9/23 Rapture: Prophetic or Divisive?

In this conversation, Kevin discusses the recent prediction of the rapture occurring on September 23rd, emphasizing the divisive nature of such predictions and the underlying pride that fuels disagreements among believers. He encourages listeners to focus on the essence of faith rather than the timing of events, highlighting the importance of evangelism and serving God regardless of when the rapture may occur

Transcript

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Kevin Toomer (00:07.918)
What's up everybody? a long time since I've done a video. You're probably like, where you been? Right. I've been busy between work at the church and teaching classes and things that nature. It's been busy. And I want to talk about today something I normally don't talk about these kinds of topics. I kind of stay away from the, you know, things that are in the popular culture and just foolishness. I try to stick to the scriptures as much as possible, just trying to teach and share the scripture. But this is something that I've been seeing a lot.

And it's disturbed me. I promise you, this is not something where a lot of Christian content creators, and not just Christian, people in general, they like to say things and start off by saying, people don't want to hear the truth. Well, people don't want to hear this. And obviously, if you see by the tagline and title, I want to talk about the prediction of the rapture occurring on September 23rd. Now, again, it will be easy and low hanging through.

for me to be like, okay, let me tell you the truth about what's gonna really happen. Let me tell you why it's right or let me tell you why it's wrong. That's easy pickings. That's low hanging food and I can try to come off cause I wanna get that attraction. I wanna get the likes, I wanna get the shares, I wanna get the follows. So let me say something that even if it's not popular, I want you to watch it. So I may say something that's not popular on purpose to get you to watch it. That's not what I'm gonna do here. Right off the bat.

I'm not trying to tell you whether you should believe it. The rapture is going to happen on the 23rd or not. I'm not going to even go into whether you should believe in the rapture period. That's not what I'm going to. What I see is a bigger issue with the whole idea of the 23rd rapture prediction. And it's not what you think. It's not about again, proving right or wrong. I do have a personal conviction about the rapture. Now, for those who don't know what the rapture is, it's a date in the scripture.

So first death stone is forced to scripture when it talks about being caught up in the air I'm not gonna go too deep in that again because that's not the purpose of this video But the Bible does record a calling up or a caught being caught up with the Lord now The issue is with those who don't know the rapture is the timing when is it going to happen? Hence this prediction of the 23rd. So a lot of people and this is not the first time there have been many predictions over the years or when

Kevin Toomer (02:29.41)
Jesus is going to return and rapture most specifically the rapture that they're referring to is the church meaning that the Christians are going to be taken up and taken to heaven and that's going to start the clock for the rest of the end of end of times. So in a nutshell, that's what they're talking about when they mentioned rapture. So, but my perspective is nothing my title I want to use them kind of spitballing right now is, know, step two and 23rd rapture. Is it prophetic?

divisive divisive is probably better way to say it and honestly yeah I think it's divisive but not for the reason you think again I'm not trying to tell you what you should believe now this is why I say that because what I'm seeing family is people aren't necessarily divided so much by the timing or if it's going to happen what I'm seeing is the big issue is pride I'm seeing pride

And this is not relegated to one perspective or one view. I'm seeing pride on both sides. Now, let's explore that. So those who made this prediction, who are following and they've done their research, or maybe they just are following because it sounds good, they believe that it's going to happen. They're not, and this is not everyone, but they're not going through with this and going on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and all these places saying this for the perspective.

for the response or for the purpose of warning people. There are some that are, and a lot of them are. But a lot of them are doing that because they want to be proven correct. They had this view, and a lot of people, again, have had the view of the rapture their whole lives. And now here comes a date by someone, and they're not looking at that as a time of celebration or a time of warning. They're looking at it a time to say, yeah, I knew I was right on

So their viewpoint isn't one again of consternation one of warning one of concern for those who if it's true that are gonna be left behind They're saying that because they want to be validated They want to be proven, right? But now like I said, that's not relegated to just one side the others the other party or the other side the other few Those who don't believe that the rapture is gonna happen on the 23rd. There's pride

Kevin Toomer (04:52.014)
that side too now you might be saying where is the pride on that side well the pride on that side is they are hoping but it doesn't happen why so then they can say that they're right see these people going around saying the stupid stuff saying that the Rapture is not gonna happen on 23rd I told you you are stupid so they're trying to pride so again you see the issue

And it's a bigger issue than we think. Because again, regardless of how you view the Rapture, regardless of how you view the timing of it, the fact of the matter is people on both sides are coming at this from the wrong perspective. They're looking at this strictly from a point of puffing out their chest to say how right they are. Now again, I mentioned earlier, it's not going to be long. I'm not going to tell you what you should believe or not. But let's say, let's go to both perspectives, right?

Let's say the people who said that it's gonna happen on the 23rd. Let's say the rapture actually happens What's the harm? For Christians that is right the Christians are going to be blessed the Christians are gonna go home the Christians are gonna be taken away from this world with all this evil all this is going on hallelujah praise the Lord God is a he has done what he said he is going to do That is a blessing in itself. So what's the bad news? Now, of course for those who aren't

Christians then their fate is to be here during that seven-year period but even in that God's gonna give him a chance to come to him. So how is anybody losing? More specifically Christians. If the rapture does happen on the 23rd, how are Christians losing? We're not. But now let's do the other side. Let's say that the rapture does not happen on the 23rd. How are Christians losing?

We're not losing it either. Now you might say, well Kevin, we're not going to heaven. Well guess what? That means God is giving us more time. More time to develop. More time to grow. More time to increase the kingdom. More time to bring other people to the fold so when he does return, guess what? Instead of having this amount of people because he waited so long, we may have this amount of people. God is really showing his grace. He's really showing his mercy. You see?

Kevin Toomer (07:15.278)
So regardless of what happened, it doesn't matter because God's goodness is in whichever view you have. And let me say this as well. Whatever view you have of the rapture, of the end times, that does not change your place as far as salvation. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you accept the measure of the Lord and say that you live for Him, you have His Holy Spirit living in you, whether He comes on the 23rd not, your seat in heaven is secure. So you see, it's really superfluous.

So again, why is there division? Most of it, not all, most of it is not because people are trying to be, you know, to trying to fellowship and trying to get people to come to Christ. And again, there are some that are, but for the most part, it's strictly pride. It's strictly people trying to prove each side is right while ignoring the fact that regardless of what side you are, none of us are right. Jesus is right. He makes us all right. So that's something that I just wanted to talk about real quick. And I want to give this, I have a couple of scriptures I want to show.

But in terms of how I view it again, I'm not going to give you any inkling on what side I'm on because again, that's not the purpose of video and I don't want to create more division is exactly what I'm talking about in the video. But I thought about this illustration and bear with me with this. For those of us who, everybody, if you've worked in customer service or you've worked in retail, you are familiar with a secret shopper, right? So for those who don't know, secret shoppers is people who companies hired to show up incognito just as a regular customer.

and show go up and shop or shop or purchase items from a business and that secret shopper takes notes of everything that's going on and then they can say okay now I report back to the superiors okay Kevin went to business X and the cashier was rude or the cashier was nice and the bathroom was dirty or the bathrooms clean employees were nice whatever it is so now I'm going back and I'm secretly shopping

to see how the company's doing. why is that important? Because now you get to see them, the company, how they really are versus if the secret shopper told them, I am coming at three o'clock on Friday. What is the company gonna do? The employees are gonna make sure three o'clock on Friday, they're tip top. Which may sound good on paper, but it may not be an indication of how they really are. You may see where I'm going with this. I think a God, most specifically God and Jesus,

Kevin Toomer (09:39.991)
It's going to do a secret shop on the world. I think he's going to show up in moments just like a secret shopper when we're not expecting the scripture to us buried up. They say he's going to show like a thief in the night. But I think he's going to show up in unexpectedly because that way he can see how we really are versus us trying to perform and get cleaned up in anticipation of the visit. That's just an illustration that get, that God gave me. Something like that. But now I have two scriptures.

that I want to share because again we are focusing so much on the timing and focuses so much on being right and being wrong why don't we focus on the fact of what happens in the end and what happens in terms of the good news because whether he comes on the 23rd or not what are we waiting for what's the best part of this all obviously the best part number one part is that we're gonna see God face to face right let me give you two scriptures both of them in the book of Revelation right

Revelation chapter 21 verse 3 it says I heard a loud shout from the throne saying look God's home is now among his people you will live with them and they will be his people God himself will be with them number is for you will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there'll be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain all these things are gone for ever imagine if instead of trying to figure out when he's going to come we focus on what happens

Focus on the world is going to be transformed new heaven new earth no more pain no more sorrow No more sickness in his presence forever and one more scripture same book chapter 22 Revelation first is 35 And it says no longer will there be a curse upon anything For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there and his servants you and I will worship Him here It is and they will see his face and his name will be written on their foreheads

There will be no night there no need for lamps of sun for the Lord God will shine on them and they will reign forever and ever Now imagine if we focused on that More so than trying to figure out the time or the date or having pride about so-called predicting the correct time So that's my little Easter speech I just want to share just something to keep us in mind in terms of this whole thing. I think sometimes

Kevin Toomer (12:08.448)
Again, pride can be a bigger issue than we think. Because some of us, yes, we do have a zeal to see others come to Christ. And if you believe that the 23rd is that day, then yes, we should ramp up our evangelistic efforts. We should be telling people to come to Christ before that day comes. And if it doesn't happen, guess what? We still should be ramping up our evangelistic efforts to prepare for when He comes. Because He may not come on the 23rd, but as a Christian, we know He's coming. So in either case...

Christians we are not losing the way we lose is that we pin ourselves against each other Trying to prove that we're right to the same group. So it's really so much date not the enemy It's the end fighting between believers that causes more than problem. So hopefully as you've seen this You'll say yourself. Okay, regardless of when the Lord comes. I want to make sure that I'm serving him currently

and continue to serve Him. So whenever He comes, as the scripture says, He won't find me lazy. He won't find me asleep. We should be awake and working whenever He comes, just like the illustration I gave with the secret shopper. Imagine you're at that job slacking off and you look behind your shoulder and the owner of the company is standing there watching. The owner of the universe is watching right now. So what are we doing? Are we operating in anticipation of the prophecy?

while we're in pride. Make sure you're doing the former and not the latter. Thank you for watching. Hope this blessed you. See you in the next episode.