Post by Cindy on Nov 18, 2015 12:51:24 GMT -5
One thing that's been really impressed on me lately as I study is just how bad things could get before the rapture. It's certainly already more then bad enough as far as I'm concerned and I'm sure most everyone feels that way too. And the Lord could come at any moment. I'd never say any different. At the same time though, I've always wondered just how bad it would get, and have always felt deep down that it was going to get pretty bad. That same thought has been building in me more and more lately, which brings up one of the things that's often said in support of the pre-trib position, that God would never treat His bride so badly as to beat her up in wrath before bringing her Home to heaven. I've said that myself and it certainly sounds true. Yet, lately I've been thinking about those first Christians. The ones that were taught by the apostles themselves. They most certainly believed in a pre-trib rapture, we know that. What gets to me though is that they were becoming convinced that they'd missed the rapture because of all the horrible things that were happening to them. That's why Paul wrote to them about it to reassure them that it hadn't happened yet. Remember?
I've also heard those who don't believe in pre-trib use it to ask if our faith would fail if the trib happened before the rapture. How would that make us feel? Would we think God was beating us up and abusing us if the tribulation started before the rapture happened? Again, I looked back at the first Christians, and they didn't seem to feel that way at all, they were only concerned that perhaps they weren't saved or else at least hadn't understood what they'd been taught correctly. But there was no doubt in their minds about God Himself. I'm not sure if that's how people today would react though, because today the churches tend to preach a lot about God's love and how God is love, but they preach it as though God's definition of love was the same as the world's definition, which we know isn't true. I reflected on how I'd feel if this were to happen, or how I'd feel if things simply became so terrible that many began to think that the tribulation must have started even though it really hadn't. (which in my mind is much more likely). I thought about those early Christians and what they went through. It makes our lives look like a Sunday picnic really, even with all the things that have gone wrong already. Yet the Lord was not abusing them or beating them up. He wasn't mistreating them at all. Evil did that, not God. And it's evil that's doing that here and now too. Yes, God is in control now, just as He was then, and He will work it all out for our good and His glory, but that doesn't mean it will happen in this life for us. (If you haven't read the article: Frequently Abused Verses: For what Good is God Working please do as it's very good!) I'm not saying we wouldn't be able to find some good in it somehow, but honestly the good God works for us is for our ultimate good, or glorification, not for us to have a great life now. Our eternal glorification is what's important. (Romans 8:29-30) That's what those first Christians understood so much better then we seem to.
They understood that the goal of life wasn't to be "happy" and have an easy life, it was to obey God so that they would spend eternity with Him and be the person He created them to be. What God promises us is that no matter how awful things get here, He will use them toward our future glorification. Often though, when we remind each other that God is in control, what we're really thinking is that He won't let anyone harm us, or that He will make the current crisis or trial turn out well in the long run for us. It's things like this that can cause people to lose their faith when that trial or crisis doesn't turn out well in the long run, or when things don't get better. The early Christians had constant reminders that this wasn't the case as they watched families turn against a loved one because of their faith and totally disown them, never to speak to them again; as they watched when believers lost their businesses, homes and money because of their faith and became homeless and hungry, and finally, as they watched men, women and children being imprisoned and killed for their faith in Christ. You know, one thing that really got to me was that whenever I thought of them being in prison or "jail" I thought of it as similar to the jails and prisons we have here in the US today, but that's not at all what it was like back then. The way prisoners were treated then, in fact just the prisons or jails themselves were such that we wouldn't treat a dog like that! Yet that's what these early Christians saw and often knew personally. Remember though how the apostles reacted when they were thrown in prison? They rejoiced! They sang God's praises! They didn't wail and complain and think that God had abandoned them or that He was abusing them. Not at all!
This is the kind of faith that we need today, and the only way we can get that faith is by knowing God and His Word better then we know anything else. Then, when things get really bad here, we will be able to stand firm in our faith, knowing the Lord loves us and that we can rest assured that He will be with us and help us through whatever comes. I have absolutely every confidence that the Lord will call us all up to meet Him in the air before the start of the Tribulation. Not because He wouldn't let bad things happen to us (they obviously do) but because that's what His Word says. But, what if I'm wrong, what if, I've misunderstood something along the way, and the rapture doesn't happen till later? Well, it certainly wouldn't be the first time I've misunderstood what the Lord was saying, and He's always corrected me before and that didn't cause my faith to falter, so I have no reason to think this would either. I would be very surprised especially since the Lord's never allowed me to go for so long without correcting me and also because I ask Him daily to show me if I have any misconceptions about Him or His Word, and I know absolutely that He answers my prayer daily for it's His Will that I not only know His Word but that I understand it. For those and many other reasons I firmly believe in the pre-trib rapture of the Church.
What I do think will happen though is that things will get worse, that many will falter in their faith because of that, and that many will leave the faith, showing that they never were one of us to start with. We've seen all along that the pre-trib rapture has been ridiculed and I think that will get worse too and that many who say they believe in it will throw it out and go with something else as the going gets rough and our belief in the pre-trib rapture becomes more and more unacceptable among others in our churches. I have to say though that those who throw out their belief in the pre-trib rapture can only do so if they don't really understand God's whole plan for humanity and why the rapture must happen first. Otherwise they'd never turn away from it and buy into man's philosophy instead. I've recently read some very good explanations of the belief in a pre-wrath rapture and others and can see their appeal, but the problem with all of them is that they don't take into consideration God's whole plan, but only a portion of it. So with all that said, I expect us to become the laughing stock of the churches even more then we already are, and expect many to give up their beliefs for whatever their personal peers are preaching. Peer pressure can be hard to withstand.
I expect to see more and more Christians keeping quiet instead of speaking up when family and friends are living in sin in order to not rock the boat of their lives. Tolerance has already become the way of the world and the way of the church, and it will get much worse too. Those who don't spend time with the Lord in His Word daily will more easily fall prey to the world, their flesh and the devil, so we can expect to see a lot more of that as well. We can also expect to see good, godly Christians who are true to the Lord and His Word attacked and denounced more often and more viciously. We can expect to see prayer become something that people do and speak of less and less, and "good thoughts" or "positive thoughts" spoken of more often.
I guess one way to think of it is that a line has been drawn in the sand by God and people are being forced to choose on which side of that line they're going to stand. God says that we will see the difference between the godly and the unsaved more and more clearly, and that's already begun to happen, so I expect to see it more and more as time goes on. He won't allow people to sit on the fence anymore. He never really did, but now He's forcing people to show by their life which side they're really on. What we're seeing is what Paul described in 2 Timothy 3:1–5, and these are supposed Christians! Verse 7 also describes them: “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7) Why? Because they're not being taught by the Holy Spirit in God's Word. They're learning from other people, other books, other articles instead of being in His Word daily with Him. That's why they have a form of godliness but deny it's power. (2 Timothy 3:5) Their hearts are either hard, shallow, or crowded instead of fruitful. (if you haven't read What Kind of Heart Do You Have, it's very good too!) As we see more and more people cross to the other side of the line, we need to remember what John said about it when the early Christians witnessed the same thing: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” (1 John 2:19)
John begins telling us just a short bit later how we should deal with all of this: “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.” (1 John 2:27–29) He continues in 1 John 3:7–10. (actually it starts with the first verse) In fact it wouldn't hurt if we read all of 1 John regularly to know how to live in this time and how not to be deceived by others.
The bottom line is that we can expect things to continue to get worse in the world, in our country, in our life, in our relationships, even in our church, as we see find more and more wolves in sheep's clothing, and more and more sheep following them instead of the True Shepherd of our souls. We need to remember that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and so do those who follow him. If they weren't disguised that way, it would be easy to spot them and we wouldn't need any discernment would we? But we can also know for sure that our God is with us, that He is in control, and that He will never leave us. We can know that He will help us and guide us through all of this right up to that moment when we'll finally hear the sound of the trumpet and find ourselves rising into the air to meet the King of Kings! Even so, Come Lord Jesus!
I've also heard those who don't believe in pre-trib use it to ask if our faith would fail if the trib happened before the rapture. How would that make us feel? Would we think God was beating us up and abusing us if the tribulation started before the rapture happened? Again, I looked back at the first Christians, and they didn't seem to feel that way at all, they were only concerned that perhaps they weren't saved or else at least hadn't understood what they'd been taught correctly. But there was no doubt in their minds about God Himself. I'm not sure if that's how people today would react though, because today the churches tend to preach a lot about God's love and how God is love, but they preach it as though God's definition of love was the same as the world's definition, which we know isn't true. I reflected on how I'd feel if this were to happen, or how I'd feel if things simply became so terrible that many began to think that the tribulation must have started even though it really hadn't. (which in my mind is much more likely). I thought about those early Christians and what they went through. It makes our lives look like a Sunday picnic really, even with all the things that have gone wrong already. Yet the Lord was not abusing them or beating them up. He wasn't mistreating them at all. Evil did that, not God. And it's evil that's doing that here and now too. Yes, God is in control now, just as He was then, and He will work it all out for our good and His glory, but that doesn't mean it will happen in this life for us. (If you haven't read the article: Frequently Abused Verses: For what Good is God Working please do as it's very good!) I'm not saying we wouldn't be able to find some good in it somehow, but honestly the good God works for us is for our ultimate good, or glorification, not for us to have a great life now. Our eternal glorification is what's important. (Romans 8:29-30) That's what those first Christians understood so much better then we seem to.
They understood that the goal of life wasn't to be "happy" and have an easy life, it was to obey God so that they would spend eternity with Him and be the person He created them to be. What God promises us is that no matter how awful things get here, He will use them toward our future glorification. Often though, when we remind each other that God is in control, what we're really thinking is that He won't let anyone harm us, or that He will make the current crisis or trial turn out well in the long run for us. It's things like this that can cause people to lose their faith when that trial or crisis doesn't turn out well in the long run, or when things don't get better. The early Christians had constant reminders that this wasn't the case as they watched families turn against a loved one because of their faith and totally disown them, never to speak to them again; as they watched when believers lost their businesses, homes and money because of their faith and became homeless and hungry, and finally, as they watched men, women and children being imprisoned and killed for their faith in Christ. You know, one thing that really got to me was that whenever I thought of them being in prison or "jail" I thought of it as similar to the jails and prisons we have here in the US today, but that's not at all what it was like back then. The way prisoners were treated then, in fact just the prisons or jails themselves were such that we wouldn't treat a dog like that! Yet that's what these early Christians saw and often knew personally. Remember though how the apostles reacted when they were thrown in prison? They rejoiced! They sang God's praises! They didn't wail and complain and think that God had abandoned them or that He was abusing them. Not at all!
This is the kind of faith that we need today, and the only way we can get that faith is by knowing God and His Word better then we know anything else. Then, when things get really bad here, we will be able to stand firm in our faith, knowing the Lord loves us and that we can rest assured that He will be with us and help us through whatever comes. I have absolutely every confidence that the Lord will call us all up to meet Him in the air before the start of the Tribulation. Not because He wouldn't let bad things happen to us (they obviously do) but because that's what His Word says. But, what if I'm wrong, what if, I've misunderstood something along the way, and the rapture doesn't happen till later? Well, it certainly wouldn't be the first time I've misunderstood what the Lord was saying, and He's always corrected me before and that didn't cause my faith to falter, so I have no reason to think this would either. I would be very surprised especially since the Lord's never allowed me to go for so long without correcting me and also because I ask Him daily to show me if I have any misconceptions about Him or His Word, and I know absolutely that He answers my prayer daily for it's His Will that I not only know His Word but that I understand it. For those and many other reasons I firmly believe in the pre-trib rapture of the Church.
What I do think will happen though is that things will get worse, that many will falter in their faith because of that, and that many will leave the faith, showing that they never were one of us to start with. We've seen all along that the pre-trib rapture has been ridiculed and I think that will get worse too and that many who say they believe in it will throw it out and go with something else as the going gets rough and our belief in the pre-trib rapture becomes more and more unacceptable among others in our churches. I have to say though that those who throw out their belief in the pre-trib rapture can only do so if they don't really understand God's whole plan for humanity and why the rapture must happen first. Otherwise they'd never turn away from it and buy into man's philosophy instead. I've recently read some very good explanations of the belief in a pre-wrath rapture and others and can see their appeal, but the problem with all of them is that they don't take into consideration God's whole plan, but only a portion of it. So with all that said, I expect us to become the laughing stock of the churches even more then we already are, and expect many to give up their beliefs for whatever their personal peers are preaching. Peer pressure can be hard to withstand.
I expect to see more and more Christians keeping quiet instead of speaking up when family and friends are living in sin in order to not rock the boat of their lives. Tolerance has already become the way of the world and the way of the church, and it will get much worse too. Those who don't spend time with the Lord in His Word daily will more easily fall prey to the world, their flesh and the devil, so we can expect to see a lot more of that as well. We can also expect to see good, godly Christians who are true to the Lord and His Word attacked and denounced more often and more viciously. We can expect to see prayer become something that people do and speak of less and less, and "good thoughts" or "positive thoughts" spoken of more often.
I guess one way to think of it is that a line has been drawn in the sand by God and people are being forced to choose on which side of that line they're going to stand. God says that we will see the difference between the godly and the unsaved more and more clearly, and that's already begun to happen, so I expect to see it more and more as time goes on. He won't allow people to sit on the fence anymore. He never really did, but now He's forcing people to show by their life which side they're really on. What we're seeing is what Paul described in 2 Timothy 3:1–5, and these are supposed Christians! Verse 7 also describes them: “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7) Why? Because they're not being taught by the Holy Spirit in God's Word. They're learning from other people, other books, other articles instead of being in His Word daily with Him. That's why they have a form of godliness but deny it's power. (2 Timothy 3:5) Their hearts are either hard, shallow, or crowded instead of fruitful. (if you haven't read What Kind of Heart Do You Have, it's very good too!) As we see more and more people cross to the other side of the line, we need to remember what John said about it when the early Christians witnessed the same thing: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” (1 John 2:19)
John begins telling us just a short bit later how we should deal with all of this: “As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.” (1 John 2:27–29) He continues in 1 John 3:7–10. (actually it starts with the first verse) In fact it wouldn't hurt if we read all of 1 John regularly to know how to live in this time and how not to be deceived by others.
The bottom line is that we can expect things to continue to get worse in the world, in our country, in our life, in our relationships, even in our church, as we see find more and more wolves in sheep's clothing, and more and more sheep following them instead of the True Shepherd of our souls. We need to remember that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and so do those who follow him. If they weren't disguised that way, it would be easy to spot them and we wouldn't need any discernment would we? But we can also know for sure that our God is with us, that He is in control, and that He will never leave us. We can know that He will help us and guide us through all of this right up to that moment when we'll finally hear the sound of the trumpet and find ourselves rising into the air to meet the King of Kings! Even so, Come Lord Jesus!