Personal Journey

God began revealing His heart to me regarding the Jewish people and His eternal plans with Israel in 1995. He also led me to go to Israel and I was able to live there among the Jewish people for a total of seven years, volunteering with an interdenominational Christian organization while at the same time learning about the Jewish perspective of Scripture and their own eschatological ideas. In 2011, I wrote a book discussing a collection of the main Biblical and extra-Biblical texts that describe the final resurrection of the saints, comparing the Christian with the Jewish perspectives, and concluding that both are not only parallel, but identical, since we use the same Scriptures as God’s revealed truth. Thus, both groups must visualize their own promised resurrection as a joint event, not leaving anyone behind, since we will ultimately form one same body in the Messiah.

Using that foundational premise as my guiding light to illuminate the analysis and theory of this present book, and performing a rigorous investigation as objectively as possible, I now want to share my analysis and findings with others who may be interested. I had a pretty good idea of what other theorists were proposing about this topic, but I wanted to limit my research regarding the often-times confusing pieces of the puzzle exclusively to Scripture and depend only on the Holy Spirit’s guidance to place them according to God’s divine order. His character and eternal purposes established the irrefutable and non-negotiable “borders” and “corners” of the puzzle as I began to fill in the picture around the main “centerpiece” of Matthew 24:29-31, which states:

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (ESV, 
emphasis added)." 

Comparing the various perspectives regarding the end-time events and an honest study of what the Bible actually teaches, specifically the relationship between the "great tribulation" and the timing of the resurrection of both Jewish and Christian saints (termed as “rapture” by some), I now believe that the Bible teaches something entirely different than what is proposed by the three main pre-trib, mid-trib, and post-trib modern theologians. I believe that Christians should be more diligent in discerning correct Biblical eschatology, seriously inspecting everything that is being taught, especially the popular “Pretribulational rapture” theory, which purports to give a “Tribulation-free” pass to Christians while leaving the Jews behind.

It is my desire is to submit this new coherent view of future events based on a spiritual unity of all God's people of the New Covenant. Any picture that does not have the Jewish and Gentile people of God together in one same Body of the Messiah BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the resurrection of the saints must be acknowledged as erroneous, and we might even classify it as a profanation of God’s holy masterpiece.

Thus, placing the various confusing pieces of the final-day scenario puzzle within a non-negotiable and irrefutable framework of God’s intended purposes for His people and all mankind, we end up with a general POST-TRIBULATION / PRE-WRATH RESURRECTION picture that, according to my estimation, seems more Biblical than any other. Nevertheless, I have redefined what is commonly understood as "great tribulation," so it is necessary to read below what I mean by this term. In any case, I prefer to call my new proposition the JOINT CHRISTIAN AND JEWISH POSTRIBULATIONAL PRE-WRATH RESURRECTION theory. Both eschatologies are on a convergent path towards the same finality, which upholds a common resurrection of the saints at the end of their earthly tribulations, but before God rains down His wrath upon unrepentant mankind.

I do not claim to have all the answers, but since I have begun with a solid Biblical base of who God is and what He wants to ultimately accomplish with mankind, I am confident that my picture matches more closely His final picture than the more popular theories.