Since I have been asked this several times, I thought I would repost a discussion I participated in on Rapture Forums last year (March 2022) on the subject of whether children go up in the Rapture. Here was my updated response. Although it's not clearly spelled out in Scripture, I believe the issue itself is very straightforward: FACTS 1. God created man with the capacity to believe and choose right over wrong. This is what distinguishes us from every other living creature 2. Man physically reaches full mental cognizance when the brain is fully developed (age 20 and upward). God consistently uses the age of 20 in the OT as the dividing mark between accountable and unaccountable (eternally speaking). (Ex. 30:11-16, Num. 32:11) There is no age given in the NT (I believe God defaults to save any who come to Him whatever age they may be) Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 12 “When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a[a] ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them. 13 This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone included among those who are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to the Lord. 15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when you give an offering to the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves. 16 And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.” Exodus 30:11-16 ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me, Numbers 32:11 Two points: Those under the age of 20 were not permitted to pay a ransom (for atonement). Exodus doesn't specify as to why, or whether or not those 19-year-olds were mature enough, or good or bad. It just sets the standard at a particular age of division- 20 years of age and above. Numbers 32:11 also list those who were not permitted to enter into the Promised Land (those 20 and up). Said nothing about the worthiness or maturity of those who were 19 and below. Again, God sets that as the age of division between being morally culpable and those who are not. 3. God then sets the conditions for salvation based on our ability to believe in Him. Before Christ came, it was man's faith in the living God. After Christ came, our faith must be directed at God-manifested in the flesh, Jesus the Christ, and His finished work at the Cross. 4. Modern biology has come to study and learn much about the human brain, and one of those conclusions is that the last part of our brain that gets fully developed is our pre-frontal cortex, which governs what we would call higher critical thinking. Actually, our brain sort of develops all at once, but we see generally see it develop from the back (which governs motor skills) to the front (critical thinking). Critical thinking is developed by our experiences, education, imagination, emotion, etc. These things obviously take time. Setting biology aside for a moment, we need to make sure we don't confuse mental cognitive skills with mental/ emotional maturity. I (being a typical kid) can remember being mentally cognitive as a sixteen-year-old, but I was far from mature and I had very little understanding of consequences- especially consequences with long-term (or eternal) ramifications. LOGICAL THOUGHTS 1. God could have created mankind to reach full mental cognition at a much earlier age (say age 5 or 13), but He didn't. He doesn't explain why either. 2. Does mental cognition equal maturity? Yes and no. We all mature at different rates, but maturity does not supersede the age standard God set forth in Scripture. IOW, you can be immature over the age of 20, but at that point, it's on your head because you have been given the tools and you chose at that point what to do with them. (We do the same with adulthood being at 18, and breaking the law at that point carries far more severe consequences than if you were say, 17 years old). 3. The mentally incapacitated (those with varying forms of Downe Syndrom), and children up to the age of 20 (the only consistent biblical age we have to work with) that have not yet reached that full capacity by the Rapture, will be taken up and afforded the same level of mercy as those who died before 20 receive, and have received throughout all of time. 4. After the Dispensation of the Church ends, mankind is thrust back into the conclusion of a post-Christ dispensation of Law (the conclusion of it rather). Those who enter into it must be afforded the opportunity to either receive Christ or reject Him with full mental cognition intact, or else God's manner of justice would not be perfect in sentencing them to eternal condemnation. CONSISTENT THEOLOGY 1. Now, if we argue that God grants unwarranted mercy on those who, for instance, such as babies and the mentally incapacitated, on what basis then do we make that argument? Well, we could say that according to God's own word, He is longsuffering that none should perish. (Ex. 34:6, Ps. 86:15, 2 Peter 3:9) How then can some argue that God should send babies (who lack the ability to believe) as well as those who are mentally incapacitated (who also lack the ability to believe) to eternal hell-fire for something they had no way of changing? Does that sound like God? Does that sound like any reference to God in Scripture anywhere? 2. Let's make the distinction, as this issue will come up, that God allows children and the mentally incapacitated to suffer all manner of evils and death in this life. People can point to the Flood or Sodom and Gomorrah. That is true. Children and the mentally incapacitated have suffered all manners of evils in this world. That is simply part of living in a fallen world. But the first death is of no divine significance when compared to the second death. That's not to say God delights in their tragic endings, heavens no. What I mean is, while people (and animals) might suffer in this life, God will indulge them gloriously for all eternity because of that injustice. If Ephesians 2:4-7 is any indication, we can't really begin to understand how wonderful this will all be for us. When we speak of eternity, well, that is God's realm, and in His realm, He is just and merciful, and all of His attributes are the very epitome of perfection. Fairness: For example, would we call a human judge here on earth, who takes a child guilty of (pick a crime) and sentences him/her to life in federal prison- a just or cruel judge? Has it happened? Sure. And we would consider this judge cruel for condemning a child who lacks not only the ability to clearly distinguish, right from wrong but also the ability to understand the consequences of right and wrong. If we (fallen humans) can consider that judge cruel, and we build up laws to guard against things like that because we recognize the unfairness of it, how much more does God understand perfectly the issues of culpability and innocence? 3. None of us deserve salvation. If God showed us how sinful and wicked we truly are, we would crumble into an unrecoverable tailspin of grief and misery, unable to ever be useful to Him or His purposes. Thankfully, God provides that grace and mercy to us through His Son's perfect sacrifice. If God can afford us wicked people a means to salvation, how much more would HE for those who can't understand eternal ramifications? (Mark 10:14) 4. If we look at the history of this throughout the Church Age, I see some major issues of corruption that spring from the death and innocence of children. We could look at the Roman Catholic's power over family through infant baptism and purgatory. We could look at Calvinism and its corrupted version of predestination. Both of these are perversions of what the Bible says, and they both seek to place religion/religious piety over Jesus' free gift of salvation and God's longsuffering nature. CONCLUSION 1. God created mankind to be unique in our ability/capacity to both believe and choose life (God) over death (hell and Satan) 2. God designed mankind to physically arrive at that mental/cognitive destination (biologically) at the age of 20 and above. We see this demarcation line clearly throughout the first five books of the bible. 3. Can a child receive Christ, even though that child has zero understanding of eternal consequences? Absolutely. God defaults to save any who calls upon Him and He will refuse none. 4. Can a thief on a cross receive Christ, having done absolutely nothing to warrant it? Absolutely. 5. Will the Rapture be a once in mankind event that violently separates two dispensations, unleashing hell on earth? Yes 6. Would a just-God, allow a child who cannot make that eternal decision, to enter into a time when a mark will be imposed upon all, which then condemns the bearer of said mark to eternity in hell? Don't we make this same argument for why Christians can't be in the 70th Week? Anyway, my .02c

Still here in ICU with my dad. Got here yesterday around 3PM. He was incoherent yesterday and they suspect a stroke on top of his stage 4 cancer, but we had a good visit this morning. He’s a believer so I know this isn’t goodbye forever, just a "see you later," but tough to see him in so much pain. I don't know what my schedule looks like this week as I'm not near my computer. At the least, I'll post the videos from interviews as they come available. I've canceled my Tuesday with Tom Hughes given the present circumstances so I'll just keep y'all posted on this thread as things progress. Pete

Previously posted to Rapture Forums. Posting it here for proximity. Although it's not clearly spelled out in Scripture, I believe the issue itself is very straightforward: FACTS 1. God created man with the capacity to believe and choose right over wrong. This is what distinguishes us from every other living creature 2. Man physically reaches full mental cognizance when the brain is fully developed (age 20 and upward). God consistently uses the age of 20 in the OT as the dividing mark between accountable and unaccountable (eternally speaking). (Ex. 30:11-16, Num. 32:11) There is no age given in the NT (I believe God defaults to save any who come to Him whatever age they may be) 3. God then sets the conditions for salvation based on our ability to believe in Him. Before Christ came, it was man's faith in the living God. After Christ came, our faith must be directed at God-manifested in the flesh, Jesus the Christ, and His finished work at the Cross. LOGICAL THOUGHTS 1. God could have created mankind with full mental cognition at a much earlier age (say 13 or so), but He didn't. He doesn't explain why either. 2. Does mental cognition equal maturity? Yes and no. We all mature at different speeds, but maturity does not supersede the age-standard God set forth in Scripture. IOW, you can be immature over the age of 20, but at that point, it's on your head because you have been given the tools and you chose at that point what to do with them. (We do the same with adulthood being at 18, and breaking the law at that point carries far more severe consequences than if you were say, 17). 3. The mentally incapacitated, and children up to the age of 20 (the only consistent age we have to work with) that have not yet reached that full capacity by the Rapture, will be taken up and afforded the same level of mercy as those who died before 20 receive, and have received throughout all of time. 4. After the Dispensation of the Church ends, mankind is thrust back into the conclusion of a post-Christ dispensation of Law (the conclusion of it rather). Those who enter into it must be afforded the opportunity to either receive Christ or reject Him with full mental cognition intact, or else God's manner of justice would not be perfect in sentencing them to eternal condemnation. CONSISTENT THEOLOGY 1. Now, if we argue that God grants unwarranted mercy to those who, for instance, such as babies and the mentally incapacitated, what then do we make that argument? Well, we could say that according to God's own word, He is longsuffering that none should perish. (Ex. 34:6, Ps. 86:15, 2 Peter 3:9) How then can some argue that God should send babies (who lack the ability to believe) as well as those who are mentally incapacitated (who also lack the ability to believe) to eternal hell-fire for something they had no way of changing? Does that sound like God? Does that sound like any reference to God in Scripture anywhere? Let's make the distinction, as this issue will come up, that God allows children and the mentally incapacitated to suffer all manner of evils and death in this life. That is true. That is simply part of living in a fallen world. But the first death is of far less significance than the second death. When we speak of eternity, well, that is God's realm, and in His realm, He is just and merciful, and all of His attributes are the very epitome of perfection. For example, would we call a judge here on earth, who takes a child guilty of (pick a crime) and sentences him/her to life in federal prison- just or cruel? Has it happened? Sure. And we would consider this judge cruel for condemning a child who lacks not only the ability to clearly distinguish, right from wrong but also the ability to understand the consequences of right and wrong. If we (fallen humans) can consider that judge cruel, and we build up laws to guard against things like that because we recognize the unfairness of it, how much more does God understand perfectly the issues of culpability and innocence? 2. None of us deserve salvation. If God showed us how sinful and wicked we truly are, we would crumble into an unrecoverable tailspin of grief and misery, unable to ever be useful to Him or His purposes. Thankfully, God provides that grace and mercy to us through His Son's perfect sacrifice. If God can afford us wicked people a means to salvation, how much more would HE for those who can't understand eternal ramifications? 3. If we look at the history of this throughout the Church Age, I see some major issues of corruption that spring from the death and innocence of children. We could look at the Roman Catholic's power over family through infant baptism and purgatory. We could look at Calvinism and its corrupted version of predestination. Both of these are perversions of what the Bible says, and they both seek to place religion/religious piety over Jesus' free gift of salvation and God's longsuffering nature. CONCLUSION 1. God created mankind to be unique in our ability/capacity to both believe and choose Him over death 2. God created mankind to arrive at that mental/cognitive destination (biologically) at the age of 20 and above. 3. Can a child receive Christ, even though that child has zero understanding of eternal consequences? Absolutely. God defaults to save any who calls upon Him and He will refuse none. 4. Can a thief on a cross receive Christ, having done absolutely nothing to warrant it? Absolutely. 5. Will the Rapture be a once in mankind event that violently separates two dispensations, unleashing hell on earth? Yes 6. Would a just-God, allow a child who cannot make that eternal decision, to enter into a time when a mark will be imposed upon all, which then condemns the bearer of said mark to eternity in hell? Don't we make this same argument for why Christians can't be in the 70th Week?

Hope your will is broken and God's Will is spoken Hope being you is easy and faith is found pleasing Hope for strength each day and growth along the way Hope for your sake and Love that's not fake Hope for tomorrow and free from all sorrow Hope for every try and grace in knowing why Hope as a friend and Holy He did intend Hope to see what's true and revealing the real you Hope in Jesus' eyes and joy in the surprise Hope for Life abundant and not a day redundant Hope in the promise and belief beyond all this By the love of Jesus, A.Manring

A reader sent this to me, and I thought I would share it with you all. 1Tim 2:1............Heavenly Father, I give thanks for our government. 1 Tim 2:2...........I pray for all men and women having authority over us in any way. Prov. 1:23..........Pour out Your Spirit upon them and make Your Word known to them. Ps 25:21...........Cause them to be men and women of integrity, obedient concerning us, 1 Tim 2:2...........that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. Prov. 2:10..........Let wisdom enter their hearts, and let knowledge be pleasant to them. Prov. 2:11..........Let discretion preserve them and understanding keep them, Prov. 2:12..........to deliver them from the way of evil and from evil men. Psalm 1:1..........Make their hearts and ears attentive to godly counsel, 2Chr 20:32.........doing what is right in your sight. Prov. 2:21..........Let the upright dwell in our government. Heb 12:27..........Cause there to be a shaking in all areas. Prov. 2:21..........Let those complete and blameless before You stay. Prov. 2:22..........and cut off the wicked. Let the unfaithful be rooted out. 1Cor 4:5............Bring to light what is hidden in darkness, 1Cor 4:5............and expose the secret aims of the hearts. Rev 2:5.............Let this nation remember from where they have fallen, Rev 2:5.............repenting, and returning to doing their first works, 1Chr 22:19........setting their hearts and their souls to seek the Lord, 2Chr 7:14..........humbling themselves, praying, and turning from their wicked ways. 2Chr 7:14..........Then hear them, O Lord, and forgive their sins and heal our land. Acts 26:18........Open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light. Heb 3:13...........Soften the hearts that are hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Ps 107:20..........Deliver them from their destructions. 2Pet 3:9............Father, You have been longsuffering toward us, 2Pet 3:9............not willing that any should perish, 2Pet 3:9............but that all should come to repentance. Isa 49:22...........Raise up a standard in this nation. Zech 10:1..........Cause the rains of Your Spirit to flood this land Hab 3:2.............and revive Your work in the midst of us. Isa 59:16...........Raise up intercessors for this nation 2Cor 10:4..........to pull down strongholds over this land. Isa 40:5............And let the glory of the Lord be revealed!

I know we are all hyped for this August, at least, I know I am. However, what if it doesn't happen? What will change /stay the same for you if this year comes and goes? I don't want to be a wet blanket by any means, I just want to have balanced expectations moving forward. We are close and I believe this collective sense we are all feeling, is the Holy Spirit telling us that time is almost done. As for me, (if this year comes and goes) I will continue writing, doing interviews, and my local ministry efforts. I will continue to reach my friends and family, and anyone else who doesn't know the Lord, to do so before we run out of time. As for the geopolitical/economic situation, I believe it's incumbent upon each of us to be prepared. Not prepared like digging a bunker under our house, etc. But just having our house in order. Have enough food to last a few days. Have alternate means of energy and funding. Just the normal preparedness we should be practicing anyways, primarily determined by each of our unique living arrangements. Anyway, looking forward to your feedback!

I find Zelensky an interesting candidate. Not saying it’s him 100%, and we can’t know either this side of the rapture, but here is why. His sudden rise from obscurity as an actor/comedian, to world political fame is interesting His grooming from WEF and globalists and then position as Ukrainian PM seems to serve more than just as a PM, he has global leadership in his future (should he survive) His rise is not merely political, but tested in combat where he has shown great resolve and competence. This distinguishes him from other candidates like Macron and Obama. His willingness to lie and deceive to get other nations involved in this potentially terrifying conflict comes very easy. This is either out of great desperation or an agenda to drag this out The globalists agenda to prop this man up as a savior means he is not working alone, but has the world leadership (of those WEF types) behind him Thoughts?

If you are like me, I turn notifications off for everything. However, since I run this site, I can't so I go through every notification. However, if you are a sucker for punishment and like getting notifications for every little thing that goes on here, please disregard it! Here are the instructions: Click the profile icon. Note: If you do not see the profile icon, you have to add a login bar to your site. Select Profile. Select Settings. Select when you want to receive an email notification

Monday- Randy Nettles Friday- New Interview with Jan Markell Pending (sometime before Christmas)- Marley's Chains, 2022: The Year in Review

This will be my only post this week due to Thanksgiving. May you all have a blessed week, and a special day with family, full of thankful remembrance to our Great God and Savior for all His bountiful blessings. I will be busily working on my book, spending time with family, but will remain accessible to you, if needed. Lord bless and Maranatha! Pete

I am sooooo bummed! I got about 90% done with The Fourth Reich: Part II, and I accidentally erased it and can't recover it. I usually do my drafts on a word document, but I thought I would try it on here (on the editor side) and for some crazy reason, there is no 'undo' button. I accidentally had everything highlighted for some reason and fat-fingered the backspace. Oh well, that will teach me! At least I have an outline down for parts II and III and I will have to start over tomorrow. Sad face.

Please let me know if you get notified by email when new articles drop. I believe you have to sign up for that service, but I'm not entirely sure if that is what is happening. Thanks Pete

Got new articles coming out starting tomorrow. Apologies for the lateness, but lots going on this week. Before I forget, I just wanted to thank everyone who has supported this ministry in the past and will do so in the future. I don't often get to respond to each of those, but please know it is much appreciated. It's been a turbulent few years, and I expect that we have much more in store. Just took my wife to the hospital this morning, so please remember her in your prayers. Lord Bless, Pete

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If there is any topic you guys want to discuss, be sure to ask and I will do my best to answer it.

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