The Greatest Lie Jesus Never Told

By James H. Orion

For years the author considered himself a pretribulationist. It was the only theory he was exposed to. However, after several thousands of hours of independent research, he believes the church will undergo persecution and see the Antichrist. One thing that people do not realize is, it is very easy to read any book or Bible and decimate its contents and assume outcomes with no regard for hermeneutics and chronology.

The author truly believes The Greatest Lie Jesus Never Told will be an incredible reference and promises that the contents will be 100 percent biblical, pertinent, and chronological. Some people shy away from prophecy because the subject matter is difficult, therefore eliminated. But I believe the entire Bible is the breathed Word of God, and prophecy is just as important or even more important and relevant as any other part of the Holy Bible. Revelation 22:19 states, "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life." Any reading, regardless of the subject matter, if it is written on a level that is difficult to understand, is not worth the paper it is printed on. May you be blessed from the moment you open this book, and may the Holy Spirit fall upon you and enlighten you to God's holy word that we will recognize his signs and prepare for what lies ahead as the Greatest Lie Jesus Never Told enlightens your spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638749110

Book preview

Grammar, Context, God’s Word, and Opinions

The rapture is a highly debated, if not the most debated, topic in the Bible today. Pretrib, midtrib, prewrath, posttrib—or is there even a rapture at all for that matter? It is a topic of overwhelming importance, and I believe it is absolutely critical. Some will say, Well, as long as your heart is ready, it will all pan out. Nothing could be further from the truth, and knowing the sensitivity and how detrimental is the issue, literally tens of millions could be lost in the equation. I assure you, it will all not just pan out when your head is on the chopping block! What a shame when people say, It will all pan out as long as you believe. Seriously, c’mon, are we willing as Christians to even let one single soul be bound for hell, Christian or not, burn in hell for all eternity? I should hope your answer to that is Absolutely not, but that is the attitude adopted by Christians and even some pastors in this modern day and age. You will see later on, as it will be demonstrated, why it will absolutely not just pan out and why the souls of millions will be in the balance between heaven and hell and why this book is and will remain a critical reference.

So when will Christ return to take his church home? Some say, Oh, you can never know when Jesus will return, or exclaim it’s not in the Bible or that it is an impossibility. And to that I will say that is absolutely 101 percent wrong. We are being brainwashed and misled and, in a lot of cases, unintentionally being led astray because of the lack of a priest’s and/or pastor’s knowledge of God’s word. This is a deception, but not the great deception. Jesus said we will not know the day or the hour, but we will know when it is near, even at the door. For some reason, when people hear this, they think it is an impossibility. But they fail to realize Jesus is telling us exactly as to what the verse is referring to: we will not know the day or the hour but we will know when it is near, even right at the door. Now how can we know when it is near or even at the door if we do not have a guideline that is to be followed or signs to be followed? Jesus gives us signs and tells us many times that there will be signs. When you see the signs, and that is of utmost importance, it is not some mysterious, untimely imminent event or secretive event or an all-exclusive event as what is being portrayed or implied by the late John Darby who invented this concoction of a theory back around the year 1830. So with this being said, one can throw imminence right out the window. It doesn’t work, it is not biblical, and there is no way to make it biblical. It does not have a leg to stand on as well as it has no chronological evidence of what is being said other than the fact that Jesus stated, I will give you these signs. He is telling us to please pay attention, I’m giving you signs. When you see the signs; when you see wars and rumors of wars, trials and tribulations; when you see all these things, then you’ll know that the coming of Man is near. How near? Right at the door. There is nothing secretive about it. We must understand this and take God’s word literally and stop making assumptions and decimating the chronological events of God’s Word.

So with that being said, this throws the imminency concept out the window. Larry, a great friend of me and my family, recently passed with cancer; and we loved discussing the Bible over dinner and coffee. One of his favorite quotes was, "What part of no do you not understand, the n or the o?" Needless to say, he was correct. Yes means yes. No means no. If it’s not in the Bible, don’t make it seem as if it is and do not interject your own beliefs or opinions into it. People don’t want to hear other’s opinions, or mine as well for that matter.

Another thing of great importance is the context. If a book is too difficult to understand, it is not worth the ink used to print it. Therefore, simplicity is elegance. Many television evangelists as well as pastors, highly educated pastors, speak right over people’s heads; and for what? This does not make them smarter or better than anyone else. Actually, it is a hindrance and a turnoff because people are not getting the true meaning of God’s word but rather become confused and discouraged when the context is so difficult to understand and may even cause a new Christian to walk away from the faith. God is not the author of confusion and neither should be his words when delivered in a message regardless of whom or where it is coming from or the topic being brought to attention. This book, I promise, without compromise, will be written in its simplest form, enabling both young and old alike the capability to fully grasp all the contents contained herein.

Regardless of our personal beliefs, it is absolutely necessary to keep an open mind. If a person has a closed mindset, he or she will not accept the fact of possibility and probability and is not open to suggestion and is basically limited to what is inside of the box and not outside of it. I have met many people throughout my life, some of whom were very intelligent but nonetheless had a narrow-minded viewpoint and were not even the slightest bit open to suggestion whatsoever. This is the way they were born and raised: their way or nothing, leaving absolutely no room for possibility or probability but rather it has to be one particular way. For example, a lot of religions claim and state that it is an absolute fact that Jesus Christ was crucified on Golgotha when that couldn’t be further from the truth. Regardless of whether you are Catholic or Methodist or any denomination for that matter, it is important that you have an open mindset. Being set or stuck in a certain way is neither good nor healthy and eliminates possibility. As time and years progress on, we learn many important factors. Through archaeology, we have discovered an astounding number of things that literally enables us to rewrite history as we know it. Getting back to Golgotha, the Bible does say Jesus was crucified on Golgotha, the place of the skull, which is true. I do not debate that in any way, shape, or form. However, one should take the time to research certain issues such as the word Golgotha for instance. Look it up, the true meaning of Golgotha, and I think you will be utterly surprised. On that particular day, Jesus Christ was indeed crucified on Mount Golgotha, the place of the skull. However, if for example, Jesus Christ was crucified in the city of David, it would still be considered Golgotha. When you look up the term Golgotha, it is defined as a place where they happen to be crucifying that particular day. Well, well, well, that changes the whole meaning of the crucifixion, doesn’t it? So for all intents and purposes, if the Roman soldiers did indeed happen to be crucifying in the city of David on that particular day, Jesus Christ still would’ve been crucified on Mount Golgotha. If the Roman soldiers happen to be crucifying in Bethlehem on that particular day, Jesus Christ still would’ve been crucified on Mount Golgotha. So Golgotha is a very broad term. Sometimes we have to come to the understanding that we have to dig a little bit deeper and look into what is really being said and how that context is being used. There is the possibility it is not what we think or maybe different variables are taking place here. Actually, after reading all the Gospels and taking into account all different small variables that a lot of people overlook, it is very possible and conceivable that Jesus Christ was not crucified on Mount Golgotha or the mountain in particular that we are calling Golgotha, but rather, it makes gospel writing that Jesus Christ was crucified in the city of David, God’s holy city. This, however, is a story for another day. I just cited this example and used it as an example, to bring to people’s attention that a lot of times we will quickly read chapters or stories, whatever may be the case, but are not fully grasping what is being said. I’m not saying that every single word has to be beaten to death; but a lot of times there are instances, especially if you don’t know the true meaning of a certain word or how it is being applied, wherein this could drastically change the outcome of what we think, know, or believe as gospel truth. We may think and believe certain variables, and by not realizing this, we eliminate the possibility and/or probability of what could be or change the outcome of what happened and/or why. I am not here to convince you of any particular viewpoint but rather will let the word of God and the Holy Spirit convict you of such. So for all intents and purposes, this book will be free of any slants and opinions and will strictly adhere to the word of God. So grab a cup of coffee, or whatever your favorite refreshment is, and allow the greatest author of the greatest book in the universe take hold of your heart and allow the magic and the not so mysterious to unfold.

Infallibility and Contradiction

For the last fifteen years that I have attended church, my viewpoint was such, the Holy Word of God is infallible, the holy word of the Holy Word of God is perfect, and that God does not contradict himself. The Holy Word of God is spot-on. I believe in the Holy Word of God from In the beginning to Amen. If one believes there is a contradiction within the Holy Word of God, I suggest you reread the passage again and again and, if necessary, again. I can assure you, either you are misreading the passage, do not understand the passage, or have taken it out of context. The simple way to eradicate any doubt is to prove and test scripture with scripture, and I assure you that you will come to the same conclusions I did. Scripture does not, has not, and will not contradict itself. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. His word is sharper than a double-edged sword, and what comes forth from his mouth will not come back void. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the last, and he will not be scorn or made a fool of.

With the above being said, I would like to elaborate a bit on my stance and how it came to be. As mentioned, I attended a local church for the last fifteen years. I am not a biblical scholar by any means or stretch of the imagination, nor am I a lightweight. During the last fifteen years, which were spent in a nondenominational church, I learned of and strictly adhered to a pretribulation (Daniel’s seventy weeks) viewpoint and rapture. And why not? It was all I was ever exposed to, and I never heard of the midtrib, prewrath, posttrib theories. Interestingly, I am not the kind of person that is going to sit on my laurels and assume or take anyone’s word for gospel truth because to me that is a cardinal sin. If there is something to be learned, regardless of what the topic is, I am going to get every iota/ounce of information I possibly can out of it. I would read and reread, even if it takes me a dozen times of reading about a certain topic, and will read it until it is completely understood and it makes sense. If something else within that topic starts to perplex me, then that particular issue as well will get completely analyzed until it is fully understood. As far as I am concerned, ignorance is absolutely no excuse, just like ignorance of the law is no excuse. If a person does not understand something, for the love of all that is holy, look it up. Unfortunately, and I hate to say this, people are inherently lazy and would just rather assume what a given topic is about rather than exert an ounce of effort to justify and learn whatever the given subject matter is about; and we all know that happens when one assumes. It’s the mother lode of catastrophes.

Getting back to what I was saying, I believed in the pretribulation (Daniel’s seventy weeks), and I was fully peaked with curiosity when I heard of the midtrib and prewrath rapture. And yes, there is a subtle difference between them, which we will get into greater depth with later. I said to myself, What is this theory, and is it biblical? After studying it and spending quite some time familiarizing myself with this theory, I could not find it within myself to believe it. I did not think it was biblical, and for a lack of better words, I thought it was an out and out fabrication. From that day forward, my goal was to prove that this theory wrong and I would spare no expense in doing so. It had to be wrong. It had to be pretrib. That was all I knew. It made perfect sense. A lot of pastors, from the great Billy Graham to John Hagee, and countless others preached it; so it must be correct. The saga had officially begun, and I was reading my King James Bible and the Cepher (original Torah) and watching a lot of pastors’ videos. YouTube was my friend. You just have to be discerning as to what you watch and take in. I was listening to pastors who taught pretribulation and prewrath as well.

The Posttribulation or Daniel’s Seventieth Week Rapture

There is not much I am going to say about this theory. This theory has just about phased itself out and for good reason. It is not biblical and does not have a leg to stand on. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, it is a false theory, dangerous, and deemed a doctrine of demons. And this is as far as I am going to go on about this theory because it is not worth my explanation, ink, or time explaining as to why it is wrong. If we read our Bibles, we will know from the instant we start studying that the posttribulation rapture is about as farfetched as it gets.

The Rapture

What is the rapture? In its simplest form, it is the catching away of God’s saints (the church) and the spiritual transformation to our new bodies to be in heaven with the Lord. Is this biblical? Some say yes. Some say no. Some say there is no such thing as the rapture, which is absurd and absolutely ridiculous, because if you do any reading at all, you will realize Revelation describes it in great detail, short but sweet, and to the point. The word rapture is not in the Bible. Well, that is not entirely true. It is in the Catholic Bible and St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, which means to be taken up or taken away ( rapiemur ). It is also used in the Torah pertaining to a wedding. So the word rapture itself is not in the Bible, but neither is the word Trinity . But we know through several accounts and events it is biblical.

Rapture Viewpoints: Pretrib, Midtrib, Prewrath, and Posttrib

It seems there are a lot of viewpoints pertaining to the rapture, but only one is and can be correct. Only one, folks. I don’t mean to sound condescending, but only one can be correct, and it is a matter of boiling down which is the correct stance. And as mentioned earlier, I will not waste my time discussing posttribulation theory, and for all intents and purposes, neither should you. Again, it does not have a leg to stand on, biblically. The most important advice I can give you, or anyone for that matter, is have your heart ready to meet the Lord at any given time. My other advice are as follows: focus entirely on him; trust him; seek him; adhere to his sound advice; let your heart not be troubled; understand Jesus, who he was, what he did; equally important, know and understand his Word; understand his prophesy and do not take away from or add to; but understand his Word and the chronological timelines. I assure you everything can and will fall into place accordingly.

So what is the pretrib rapture, and how did it come into being? To understand the entirety of this book, a few things are pertinent to know, and that is, where did the pretrib rapture come from, when did it happen, who adopted it, is it biblical, is it sound doctrine, can we use scripture to prove scripture, is it chronological, and, more important, is it the words of God himself?

The pretrib theory/doctrine is the simple belief that Christ’s believers will be raptured prior to the tribulation, or properly known as Daniel’s seventy weeks. Without a doubt the pretribulation belief or theory is the most common and accepted worldwide, and why is this? I feel there are several reasons as to why people believe in the pretribulation rapture; however, I am only going to touch on the most common reasons. Have you ever heard of chasing after a feeling or chasing after a warm, fuzzy feeling? Remember the first time you truly had an encounter with the Holy Spirit, how wonderful that moment was and how you embraced it? This feeling, for lack of better word, is almost unexplainable as to how you are completely embraced by the Holy Spirit’s presence. Not strictly embraced and limited to simply a warm, fuzzy feeling, no, there was much more to it than that! I can recall the first time that I experienced the Holy Spirit, and I’m going to describe to you exactly what I felt. When I experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit, I could feel the Spirit coming far off and I knew that the Spirit was coming toward me. I could not see it, but what I could feel was so spiritual. It was mind-boggling to know that, that force was coming to you, yet you could not see it. When the Holy Spirit physically embraced me—and let me tell you, I am a pain-ridden man. I have problems with my knees, feet, lower back; and needless to say, I experience quite a bit of pain daily—at that particular moment when I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit completely embraced me, I was absolutely pain free. Not only that, the feeling that I was surrounded with is almost indescribable and unspeakable. It was a feeling of endless love, a love that was so strong that it had no ending. It with eternal; it was abundant. But that doesn’t even begin to do the word love justice. So at that moment, I was completely pain free and surrounded by a love that was completely and utterly mind-boggling. Again, I will emphasize that you cannot even begin to put this into words. In a lot of instances for people who had the pleasure of experiencing the Holy Spirit, because of this experience and because of what they felt, some of them tend to chase after the feeling. But the Bible warns us of that. The Bible warns us not to chase after the feeling but chase after the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Don’t be chasing after him because of the wonderful feeling of being surrounded by the Holy Spirit but because of who he was, what he did, and who he is. Not all people are fortunate enough to truly experience the life-altering presence of the Holy Spirit. Some people may experience a little warm, fuzzy feeling in church or hear the Spirit talking to them inaudibly inside their head; and in such cases, it is the Holy Spirit in some way, shape, or form questioning or convicting us for something we might have done or are about to do. But when you truly experience the holy presence of the Holy Spirit, it is not something to be taken lightly. It is a feeling and an event that you will never forget again. I just cannot put into words as to how powerful, wonderful, mind-boggling, and loving that experience is. So this, in a nutshell, is my first example as to why I believe people are embracing warm, fuzzy moments rather than searching for and embracing Jesus Christ. Back in the day, being politically correct did not exist, or did it? People love being comfortable, and this applies to both Christians and non-Christians alike, and do not like stepping outside of their comfort zone. Let’s take a look at the foundations as to where the pretribulation rapture came from, how it got started, and how it spread.

It was the year 1830, and it was being taught by a woman by the name of Margaret McDonald from Glasgow, Scotland. Margaret was considered a visionary and was accused at that time of being demonized. Shortly thereafter, Margaret sent many copies of her vision to several prominent church leaders and, needless to say, was met with a great resistance, such as being a false prophet, being demonically inspired, and dangerous. More than once, it was suggested she should be tried and sentenced to death. Is this what the church believed? Heck, not hardly. She was met with a staggering resistance. Enter John Darby. John Darby is considered to be the inventor of the pretribulation rapture, but that is not entirely true. However, he is the man that popularized it. John Darby stumbled across the teachings of Margaret McDonald. So for all intents and purposes, all attempts to find any evidence of this doctrine beforehand have failed.

I would like to pause here for just a minute and clarify a few things. Over the course of a few years and doing massive amounts of research both online and through books as well, I stumbled upon something that utterly shocked me and put me back a couple of paces. From time to time, when I do research online, every so often, I may search for the same thing on more than one occasion, and I do this to clarify any concerns or questions I may have. Kind of like reading the same book more than once. In some cases, over a period of time, people tend to forget things and that just the nature of the beast. But in this instance, I was searching for a particular answer, one that I already knew but was just reconfirming and fact-checking; but what happened next completely knocked my socks off. As probably all people are fully aware when using a search engine such as Bing or Google, the search results that you receive go through millions or even billions of steps, compiling information before submitting the results. Search results are also based upon, and get this, the number of hits to a particular site, or the popularity of the topic. It’ll break down the hermeneutics contained within the phrase or question that you’re asking, analyze every word in it, rank the number of hits on each separate word, compile all this information, and then present you with an overwhelming amount of possible answers, with the most prominent and correct being compiled and submitted at the beginning of the list. Getting back to what knocked my socks off, I was doing a search based upon old church teachings from the time of the disciples up until the year or approximate year of around 1830. Now, I already knew the answer to this question, but again, I was just fact-checking, which is always a good thing and what people should do more often especially with certain issues or relevant topics contained within our Bible, because sometimes people get led astray or may not understand something and that can cause confusion or it can bring upon doubt. It could even lend one to believe that our Holy Bible is contradicting itself, which it is not, never did, or ever will. Even though at times certain things contained within our Bible can or will become confusing, there is no cause for fear, because, as I had previously mentioned, our Holy Bible will never contradict itself. If one feels that may be the case, again, it is the possibility of lack of knowledge and understanding and/or where to find certain verses or texts to clarify whatever your concern may be. In this case, I’ve been through it as well. I try not to ever suffer with doubt or confusion. The first thing I do is to try to immediately find the answer to my concern whether it be in the Bible, online, or, the best way according to myself, is to simply pick up the phone and call someone who was a lot more knowledgeable than myself and they can guide me or you in the right direction. The Internet is a very good tool as well; but you have to be, and I cannot stress this enough, you have to be very, very cautious and discerning as to the information you read and take in. With this being said, I will finish my quick little story here. As mentioned, I was doing research to pull up the ancient teachings of our Bible from the founding church fathers from the time of the disciples and then proceeding forth. What I saw completely blew me away because I already know the answer to this, but something changed! In a nutshell, the answer to my question, which I was already fully aware of, came out completely different on the search engines. Not just one result, not just two results, but a great multitude of results, and these are not the same results that I had received the last time I googled this question not even a year ago. Because of this fact, I strictly believe that the outcome and/or results of this are completely and utterly and unequivocally without doubt motivated by none other than the devil himself. There is no other reasonable explanation that can justify this. I realize that this sounds farfetched or a stretch of the imagination, but there is no other reasonable explanation.

To answer this question, as long as Peter was still alive and Jerusalem still stands, the rapture is not, will not, and cannot be imminent according to our Bible teachings. Furthermore, I would like to add that from the disciples all the way up until around the 1830s, just prior to good old John Darby, the churches taught that we would absolutely be here at the beginning of the tribulation and through the first three and a half years of the tribulation until the unveiling of the Antichrist. This was taught by Jesus, and this is what was told to Matthew, and this is what the disciples continued to teach, and this is what the founding fathers taught, and this is what carried us through all the way up into 1830. And then it changed! What changed, why did it change, how did it change, who changed it, and is there a reason behind why the teachings of our Lord were changed?

So prior to 1830, which is not really that long ago in the grand scheme of things, the churches taught in their creed and, yes, catechism, or statement of faith, and in doctrines that, yes, there was a rapture. Maybe they did not use the term rapture because it might not have existed at that point; but nonetheless, they knew from reading that there is going to be a catching away, both physical and spiritual, as described in Revelation. So the fact that the term rapture was not used is completely immaterial and irrelevant; the faith-believing Christians knew. The people knew that there was indeed