers: Smyrna & Philadelphia.

And so the 2 candlesticks = 2 churches

In Romans 11, we find out who the two olive trees are: Wild & Natural. In other words, Gentile & Jews.

And so we see that the TWO WITNESSES are TWO GROUPS of people coming together!

These two witnesses in Revelation 11:6 do the same exploits as Moses & Elijah. These two witnesses carry the same anointing of Moses & Elijah!

In other words, the Jews have the Torah (Law) and the Church has the Holy Spirit (Prophecy) and together these two anointings form what is called THE DOUBLE PORTION ANOINTING!

When the Church and the Jews come together in Yehoshua Messiah as ONE NEW MAN (Ephesians 2:15) and ONE STICK (Ezekiel 37:16-17 Ephraim & Judah), that corporate body of believers will be the remnant who carry the DOUBLE PORTION ANOINTING OF MOSES & ELIJAH!

These two witnesses get resurrected at the 7th Trumpet! That is the LAST TRUMPET in 1st Corinthians 15:51-53 where the saints are caught up and changed!

In other words, the two witnesses are the Overcoming churches and the Messianic Jews who form this ONE NEW man and they are the ones found worthy to recieve the FIRST RESURRECTION at the 7th TRUMPET or LAST TRUMPET, and Yeshua said in Matthew 24:31 that all of this happens WITH A GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET (the 7th and last one)

IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION!