Free Books Through Sunday
Through Sunday I'm giving away the digital versions of both of my books for free. You can download the free versions below. I hope you enjoy them! And if you don't mind, please leave a nice review.
P.S. I've had a few people mention the confusion over signing up for "Kindle Unlimited". You shouldn't have to do that. Amazon advertises that service on most Kindle books, so it can be a bit confusing, but on the Amazon pages for these books, just select the Kindle version and then click "Buy now with 1-Click". If you click "Read for Free" it will take you to the Kindle Unlimited page.
Thank you Gary - what a treat. I'm really looking forward to these.
ReplyDeleteBlessings - Sherry
You're most welcome! Just be aware my theology has changed a bit in regards to baptism vs. my take in Some Things You Should Know. My current understanding is here:
DeleteAll About Baptism
Thanks Gary! I went to the same university you did. I am looking forward to reading your book!
ReplyDeleteWow, small world! (: I wonder if my experience was much different from your own.
DeleteEmail me and we can compare notes!
DeleteHi, dear Gary! Thank you very much for all you articles, I read them continualy, they are very good and in perfect time! My question here. I am not registered in Amazon.com, but in Amazon.de, I live in Germany. These boods are free only mit Kindle-unlimited. Is it possible for me to receive these books? Very much blessings. Alla
ReplyDeleteHello Alla, please email us at unsealed.org@gmail.com and I'll see if I can send them to you.
DeleteThank you very much! I have received you books! Blessings!
DeleteJust in time for my birthday in a few days, if I am still here. ;) thanks Gary.
ReplyDeleteHello, Gary.
ReplyDeleteI was just reading your "19 Reasons Why The Rapture Could Be In 2017". You do a masterful job of showing us where Edgar Whisenant went wrong in his "88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988") Unfortunately, it brought to mind some similar questions about your reasons. For example:
Reason #4. The Bible says the sun will be darkened and the moon turned to blood before the Day of the LORD. There was a total solar eclipse during a supermoon on the first day of the biblical calendar (Nisan 1) in 2015. Then several months later there was a total lunar eclipse during a supermoon on the Feast of Tabernacles.
Questions: Isn't Nisan 1 a CIVIL calendar thing, while the Feast of Tabernacles is a BIBLICAL thing? Seems like you're mixing apple and orange calendars to make your point. And what's the connection between events in 2015 and 2017? "Before" taken to mean nothing more than "preceding" seems a bit weak.
Reason #5. ...there will be a very rare total solar eclipse that traverses the entire United States just 33 days before the Revelation 12 Sign.
Questions: What is so special about 33 days in this context? If that 33 happened to be 40 or 70 or 120, would the point still be valid? Why or why not? And how does this eclipse tie in with the events mentioned in Reason #4, in terms of day-counts?
Reason #6. Then in 2024, seven years later (i.e. the length of the Tribulation), there is another total solar eclipse traversing the entire United States.
Questions: What do solar eclipses traversing the United States have to do with the Tribulation, which is the time of JACOB'S Trouble, not the time of UNCLE SAM'S Trouble?
Reasons #7 and #8. There is a general consensus... that the rebirth of Israel in 1948 constituted the budding of the fig tree.... The modern prophetic scenario began in 1897 with the founding of the Zionist movement and a universal Jewish declaration of desire for a return to their God-given land.
Questions: Why is 1948 - partial recognition of Israel by some of the Gentile nations of the world - taken as the fig tree budding? Why not 1897, when the Jews (ie, the tree itself) decided to bud? Trees, after all, require neither permission nor recognition to bud.
Reason #9. The Revelation 12 Sign portrays the birth of... a son of promise. We believe this son of promise is probably the Church. The first son of promise was Isaac who was born to Abraham when he was 100 years old... in 1917 and the British promised the Jews a future homeland. Exactly 100 years later is 2017.
Questions: So the Body of Christ has been gestating for about 2000 years? Hard to picture all of Church history taking place entirely within Israel's womb. Besides, you say the time between the British promise and 2017 is 100 years. But the time between God promising Isaac, and Isaac's birth, was not 100 years. So what's the connection?
Reason #10. While Israel was reborn in 1948, the mandate for its statehood came from the United Nations in November 1947. Exactly 70 years later is 2017.... 70 years is the length of a biblically-defined generation.
Questions: 70 to 80 years is a biblically-defined generation, as you said yourself earlier. So why focus only on 70 now? And why back up a year to 1947? You know as well as I do that we'll all be calculating from 1948 if we're still here next year.
Reason #11. ...in June 1967 when Israel recaptured their ancient capital.
Questions: Really? If so, why can't they do as they please on the Temple mount? And why is Jerusalem still a divided city in so many other ways?
But enough. It just seems to me that there's a lot of fanagling going on, ala Edgar Whisenant. I'm old enough to remember what went on in 1988, and I must say, with Yogi Berra, that I'm experiencing a lot of deja-vu all over again.
You are to be commended for your analysis of Edgar's work; now please apply the same standards and scholarship to your own for the edification of us all.
Maranatha!
Hi DJ, I appreciate your analysis and questions. For clarification sake though, my research is approached from a different perspective than Whisenant's and the titles alone should make that clear:
Delete"88 Reasons Why The Rapture Will Be In 1988"
vs.
"19 Reasons The Rapture ***Could*** Be In 2017"
It's the vital difference between *declaring* something so and wondering/speculating/researching to see if something is so. I don't purport to predict God's plans as if my Scriptural understanding is perfect and without fault. That is the difference between me, Matson, Clarke, etc and Whisenant, Camping, Miller, etc. I'm not a prophet and don't claim to be. One thing I know: Jesus made certain promises to His Church that He will keep, including taking us to His Father's house and from the Scriptures and the evidence around us we know that will be quite soon.
So the answer to your final request is that I try my best to do that all the time - to apply the same standards. Over the past year I've changed many things in my thinking because I recognize that my thinking is faulty.
Regarding your specific points, if you can understand, time doesn't easily permit me to answer all of them in detail. Hundreds of questions come my way all the time and I simply can't respond to it all - I wish I could. I do think some of your points are pretty good and well-worth considering, specifically your response to Reason #9.
I'll try to answer your first point about Reason #4. You have your calendars backwards there. Nisan 1 (otherwise known as Aviv or Abib 1) is the beginning of the biblical, God-ordained calendar (Ex. 12:2).
It is Rosh Hashanah that is the beginning of the civil calendar. The Jewish civil calendar goes from Tishrei 1 to Tishrei 1 (roughly September to September), whereas the biblical calendar goes from Nisan 1 to Nisan 1 (roughly March/April to March/April). Hope that helps.
To many of us it seems that the connection between 2015 and 2017 is there close proximity. A mere two years. Probably about the length of time involved in the formation(s) known as the Star of Bethlehem. Now if I argued that an eclipse in say 1833 was the prophesied sun turning dark before the Tribulation that would be more of a stretch, but we are talking a mere two years. I could be wrong of course and I've even presented a more current alternative, which is that the darkened sun and blood moon preceding the D.O.T.L. were the Great American Eclipse and the subsequent widely-seen blood moon on Labor Day.
---
Also, I'll briefly answer your Reason #10 response, as well:
I think you have a point and I'm open to it - always have been. In fact, in my recent article "Open Your Eyes" I even write about the significance of '70' and 2018.
About the generation-length, without drawing interpretive conclusions from Psalm 90:10, the verse explicitly defines a generation as 70 years, not 80. The text doesn't define a range of 70 to 80, but rather 70, but if by strength 80. In other words a generation is 70 years, but in exceptional circumstances 80. At least that's how it looks to me.
Blessings.
Gary says, "About the generation-length, without drawing interpretive conclusions from Psalm 90:10, the verse explicitly defines a generation as 70 years, not 80. The text doesn't define a range of 70 to 80, but rather 70, but if by strength 80. In other words a generation is 70 years, but in exceptional circumstances 80. At least that's how it looks to me."
DeleteDJ replies: But surely if we're trying to pinpoint when a particular generation will have passed away (Luke 21:32), we have to account for the unusually "strong" members of that generation. Yes? Which would mean 80 is the number to focus on, not 70.
Yes, that could very well be, but I don't see why 80 would take precedence over 70 since 70 is the explicitly defined number. I would rather say both should be considered. We still have until 11/19 for the full length of the Tribulation to fit if it ends in Fall 2024, so we should remain watchful. If we end up in 2018 I'll be studying a possible 2018-2025 timeline out further. The fact that Pentecost and Israel's 70th anniversary in 2018 are only about a week apart is pretty interesting.
DeleteBut for sake of argument, 2017-2018 and 2027-2028 are both very interesting years in light of Psalm 90:10. If Jesus' pronouncement of all things being completed within the Fig Tree Generation includes His second coming then 2027-2028 would be an upper limit - the 70th Week beginning no later than 2021.
Regarding why 1947-48 would be the starting point for the Fig Tree Generation, this is actually one of the more fully explored topics in futurism and there are many articles and books that cover the topic. At the heart of the theory is the repeated Scriptural association of the fig tree with national Israel.
a
DeleteGary says: "If Jesus' pronouncement of all things being completed within the Fig Tree Generation includes His second coming then 2027-2028 would be an upper limit - the 70th Week beginning no later than 2021."
DeleteDJ replies: Let me make sure I'm reading you right. That ALMOST sounds like you're saying the Church MUST (not MIGHT, or COULD, but MUST BE) Raptured before the end of 2021. To be fair, however, it's clear that that "MUST" is conditioned by at least eight critical "IFs". Specifically:
IF we're right that Jesus meant something specific by the fig tree (and wasn't just making an analogy like he did with the sky in Matthew 16:2-3); and
IF we're right that the Fig Tree represents the nation of Israel; and
IF we're right that 1947 or 1948 was the period when Israel's "branch was tender" and "put forth leaves"; and
IF we're right that a biblical generation is 70 to 80 years; and
IF we're right about those obscure weeks of weeks in Daniel resulting in a 7-year Tribulation yet to be fulfilled; and
IF we're right about a pre-Tribulation Rapture; and
IF we're right that there is no significant gap between the Rapture and the Tribulation; and
IF we're right that Jesus' pronouncement above includes His second coming;
THEN
2021 MUST BE the upper limit year for the Rapture. Yes?
I think this "IF" game is helpful when it comes to keeping things in perspective. Let's play a different round:
DeleteIF Genesis 1 in conjunction with 2 Peter 3:8 means that human history will span 6000 years prior to the 1000-year Kingdom age; and
IF a 7-year Tribulation occupies the last 7 years of the 6000; and
IF we're right about a pre-Tribulation Rapture; and
IF we're right that there is no significant gap between the Rapture and the Tribulation; and
IF the Jewish calendar is correct (5778);
THEN
We have about 205 years left to go.
Alternately,
IF Genesis 1 in conjunction with 2 Peter 3:8 means that human history will span 6000 years prior to the 1000-year Kingdom age; and
IF a 7-year Tribulation occupies the last 7 years of the 6000; and
IF Creation took place somewhere around 4000 BC; and
IF a 7-year Tribulation occupies the last 7 years of the 6000; and
IF we're right about a pre-Tribulation Rapture; and
IF we're right that there is no significant gap between the Rapture and the Tribulation; and
IF the Gregorian calendar is correct;
THEN
The Rapture is about 24 years overdue (or we all missed it!)