Unsealed Just in Time: Latest on the Rapture, Tribulation,7-Years, Beast Et Al., and Millennium

By Ken Donahue

The book introduces new information about the timing of the rapture and the return of Christ, the tribulation, the beast et al., the 7-years and includes an extensive view of what life is like during the millennium.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664190214

Ken Donahue

Ken retired from a career in banking after 47 years. He and his lovely wife have been married for 46 years. This is his first book and one he felt he was led by the Holy Spirit to write.

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Copyright © 2021 by Ken Donahue.

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Rev. date: 08/21/2021

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 Timing of the Rapture

First Four Seals

Fifth Seal

The Raptured Others

Revelation 7

Conclusion

Chapter 2 What Will The Tribulation Be Like?

Rapture Starts Tribulation

Sixth Seal—Earthquake

Seventh Seal

First Trumpet—Fire

Second Trumpet—Volcano, Tsunami

Third Trumpet—Asteroid

Fourth Trumpet—Light Reduced by 33 Percent

Fifth Trumpet—Torment

Sixth Trumpet—Kill a Third of Mankind

Second Interlude

Seventh Trumpet—Christ’s Rule Begins, Earthquake, Hailstorm

Prelude to the Bowl Judgments

First Bowl: Loathsome Sores

Second Bowl: The Sea Turns to Blood

Third Bowl: The Waters Turn to Blood

Fourth Bowl: Men Are Scorched

Fifth Bowl: Darkness and Pain

Sixth Bowl: The Euphrates Dried Up

Seventh Bowl: The Earth Utterly Shaken

Chapter 3 The Last Seven Years

Jesus on Tribulation—Matthew

Chapter 4 The Beast et al.

Beast

False Prophet

The Harlot and the Woman

Woman Clothed with the Sun

Chapter 5 Millennium

The Parable of the Banker

The Kingdom

Mysteries

Seven Thousand Years

The Big Picture

Reigning during the Millennium—Jesus

Saints during the Millennium—Kings

Saints during the Millennium—Priests

Living during the Millennium—the Righteous

What is next

INTRODUCTION

G ROWING UP, MOM ensured that us four kids attended Sunday school every Sunday, almost without fail. By the time I was seven or eight, I would walk to our church by myself, a little early. I sometimes entered the main church building and I would pass through there on my way to the Sunday school rooms. No one was there but I would look around for God or signs of Him, as I knew I was in His house. Thus began my search for Him.

One of those Sundays, I was just outside the Sunday school rooms, thinking it was time to invite Jesus into my heart. At that time a little voice whispered to me, if you do that your heart may stop beating. So I decided I better wait on that invitation. Of course, Satan was doing the whispering and even though he has no power over us when we are in Christ, we unfortunately listen to him sometimes.

Many years later after much water had passed under the bridge, sometime prior to 1990 I formed the opinion, from previous Bible study and books, that the rapture will come before the tribulation (pre-tribulation). Sometime after that, I often listened to a Christian radio station in my car while having lunch. One day in the late 1990s a program speaker claimed there was no rapture. After hearing more of his story over subsequent days and reading his book, I decided to research it for myself in the Bible.

I obtained CDs containing the entire Bible that allowed input for any word and gave an output of verses containing that word. I normally went to work at my regular job at about 6:00 AM but found myself waking about 1:00 AM excited to research the rapture. I studied until it was time for a shower each morning. I completed that project some weeks later. The final report was about twenty-two pages. I enjoyed the process, learned new things in the Scripture, and was more convinced the rapture was real and that it would come before the tribulation.

After retiring in 2017, I read the Bible occasionally and at times felt compelled to write on various subjects concerning the Bible. A couple of years ago, I purchased a book where the authors don’t believe in the pre-tribulation rapture.

As I read their book, I was compelled to research their claims and write a response to each. I thought I might send them a letter someday but never have. Eventually I stopped the process because it seemed their claims were repetitive. By then my letter was thirty-five pages, but the process strengthened my belief in a pre-tribulation rapture. I discovered some things I never knew and had never heard anyone else mention.

In 2020 and 2021 I felt compelled more often to research biblical matters and write about them. In April 2021 I returned to those things I never knew and began to write a new report searching even deeper around those prior discoveries. I place the quotation marks around the word because I know I discovered nothing. Out of all the people who have read the same Bible over the years, I’m not bright enough to find something they didn’t.

If any new thing was discovered it was shown to me by the Holy Spirit. For those of you who scoff at that, I say you haven’t studied the Bible and asked for assistance when something stumped you. I can assure you that is the way studying the Bible works as I’m sure anyone who has done so will attest. The Bible even tells us so. That is one of the fascinating things about studying the Bible.

As I was finishing the new report on the pre-tribulation rapture, a thought occurred to write about the tribulation in the fashion of a news report to understand more about what those days may be like. As I was about to finish the report on the tribulation, a thought occurred to write about the millennium in the fashion of a news report to better understand those days. A similar process occurred for the chapter on the Beast et al. and the Seven Years of Daniel. That was when I understood a book was in the making. I also believe the research begun in the late 1990s was God preparing me for writing a book far in the future.

It has now been three months since I started writing this book and I am about finished. The whole process felt easy. I was stuck a couple of times. I prayed and waited until the way to proceed was made clear, usually a day or two at most. I knew He knew the answers that I didn’t have, the answers I needed to proceed from where I was and knew He would provide them if I was to continue the book.

For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [that is, by His activity] and for Him. (Col. 1:16, AMP)

I have no idea whether people will enjoy reading this book. I suspect it will cause a few to stiffen up if the discoveries conflict with their beliefs. The information presented in the book isn’t mine, but I sincerely hope you are blessed by reading it. My role is to put down what I was shown and get it published. After that it is up to Him, He may use it to bring someone to Himself, that would be wonderful. While in prayer recently I thanked Him for giving me the most fun I ever had. Working with Him isn’t work, it’s fun.

We are made in such a way we tend to want to do things for ourselves, but God made things such that we do better when we involve Him when we let Him lead, when we seek His guidance. When it comes to understanding His word, it appears He insists on being part of the process, if we are to understand His word correctly. Scripture says,

But the natural [unbelieving] man does not accept the things [the teachings and revelations] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness [absurd and illogical] to him; and he is incapable of understanding them, because they are spiritually discerned and appreciated, [and he is unqualified to judge spiritual matters]. (1 Cor. 2:14, AMP)

Written by 40 different men over a period of about 1,500 years, the Bible is astonishingly consistent, 30 percent prophetic, and 80 percent of those prophesies were fulfilled at 100 percent accuracy. The accuracy does not come from men but rather from God.¹ The point is, if the Bible tells us or shows us, in some manner when the rapture occurs relative to the great tribulation, we can certainly depend upon it as being true, based on what has transpired before with Bible prophecy.

Did you catch that phrase prophesies were fulfilled at 100 percent accuracy so far? What do you think the probability is that the unfulfilled prophecies will be fulfilled exactly as written? It’s okay to guess.

While some of the information in this book is based on speculation, an attempt to base it on Scripture or historical events is made where conceivable and always with reliance on the powers of the Holy Spirit of God.

There are many Bible Scriptures in this book, and most are from the Amplified version (AMP or AMPC). This version attempts to take both word meaning and context into account to accurately translate the original text from one language into another to assist the reader in understanding what Scripture really says. The purpose for using the Amplified version more prevalently is an attempt to enrich your understanding of what the verses mean.

Finally, for best results in your life, read the Bible verses or at least the bold and or underlined portions whenever you come to them. By doing so you will please God and He will bless you. No kidding. Try it, you will see.

CHAPTER 1

Timing of the Rapture

M ANY READERS OF the Bible that subscribe to a literal interpretation of prophecy agree, there will be a rapture and a great tribulation in the future, but there is not as much agreement on the order in which these events will unfold. Some believe the rapture comes before the great tribulation (pre-tribulation), some believe it comes in the middle of the tribulation (mid-tribulation), and others believe it comes after the tribulation (post-tribulation). Some believe there is no rapture at all. This book is written under the assumption that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and every word is there by design and is true. Using the plain Scripture text along with logic and reason, the author seeks to settle the order of occurrence for the rapture and the great tribulation. Why does the order matter? It matters very much and this book answers that question.

What is the rapture? Some people say the word rapture is not in the Bible. While that is correct for English Bibles, it is not true for all Bibles. The Latin word rapiemur is in the Latin Vulgate Bible, and it means we shall be carried away or we shall be snatched. The Anglicized word rapture is derived from rapiemur, and it is simpler than using the definitions for rapiemur. Harpazo is the Greek word for rapiemur and means: (1) to seize, carry off by force, (2) to seize on, claim for one’s self eagerly, (3) to snatch out or away.

Without regard to what we call the event, Paul describes an event in 1 Corinthians 15:51–54 and in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18.

Take notice! I tell you a mystery (a secret truth, an event decreed by the hidden purpose or counsel of God). We shall not all fall asleep [in death], but we shall all be changed (transformed) 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the [sound of the] last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead [in Christ] will be raised imperishable (free and immune from decay), and we shall be changed (transformed). 53 For this perishable [part of us] must put on the imperishable [nature], and this mortal [part of us, this nature that is capable of dying] must put on immortality (freedom from death). 54 And when this perishable puts on the imperishable and this that was capable of dying puts on freedom from death, then shall be fulfilled the Scripture that says, Death is swallowed up (utterly vanquished forever) in and unto victory. [Isa. 25:8.] (1 Cor. 15:51–54, AMP)

After the Thessalonians are told the day of the Lord already came by someone, Paul wrote to them again in 2 Thessalonians to explain that that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness be revealed. Paul explains further that you know what restrains him now from being revealed; it is so he will be revealed in his own time, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only until He who now restrains is taken out of the way, then the lawless one will be revealed. He who now restrains is the Holy Spirit dwelling in Christians, also known as the church. Lawlessness is sin. The church restrains sin.

The rapture is an event where Christ removes His church (His followers) from earth after an apostasy (a significant number of people no longer have faith in God) takes place but before the man of lawlessness is revealed. The One who now restrains lives in every true believer. Once He is taken out of the way, once the church is taken from earth to heaven, the man of lawlessness will be revealed. He may be revealed by signing or confirming a seven-year covenant between many countries.

BUT RELATIVE to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and our gathering together to [meet] Him, we beg you, brethren, 2 Not to allow your minds to be quickly unsettled or disturbed or kept excited or alarmed, whether it be by some [pretended] revelation of [the] Spirit or by word or by letter [alleged to be] from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has [already] arrived and is here. 3 Let no one deceive or beguile you in any way, for that day will not come except the apostasy comes first [unless the predicted great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has come], and the man of lawlessness (sin) is revealed, who is the son of doom (of perdition), [Dan. 7:25; 8:25; I Tim. 4:1.] 4 Who opposes and exalts himself so proudly and insolently against and over all that is called God or that is worshiped, [even to his actually] taking his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming that he himself is God. [Ezek. 28:2; Dan. 11:36, 37.] 5 Do you not recollect that when I was still with you, I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining him [from being revealed at this time]; it is so that he may be manifested (revealed) in his own [appointed] time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness (that hidden principle of rebellion against constituted authority) is already at work in the world, [but it is] restrained only until he who restrains is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by His appearing at His coming. [Isa. 11:4.] (2 Thess. 2:1–7, AMPC)

Those who believe the rapture occurs prior to the tribulation are relying in part on the 2 Thessalonians verses to support their belief. Paul is telling the Thessalonians that there will be a falling away (apostasy) and then the rapture will take place next. If the tribulation must occur prior to the rapture, Paul would have said so, but Paul says that day, meaning the rapture [concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him] will not come until after the apostasy, then next He who restrains is taken out of the way (rapture) and then the man of lawlessness is revealed.

An apostasy is now well underway as the latest statistics from the American Worldview Inventory 2021, a publication of the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University, can attest.

The report for 2021 provides a comparison of generational responses to traditional measures of faith. Born-again Christians, based on their beliefs of personal salvation, are 40 percent for boomer and older, 26 percent for gen X, and 16 percent for millennials.

Nonbelievers, on the other hand, are referred to as Don’ts (people who do not know, believe, or care if God exists). In contrast, for boomers and older, 28 percent, gen X 31 percent, and of millennials 43 percent are Don’ts.

This is one of the more important signs that inform us we are nearing the time of the rapture according to Paul’s teachings nearly 2,000 years ago.

Is the rapture idea biblical? While some say it isn’t biblical, the Bible tells us God has rescued His people from death and destruction previously. God has done things like this before. In Noah’s day, God’s wrath was a worldwide flood that destroyed all human life except