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Post by Cindy on Mar 10, 2021 10:35:07 GMT -5
I often hear that persecution is coming to true believers and I'm sure that's quite true, but there's one problem with that. Generally when the Church is persecuted it causes the church to grow tremendously. But God says that this time is the time of the great falling away, so there won't be any huge numbers added to the church in our time. To me that says that the rapture most likely will happen before the persecution gets bad enough to cause the church to grow. Of course God can cause anything to happen, but I'm hoping this is true!
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Post by oliverwithatwist on Mar 11, 2021 7:52:20 GMT -5
I agree!
Praying for the Rapture at least several times daily.
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Post by Cindy on Mar 12, 2021 11:23:07 GMT -5
I agree! Praying for the Rapture at least several times daily. It would be so wonderful to see our Lord at last, and to finally be done with sin forever! But I guess the thing that kind of stops me from celebrating yet is that I have a feeling things are going to get worse before He comes. But they can't get too worse or we wind up with the church growing instead of people falling away.... that's what has me stymied. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the Lord is going to cause things to kind of hang where they are, possibly getting a little worse, but not getting to the point where the church would start growing again. He could do that to give time to test the faith of true believers more and to cause those who aren't true believers to show their true colors. Know what I mean?
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Post by oliverwithatwist on Mar 13, 2021 10:17:51 GMT -5
I agree. Keep in mind, after the Rapture there will be the greatest revival ever during the tribulation.
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Post by Cindy on Mar 13, 2021 10:42:19 GMT -5
I agree. Keep in mind, after the Rapture there will be the greatest revival ever during the tribulation. Very true, which makes it all fit together really. So, if I'm reading it right then, our time now is just kind of a holding pattern until the Father sends Jesus to come and get us out of here. I say "kind of a holding pattern" because I don't expect to to stay exactly the same. I expect evil to continue to grow more "in our face" seemingly getting worse. This is so exciting in some ways! I feel bad for Lot now as I can relate to what Peter says about him: “and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—” (2 Peter 2:7–8) I feel sorry for him though because he didn't have the benefit of knowing the love of Jesus and knowing he would be taken out of that situation. I wonder if that's why he more or less fell and everything got worse for him after he was rescued by the angels.
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