{"content":[{"text":"Today in southern California, as well as across the country, we‘re hearing some strange \n things in the area of prophecy coming from some men at whom I‘m rather surprised. They are \n right on the border of setting a date. Some were saying Christ would come by 1980. Others say \n He will be here by the end of the century. Now they worry me because they seem to have a line \n into heaven that I don‘t have. That worries me a great deal because I‘d like to have that line also, \n and I simply don‘t have it. And if you want to know the truth, they don‘t have it either.","bbox":{"left":0.117663,"top":0.088603,"width":0.758969,"height":0.106337}},{"text":"What’s Next?","bbox":{"left":0.117663,"top":0.210993,"width":0.11467800000000002,"height":0.020982}},{"text":"The Word of God tells us what the next happening is. And the Word of God calls it the \n Rapture. There are three great passages of Scripture on the Rapture: John 14 is one; 1 \n Thessalonians 4, beginning with verse 13 is a second; and the third is 1 Corinthians 15. But now \n I‘m turning to 1 Thessalonians 4, a very familiar passage for those that are acquainted with this \n field of prophecy.","bbox":{"left":0.117663,"top":0.245397,"width":0.755466,"height":0.08993299999999996}},{"text":"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are \n asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe \n that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God \n bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which \n are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [shall not go \n before] them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven \n with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and \n the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be \n caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so \n shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these \n words. (vv. 13-18)","bbox":{"left":0.176469,"top":0.351495,"width":0.6440699999999999,"height":0.19357100000000005}},{"text":"This passage has been called one of the most important prophetic passages in Scripture, and \n certainly I would concur in that. Notice that it teaches the imminent and impending coming of \n Christ. And now hear me rather carefully. That does not mean the immediate or even the soon \n coming of Christ. Now we have used, and I have used, that expression for years – ―The soon \n coming of Christ.‖ But this is not the language of the Word of God. The word is the approaching \n coming. The next event on the agenda of God is when He takes His church out of the world. \n When that will take place, we are given no indication whatsoever. We‘re just told that‘s the next \n event. It may be tomorrow. It could be this year. It may not be. Don‘t quote me as saying He‘s \n coming this year – I didn‘t. I don‘t know. He may come this century – I don‘t know. He may not \n come this century. \n Now let me illustrate this with a very homely illustration. Last winter Mrs. McGee and I \n made our annual trip to Florida. It seems strange for Californians to be going to Florida in the \n wintertime, but that‘s what we‘ve been doing, and we‘ve had a wonderful ministry down there. \n This time we got on one of the new DC-10s. We had never been on one of them before, and we \n were very much interested in this new plane. It took off, went out over the Pacific, circled to the \n left, and while we were still in sight of the airport, the captain came on the intercom and \n introduced himself. He told us what the weather was. He said, ―The weather here in California is \n lovely, and the report we get from Florida is that the weather is lovely down there. But you know \n we go over Texas, and you can‘t tell about the weather there.‖ We were listening to him very","bbox":{"left":0.117663,"top":0.559049,"width":0.7620920000000001,"height":0.333831}},{"text":"2","bbox":{"left":0.872737,"top":0.917543,"width":0.009801999999999977,"height":0.020209000000000032}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}