WARNING: THE RAPTURE IS NOT GOING TO TAKE PLACE ON SEPTEMBER 28, 2020. (I'm writing this Sept. 16-18, 2020.) I say this because Brenda Weltner is teaching that it is. I first heard of Brenda and this teaching several weeks ago. After watching a few of her videos on her internet site, it is clear to me that she is wrong on very many things, but I'll just deal for the most part in this article with her date for the rapture. As I discuss in this article, I don't believe there is any possibility that she is right on that date (or any date within a couple of years of that date) or many other details. However she has 22.2 thousand subscribers to her youtube site. When she is proved wrong on September 28, it will, to one degree or another, bring a reproach on the name of Christ as the world sees Christians miss it again, like with 88 reasons the Lord was coming in 1988. 

I don't have any reason to doubt the sincerity of Brenda as a Christian or her desire to please God and bless His people, but I have never seen a more confusing teaching with error upon error and novel ideas on the end times, including the novel idea that the final seven years (before the millennium) is determined, including the exact date, by the movement of constellations and the sun, moon, and planets that yields a supposed date of Sept. 21, 2017 on a Feast of Trumpets (or is it Sept. 23, 2017; I'm not sure what she meant, but it doesn't make any difference anyway). (See her July 20, 2020 video titled "Asteroids, War, September, Rapture" and her video on Rev. 12a from Sept. 8, 2020.) This one novel, wrong date leads to her wrong date for the rapture of Sept. 28, 2020. She rejects the totally widely accepted, correct viewpoint that the seven years begins with the seven-year treaty/covenant of Daniel 9:27 (which is the only verse in the Bible that mentions that seven-year period, but quite a few verses in Daniel and the book of Revelation, mention half of that seven-year period) that involves Antichrist at an early stage in his career, a treaty/covenant that hasn't taken place yet. If she is wrong on that date when the seven years starts, and it is totally clear to me that she is wrong, then her date for the rapture will be wrong too. 

I'll also mention her very unusual view that the "male child" in Rev. 12:5 is Christ but the "child" mentioned later in verse represents the raptured Christians. (I have never seen the viewpoint that more than one child is spoken of in Rev. 12:5. I believe Rev. 12:5 is a verse of key importance to understand the end times. I'll comment briefly on this verse below.) I have a lot of respect for very many Christians who are teaching on the end times who have differing views, and I have learned a lot from them (I could mention a lot of names that started with Hal Lindsey back in the 60s when I was a new Christian; this includes those teaching the pre-seven-year rapture, the mid-seven-year rapture, and those teaching the end-of-the-seven-year rapture), but I don't have that respect for Brenda's end-time teaching. I believe I can say it is unique, and I think she probably would agree with that, and probably would be proud of that. 

I have been teaching that the Lord Jesus will return and the rapture will take place right in the middle of the seven years since about 1971. (For the first year or two after I became a born-again Christian in 1964 I held the pre-seven-years rapture viewpoint that I was strongly taught in the church where I was saved, and I was encouraged to begin to use a Scofield Reference Bible, which teaches the pre-seven-year rapture. (There are many helpful notes in that reference Bible and I used that KJV Bible until the NASB became available.) For the next few years I wasn't sure what view is correct. In seminary I spent the time to become totally convinced of the mid-seven-year rapture, which view was popular at that seminary at that time. I believe the mid-seven-year rapture fits the Bible much better than any other view I have seen. And I have seriously studied all the different views, including the so-called pre-wrath rapture view. (By the way, I believe we will be raptured before God pours out His wrath.) I have written two books on the end-times: The Mid-Week Rapture: A Verse-by-Verse Study of Key Prophetic Passages (1991) and Introduction to the Mid-Week Rapture: A Study of Key Prophetic Passages (2015). You don't have to agree with the rapture being right in the middle of the seven years to follow at least most of what I say in this warning article. 

The thing that motivated me to write this article now – it obviously had to be very soon to be effective since we are so close to Sept. 28, 2020 – is that when I put "Brenda Weltner" in Google search I didn't find any warnings about her end-time teaching. I believe we desperately need some warnings. Like I said, I don't believe there is any possibility that the rapture will take place Sept. 28, 2020, and it is a gigantic deal to be wrong on the date of the rapture. The world loves that and many Christians, not surprisingly, have done things like quit their jobs, put their animals to death, sell their homes, loudly promote their wrong views, etc. when they were sure when the rapture would take place. 

QUITE A FEW THINGS NEED TO HAPPEN BEFORE THE RAPTURE CAN TAKE PLACE, AND THEY HAVEN'T TAKEN PLACE, SO THERE IS NO WAY THAT THE RAPTURE IS GOING TO TAKE PLACE IN A FEW DAYS (or in several months either). In Matthew chapter 24 Jesus taught that the abomination of desolation (Matt. 24:15) and the short great tribulation (Matt. 24:21-22) will take place before He returns with the clouds of heaven with the trumpet and the angels gather us to Him in the rapture/catching up (Matt. 24:30-31). Significantly, this is the same return of Christ and trumpet and the clouds of heaven and the rapture/catching up as in 1 Thess. 4:16-17. The resurrection of the believers who have died before that time is also specifically mentioned in 1 Thess. 4:16. The glorification of the believers still living on the earth at the time of the rapture isn't specifically mentioned, but it is clear that they/we will be glorified along with being raptured to meet the Lord in the air. 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 mention the same trumpet – it's called "the last trumpet" there – and the resurrection of the believers who have died before that time and the glorification of the believers still living on the earth at that time are mentioned. There is one more mention of that same trumpet in Rev. 11:15, which is the seventh and last trumpet of the book of Revelation. Christ returns to save and to judge at the sounding of that trumpet.  

I believe it is quite difficult to argue that our rapture is not included in Matt. 24:30-31, and I have confirmed that several early Christian writers (before AD 300) understood those verses to include our rapture. Most of the pre-seven-year-rapture teachers deny that our rapture is included in Matt. 24:31-32, because that viewpoint would prove that the rapture cannot be before Daniel's 70^th week begins, since it is after the abomination of desolation and the short great tribulation. Essentially everyone agrees that the abomination will take place in the middle, or approximate middle, of the seven years. Based in large part on Dan. 12:11, I believe the abomination of desolation will take place a month before the precise middle of the seven years. There has to be time for the warfare of the short great tribulation to take place after the abomination of desolation and before the rapture in the middle of the seven years. I'm totally convinced that the rapture will take place right in the middle of the seven years based on God's last word in the Bible on the end times: the book of Revelation. 

It isn't necessary for this article, but it is clear to me – and this is very important information – that this trumpet will sound right in the middle of the seven years: Rev. 11:2 and 3 specifically mention the equivalent of three and one-half years and cover the first half of the seven-year period of Dan. 9:27 when the Jews are worshipping in the rebuilt temple; they won't be worshipping in the temple after Antichrist's abomination of desolation. Rev. 12:6, 14 and 13:5 specifically mention the equivalent of three and one-half years and cover the second half of the seven years. Along with this it is very significant that Revelation chapters 11-13 specifically mention quite a few key things that will take place at the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet right in the middle of the seven years. (See my books for the details.):  

The Lord Jesus will return to save and to judge; the day of judgment begins (Rev. 11:15-18) 

The resurrection, glorification, and rapture will take place. Revelation 12:5 is a key verse on the resurrection, glorification and rapture of all the people who ever lived who have become believers before the rapture in the middle of the seven years: We will be born into the fullness of eternal life and glory. Jesus was the first man, but He was a lot more than just a man, to leave death behind and be born into the fullness of eternal life and glory (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5), and we will follow Him in that birth. As Rev. 12:5 says, we will begin to reign with a rod of iron (in Rev. 2:26-27 Jesus said that we will rule/reign with a rod of iron) and we will be caught up/raptured, using the same Greek verb, harpazo, that is used of the catching up/rapture in 1 Thess. 4:17. Isaiah 66:7 is another verse that speaks of this same birth of the man child/boy. It is discussed in both of my end-time books. 

The two Christian prophets/witnesses are resurrected and raptured in the middle of the seven years (Rev. 11:11-12). 

The devil and his angels will be cast down to the earth at that time; this is a significant feature of judgment day (Rev. 12:4, 7-9). It is significant that these verses enable us to understand Matt. 24:29 about the stars [angels] falling from the sky and the powers of the heavens being shaken when Satan is cast down with his angels in the middle of the seven years. 

The end-time remnant of Israel will be saved (Rev. 11:13). On the great earthquake at Jerusalem at that time and the salvation of the repentant end-time remnant of Israel, see Zech. 14:3-5; 12:10-14. 

And Antichrist will begin his super-evil three and one-half year reign at that time (Rev. 13:1-7; Dan. 7:21, 25).

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 confirm, along with Matthew chapter 24, that Antichrist's abomination will take place before the rapture. The fact that Matthew chapter 24 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5 show that the abomination will come before the rapture sufficed to enable me to leave the pre-seven-year rapture viewpoint behind, which I was strongly taught in the church where I was saved. I have learned a lot from the pre-week teachers (I mean that!), and I respect them, and they are right to teach an early rapture, a rapture before God begins to pour out His wrath, but they made it three and one-half years too early. Rev. 3:10 is a key verse that clearly teaches an early (pre-wrath; pre "hour of testing") rapture. 

So, before the rapture can take place, we have to have the seven-year treaty/covenant of Dan. 9:27. The abomination of desolation and the warfare of the short great tribulation must take place, and the abomination of desolation cannot take place until after the temple is rebuilt, so it must be rebuilt too. And from the book of Revelation we can add that the three and one-half year ministry of the two witnesses/prophets of Rev. 11:3-12 must take place before the rapture, including the fact that after they are killed and their bodies lie in the streets of Jerusalem for three and one-half days, God will raise them from the dead before the watching world and catch them up to heaven right in the middle of the seven years. Also, from the book of Revelation we can add that the first six trumpets of the book of Revelation will all sound and the events associated with those trumpets will all come to pass before the seventh and last trumpet sounds and the Lord Jesus returns and the rapture takes place. THE RAPTURE ISN'T GOING TO TAKE PLACE SEPTEMBER 28, 2020. Am I sure, Totally! It won't take long to find out who is right!  

As I have been demonstrating, quite a few very definite signs will take place before the rapture takes place – this is confirmed by what Jesus said in Matt. 24:32-35 (I'll quote 24:32-33: "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; (33) so, you too, when you see all these things [the things He has been speaking about, including the abomination of desolation and the short great tribulation], recognize that He is near, right at the door."] – but what about the very large number of Christians who live and die before any definite signs appear. (Actually, we haven’t seen any definite signs yet, but it seems clear that we are very close to the time for those signs to begin to take place.) This is a very important question because from our perspective we can see that most Christians live and die before the definite end-time signs begin to appear. 

In Matthew chapter 24 Christ had a lot to say to those Christians: You cannot wait for end-time signs or anything else! I require you to get ready and stay ready for My coming at any time. Since you don't know when I am coming, you have to always stay ready (Matt. 23:36, 42-51). Christians don't have any allotments of time where sin is acceptable. Living in sin is dangerous! For the great majority of these Christians the time they must be concerned about is the time that they will die (not the time of the Lord's return), and they must get ready and stay ready to stand before God in judgment. We don't want to be found like the backsliden Christian leader pictured in Matt. 24:48-51 who wrongly thought he had some time for sin before getting ready to stand before God in judgment. One fact that makes a passage like Matthew chapter 24 a little difficult is that God didn't want to clearly communicate the idea that the Lord Jesus wasn't coming for a very long time. He requires all Christians of all generations to live in the light of His coming. The first generation of Christians thought in terms of His probably coming in their generation. 

God bless you! I pray that each one of us will make it top priority to get ready (as required in accordance with God's Word and by His grace through faith) and then stay ready, and be ready, fully ready for the return of the Lord Jesus and the rapture! It will be soon, but not as soon as some people are teaching!

http://www.karlkempteachingministries.com Karl Kemp worked as an engineer in the space field throughout the 60s. He became a born-again Christian in 1964. He received an MA in Biblical Studies in 1972. He has been a Bible teacher for 45 years. See the website for more info on his books, papers, etc.