...Come out of her

There is a teaching today that the rapture will occur on May 21, 2011 which will be followed by five literal months of hell on earth consisting of earthquakes and other natural disasters as part of God's judgment upon unsaved mankind. Furthermore, it is said that the locusts of Revelation 9:3-5 are the leaders of the churches, pastors, Bible teachers etc... who, to some degree, will be tormenting the unsaved of the world as the unsaved seek to find truth from these religious leaders. During this time, God is going to resurrect to eternal life only the believers who have died while the bones or remains of the unsaved will be thrown out of the graves so as to be put to shame by God as part of their final demise. Those who have died prior to this five months will no longer have conscience existence and only those who are currently living at that time will experience the full wrath of God through physical and emotional trauma when they realize they are left behind. Finally at the end of the five months on October 21 2011, God will destroy the entire universe and annihilate the unsaved. A final aspect of this doctrine is that those who are not of the same mind with the details of this teaching are unsaved because they are not in agreement with the calendar and the Bible. 

By God's mercy we still have the Bible and God calls for every believer to be a berean. I will endeavor to briefly lay out the Biblical reasons why this page does not support this doctrine as laid out above. While we can't deny the fact that God uses numbers in the Bible and much careful study has been done to show consistency in the use of numbers and how the Jewish calendar can be synchronized with our modern day calendar. The problem though is not with the calendar, but rather the doctrines that are being built around it. I'm afraid many are taking the language of the Bible and trying to get it to fit around the calendar instead of reading the calendar in the light of the whole Bible as God calls us to compare spiritual things with spiritual.

Observable Weaknesses of the Five-Month Doctrine:

The DAY and the HOUR:
A reference to the great tribulation and God's judgment on the corporate body of our day. If we try to view the <Day and the Hour> literally as related to the last day of the world then we will read every verse in the Bible in light of that and therefore will be comparing apples and oranges and we'll be sure to find inconsistencies.

They Shall be Tormented Five Months (Rev 9:5):
Close examination of the Bible will show that God is primarily concerned with the external representation of His kingdom on earth (churches and congregations). Therefore the language of the Bible is centered around it. <Torment> has to do with God's own people coming under His wrath as He blinds religious leaders in this global famine of our day (Amos 8:11). Five months is a reference to the judgment which the number five points to in this context. 

153 days (3x3x17). Judgment or Grace?
If God is going to have the grand daddy of all judgments during that time, shouldn't we expect to find some aspect of judgment in the number 153? such as the number 5, 23, or 37? Instead we see the number for Salvation (17) and resurrection or purpose (3). Is it possible that God is adding a grace period to the 8400 days ( 1988 to 2011)? 

153 fish (John 21:11)
A direct link to the number 153 in the Bible points to a great catch. Spiritually, this number is pointing to the harvest of today as God brings the Elect out of the great tribulation which began, according to the Bible, in the year of Jubilee of 1994. Which would explain why again we see the number 17 (1994 to 2011) as related to the Salvation of the Elect Body. 

153 vs 150 days
After the flood of Noah's day, we read that the waters prevailed over the earth 150 days (Ge 7:24). Contrast that with 153 days in 2011. Is Genesis 7:24 a reference to the same time period? If so, why the discrepancy? It can be shown from the Bible that the waters in view prevailing over the earth (corporate body) is the fact that God has brought judgment to the institution of the church.

The Days are Shortened
Another aspect of God's salvation program that may be overlooked is that God calls for the days of the great tribulation to be shortened for the sake of the Elect (Mt 24:22). What most people do not realize is that since the primary focus of judgment is on the corporate church, this means it is the end of the world (church age) where the door (Christ) is now shut. Elect have come into the fulness of their salvation (Eph 4:13). The tribulation as seen on the calendar was supposed to last 8400 days and now God has intervened and Christ has come to bring judgment on the corporate body. Does this mean that God is no longer officially on the calendar? It can be shown from the Bible that God is now gathering the Elect out of Spiritual Egypt and at the same time gathering the unsaved for the burning as the unsaved corporate body is said to be in hell. 

NOAH: A Picture of God who Built the Ark (Christ)
Another reason why we have to read the Bible very very carefully. The name NOAH means REST. Christ is the REST of His people (He was called Noah because he would COMFORT the Elect due to the ground which God cursed (Ge 5:29). Many see the fact that God told Noah in 7 days the flood would come and automatically associate it with him as being a type of the believers. In some areas God does shift and points to Noah as a type of the believer, like when he comes into the Ark, for example. However for the most part Noah is symbolic of God Himself who built the Ark (provided Salvation in Christ) to the saving of His House (God's Elect). Solomon is another character who symbolized Christ as he built the Temple (Body of Christ). 

In 1Peter 3:18-19 we read that in the days of Noah, Christ preached to the spirits in prison. How can that be when He had not yet appear? It should make sense when we understand that Christ (the Word) was preaching through Noah. The focus is on Christ, not Noah. The unsaved of the world at that time were symbolic of the unsaved in today's corporate body who are also viewed as spirits (people) in prison (under the wrath of God) - Re 18:2).

This brings us right back to the Biblical principle that only GOD knew of the Day and the Hour which has to do with the death of the church. It can be shown from the Bible that the 7 days, the 40 days, the 1000 years are all numbers God is using to point to the great tribulation. Now He allows for the calendar to be viewed as such also, but given the nature of God, we have to be careful so we don't fall into any snares. 

The feast of tabernacles
While many are looking for the literal fulfillment of the feast of tabernacles on October 21 2011, we read in the Bible that this feast was spiritually pointing to our day when Christ would judge the church and Elect would go to the mountains to be with Him (Mr 13:14) and the unsaved in the church are not keeping the feast and therefore there is no rain (gospel / salvation) upon them (Zec 14:18-19). So does the literal feast now have any substance or is it a shadow? 

Jude 1:5... God Tests His People in the Wilderness
Careful study of the Bible will show that the command to depart out of Spiritual Egypt was typified by the Exodus of the children of Israel out of bondage from literal Egypt. Spiritually, Egypt can be shown to refer to the corporate body under the bondage of sin; which is what happens when the church comes into tribulation. Today God allows for a massive exodus from the local churches and congregations but we should not be trusting in our obedience to leave the local church as a guarantee of salvation. Otherwise we'd have to assume that all who come out are true believers. If we understand that those who came out of bondage in literal Egypt were also considered God's people and yet most perished in the wilderness as God put them to extreme tests (1Co 10:5). Coming out of Egypt has to do with coming out from the doctrines and teachings of men (Eph 4:14). So could the five month-doctrine with its literal conclusions a way for God to further separate the wheat from the tares? Are we teaching a lie as we tell people of a five month of hell on earth if it's not consistent with the Bible? Are the details of the five months a diversion causing people to no longer compare spiritual things with spiritual but rather put their trust in men and what they are being taught in a way that is similar to what those in the churches have done? 

Bones and Burial
When the Bible speaks of bones not being buried, it is spiritual language pointing to the unsaved corporate body without Salvation. Elect are buried with Christ in baptism (Ro 6:4, Col 2:12) and are bones of His bone (Eph 5:30-32). <bones> refer to people. Because of God's judgment on the corporate body, the bones of the unsaved are not finding the proper burial in Christ. Yet today, because of the conviction of the dates of the calendar, many are using the spiritual language of the Bible literally to fit the calendar. 


Conclusion
These are just a few of the reasons that make the five-month doctrine suspect and show us why, again we should rely on the Bible only. While I believe God has provided the calendar as a guide, we should be careful to interpret the calendar in the light of everything else the Bible is teaching. God is the same yesterday, today and forever and one of the attributes of God is that He does test His people and has being doing so all along. I believe the safest course of action is to realize that God has given us definite information in the Bible as it relates to Mystery Babylon and the fact that Christ has been revealed and Judgment has come on the corporate body. We must understand that God is faithful, perfect and is cognizant of the wickedness of the world. Therefore whatever plan He has for it, justice will be perfectly served. I just don't see the Bible detailing exactly what that plan is. We can certainly try to literalize the spiritual language, but I think we'd be engaging in some degree of speculation. I don't see anything wrong with telling someone that the literal end will most likely occur sometime between May and Oct 21 in the year 2011. But we should leave room for error considering the complex nature of the Bible and the loose ends that are discussed above. 

May the Lord give us wisdom as we continue to ponder these things.

Dantes