I received this letter from a Catholic student, and his situation is something that many may find themselves in at this time. I hope my answer finds and helps those who might be wearing these same shoes.

Brother Sal

Since September 11 I have felt like things are different...not normal different, but different in a way that transcends human understanding.

Following your teachings has shown me why I feel this way, and I am now confident that the end times are upon us.

However, with this feeling of change has come fear.

I am Roman Catholic and I am having a difficult time understanding the Rapture and sin.

I know I am a sinner and that I deserve hell, and it is only by God's grace and faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that I am saved. I believe I try to be the best person possible, but will my shortcomings keep me from being Raptured if the time comes?

We will obviously not know the exact hour of the Rapture, and one can only go to confession so many times. Does one need to be spiritually "pure" to be Raptured or will my faith in the grace of God be enough?

In Christ, D

________________________________________________

Greetings brother D!

Thank you for your letter.

I can certainly appreciate your fear, because I was raised and educated in the Catholic world, and I was scared all the time, then, when I wore shoes like yours.

Even though I’d served him as an Alter Boy right from the beginning, and loved and adored him in the prescribed manner, I found no comfort in God from my practice of Catholicism. All I found was reasons to be scared of God surrounding me. I simply could not live up to his standards, and eventhough I had confession and all the other sacraments protecting me, I still might find myself at the gates of Hell if I so much as ate meat on Friday or missed a Sunday mass and had the misfortune to die before I reached a priest to confess. And if I was fortunate enough to die in the state of grace and be saved from Hell, I was still going to have to face burning in purgatory for having given my best efforts to living as good a life as I could.

Now there’s a lot there to be scared of. But the scariest part is that I never was taught anything about the joy of following Christ! Only the doom and gloom of it if I didn’t.

And so, by the time I was 23, knowing that Hell was the only alternative for a person who was so far below the standard, I decided to look elsewhere to find that God that I was told loved me so much that He sent His only begotten son to save me. I wanted to know why I had to be so afraid of a God who would do that.

The last place I would ever look was the Bible. In my mind the Bible and Catholic were all about religion, and religion is what I was afraid of. And, after searching everywhere for many years, I decided that there was no God, only a natural order to things, which I lived with, in comfort, until the words of Daniels prophecy was shown to me.

Finally, I said (not realizing that it’s been there all the time), here is something with a historical basis that can be traced through history in an unbroken chain of events that, if factual, would lead directly into our time. In that, I would find the reality that would lead to God, because in my historical study I had to follow the trail the Scriptures laid out.

And so, instead of joining a religion, I became an Eschatologist, looking for the events of the end times as delineated in the Scripture and specifically in Daniel’s prophecy, because it was sealed until the time of the end. So, if we were in the end times, as the prophecy gurus and churches were saying, then I would we able to see the events clearly happening on the historical stage, just as all of the preceding events of the prophecy had while coming down the path to the present. Study begets knowledge, and suddenly you find that Paul’s words in Romans 10:17, “. . . faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” are true!

Suddenly, I was finding God everywhere in the word that I studied! How could this be? I had searched for years, and never found him in all the religions I had studied.

Then it occurred to me! Christianity is not a religion; Paul taught it’s a way of life! It’s based upon a personal relationship with God, who is seeking you out. There is nothing we can do for God, except to satisfy His need for us, and the relationship we, as new creatures, can build with Him based upon trust. The trust that grows between a father and his child. Not between a father and his child and religious traditions that He so often condemned.

In that I could find the God who loves me and teaches me how to love Him. There is no fear in God at all, only love. There is no condemnation for sin, only forgiveness. There is no fear in death, because death holds no sting. There is no fear in life, because we are not of this world, but merely passing through it on our journey to our everlasting life with God.

Heresy was overtaking the Church at Colossae causing Paul to write a letter to them to stem the heresy, and in that letter, he combats it by emphasizing the cosmic significance of Christ as Lord of Creation and Head of the Church and that any practice, teaching or intermediary that detracts from the uniqueness and centrality of Christ is against the faith. Then he exalts Christ’s character, and over the next few verses he chisels in stone who Christ was, so we would never forget! If this is who Paul said Christ was to those early converts, then that’s who he is today to you and I. Paul wasn’t mincing any words here. We must understand that this description was literal.

Christ is the image of the invisible God!

The firstborn over all creation.

For Him and by Him all things were created.

He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

He is the head of the body, the Church.

He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

And God was pleased to have all this fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether they are in heaven or on earth, by making peace by the blood shed on the cross.

Then Paul goes on to show them the benefits of Christ.

He tells them that once they were alienated from God and were enemies in their minds because of their evil behavior, but now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation. But you have to continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This same gospel that we heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

He reminds them of his commission from Christ and says: Now I rejoice (Paul sure was a rejoicer) in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the Church. I have become it’s servant by God’s commission. God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness; the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Then he teaches us: We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me. What eloquence! God could not have picked a better man.

Paul says you are perfect to God when you are in Christ. Perfect includes being pure, perfect means no sins. How about that! We are considered perfect in God’s eyes if we are in Christ. Is there any fear hidden somewhere in there that I missed?

Now all I needed to know was how to get in Christ so I would be perfect to God.

And, of course God tells us exactly how to get in Christ at Revelation 3:20. Read it from verse 18 to 22, but verse 20 says (KJV): “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: If any man hear my voice and open the door, I WILL COME IN TO HIM, . . .”

All you have to do is invite Him in! Do that and you’re perfect in the eyes of God. That’s what Paul taught, and Paul was the only person on earth that the mystery of the Church was revealed to.

And, Paul taught extensively on the end times, and not one word of doom or gloom for the Church can be found in those teachings. To think otherwise of the end times is to disregard Paul’s understanding of it completely.

He said edify one another with the knowledge you have of it because you are children of the day and the light, therefore it won’t catch you like the thief in the night that he will be. So, Watch, and when you see it, warn the other that are in the dark and asleep, and rejoice with them, witnessing together, the days leading to our redemption as they come to pass.

Rejoice! Paul says to rejoice! Where is the fear hidden in rejoicing? How do I dig a little doom and gloom out of rejoicing?

To me, rejoicing means dancing in the streets! A great celebration of enormous joy.

What is there about the end times that would make us that happy? And if that’s so, then why are we being taught doom and gloom and punishment for sin by those calling themselves God’s representatives on earth?

Now God says He is not the author of confusion. Guess what? Confusion is the mother of fear. While truth is nurtured in simplicity. God is truth, and truth simplicity, therefore, God by His own description is simplicity in itself.

Paul brings us the word of God in all it’s simplicity, because it was revealed to him alone by God, to be brought to us in the pureness of it truth. And Paul didn’t teach doom and gloom for the end times, he taught rejoicing!

And to be told to watch presupposes that there is an event or series of events to watch for, and because we are to warn the others about what we see, and then to rejoice about it, communicates that we will see it, and it will make us very happy as a group that is made up of lit and alighted people from every kindred, tongue, people and nation on the earth.

We can expect that without reservation because that is who is seen as the redeemed back to God by the blood of the lamb, sitting on their thrones in heaven and singing songs of redemption and praise to Jesus, the lamb who paid the ransom with His blood for us in Revelation 4:1-5.

But, how did we get there, and when did it happen? Within Paul’s teaching is the message that unlocks the events and timing of the close of the Christian covenant in detail, but it’s a mystery, hidden in the mind of God, and seen only when He reveals it. Just as was the beginning of the Church.

The timing for the close of the “Church Age” is during the end time of the Jews. The end time of the Jews is sealed in the prophecy of Daniel, which tells the story of the passage of time over the landscape of the Mideast, and about God’s chosen people, from the time of Babylon onto todays historical stage.

So, when the time of the events in Daniel’s prophecy begin to move over the landscape of the Mideast, it will be time for the revelation of the events about the close of the Christian Covenant to be revealed to those who are seeking it.

When we understand our fate, the fear is gone, and that’s what all the dancing in the street is about!

Now, at this time in history we have reached the fullness of time when the event of the prophecy of Daniel are clearly identifiable and the meaning of Paul’s teaching about the end times is fully understood.

Now is the time for the children of the day and the light, the Watchers who have seen and identified the scripture and verified the events to alert those who are in the dark and asleep, as Paul commanded.

The rejoicing among those who are awake has begun, and you my friend should be among them. Your faith, not your denomination, is what saves you. That’s why the message of this Ministry is beyond denomination. It is addressed to those who claim that Jesus is the Lord of their life, no matter who they are or how they came to be that way.

But, as you can readily see, the knowledge of the message of the end times does not come upon you by osmosis. We must all study in order to know and understand where to look, what to look for and why we are looking there.

CHN Ministries has produced the definitive end time awareness Bible study that does just that, and when you have completed the study, and commenced your watch, you will fully understand what it is that has us dancing in the streets!

Remember that we survive by our teaching, so if this message has been a blessing to you, remember us at offering time. We believe in the Biblical principle of giving to the storehouse where you get your meat. And we remind you that the Lord loves hilarious givers and promises to pour down a blessing upon them that cannot be contained. I pray that blessing on every one of you. So, when you give, give hilariously and generously!

Thank you for listening and God bless.

Humbly,
Your Brother in Christ
Brother Sal

"The Prophecy of Daniel The Book of Revelation
The Rapture of the Church and the Mideast Today"
Exciting teaching, request a copy today!

Click to preview the teaching:

Help this Ministry to keep passing on the light.
Send a tax deductible support offering of $25 or more
And we'll send you our Teaching on CD Rom as our thanks

You can send your offerings SECURELY right from your computer.

Just click your preferred Credit Card

Or, mail offerings to Ministry Office