This post includes important spoilers for the movie Avengers Infinity War. Stop reading now if you don't want to know what happens in the movie. Keep reading if you want to know more about where the world is going and how late is the hour.
On Thursday, April 26 I went on a father daughter trip to see the movie Avengers Infinity War. We enjoy watching movies together and she had been looking forward to this one in particular. If you know much about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) then you know it is important to watch the closing credits in any Marvel movie. There are always one more more additional scenes included in the credits. Sometimes they are something funny, but most of the time these scenes provides clues to the direction of future MCU movies.
When the credits began to roll during the very somber end of the movie, virtually everyone in our theater moved stayed put. Thes stayed to see what clues the additional scenes would provide. There's only one additional scene in Avengers Infinity War and it does not occur until after all of the credits are shown. The scene contains an important clue that suggests how the Avengers will defeat there seemingly invincible enemy in their next movie, which is scheduled to be released in May 2019. From an MCU perspective it was good scene with the surprise reveal being that the coming hero who will save the day is Captain Marvel. But, that's not why I'm writing this post.
While watching this post-credit scene I was stunned when I realized what I was seeing. What I was seeing was essentially a foreshadowing or a preview of the coming Rapture of the Church! Let me explain.
The MCU has been around for 10 years. During the last 10 years all of the Marvel movies have been connected together in some way. Every movie has includs a little piece of an overarching story that all points towards a climax in this movie, Avengers Infinity War. The villain in the movie, an alien named Thanos, has been lurking in the background since the first Avengers movie in 2012. He is the baddest of the bad guys in the MCU. His goal in Infinity War is to eliminate half the population of the universe because he thinks its too crowded. To achieve his goal must collecting six Infinity Stones. Each of the stones by themselves contain great power, but by bringing the stones together Thanos can possess infinite power. Having collected the stones his power would be so great that by the simple snap of his fingers he could achieve his elimination goal.
Of course by the end of the movie Thanos has all six stones and despite a seemingly successful last second effort by Thor to defeat him, Thanos manages to snap his fingers and disappear. What happens next is that many, but not all, of the Avengers who have been fighting Thanos in Wakanda begin to disappear. One moment they are fine. The next moment they begin to flake into pieces and they eventually dissolve into dust.
But what I was seeing didn't really hit me until I watched the post-credits scene scene, which takes place in New York City. In the scene we see the characters Nick Fury and Maria Hill, driving in a car after learning about the defeat in Wakanda. All of a sudden a another car swerves to a stop in front of them. When they get out of their car to investigate they find there is no drive in the other car. Immediately they begin to see other cars and eventually a helicopter crash. As chaos ensue, many but not all of the people on the street around them flake into pieces and dissolve into dust. Eventually Nick Fury and Maria Hill dissolve into dust as well but not before Fury puts out an SOS for Captain Marvel.
What stunned me was the sight of a scene that replicated the Rapture of the Church in many ways. It's not a biblically accurate description of the rapture. Instead its a direct application of The Coming U.F.O. Disclosure that Jeff @Unsealed.org wrote about in his May 2017 blog post and Gary @Unsealed.org wrote about in his April 2017 post, The Strong Delusion. The key point of Gary and Jeff's posts (and the other sites they reference) is that when the Rapture occurs, the world will be told lie to explain away the truth. Almost certainly that lie will be that the people who have disappeared will have been snatched away by aliens. More specifically the world will have been cleansed by a benevolent alient of the bigeted and narrow minded Christians who have been oppressing marginalized people everywhere. To accomplish this, the world will be given a "strong delusion" as Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Consider the storyline in the movie:
- A super-powerful alien being comes to Earth to get something he needs to be infinitely powerful.
- Once he has what he needs he snaps his fingers and eliminates half the people in the universe, which also means half the people on Earth.
- Half the Earth's population instantly disappears into nothing causing all sorts of chaos including car, helicopter, airplane, etc accidents.
- This infinitely powerful alien being then returns to his home and does nothing more to the Earth.
Now think about the distribution of the Avengers Infinity War movie. By May 11, 2018 the movie will have been released in more than 50 countries around the world including the two most populated countries China and India. During the opening weekend alone the movie earned a global record US$630M in ticket revenue easily making it the largest opening weekend in movie history. Most of the world's population will have access to or at least heard about the movie by early May. May people will have also seen the movie by the middle of May.
Every person who sees the movie will have a picture painted in their mind for what it would look like if a large percentage of the population suddenly disappeared. Essentially, people are being pre-conditional to a concept (sudden disappearances) that few of them have previously considered. Assuming that the Rapture happens soon, the fact that the image from the movie is fresh on people's mind will make it much easier for the remaining governments to blame the disappearances on aliens. Additionally there has been quite a lot of buzz about the post-credit scene in the media and online. The interesting part from my perspective is most people are focusing on the wrong aspect of the scene. They are focused on the Captain Marvel reveal and not the similarity to the prophesized Rapture of the Church!
For comparison, here's an example from a movie named Jerusalem Countdown that visualizes what the Rapture of the Church might look like. For those of you who have seen Avengers Infinity War I will admit the process for removing people is different, but the results are similar; right down to the crashing helicopter!
Why did I mention the middle of May a few paragraphs earlier? Because there's a lot of events around the world that seem to be pointing towards something big happening around the middle of May. And if the ending of the movie is somehow connected to the strong delusion that occurs after the Rapture of the Church, then logic suggests that the Rapture will happen sooner rather than later.
Let's consider some of the events that are shaping the world right now that seem to be related to prophecy. We'll take them in chronological order.
May 10 is Ascension Day in the church liturgical calendar. I wrote about it in a previous post on this site. After you finish this post you can go back and that post, Should We Consider Ascension Day as a Potential Rapture Date in 2018?, for more details.
May 12 is the deadline for President Trump confirm whether or not Iran is still in compliance with the requirements of the six country nuclear deal that was designed to limit Tehran's ability to develop and implement nuclear weapons. Essentially if the U.S. determines that they are no longer in compliance with the deal, the U.S. could and likely would reinstate certain economic sanctions against Iran. If that happens, Iran has stated that they will vigorously resume uranium enrichment. Making it more likely that the U.S. will pull out of the deal (which basically means reinstating economic sanctions) is the presentation by PM Benjamin Netanyahu indicating Iran has consistently lied about the existence of their active nuclear program.
May 14 is the 70th anniversary of the birth of modern Israel using the the Gregorian calendar. Israel has already celebrated the anniversary on April 18-19 using the Hebrew calendar, but another huge celebration will occur on May 14. According to Psalm 90:10 a generation is 70 years in length. That has led some to suspect that the 70th birthday of Israel is potentially a high-watch time for the Rapture of the Church.
May 14 is also the real anniversary of the Ascension of Jesus. As indicated in my previous article (based on information from Gary @Unsealed.org) if Jesus was resurrected on April 5, 33 then the Ascension would have taken place 40 days later, or May 14 using the Gregorian calendar.
May 14 is also the day the U.S. will open the new embassy in Jerusalem. Its unclear whether or not President Trump will attend the ceremony. Regardless, the event will certainly spark the anger of the Palestinians and others in the region who oppose Israel's possession of Jerusalem. It's reasonable to expect increased agitation by the Palestinians as we get closer to May 14.
May 20 is Pentecost. Since Pentecost is considered the birth of the Church, some people believe it is also an excellent date for the exit of the Church. A May 20, Pentecost Rapture of the Church makes some sense, but then it's not our decision!
While there's no specific date related to the conflict in Syria that is being fueled by Russia and Iran, the recent missile strikes by the U.S., U.K. and France definitely increased the tension in the region. Israel for their part continues the war of words with Iran. Both countries have issues threats to annihilate the capital of the other.
President Erdogan of Turkey wants to form an Army of Islam that could militarily defeat Israel in 10 days and "liberate" Jerusalem. The army is not in place right now to do that right now but it could be in the future.
One concern for those of us living in the U.S. If the Bible continues to be accurate then at some point Gog and Magog will launch a massive attack against Israel in an attempt to obliterate them from the face of the Earth. Different interpretations of the prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39 suggest the war will take place either at the beginning or the end of the Tribulation. Some believe it is the same as the war of Armageddon. I don't think it is the same war, but I'm not dogmatic about that. Part of the argument that favors a pre-Tribulation Gog and Magog war centers around Ezekiel 39:9.
9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years;
After the war, the people of Israel burn the weapons of the defeated army as fuel for seven years. Does this happen during the Millennial Kingdom, during the Tribulation or something else? Ron Rhodes in his book North Storm Rising that the Gog and Magog war occurs 3.5 years prior to the beginning of the Tribulation. He calculates that number by suggesting that the weapon burning would need to finish prior to the Abomination of Desolation that occurs at the middle of the Tribulation when the Anti-Christ defines the Temple. After the Abomination of Desolation the Israelites flee to the hills. Therefore, the would no longer be burning the weapons for fuel. Interesting idea, but again I won't be dogmatic about it.
Eventually it will happen. Israel will be on the receiving end of an overwhelming military attack. Currently one of of the primary deterrents to a massive attack against Israel is the U.S. backing of Israel. I cannot imagine a scenario where the U.S. would intentionally refuse to defend Israel when Gog and Magog initiate the war. Most likely it won't happen until the U.S. succumbs to some kind of event that leaves it either without the ability to respond at all or only with the ability to respond with insufficient force to be a deterrent.
What kind of event might that be that so cripples the country that the U.S. is unable to respond? It could be any number of things including the Rapture of the Church. What would happen to the U.S. if 10's of millions, or optimistically 100's of millions, people were removed by the Rapture of the Church? Absolute chaos and disorder for sure. In today's just-in-time economy there are no extra stockpiles in local stores of items like food and gasoline. There are regional distribution centers for grocers that stock non-perishables, but they would still need to be transported to local stores. So even if a local grocery store or gas station can pull themselves together and resume operations they would still face shortages and there could even be issues with electronic payments. In short, it is highly likely that anarchy will reign in the U.S and other countries after the Rapture of the Church.
In closing, one thing that is crystal clear is the fact that if the Bible is correct we are all on unstoppable express train that leads directly to the Rapture of the Church and the beginning of the Tribulation. If the rapture-like post-credits scene in Avengers Infinity War was INITIONALLY added to pre-condition humanity to the idea of people disappearing, that's a scary thought for the population of the Earth and the depth of of the conspiracy of darkness to overtake the Earth is far greater than any of us image.
Ultimately the Good News is we don't need to wait on Captain Marvel to defeat the greatest darkness the world has ever encountered. We have a savior in Jesus Christ who has already defeated Satan and He is waiting with open arms to wrap them around anything who is willing to listen. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear!
