My opinionated response so far (and too long,,,)

Your essay is peppered with truth, but salted with skewered and slanted viewpoints. Your last paragraph certainly has good advice, and I see your views on the Rapture as possibilities. Yet, I can also relate to the views of others who think differently. Complicating my discussion with you makes for this added conundrum: I am sure that I have an altogether different view than both perspectives which you laid out.

The Kingdom of Heaven will never be understood by intellectual ascent - never has and never will.

You are certainly correct about prophecy being difficult to clearly understand - and even Jesus' use of parables had a similar purpose of "whoever has ears to hear let them hear," leaving those who are not inclined to listen to His teachings to find them obscure and mystifying.

That quote is, of course, from the Book of Revelations of the apostle John, and it is part of Jesus' message to various churches of the time, and the phrase applies to everyone throughout the ages - "if they have ears to hear."

The very first idea in your essay which I stumbled over was, in my opinion, the errant insistence that the doctrines of established denominational Churches rule supreme and cannot be questioned. Your insistence is based on a precept of democracy which demands that the majority rules, that the majority cannot be wrong - any majority...

However, the Kingdom of God is not a Democracy - never was, and never will be.

From the First Century onward, the Jesus Sect (first called "Christians" at Antioch) has been under attack from just about every direction. The characteristics of the assemblies and the precepts of the Twelve were slowly overpowered, at least in part, by false teachings, false apostles, Mankind's old sinful nature, and many other harmful and destructive strategies of the old serpent... So, what I am trying to say is stridently illustrated by Denominational Churches burning one another at the stake, excommunication, indulgences, and other worldly corruptions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The kingdom of God is not overpowered by those who shout the loudest - never has been and never will be.

Over the years, foundation blocks of the Gospel have been conveniently and tragically omitted - like repentance, grace and salvation by Abraham-like faith, discipleship, becoming twice born, following Jesus with baptism into His Name, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, gifts and fruits of the Spirit, and most of all, agape love.

The worst of the lost truths was when some Religious Leaders' organization decided that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit was passé, an old-fashioned tool needed only to launch the Gospel and no longer necessary. That is far more the modern mantra of Madison Avenue than the dynamics of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of Heaven does not need an Ad Agency to promote its glory - never has, never will...

The same goes for all false teaching happening over the years and flourishing today which make the Denominational Churches unrecognizable to the First Century assemblies the Twelve established.