Category: pre-tribulation rapture

Posted in end time, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy

Common questions about the rapture

Posted on by elizabethprata

There is a lot of rapture talk these days. That is because discerning Christians feel it is close. I feel the rapture is close. The bible says we will not know the exact day nor hour (Mt 25:13; Mt 24:36) but we will not be surprised, (1 Thess 5:4) because we will know the season (Luke 21:25-30) and we will have seen the signs (Mt 16:3).

The rapture is in the bible and is not a made-up doctrine. Two of the more explicit passages are from 1 Cor 15:51-53, and 1 Thess 4:13-18. The end of days is mentioned in every New Testament book save one (Philemon) and the NT Authors constantly warned their brethren, exhorted fellow believers, admonished all, and themselves looked toward the blessed event in most of their their writings.

In summary, the appointed period God deals with the Israelites is paused 7 years short of the decreed timing. (Dan 9:24-27). This is for the purpose of God taking Gentiles unto Himself (Acts 15:13-14), grafting in the Gentiles into His Jewish family tree (Romans 11:15-24). Through this act, God extends salvation to the entire world. During this age of the pause He is building His church, called The Church Age, of Church Age Dispensation. When the exact number that has been set aside to fill that church is reached, the rapture happens. (Romans 11:25).

It has taken over 2000 years to build God’s church, for that number to nearly be reached. In the waiting for the blessed moment when Jesus returns in the air and calls us up to Him, Jesus said that there will be many who mock and scoff, saying that He is taking this long so it means He will never come. (2 Peter 3:4). But Paul encouraged us to encourage each other with the truth of His coming. (1 Thess 4:18). Immediately after the rapture when believers are taken out of the way the Tribulation begins. Did you know the Holy Spirit is removed too? (Restrainer 2Th 2:7; Gen 6:3).

Then that last 7 years, long paused, resumes. Jeremiah calls it the ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble’ (Jeremiah 30:7). Jesus calls it the ‘Tribulation’ (Matthew 24:29). The prophet Daniel outlines the Tribulation’s six-fold purpose: to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. (Dan 9:24). So this last 7 years is a time of punishment. Jesus said the time will be so bad that if He did not cut short the days, no one would be left alive. (Mark 13:20). Indeed, in the very first set of judgments 1/4 of the world’s population dies. That’s 1.7 BILLION people. (Rev 6:8). Then by Revelation 9:18 a third of the remaining people in the world die. So during the tribulation, half the world dies!

Knowing the church will not be here to experience that certainly is a comfort, as Paul said. Since one of the purposes of the Tribulation is to stamp out iniquity (Dan 9:24), and since we are made blameless in His sight, we have no need to be punished. When we repented and Jesus forgave us of our transgressions, our judgment is dissolved and our iniquitous record expunged from the Courts of God. (Col 2:14). We are blameless in His sight, free from accusations (Col 1:22; Eph 1:4) and He will come to gather us to Himself and deliver us to the place He has prepared for us. (John 14:3) before He renders that judgment on all the rest left behind.

I hope that explains who is going in the rapture, why there is a rapture, and when the rapture is set to take place. It also explains who will be left behind. If you think that you will reserve a decision until the rapture and then repent of your sins, you are in for a tragic mistake. First, because no one knows the number of their days (Psalm 39:4), and you could die in the next moment. Next, remember, a fourth of the world dies within the first set of judgments. (Rev 6:8, The Fourth Seal). Also, during the Tribulation God will send a delusion that will affect the whole world. (2 Thess 2:6-11). He does this because those who delayed repenting and took delight in wickedness will ‘enjoy’ the full measure of their pleasure and continue to enjoy wickedness. After all the signs God sent: His son, the Apostles, fellow believers, His Word, The Holy Spirit, creation itself (Rom1:18-21), if, after all that, you still refuse, He will allow you to enjoy the natural conclusion of your decision to reject Him and blind you to the truth.

There will be believers in the Tribulation, make no mistake. But it will be hard to become a believer for the above reasons, it will be hard to remain a believer (Once saved always saved is a blessing given only to the church, (John 10:28; Mark 13:13) and if you are a believer, you will starve, not being able to buy or sell (Rev 13:16-7), you will likely die in the judgments as mentioned above, or if you escape all that, be beheaded (Rev 20:4). Do not delay. The rapture is real, it is imminent, and unless you repent (being sorry to God for your sins against God) you WILL be left behind to face the most horrific period man has ever seen, or will ever see. (Mt 24:21).

If you are reading this essay and have made it to the end, I commend you. The Holy Spirit is pricking your curiosity and perhaps your conscience. You need to recognize you are a sinner, and unless you are perfect (and no one is except Jesus) you have done wrong things. Those wrong things are sins and they mean you are warring against God, who is Holy. He cannot accept rebels into heaven, He cannot look at those who work iniquity, and cannot be near those who do wrong. (Hab 1:13). You are condemned and your condemnation has long been hanging over you (2 Peter 2:3). The only way to get that judgment of death (Rom 6:23) stayed is to repent.

You can then be comforted by the truth of the coming rapture, and enjoy the awards ceremony in heaven, a banquet with Jesus, and eternal love and peace. You will miss out on the terrible Tribulation, and all its horrors. You will move to your eternal domain, the place Jesus Himself prepared for you. You will never have to struggle for another thing, least of all against your own sinful nature. You will be free! Don’t delay your decision, for tomorrow may not come. (Proverbs 27:1)

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Posted in end time, pre-trib, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy

The rapture will occur before the Tribulation

Posted on by elizabethprata

Believers of the Church Age will not go through the Tribulation. This statement is not an opinion. It is decree from God. Anyone who firmly believes the Church will go through the Tribulation is twisting verses. Further, anyone believing the Church will go through the Tribulation has an incomplete understanding of what the Tribulation is all about. Here are the verses:

The Tribulation’s purpose is stated in Dan 9:24. God’s purpose for the Tribulation is to accomplish 6 things:

Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to:
1. finish transgression,
2. to put an end to sin,
3. to atone for wickedness,
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness,
5. to seal up vision and prophecy and
6. to anoint the most holy.

First, the verse begins by stating it is for “your people,” the Jews. Not the church. It is stated for Jerusalem, (and wicked unbelievers by extension). Not the church. The transgression to be finished was the prophesied 490 years of a decree stated in Daniel 9:25:

“So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”

The starting point of that decree began in Artaxerxes given in 444 b.c. as recorded in Nehemiah 2:1-8. It paused at the crucifixion of Jesus. It will resume the last 7 years of this earthly existence, after the rapture. It is a time when the Jews will be dealt with, God picking up the threads of a work begun at the decree of Daniel.

Second, believers in the church age have had our transgressions is already put an end to. We are considered righteous with Him, made perfect, our sins nailed to the cross. (Heb 12:23; Col 2:14). So that takes care of #1 and 2 and 3. Jesus atoned for our wickedness and our repentance clears the judgment against us. Why would Jesus die to make us perfect, we are seen as righteous in His eyes, only to be punished for sins already wiped away? Makes no sense. It makes God contrary and inconsistent, and He is not that!

Third, Paul said we are not appointed for wrath. (1 Thess 5:9). The “wrath” is not that God is really, really mad. It’s not an emotion. It is punishment and it is controlled and it has a purpose (see above, again). It has a designated beginning and an end. Rev 6:17 declares that His wrath has begun (with the seals opened) and Rev 15:1 concludes it. The church is seen in Rev 5 in heaven already (singing!), and a  reasonable interpretation of Rev 4 shows our arrival. Revelation is mostly chronological and we arrive in Heaven prior to Rev 6 when the wrath begins.We are not only not appointed for it, but He promises to rescue from it.

“They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1 Thes. 1:9-10).

Fourth, Paul wrote: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thess 13-18). The Second Coming shows Jesus returning all the way to earth. But that is not where we meet Him. We meet Him in the air. When? Prior to our return with Him in Rev 19:4.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3).

“For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock.” (Psalm 27:5)

The Holy Spirit spent a tremendous amount of energy and words encouraging us to look for Him, telling us we won’t be here, and blessing us for longing for His appearing. Therefore, we will not be here. It is not an opinion, it is a promise of GOD! 🙂 You can bank on it, rest on it, and declare His glory through it!

Have a wonderful day and blessings to you!
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Posted in end time, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy, skyline

Will the movie ‘Skyline’ mirror reality? Will the world believe aliens sucked us away from earth?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is a GREAT essay from RaptureReady.com today. I completely agree with it:

The Great Lie
By Carl Worline

On November 12, 2010, Universal Pictures will release a new movie entitled Skyline, which deals with alien spacecraft that suck up the humans who look into the bright blue light these spacecraft project, and then vanish. I believe this movie is more than just the product of the wild imaginations of some clever science fiction writers who seek nothing more than to entertain the public and win an academy award for themselves for best picture (but not in that order). I believe this movie may very well play an important role in end time prophecy.

Whether or not intelligent life exists on other worlds is irrelevant in this article and I will not debate the issue here. What is significant is that reports of unidentified flying objects has been around since the beginning of history with literally millions of people reporting to have seen them, yet official contact with their occupants has (supposedly) never been established. Our government, as well as governments around the world, have vehemently denied the existence of alien spacecraft. In fact, the vehemence in which governments have denied their existence builds a strong case for an official worldwide cover-up conspiracy, which makes the possibility of the existence of extra terrestrial life even more believable.

The Rapture of the Church is certain to cause a worldwide panic as an unbelieving public scrambles to explain the disappearance of hundreds of millions of people in an instant. We also know that the anti-Christ will be revealed and empowered immediately after the Rapture. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 tells us that the anti-Christ will tell a lie and that God will send a strong delusion so that all of the unbelievers who are left on the Earth after the Rapture will believe this lie:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all the powers and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness in them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. That they might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

What is this lie? The Bible doesn’t tell us, but I can certainly make an educated guess. On September 21, 1987, President Ronald Reagan made what I consider to be a very prophetic statement when he told the Forty Second Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations “How quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.” I believe this great lie will be that alien beings from another world abducted the millions of people who just vanished.

Chapter 13 of Revelation also tells us that the anti-Christ will tell a lie that will cause the entire world to willingly follow him. I am at a loss to think of any other lie which the anti-Christ could use that would cause the remaining population of the Earth to forget their differences so quickly and unite with him.

On March 16, 1979, a movie about a nuclear accident and related cover-up was released by Columbia Pictures entitled The China Syndrome. That was just 12 days before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania. Many dozens of nuclear scientists have since lined up to say that despite the accident at Three Mile Island nuclear power is still safe. Nevertheless, the public has chosen to believe Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, and Michael Douglas over the legion of scientists who all have the title “PhD after their name. As a result, the development of nuclear power has all but ceased in the United States as well as many other countries around the world. The power of Hollywood to influence the masses cannot be underestimated and can easily trump the logic and reason of science.

Before I start to sound too condescending I need to confess that many years ago I attended some Star Trek conventions. I know there is no such thing as the Star Ship Enterprise, the Federation of Planets does not exist, and most of the technology that I witnessed on the show was Hollywood illusion and trickery. But still, I saw the characters in real life and even shook hands with some them. For a brief moment the line between reality and fiction seemed to get a bit fuzzy.

The release of a new movie from Hollywood does not, in itself, mean the end of the world is upon us. However, I cannot help but wonder if it is just me, or is there a lot going on in the UFO community all opf a sudden that somehow suspiciously suggests that something big is about to happen. For example:

· Almost 400 years after it imprisoned Galileo under threat of torture for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican announced that the existence of intelligent extra-terrestrial life may be possible.

· The Popes’ astronomer said that he would baptize an alien from another world if it asked him to.

· After many decades of silence a group of retired nuclear officers have recently come forward to announce that alien spacecraft visited military installations and disarmed nuclear warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles.

· On September 11, 2010 a UFO forced the closure of an airport in Baotau, Mongolia, for approximately 1 hour while other air traffic was diverted to prevent commercial airliners from crashing into it. On July 7, 2010 the Xiaoshan airport in Hangzhou , China, was closed for approximately 1 hour due to a UFO hovering above it. There have been a total of 8 reports of major UFO sightings in China during a 4 month period.

· Astronomers recently announced that they are “100 percent certain” that alien life exists on Earth-like planets.

· Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, presumably one of the smartest men on the planet, recently felt compelled to declare to the world that he is almost certain that alien life exists in other parts of the universe and that we should avoid contact with such species because it might be devastating to humanity.

· The United Nations has an Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). Recent articles in the media both confirm and deny the existence of an ambassador at this office to be the designated representative who makes first contact with intelligent alien life from another planet.

Maybe all of the events which are now occurring are merely a coincidence and my feeling of being bombarded by a preponderance of suggestions about the potential existence of evil alien life as the cause of the impending Rapture of the Church are unfounded. In less than a month the movie Skyline will be released and millions of moviegoers will witness everyday people being snatched up into alien spacecraft in high definition living color on a wide screen with the most realistic surround sound that our technology can produce. Will this sow the seeds of suggestion in the minds of millions of people around the world? I think so. Is the Rapture closer than most people think? I am absolutely convinced of that.
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Posted in aliens visited, china ufo, end time, end time. prophecy, pre-tribulation rapture

US Air Force officers claim UFO’s visited, and messed with our nukes

Posted on by elizabethprata

The other day I posted a blog entry about how the Pope’s Astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, said that he most certainly would baptize aliens, if he came across one, “no matter how many tentacles they have.” It was the Astronomer’s contention that aliens would certainly have a soul.

I made the biblical case that any off-planet life (with the exception of angels, does not exist. Read here for the bible verses that collectively show that ET’s do not exist (except for angels, both the good ones and the bad ones.)

In another recent entry, I’d posted about a second incident at a Chinese airport that was closed because radar and eyewitnesses showed that an Unidentified Flying Object was causing a disturbance and fears that it would crash into oncoming planes forced the shutdown. I’d ended that entry with, “And since satan will have power to cause lying wonders, it would be no small matter for the fallen angels (demons) to make a craft appear in the sky and startle the locals. Someday they may land and say “take me to your leader.”  If we are still on earth when that happens who would you tell them your leader is?” Remember this for an explanation in a moment….

And now on Sunday we read:

UN to appoint Earth contact for aliens
THE United Nations was set today to appoint an obscure Malaysian astrophysicist to act as Earth’s first contact for any aliens that may come visiting. Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN’s little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), is to describe her potential new role next week at a scientific conference at the Royal Society’s Kavli conference centre in Buckinghamshire. She is scheduled to tell delegates that the recent discovery of hundreds of planets around other stars has made the detection of extraterrestrial life more likely than ever before – and that means the UN must be ready to coordinate humanity’s response to any “first contact”. During a talk Othman gave recently to fellow scientists, she said: “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials. Professor Richard Crowther, an expert in space law and governance at the UK Space Agency and who leads British delegations to the UN on such matters, said: “Othman is absolutely the nearest thing we have to a ‘take me to your leader’ person.”

My, isn’t the UN efficient. Or maybe prescient? Today, Monday, we read that a group of ex-US Air Force  officers are meeting to urge the US Government to come clean about…UFO’s. Their assertion is that they know we have been visited by aliens and the aliens even caused a temporary malfunction in our nuclear facilities. Here’s the story from Military Times:

Former Air Force officers discuss UFO sightings
“WASHINGTON – Armed with declassified documents and vivid details, a group of former Air Force officers gathered Monday to go public with an assertion they have kept mostly under wraps for decades: that UFOs visited the bases they were stationed at and caused nuclear weapon system to temporarily malfunction. The group, convened by UFO researcher Robert Hastings, came to the National Press Club in Washington to discuss their individual experiences and to urge a government that tried to ignore and silence them when they came forward years ago to finally come clean. Hastings said he believes that visitors from outer space are fixating on nuclear weapons because they want to send a message: Disarm before the world destroys itself.”

Where do you think this sudden interest in aliens and UFO’s is coming from? Why do you think there is a serious spate of visible UFO’s seen by authoritative people? Why do you think the UFO/alien issue is no longer relegated to the realm of the crackpot?

It is my theory that satan will attempt to use the UFO issue to explain where all the people went in the rapture. Alternately, he may try to prepare a fallen world for belief in the antichrist when he comes with “all power and lying signs and wonders.” (2 Thess 2:9) In any case, it’s plausible to assume that satan and his masquerading servants of righteousness (2 Cor 11:14-15) will present themselves after the rapture as higher-level beings ready and more than willing to intervene on our behalf, since we messed things up so badly thus far. What I do know is, the UFO phenomenon has been gaining mainstream attention since 2007 as the sightings have become more prevalent, more bold, and harder to ignore.

What will definitely be hard to ignore is the disappearance of millions of Christians. This event is known as the rapture and it is specifically described in the bible in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 –

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

I am comforted, being a believer. This means I believe I am a sinner. I believe my sin keeps me from being able to enter heaven, where a Holy God resides. I believe the remedy for my sins is Jesus, who lived a sinless life and died on the cross as a substitute for me in taking the penalty for my sins. I believe He rose again on the third day and lives now as Savior and King, and I submit to His will for my life. I am a believer, and I and all believers who believe these things will be caught up when Jesus sounds His Trumpet. You can be with us, to go to the place Jesus has been preparing or His own to receive us in glory.

If you believe those things too, then pray them to Jesus out loud: because the bible says “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

If you do not then you will remain behind when we all go. And you will face the worst time that ever was, Jesus said, and this means even worse than the Flood. You will risk losing your soul forever to hellish outer darkness where you will weep and gnash your teeth in remembrance of the time you had to seek Him but squandered it. The time grows short

Posted in end time, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy

A rapture and tribulation video. Revelation in less than 4 min

Posted on by elizabethprata

A youtube video showing you the Rapture and Tribulation. The end is nigh. Get right with Jesus if you have not already. Ask Him to forgive your sins. What you see in the video WILL occur, and soon. You can be with the traveling lights streaming off-earth seen at the beginning, or you can be among the people seen in the rest of the video…Jesus leaves it up to you.

Posted in end time, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy, tu'b'av

Dating the rapture is unwise and unbliblical

Posted on by elizabethprata
Remember, the date of the rapture is not known because it is not a date, it’s a number

It is wonderful to be eager for His call to us, and look forward to His coming. He said to be eager, and to look up when we see these signs begin to come to pass. (Luke 21:28)

Romans 11:25 Paul wrote that the church has a “full number”, and when that number is reached the Call will come for us to go up. “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” The word ‘full number’ is from pleroo in the Greek, meaning ‘finish (a period or task)’. The moment when we go is when the number has been reached.

So today is Tu’B’Av, a day some are looking to see as the rapture day. Tu’B’Av, of the 15th of July in the Jewish calendar was during the Second Temple period a popular holiday. It was and today still is a sort of Jewish Valentine’s day. In olden days it matched up with the end of the grape harvest and the beginning of the  wheat harvest. Many are looking for the rapture Monday because of this festival day. It is well to hope that Tu’B’Av is the day, and no one more than me wants to go. So while it is worthy to research the festivals, to try and match our possible rapture to this festival or that one is fruitless, because the day is not what God is basing the rapture on, it is the number, a number no one knows.

Some thought Pentecost would be the date. It came and went and we are still here. Some thought it would be Tisha’B’Av, the Jewish date of catastrophes and lamentations. That date came and went and we are still here. 1988 came and went and we are still here. Every other date came and went and we are still here. One day will be the day, but because the number has been reached.

Now, it is true that many, including me, feel a pressure, an undeniable and almost unbearable stretching like an elastic band pulled to its limit. This earth really feels that way to us, like the tension before the climax of the movie at a drawn-out moment. I feel the rapture is close. I sometimes think I can hear the indrawn breath of the Trumpet Blower! Today, tomorrow, next month. Soon. But I do not know what day it will be, and it is un-biblical to date it. The Lord has said repeatedly not to do that. When the Jews asked Him if this was the moment for their long-promised kingdom, He replied, “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.” (Acts 1:7) “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. (I Thessalonians 5:4).  “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.” (Matthew 24:42)

So could the rapture be tomorrow? Yes. But it may be Thursday. Or Christmas. Or any other day THE NUMBER has been reached. Don’t date the rapture, because Jesus said not to. And on a human level, it causes a build-up and then the inevitable let-down. He did not intend for the rapture to be a let-down, but to look for the Blessed Hope with all eagerness. So just say:

Posted in end time, pre-tribulation rapture, prophecy

Why the rapture is biblically pre-tribulation. You don’t have to wonder!

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve noticed in these last few years that the certainty with which Christians hold the rapture as occurring before the 7-year tribulation is weakening. For decades, hundreds of years even, Christians understood the bible to be clear on this teaching: that Christians forgiven by the blood of Christ, living in the church age, will be raptured to Jesus and then the Tribulation will start. Lately, people are beginning to revise their stance. They are becoming more and more favorable to the notion that actually, Christians will go through the tribulation after all.

First, did you ever wonder why this angst and revision is happening NOW, of all times? Because we are the generation that will be experiencing these things, and it scares people. This is the age of Apathy, the age of the Laodicean lukewarm church, the Age of people not knowing their bible. It is the age of prosperity gospel, consumerism, and worldly things, which makes people want to finish life and activities here on earth before they go… because they can’t really imagine heaven (being unfamiliar with the bible). On the other end of the scale, solid Christians are so in love with Jesus that their penitence extends to the 7 year Tribulation, thinking deep inside, they don’t really deserve to escape.

It’s all hogwash.

Satan is messing with your mind. Instead of encouraging each other with these words, we are fearful and confused. Whenever fear enters into the picture, satan is behind it. Whenever confusion enters the picture, satan is author of it. God is clear. Satan blinds. So let’s take a look at what the bible says.

First, in the above scripture where Paul tells his brothers and sisters to encourage each other about the coming of the Lord, what would be so encouraging if before we get to the good stuff, we go through hell on earth? Demons biting people, oceans as blood, earthquakes so strong all the walls fall and all the mountains flee away? Paul said, “do not grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.” We have hope. The hope of His promises! Here are a few of those promises:

You have to understand the purpose of the Tribulation to begin with. God’s plan for the Tribulation (Time of Jacob’s trouble) is directly and only for the Jews, and to destroy the nations that persecute the Jews.

First, the key passage of God’s promise in Daniel 9:24-27. This is the foundation of the Tribulation, because it describes the decree of God’s plan for the Jews. And also, importantly, it is the only place in the OT where the Messiah is called the Messiah directly. So we pay attention:

“Seventy sevens have been decreed for your people. . . . So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven sevens and sixty-two sevens; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two sevens the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” The time of the decree is divided up into three parts:

7 ‘weeks’ or 49 years, 62 ‘weeks’ or 434 years, and 1 week or 7 years. In addition, these key verses tell us the plan of God for His people. 6 things —
1. to finish transgression of the Jews,
2. to put an end to sin,
3. to atone for wickedness,
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness,
5. to seal up vision and prophecy and
6. to anoint the most Holy (place) (Daniel 9:24).

The language is clear, ‘seventy sevens are decreed for you people’: the Jews. The clock stopped just shy of the last 7 years when Messiah was crucified. The church age was a mystery and hidden from man’s knowledge, until Paul revealed it in Romans 11:25. The Jews had no idea that the seventy sevens would not be successive. Now, to Jeremiah. Remember, Daniel 9 is a KEY chapter and 9:24-27 is the central point in that chapter. But Jeremiah also describes God’s plan. Jeremiah 30:3-11 gives the title of the Time, the effects on the Jews of that time, and His promise of that time (they shall be saved).

“For behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the LORD. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’ ” Now these are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah. “For thus says the LORD:

‘ We have heard a voice of trembling,
Of fear, and not of peace.
Ask now, and see,
Whether a man is ever in labor with child?
So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins
Like a woman in labor,
And all faces turned pale?
Alas! For that day is great,
So that none is like it;
And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble,
But he shall be saved out of it.
‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’
Says the LORD of hosts, (Jeremiah 30:6-11)

Jer 30 describes His work during that time: to destroy the nations that opposed Israel and to punish the Jews for their transgression. It is the final result of the covenant Genesis Abrahamic ‘bless you curse you’ promise in Genesis. Jeremiah 30 continues–

11 For I am with you,’ says the LORD, ‘to save you;
Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you,
Yet I will not make a complete end of you.
But I will correct you in justice,
And will not let you go altogether unpunished.’

It is a time of punishment. How and when God punishes/judges seems to me to be the moment when He uses the word “incurable.” I wrote more at length about that point of no return, here. At a certain point He will punish, Jer 30:12 “For thus says the LORD:‘ Your affliction is incurable,”

So what of the saved Church Believers during the time of Jacob’s Trouble? We are removed from that time and away from the place of trouble because we are not condemned. We are not under a decree of punishment. We are not under justice because the Ultimate Judge has already pardoned us! We are declared righteous and holy. Here are the verses:

Colossians 1:21-22: “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight”. The NIV says “free from accusation.” Remember, the Tribulation is a time of justice and punishment, and we in the Church Age are “free from accusation.”

1 Thess 5:9-11: “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” So we are not appointed to the Time of Jacob’s wrath that Paul spoke of. Scriptures tell us just when that wrath is, it begins just prior to its mention in Rev 6:16-17 and ends in Rev 16:17 when the angel pours out the last bowl and cries “It is done!”

1 Thess 4:14-18 “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

God’s plan for the end for the age is something He is dealing with for the Jews only, as the clock that stopped at Jesus’ at year 483 of the decree is death is re-started at the moment of our departure to finish those last 7 years. Paul describes it thus: in Romans 11:25:

“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” I wrote more about the concept behind that statement, ‘full number’ as the central point, here. When the Church reaches the assigned number of people who are going to accept Christ, the fullness has been reached and we sail, ‘coming in’ to port in heaven, and the partial hardness of the Jews’ hearts is lifted. When He lifts that partial hardening they will recognize Him when He saves them in the Gog-Magog battle “Then they will know I am the LORD” as Ezekiel 38:23 says. Before that moment, we will be gone.

We will be raptured prior to the time of Jacob’s Trouble, because we are already perfected, holy and righteous in His eyes. We are not under a decree of punishment because we are blameless and free from accusation. We are not appointed to wrath. The Tribulation is the last seven years of a decree that involves the Jews. These are decrees and promises. To doubt them doubts the Word of God. Therefore, we CAN know. It is Pre-trib. Satan is trying to steal Christians’ joy at His promise of pardon. Don’t let satan do it!