What's this thing about April 8th? Looking past the myth

As the sun's shadow crept across the ground during a past solar eclipse, I couldn't shake the feeling that something monumental was unfolding. Tune in to this episode where I dispel the myths surrounding the ominous date of April 8th and the solar eclipse that has many whispering about end-of-the-world prophecies. With a nod to personal experiences and an in-depth examination of biblical texts, particularly Matthew 24, we tackle the misconceptions that fuel these apocalyptic fires. We analyze the spectrum of individuals invested in end times predictions, from the devout to the last-minute seekers of salvation, urging a focus on living a life of righteousness rather than fixation on doomsday dates.

Venturing further into the enigmatic Book of Revelation, we unravel the complex tapestry that depicts a post-rapture world where survival is anything but guaranteed. As I guide you through this chapter, we correlate modern events like global conflicts and technological advancements with scriptural prophecies, offering a perspective that is both sobering and enlightening. Unpacking the deceptions of false prophets and the societal shift toward a cashless future, this episode serves as a reminder to anchor our faith in biblical truths rather than be swayed by celestial occurrences.

Concluding our journey, we confront the gravity of securing one's faith in the here and now. The rapture represents not only an end but also a stark transformation in divine interaction with humanity, and I stress the importance of not gambling with one's spiritual destiny. By embracing the scriptural pillars of repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost, this episode stands as a clarion call to embody true belief and to share the transformative power of love and God's message. Join us as we stride together on a path of understanding, fortified by the essence of faith.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:23

Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I am your host, jj. It's so good to have you here in the podcast listening and hope you're enjoying it. Thank you all so much for liking and sharing and I really thank you all for the questions that you guys send me. And we're going to be dealing with one of those questions today that seems like everyone is dealing with, everyone is concerned about today.

Speaker 1: 0:50

Well, over the last couple of weeks, I'm not sure exactly where this fervor came from, but we're going to deal with this whole question about April 8th. What's so serious about April 8th? April 8th, you hear about it on social media. It's all over YouTube. It's all over the news. April 8th, april 8th, solar eclipse oh my gosh, the world's going to go away. Things are going to happen. Things always are going to happen. But thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 1: 1:20

And before we get started, I'm going to make sure we shout out our show sponsors, true Boss and Lyricist who's helping us go make the transition from just audio to visual or video. And no, we're not saving any of these episodes for the video. We're just going to keep them as is and then we will go to videos. It'll be like almost like restarting the same podcast, but we're just going to continue what we left off. But that sounds a little convoluted, but that's just how it's going to be. It'll be a lot easier when we make the transition Again also to Squizzer Creations helping us with the cups and the Walk With Me Bible Study tumblers. A couple people have asked me about it in the emails and as soon as we get back up and running, I'll go ahead and send you all a link and then when we go video, then you'll have the link. We can just order it straight through the podcast. Thank you all so much. You guys could be listening to any other podcast, doing any other thing with your day, but you took a moment to be listening to this podcast. I really do appreciate it. Thank you all so much.

Speaker 1: 2:36

Now, as I was saying in the open, so many people, so many people today are these last few days have been really really, really, really, really, really concerned, anxious and feeling a kind of a way about what's going on on April 8th. Yes, there's going to be a big solar eclipse, but here's the thing I'm actually old enough slash young enough to remember when we had one before and I was in grade school I can't remember which grade, but I remember looking out the window and the sky kind of turning a little bit darkish, like, grayed out a little bit, and then it passed and it was right back to sunny and I was like, oh man, I miss the eclipse and I'll be this many years old when the solar eclipse happens again. And here I am and here everyone is. I don't know if it's because of everyone's looking for something to be excited about or some or just some general feeling of in time mania, so to speak. Everyone's really upset about April 8th, and I'm just going to put you all to ease with one sentence April 8th is not the end of the world.

Speaker 1: 4:06

I'm going to tell you that now. April 8th is not the end of the world. Well, jj, how do you know that? Well, because the Bible tells us. The Bible tells us exactly when it's not. Because the mere fact that we're running around saying that it's going to be April 8th means that it's not going to be the end of the world. Because in Matthew 24, jesus specifically said but of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. So if we're two weeks out from April 8th and we're talking about how the world's going to end, that means it's not it. It's just kind of more of a distraction tool to get everybody wound up. And then it's kind of like a drug that we're on nowadays, where everyone's trying to figure out when is the end of the world? When is Jesus coming back? When is this going to happen? When is that going to happen?

Speaker 1: 5:08

Now, before we go any further, you know we have to cover a little thing. When we talk about a scripture, I always read a verse or two above or a verse or two below, but preferably the whole chapter. Why? Because context is key. You don't want to be taking a scripture out of this here and a scripture out of there and creating your own doctrine. You see't want to be taking a scripture out of this here and a scripture out of there and creating your own doctrine. You see a lot of people doing this and basically they mean well, but they also end up creating up the false doctrine. And the false doctrine is not going to help you, because when the Bible starts contradicting your false doctrine, most people tend to blame the Bible that they got their false doctrine from for contradicting their false doctrine. So always make sure that you read. If you read the Bible, always read it in context. You're in this podcast. We're always going to do it in context.

Speaker 1: 6:06

So, jj, when is the end? Because I got a couple of questions about that. Here's the thing I have always said and I used to be real brash with how I answer that question and the brash answer was always there's only two people who were really concerned about when the end of time is, when all these things shall end Either A, the super Christian, who is living his life and just trying to figure out, you know what's going on and make sure he's in the right faith and make sure he's doing the right thing. Or B, someone who's in the world, living their life any kind of way and then trying to get in as close as they can to the very last second to be saved. And, sad to say, a vast majority of the people who ask that question fit into category number two, and I know that's not a real kind thing to say and a lot of people might balk at this, but this is true Most of the people who are really focused on what's going on in the end times.

Speaker 1: 7:15

What's the end times? What's the end times? Listen, jesus said these things and, matter of fact, jesus I don't believe Jesus even had an intention of teaching on this stuff, but only answered the question because the apostles asked him. And that's just out of the book of JJ. But we have a lot of different scriptural settings that teach us that there are going to be things that are happening. So everybody always runs to the book of Revelation. Oh, revelation this, and Revelation says that and Revelation says this. Please understand, walkers. Please understand. By the time you get into Revelation, your salvation is too late. But yes, by the time you get into Revelation, your salvation is too late. What do you mean by that? Okay, 1 Thessalonians 4 and 16. This is the culmination of what the Christian church is going to be going through.

Speaker 1: 8:19

We're talking about what we refer to as the rapture. Yes, I know the word rapture does not appear in the Bible. It doesn't. But there are a lot of things that we talk about in the Bible, that the Bible doesn't denote, but we talk about it. The Bible explains it, the Bible talks about it in great length.

Speaker 1: 8:42

And here we are in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 15. For this we say unto you, lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent, prevent them which are asleep Now. By that, paul is talking about people who have already died. But here's the part where it's more important to explain what exactly is about to happen, for the Lord himself and this is verse 16, shall descend from heaven with the shout of the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ, which we were just talking about in verse 15, that are asleep, the dead in Christ, shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him 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.

Speaker 1: 9:42

Now here's a challenge. Here's a challenge that, as a person who used to argue in court, I'm going to do something that's really unfair to you, the listener. I'm going to ask you a question that I already know the answer to. Where in the book of Revelation do you see this exact scenario playing out? That's right, you don't. In Revelation, it talks more about people who are left behind after this, because it talks a lot about what's going on in the spiritual realm, about when the seals are opening and what's going on and what the effect is on the earth and all of that, but you don't see a scenario where the Christian church is taken out. You do see where Jesus came back with the saints. Remember now the saints have already been taken out in 1 Thessalonians. Now you see scenarios about where Jesus comes back with the saints and you see where we were talking about the thousand year millennial reign. So and I say that because we somehow have gotten this idea that if we miss the rapture, it's okay, it's fine, it's fine, it's okay, we missed the rapture, but you know Jesus is going to come back again for this thousand-year millennial reign. I got something to tell you folks.

Speaker 1: 11:13

And when we get into you know, really studying the book of Revelation and going through it piece by piece, the math doesn't work out. The math only works out if, for anybody who's left after that day, after the rapture, the math only works out that you have a 25% chance of surviving the next seven years. I know that sounds really hard, but you have, you got the wars that's going to happen and you have the pestilences that are going to happen. And then you're going to have some, some celestial things that are going to happen and all, and then you're going to have a lot of problems with food supply and this and that and other things. And you even hear, if you're really paying attention. You hear a lot of people trying to talk to you about prepping now, because a lot of people got that feeling that somehow they're going to have to go through the revelation in order to get to heaven. But that's not what's going to happen. And then, on top of that, to make matters worse, the people who do survive of that 25% that survive, a lot of those are going to be lost because of that thing that we've been hearing about the mark of the beast. And we hear about it, we hear about it and you know, and a lot of people.

Speaker 1: 12:42

And now, if you want to watch something, you want to watch something. You watch how the mark of the beast is being introduced into the world and how it's being glorified. And here's something else and here's an aside I actually heard this a few days ago that in Sweden they don't even use cash anymore, but they, they use everything. With a biometric thing that they put in their hands, they can buy, they can sell, they can, they can open their offices with this one chip when they go into and from work. So here's the thing, y'all we got to stop focusing on what the enemy wants us to focus on. Ok, it's a solar eclipse, woo hoo, it's, it's. It's amazing thing is, I mean, it's a wonderful thing to watch, but do not confuse this with the end times.

Speaker 1: 13:42

So, jj, tell me then, how are we marking the end times? Well, if you really got to know, if you really got to know, then you got to go back to Matthew 24, go back to the source of what Jesus said was going to happen in the end times. And, just for the sake of time, we're just going to hit bullet points. Now, the first thing that's going to happen is that you are going to see a lot of things happen. You're going to get a lot of warnings. The first warning is you're going to have you know, you hear it all the time wars and rumors of wars, and every time you turn around, some other, some nations mad at some other nation, just like now, I think there's about to be some sort of big conflict on the South American coastline South America coastline, because Brazil and Venezuela is mad at Guyana and Guyana is like you know. We did the right thing. So there's going to be wars and rumors of wars all over the place. We got that. But the big thing, the big thing that is sliding under the radar, is that a lot of people are going to come.

Speaker 1: 14:55

Jesus said a lot of people are going to come in my name and deceive many. Matthew 24 and 5. Well, let's go back to verse 4. Take he that no man deceive before many shall come in my name Saying I am Christ and shall deceive many. Now a lot of people say well, that's the antichrist. He's going to proclaim himself to be God. Yes, that is going to happen. But the first thing he said was come in my name and he's going to present himself as a Christian, not as a world, like a one world religious leader, like the Antichrist is going to be. So there's a little bit of a difference there. He's saying I'm going to come in my name and deceive many and you shall hear of wars, rumors of wars. See you not be troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. So that whole last part the end is not yet is very key here, for nations shall rise against nations, the kingdom of your kingdom. But these are the beginning of sorrows.

Speaker 1: 16:02

It talks about sicknesses, pestilences, not pestilences. We don't use that word anymore. We like to use the word pandemic now, and earthquakes in diverse places. And diverse places does not mean underwater, it just means in many different, unusual places. You're going to hear a lot of weird places getting earthquakes, like Haiti Whoever heard of Haiti getting an earthquake? But this is just the beginning, because then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you, and you will be hated of all nations, for my name's sake, by you.

Speaker 1: 16:40

Jesus is talking to the true apostles, or the true church, because all these apostles went out and formed churches, right? So he's talking to the people who founded the churches. So, therefore, he's talking to the church. You will be hated, for my name's sake. Now tell me, walkers, at what point have you seen in your lifetime if you're older than, say, 20, in your lifetime, have you seen Christianity as under attack as it is right now? Now, does that mean the end is going to be April 8th? No, it is not, because, remember, no man is going to know the hour or the day that this happens and many shall be offended and betray one another and shall hate one another. I I saw this story where this, this kid, turned their parents in because they were, the parents were christian and the kid didn't want to be a christian. Turn the parents in on something really stupid.

Speaker 1: 17:38

Let's keep going and many false prophets shall arise and deceive many. Many people are going to come out and say, hey, I'm a preacher, hey, I'm a pastor, and deceive many. Remember we talked about it in the beginning of every episode of this podcast. Context is key Because a lot of people will take stuff out of context, wrap them together to create a really nice sounding false doctrine and will deceive many because it'll sound either easy or really exclusive, but it's not the right doctrine and because iniquity or sin shall be widespread. The love of many shall wax cold. Love is not going to be around. This is still not the end. This is just the warnings of the beginnings of the end, and he that shall endure to the end, the same, shall be saved Verse 14. And this gospel shall be preached unto all the world for a witness to all nations, and then the end shall come. So remember all of this stuff that we just talked about was leading up to the end, and by the end we're talking about the tribulation yes, everybody's favorite word when we're talking about the end times, the tribulation.

Speaker 1: 19:10

Now, one of the questions I got is a follow up to this, because you know you get a lot of questions. Well, jj, is the rapture going to happen pre or mid tribtribulation? I have no clue. I'm not going to sit here and say the Bible says, because the Bible doesn't say it. But Jesus just said a lot of people, a lot of Christians, are going to be afflicted and killed for the sake of Christianity. So I don't know, I'm leaning. I used to be pre-tribulation, I used to believe sort of pre-tribulation, because I don't see, you know, you kind of think of it in your humanistic sort of thinking, but it's starting to me it feels like it may be kind of like mid-tribulation.

Speaker 1: 19:59

And then you hear a lot of Bible scholars talk about you have two different tribulations. You have the tribulation, which is the entire seven-year period. Then you have the great tribulation, which is the second half, which is the three and a half years. And when you read your Bibles, if your Bible's kind of, you know, separated into subjects. Jesus starts talking about the Great Tribulation, which is when the Antichrist shows himself. But there are a lot of a couple scriptures where it talks about how the Antichrist is not revealed until the church is pulled out, in other words, until after the rapture happens. So then there's that and that will kind of and as much as I love the Left Behind series if you ever have any, if you want to take a kind of good, almost biblical look at what's going to happen afterwards, read the books. The books are the better. The movies only went up to book three and I think there's like seven books.

Speaker 1: 21:22

But if I would actually recommend this to you If you wanted to kind of get a grasp on all the things that are going to happen after the rapture. Except, I want to caution you on something and I cannot stress this enough and then we're going to have to wrap it up for the podcast. We are going to continue this story, but we're going to continue this discussion, but just for the sake of time, we're going to wrap it up after this. I want to caution you on something, one of the things that is prevalent in a lot of these post-rapture movies and post-rapture books. It kind of says that, hey, there's some people that are still going to be saved.

Speaker 1: 22:07

I, jj, cannot find any scriptural reference to back that up. That's all I'm saying. I cannot find, and I've been looking, I've been kind of studying this thing now for about 30 years. I cannot find any post-rapture salvation plan. And again, you missed the rapture. Between the rapture and the thousand year reign you only got a 25% chance of survival, and I mean just purely physical survival. And then you have the spiritual part where it's going to take a lot of people not to be able to take the mark of the beast. Now I don't know how that's going to play out. I had a couple of Bible scholars tell me hey, you know, there's going to be some people under the throne who didn't make the rapture, but they got killed because they didn't take the mark of the beast, got killed because they didn't take the mark of the beast. I don't have any way of backing that up, and I've heard that said, but I don't have any scriptural way of backing that up and so I am not going to say that this is true.

Speaker 1: 23:22

Somebody else did mention it in one of the questions. I can't verify that, but what I can tell you is that when you look at the Bible and how Jesus talks about how the end is going to be, like the way it was in the days of Noah, and then you kind of step back. We talked about dispensations in the very opening episodes of this podcast and I will cover it again. But when you look at how dispensations are actually set up and not how people just sort of use them willy-nilly these days, when you look at how it's actually set up, the relationship with God's, relationship with man, changed at the end of a dispensation. That rapture would actually mark an end of a dispensation, which means there's something drastically going to change between the way God deals with man now and God deals with man then.

Speaker 1: 24:24

Again, it tells me you missed the rapture. That's like missing the last plane to Cleveland. There's nothing else. There's nothing else, there's nothing else. And I so, if you were trying to figure out when the end times are or when the Raptor's going to be, because you want to get that last hurrah in, you want to live in the world just a little bit longer, because I'm telling you, I'm telling you, don't play that game. That's a Russian roulette, and the house always wins that. The house always wins.

Speaker 1: 25:07

And I know you might say to me, you might listen to this and say it in your head hey man, I know my grandmama me, you might listen to this saying in your head hey man, I know my grandmama, my granddaddy, said Jesus was coming back way back in the blankety blanks or the 30s or the 50s or the 70s or the 1800s. Yes, this is true, can't deny that, can't deny that at all. But what is happening, what I can tell you is that Jesus coming back now is closer now than it was then and more things have been fulfilled now than it was then. I mean, I've never seen the state of humanity this bad, and it just there's a lot of the state of humanity this bad. There's a lot of prophetic scripture, like in Daniel and Isaiah and Ezekiel, that actually we will be going back through and kind of touching on end-time prophetic scriptures and stuff like that. But again, don't try to play the Russian roulette. Don't do it.

Speaker 1: 26:15

And because when it when, that when that train pulls out of station, you can't make it to the next one. I used to, I used to ride the New Jersey transit to New York. Sometimes, when I miss the train at one station, I can get in the car real quick and run to the next station and barely catch the train. No, no, no, it's not how this works. That's not how this works. When that sky cracks and you're going to have a lot of things that are going to happen, and the Bible talks about what happens after that, how the people who are left alive start to curse God. So again, of the 25 percent who are still left on the planet, a huge portion of that 25 percent is just going to be angry at God. A huge portion of that 25% is just going to be angry at God.

Speaker 1: 27:21

So again, if you're trying to use April 8th as some sort of gauge of when the end time is, don't do it. The Bible says no man's going to know what day or hour that is, not even the angels, only God knows. God is going to tell the angel hey, you see that trumpet over there, go blow that trumpet, and the angel is going to walk over there and blow that trumpet and then that's it, okay. So I hope please understand, I'm not trying to scare anybody, like you know, like you scare a two-year-old kid to act right. No, no, no, I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying to answer a question that people are asking and hopefully we will get a little bit more insight as we travel through this Bible study podcast and we will be touching it again. I just wanted to because I got so many questions on it this week, so many questions on it this week. Again, we just wanted to touch on it. Thank you all so much. Thank you all so much for joining us today, being with us on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 28:23

Listen, if you really want to make your calling and election sure, as the Bible says, there's only one way to do it. There's only one way to do it. There's only one way to do it, and that's following John 3 and 3, 3 and 5, and Acts 2.38. All of these scriptures roll up together. As a matter of fact, if you've got any spare time, read the entire book of Acts, because, remember, this is everyone who actually got saved in the Bible.

Speaker 1: 28:51

This is how they did it, and you will notice, if you really read it intently, you will notice there are certain things that are happening and certain things that are not happening. Somebody's repented of their sins, somebody's getting baptized in Jesus name and somebody's getting the Holy Ghost because they believed. You don't see anything in there about accepting anything or anything like that, or praying the sinner's prayer. There is no sinner's prayer, y'all. There is no sinner's prayer. I cannot stress that enough. All right, I love you all. That's the only reason why I do this podcast because God tells me to do it and because I love you all. Thank you all so much for joining. We will get back into it on our next one. Tell somebody that you love them, tell someone that God loves them. That might be the only time they get anything positive that entire day. So just tell somebody. All right, love you all. God bless you all. See you on the next one.