Let's get down to it! Are we going through the "Great Tribulation" or will we be "raptured" before it happens?
Are you going to believe some sweet-looking, smooth-talking preacher? --Or, the Word of God?
Well, it's a little more work to dig into the Word of God and "study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed", but, really I think it's the only way for you to discover the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth so help you God. Get to work, my dear brothers and sisters. Quit slacking. Quit letting the preachers and pastors lead you astray. If they jump off a cliff, will you follow? (Not to even mention Kool Aid. We won't get into that. However, it's a good illustration of what can happen when people don't study the Word on their own time and just let someone else preach whatever "revelation" they "receive" from the Word of God to preach to you.
Ask yourself, "What does this preacher want to gain by preaching to this huge crowd with itching ears?"
Let me be the first person to confess that I also have been oft times swayed by the strong opinions of others. I have clung to doctrines that seemed to come right out of the Bible but, now, looking back, I realize (finally) that the ones that were wrong used only one or two verses to prop up their belief. And, now, some with some of those false doctrines, I believe just exactly the opposite because of the preponderance of scripture, the knowledge and leading of the Holy Spirit and, most of all, my knowledge of the love of God.
You get to know God's voice. You learn to feel His love.
So, would a truly loving God allow His children to go through the greatest tribulation there has ever been?
Well, take a look at the God of the Bible. Did God allow Daniel to be thrown into a den of hungry lions? Did God allow Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to be thrown into a fiery furnace? Did God allow Stephen to be stoned to death? Did God allow Peter to be crucified? Did God allow the persecution of the early church?
We could go on and on and on... And, of course, the answer is a resounding, "Yes! He did." God either kept them through it or delivered them out of it at the last moment. He gave them the grace and anointing to go through what they were destined to go through.
So, if you find yourself alive during the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist is forcing everyone to take the Mark of the Beast, you are being hunted by the authorities and ...what? Jesus hasn't come back to rapture you? Don't be shocked. It could happen to you. That doesn't mean you're not saved!
It means that the Bible says exactly what it means. For example, in Matthew 24. (I repeat myself.)
29 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken:
30 AND THEN shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Ok, so if the Bible says "immediately after the tribulation", how do these pre-tribulation rapture theorists justify their beliefs?
We know that the rapture or the resurrection is going to happen when Jesus comes back, not before that. How do we know that? Verse 31! He's going to gather us from off the earth.
I Thessalonians 4:16-17 "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
I invite you to refute these scriptures. Find others that will refute them if you will. But, don't just swallow what the pastors say who preach peace and safety. That's dangerous.
I heard one preacher refer to Luke 21. He was going along quite well, but when he got to verse 12, he took a drastic turn in a completely off-track direction. He said that Jesus was warning the Jews of His day what was going to happen to them and that these scriptures did not apply to us today.
Take a look at Luke 21 verse 12: "But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake." It goes on to talk about persecution and then says, in verse 20: "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." (Jesus is referring to the Great Tribulation here but Luke calls it the desolation.) In verse 22, Luke calls it the days of "vengeance". Same thing! Call it Tribulation, Desolation or Days of Vengeance, it's the same thing.
A few of my friends have a saying, "It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."
Have you ever heard that saying? Well, don't you think it would be better to expect to have to go through the Great Tribulation and prepare to survive it than to imagine in your La La Land Dream World that you're going to be raptured before it happens?
If all the Christians (true believers/followers of Christ) are going to be raptured before the Great Trib, who is going to refuse to receive the Mark of the Beast? Who will warn people to refuse it? Who is going to teach them how to survive by faith without the Mark of the Beast to buy or sell with?
Who is going to be calling down fire from the sky?
There's lots of miracles predicted for the end time. Oh, and by the way, the Bible says the Antichrist is going to be persecuting guess who! Well, who do you think he's going to persecute? He's call the Antichrist for a reason!
Ok, all I can tell you is, "Don't swallow all the lies of the peace preachers. Don't fall into that trap! Wake up!"
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