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Continuing our discussion from part two, whether harvesting souls is a daily event, an annual event, or a periodic event which occurs every so many years, I really don't know with absolute certainty. However, based on what the Apostle Paul wrote, as well as a number of verses which are found in the Old Testament, and the fact that Believers die every single day, I lean towards the belief that the minute we Believers die, our spirit returns to God, wherever He happens to be at this current time. Consider the following verses:

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again."


"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle [meaning our physical body] were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."


"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?"


"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."


Concerning "the ages to come" of which Paul speaks, if the Prophet Daniel's "Seventy Weeks" prophecy is any indication, perhaps each and every Prophetic Age amounts to a total of four hundred and ninety years. In other words, seventy times seven. This would certainly seem to agree with the Biblical pattern where the ancient Israelites were ordered to let the land rest every seven years, and were also told to observe a "jubile" -- or jubilee -- every fifty-year period. In other words, after forty-nine years, or seven times seven. Thus, by extension, seventy times seven -- or four hundred and ninety years -- could be considered a part of this very same Biblical pattern. However, this is just personal conjecture on my part. Consider the following verses:

"And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard."


"And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession."


At the very beginning of this series I posed the question "Where do we stand insofar as Bible prophecy and God's plan of Salvation and timeline are concerned?". In answer to that question, it seems that we are "in the ages to come". I am not really certain which age we are currently in, but does it actually matter? The main thing to consider is that God has not forgotten us by any means. He loves us, He cares for us, and He still wants to save us. He wants us to join Him in His eternal Kingdom, along side Jesus Christ, all of the Heavenly Beings, the First Century Saints, and all of the other Bible-believing Christians who have gone on before us to their Heavenly Reward.

To reiterate my previous point, whether Jesus comes for us as Futurists believe, or we go to Him at the moment of our death, the end result is still the same. We go to be with the Lord forever. In either case, we are still winners. If anything, as I have already said, I think too many of my Christian brethren are hung up on the whole "Second Coming" debate. So many seem to want a fast ticket out of this evil place, which grows worse and more ungodly with each passing year. But what if that is not God's plan for you? What if His real plan is for you to live out the remainder of your mortal life in service to Him and others, by being a good example of your faith, and sharing the Gospel with as many as you can? This is a topic which I discuss in such series as "Parable of the Sower: Salvation and Service".

Personally, this revelation regarding "in the ages to come" has liberated me. It gives me a wonderful peace about things. It emphasizes to me that I just don't need to worry about all the confusing and conflicting doctrines that have infiltrated our faith and divided the Body of Christ. Whether it happens to be pre-Trib, mid-Trib, post-Trib or any other doctrine, it all becomes totally meaningless and moot; because if what I have stated in this series, as well as in related articles, is correct, they have absolutely nothing to do with us modern Christians. They are past events and fulfilled prophecies; so why even argue about them? It is not only pointless to do so, but it is exactly what the enemies of Christ want. They want to divide and conquer us, and they are having a grand time at doing it. If you happen to engage in such negative activities, do you really want to continue being one of their pawns?

To reiterate, all that I need to be concerned with, is trying to please the Lord on a daily basis, and serving Him to the best of my ability, as each year of my life passes. When the day of my death finally arrives, I will graduate on to the Next Life, and that will be that. The very same thing applies to you as well. All we should be concerned with is this:

"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?"


"His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."


"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?"


"And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities."


"Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful."


Let me ask you another question. What does all of that talk and hype about Jesus coming at any moment really accomplish? Some of you may not like my answer, but let me tell you. It keeps you spending your hard-earned money going to Christian seminars where they get people all excited, and where they erroneously promote that same line of thinking. It keeps you spending your money on books, magazines, DVDs, home videos, etc., which likewise give you the false hope that Jesus is coming for the Body of Christ any day now. It keeps you going to website after website, and social network after social network, where they fill your mind and heart with that very same strong delusion. That's what it does.

But guess what? There is one thing that all of that talk and hype definitely does not do. It does not bring Jesus' coming one single day closer; because, in my humble opinion, the Lord already returned almost two thousand years ago, exactly as He had promised His followers that He would do. To believe otherwise is to call Him a liar.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I fully understand that what I have stated in this series, as well as in some of my other recent articles and series, is going to cause a considerable amount of consternation amongst some of my Futurist-leaning friends, who will find all of this information rather hard to swallow. It may cause you to doubt some of your current beliefs. Well, be thankful, because that is actually a good thing. Perhaps it is in fact time for you to more closely examine your personal beliefs, in order to determine if they really hold up to Scriptural scrutiny. That is exactly what I was forced to do, and what I am still doing. If we aren't willing to do this, then perhaps we deserve to be deceived.

I also realize that accepting what I have been saying as of late in some of my newer articles and updates, is going to result in a lot of new questions regarding Bible prophecy, and many things which you have embraced for perhaps many years now. You are going to have questions regarding such things as the prophecies of Daniel, Jesus' end-of-the-age sermons, and the Book of Revelation. You are going to want to know how it all fits together now, based on this new perspective. Trust me; we are in the same boat, and I want to know just as much as you do. That is precisely why I said early on in this series, that I have a lot of work ahead of me.

If you visit my website at www.billkochman.com, you will in fact see that I have already begun to write quite a bit of new material, as well as to update some of my older articles, so that they reflect my new understanding. Please understand that this is no small task for me to accomplish. I am getting a bit old, my health is in slow decline, and my brain, eyes and back are wearing out. As such, I cannot do nearly as much as I did say twenty years ago. Neither can I accomplish it as quickly. I will say though, that I have probably written more new material during this month of August 2016, than I did in all of last year.

However, insofar as my understanding of Bible prophecy is concerned, if you want to play it safe, and if you just want to know my latest updated thoughts, then I encourage you to just read those articles and series which you find listed in the first section of articles on my home page, and not in the "Full Articles List" section below it. The prophecy-related articles which you find in the "Full Articles List" section have not been updated yet, and they will contain plenty of things which even I no longer agree with, and which I will eventually update and change, as my time and health permit. Please note that this only applies to the prophecy-related articles which you find in the "Full Articles List" section. Most, if not all, other articles in that section -- such as those which deal with Salvation, Discipleship, Witnessing, Faith, etc. -- should be fine to read for the most part.

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

A Biblical Cafeteria, or the Whole Course?
A Temple Veil, an Earthquake and a Centurion
Abomination of Desolation: Explained!
Comet Elenin, Hercolubus, Nibiru, and Planet X
Destruction of Planet Earth: The Wrath of God Revealed
Elijah: Where Are the True Prophets of God?
Greater Works Than These Shall He Do . . . and Satan Too
Humility in Our Understanding of God's Word
In Defense of the KJV Bible
Is the KJV Bible the Inerrant Word of God?
Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?
Leviathan: An Ancient Dragon of the Sea?
Parable of the Sower: Salvation and Service
Who is Babylon the Great?
Satan: His Origin, Purpose And Future
Satan: King of Tyrus, King of Empires
Sex, A Bowl of Soup, and the Nature of Angels
Should Christians Engage in Doctrinal Debates?
Sorry . . . Jesus is Not Coming at Any Moment
The Fruits of Disobedience
The Great Tribulation and the Rapture
The Internet" Our Final Frontier; Your Last Chance?
The Judgment of Angels, Demons and Men
The Misguided End of the World Predictions of Harold Camping
Tradition or Truth? Old Wine or New Wine?
When Was Satan Cast Out of Heaven?
Who Hindered the Antichrist?

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