rapture – Page 6

Middle East peace: "both states given assurances of peace, security and mutual recognition."

Posted on July 30, 2013 by elizabethprata

The Jerusalem Post reports today:

Kerry: Israel, Palestinians agree to hold sustained talks on all issues
“The Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet again within two weeks in either Israel or the Palestinian territories to continue peace talks, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday following the initial round of talks in Washington. Kerry, speaking with the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at his side, declared that the parties in the historic conflict had agreed to hold “sustained, continuous and substantive” conversations on all issues requiring resolution for a final peace agreement. Kerry said the parties had agreed that the only solution the conflict is the implementation of a two-state solution, with both states given assurances of peace, security and mutual recognition.“

U.S. gave Israel, Palestinians letters of assurance in order to renew talks
Content of letters remains classified, yet probably addresses the issues of borders and refugees; Kerry says objective of talks is to reach a final-status agreement within nine months.

“The United States administration gave the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams on Tuesday letters of assurance which outlined the U.S. position vis-à-vis the peace talks, their conduct and their goals, in order to facilitate the renewal of peace talks, a senior Israeli official said. The content of the letters remains classified, yet it likely addresses the issues of borders and refugees. Although disagreement remains over some technical details, the parties reached consensus over a number of issues, which Kerry announced at the press conference. In addition to the nine-month timetable with its goal of a final status agreement, Kerry said: “The parties have agreed to remain engaged in sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations on the core issues, and they will meet within the next two weeks in either Israel or the Palestinian territories in order to begin the process of formal negotiation.“

The Great Gathering Up (rapture) is described in 1 Thessalonians. The Thessalonians were concerned because they thought the rapture was going to take place very soon, in their lifetimes, yet some of them had died already. The living brothers got worried. Were their dead fellow believers going to miss it? Paul wrote back. That letter is the Thessalonians letter 1 and 2. The reason that Paul was writing to the Thessalonians was to reassure them that the friends and relatives who had died were not going to miss the rapture. Paul began explaining it this way:

The Coming of the Lord
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

You notice Paul said ‘the coming of the Lord’ and uses the pronoun “we”. This passage describes the believing dead who are reunited with their by-then glorified bodies, and the living faithful who will also be instantly transformed into glorified bodies. We will be ‘caught up’ to meet Jesus in the air. In a great glory train He will lead us all home. It all happens very fast in the blink of an eye. (1 Corinthians 15:52).

By the way, the rapture is also mentioned in John 14:1-3: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

The 1st Thessalonians chapter ends with verse 18. Paul continues in chapter 5.

The Day of the Lord
“Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-4).

You notice now Paul is now talking about them. He doesn’t even go into the Day of the LORD (judgment) because that was well covered in the Old Testament. Paul acknowledges this by saying to them ‘you know full well…’. It was the rapture they had a hard time understanding. They were confused about the friends who had died and how it was all going to work. How was it going to fit into the new scheme of things? It was a newly revealed concept to all believers. (1 Corinthians 15:51). It was the rapture they had a question about. So now Paul goes on to reference the Judgment Day, AKA The Day of the LORD, but not to explain it, because they already knew.

Even today, two thousand years later it is a comfort to think about the blessed moment when we will be reunited with our Lord. We shall be with Him evermore from that moment, never out of His presence and always in His glory and purity and holiness. Wow. That IS a comfort.

So, in chapter 5:1, Paul begins by saying, “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.” That phrase ‘now concerning’ is a Greek way of changing the subject. It was a linguistic marker, meaning ‘pay attention, new subject.’ And Paul does launch into a new subject, the Judgment of the Lord also known as the Tribulation. He is not talking of the rapture any more, but of the wrath of God leveled on the remaining unbelieving world.

So when we read of people saying “peace and security” it is in fact a harbinger of the rapture, because the phrase is related to those who are in the Tribulation. And since the rapture precedes the trib, how much closer is the great gathering together with Christ? But the phrase “when they are saying peace and security” it does not directly relate to the rapture. When they are saying peace and security destruction comes. We are not appointed to destruction, but of homecoming. Just please be aware that 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 is about us in the rapture and 1 Thessalonians 5 is about them in wrath and destruction- and that is where the phrase “peace and safety” is (or “peace and security” as stated in other translations).

“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief;” (1 Thessalonians 5:4)

We don’t even need to seek a sign or know when, exactly. It will happen suddenly and then we will be gone. We don’t even need to worry about the wrath of the Lord, we are not appointed to it. (1 Thess 5:9). That Day will not overtake us. We are the “we” Paul wrote about in chapter 4, not the “them” in wrath of chapter 5.

I think the rapture will be soon. Paul thought it would be soon. I believe the point is to understand eschatology so it will give us an urgency to holy living and witnessing. And to live as if each moment on earth will be the last moment before rapture- or death. We live in expectation of the great reunion either of spirit through death or the body if we are alive and raptured. Yes, they are saying peace and safety. Yes, they are talking about confirming a covenant. Damascus is being destroyed and Egypt is falling and a whole host of other things are happening that align with the way Jesus said things will look like in the last days.

Since 2006, just 18 months after I was saved I began to gravitate to prophetic study. We live in a state of expectation without setting dates and times, but then again, we know He is coming soon! We know this. It is truer today than it was in Paul’s time when Paul said, so therefore He is coming sooner than soon!

As always, keep your eye on Israel. She is the umbiculus urbis, the omphalos, belly button of the world- all the events taking place there should concern us greatly. We should be watching with a laser focus and that should energize us to live as holy people.

“‘Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 20:7). Consecrate means to set apart or to set aside. Set yourselves apart for holy works. Always ask yourself, is this the thing I want to be doing the moment I hear His trumpet and meet Jesus? Is this the thing I want to be saying the second I hear the trumpet and am caught up? Be holy. He is coming soon.

desmond tutu, gay, homosexual, pope, rapture, sin, wrath

(Updated) How close are we to rapture? "Pope Francis On Gays: Who Am I To Judge Them?"

Posted on July 30, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Update at bottom.

I’ve written about the progressive standard that God showed us in the bible about why and when He gives a person or a nation over. That progressive standard in in Romans 1, particularly verses 18-32 in the section titled “God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness”.

I’ve noted on this blog about the progression of the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality and gay marriage, accomplished state-by-state through referenda or judicial fiat. I’ve noted that the last Presidential election’s Democratic party platform contained many unGodly elements in it, including promotion of the gay agenda – and that is the platform (philosophy) a majority of the American people chose. Many millions of American evangelicals were more than a little dismayed by that, but not surprised. We are not surprised when the world acts like the world. Very recently, we noted that America’s Supreme Court accepted the gay agenda through some important judicial decisions. All this has convinced many of us that America is under judgment.

photo credit: San Diego Shooter via photopin cc

I’ve also noted on the blog that the state-by-state acceptance of the homosexual agenda in the US is mirrored on a larger scale with a nation-by-nation secular acceptance of it. Last week, Britain legalized homosexual marriage. Also, Costa Rica has opened the door to it. Australia has opened the door to it. Uruguay and New Zealand have both enacted laws to legalize same-sex marriage which will come into force in August 2013. There are many other examples of nations giving over to the gay agenda.

It is clear that in secular society that great swathes of jurisdictions and sub-jurisdictions have legalized and thus normalized what God abhors.

photo credit: Dennis Wong via photopin cc

Yes, God abhors all sins, but homosexuality is the only one He uses AS a judgment and as a benchmark of progress away from Him into darkness. It is clear that in the secular world, satan has greatly advanced in his cause for sin in claiming the worldly mind. That claim is growing exponentially every day. Just as a car is difficult to get out of a snowbank, with enough push, rocking back and forth, and persistence, traction is gained. That time is now. Traction is fully gained and the floodgates are opened. But again, the world is the world. That’s how it is. We are not surprised- but we do mark the progress of the world’s sin saturation.

In faith communities too, the homosexual agenda has gained remarkable traction. Now, when I say ‘faith community”, I don’t mean legitimate faith. There is no faith except the true faith delivered to the saints once for all (Jude 1:3), but look at this list from Wikipedia:

“Various faith communities around the world support allowing same-sex couples to marry or conduct same-sex marriage ceremonies; for example: Church of Sweden, Quakers, U.S. Episcopalians, the Metropolitan Community Church, the United Church of Christ, the United Church of Canada, Buddhism in Australia, Reform and Conservative Jews, Wiccans, Druids, Unitarian Universalists, and Native American religions with a two-spirit tradition, as well as various progressive and modern Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jewish groups and various minor religions and other denominations.”

This week both Desmond Tutu has stated that he welcomes the homosexual agenda and openly rejected God.

Wikipedia

Desmond Tutu Says He Would Prefer Hell Over A Homophobic Heaven And God

Mr Tutu has won the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom among other awards, and was Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. He speaks for a considerable segment of the population on a considerably populated continent. The horrific thing is that he speaks these heresies in the name of Jesus.

Today we read- “Pope Francis On Gays: Who Am I To Judge Them?“
The pontiff broached the delicate question of how he would respond to learning that a cleric in his ranks was gay, though not sexually active. For decades, the Vatican has regarded homosexuality as a “disorder,” and Pope Francis’ predecessor Pope Benedict XVI formally barred men with what the Vatican deemed “deep-seated” homosexuality from entering the priesthood. “Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seeks the Lord?” the pontiff said, speaking in Italian. “You can’t marginalize these people.”

The Pope is the voice of all Catholics, and the horrific thing is that he speaks these heresies in the name of Jesus. There are 1.2 billion Catholics in the world.

As God gives over the individual to his entrenched sin and rejection of Christ, and as He gives nations over to entrenched sin and rejection of Christ, God also will give over the world to sin and rejection of Christ. The moment He will give over the world to its sin will be the second after the rapture takes place. The world will be then unrestrained in its sin. (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

Daniel 9:24-17 describes the reasons God will begin the Tribulation and the verses record the length of it. God will allow sin to have its day. He will allow it to capture everyone who rejected His Son and thus, believe the lie (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

We look at the progression in Romans and use that as a benchmark for the wrath of abandonment. We know and see individuals who are enduring the wrath of God’s abandonment as they die with atheism or other religions or false Jesus on their lips. We know and see nations enduring the wrath of God’s abandonment as they had wholesale turned away from God’s laws, and I believe America is one of those nations enduring His wrath now, in current times.

But think on this: how long until God unleashes His wrath by abandoning the world to its sin and takes His bride home?? We are watching an amazing thing happen day by day. The peoples, nations, and faiths- all dismiss God by accepting homosexuality. Really, the world is crumbling.

Photo: Venice Beach, Elizabeth Prata

It is like a sand castle. At first the tide nips at the edges of it. The castle loses a few grains of sand, but the larger structure is unaffected. Then a larger wave comes and swipes away a chunk. The waves return to docility and creep up to the castle in tiny nips, for a while. But then another big wave comes, and piled after that, another. The tide is crunching away as it comes in faster and faster, undercutting the entire structure and it starts to tilt. Soon the castle is a mound and soon after that, wiped from existence.

I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes,

will he find faith on earth?”

Luke 18:8

Not that He won’t leave the Spirit to draw men to His bosom in the Tribulation, He will. Many come to faith then. But He will unleash His wrath upon an unbelieving world…

When I see whole nations and whole segments of a false faith community embracing homosexuality as they do, the rapture cannot be far behind, according to my understanding of the progression in Romans, at least. The wrath of abandonment is what Desmond Tutu claims to want, but what he doesn’t know is that God has already abandoned Tutu to the wrath of God. He has done the same for those who believe the Pope’s lie, also.

The Gospel has the power to cut through the darkness and save. There is no question about that. But God’s plan is to retrieve the bride for His Son to love and leave the world to His anger. I believe that the advance of the homosexual agenda is a heavy-duty benchmark for that tipping point. I believe that tipping point is soon to appear.

I leave you with a prayer from John MacArthur:

Father, we are so grateful that You have not left us in doubt about these things which are part of life for us. I pray that You’ll use us to bring the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to people in these horrible chains of homosexual behavior, who have no future, no family, no hope, who live with massive guilt, pain, agony, driving unleashed passions. That You would come powerfully through the instrumentation of Your people to bring the gospel–it alone can save them. Be glorified, Lord. Turn the tide with Your truth and with Your gospel. Save people caught in not only this sin, but in all kinds of sins that are so popular in this culture. Give the gospel a fresh hearing, we ask for Your glory, in Christ’s name. Amen.

photo credit: Fr. Stephen, MSC via photopin cc

———————-

Another reason the rapture is pre-trib

Posted on May 27, 2013March 15, 2019 by elizabethprata

I’ve written many times from a biblical standpoint that the rapture will happen before the Tribulation. Church Age believers living in this present Age of Grace will not go through the Tribulation. The Tribulation’s purpose is for the salvation of Israel, not the refining of the Bride. (Jeremiah 30:7, Isaiah 45:17).

Here are some of the links of previous writings on this topic:

More on the rapture will be pre-tribulation, from John MacArthur

Why the rapture is biblically pre-tribulation.

Why pre-tribulation rapture is doctrinally correct

Thirty–Six Pre-Trib Rapture Texts

Pre-tribulation rapture in the Old Testament

More on why the rapture will happen pre-tribulation

The differences between the Rapture and the Second Coming

LOL, I think you can see that I am passionate about the topic. That is because it pains me to see people needlessly worry. It hurts to know people may be stocking up instead of looking up. It is all so unnecessary.

Anyway, here is another thought for you.

In the New Testament at the end of His time on earth, Jesus told the Church to go and make disciples. He charged the church with evangelizing the world.

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Originally, the Jews were supposed to be the evangelizing vehicle for His name. (Isaiah 42:6). However, they turned to idolatry, became insular, and so He cut them off for a while and selected a new people for His name who would be grafted into the original vine and be the light to the Gentiles. (Acts 13:47, Romans 11:11, Romans 11:24). This is the church age. The church is the vehicle He is currently using to bring salvation to the lost peoples.

During this Age, He has partially hardened the hearts of the Jews while He is building His church. He will continue to do this until the number He has ordained to complete the church has come in. (Romans 11:25). Then the rapture will happen.

But what about evangelizing, the Great Commission? Who brings the Light to the Gentiles, then? If the Tribulation is a return to working on His people the Jews, as it is, then His original commission also re-ignites. Who does Jesus tell to evangelize the world during the Tribulation? The Jews. 144,000 of them. (Revelation 7:4).

Why?

Because the church is gone. He is returning the original commission back to the tribes of Israel. They are his first fruits of which Zechariah prophesied. (Revelation 14:4, Zechariah 12:10). The Tribulation is about ISRAEL, in every respect. (Daniel 9:24-27).

If you read all of Romans 11 in context and go through Zechariah it will widen your perspective. God is always at work. It is amazing to read what He has done and what He plans to do, by reading both the New Testament and the Old. My voice isn’t loud enough to proclaim all His goodness and wonders! But I will still try!!

bible, end of days, prophecy, quantum leap, rapture

Make a quantum leap with me

Posted on May 18, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I published this almost two years ago to the day. I have been thinking about quantum leaps again, a lot, so I thought I’d re-post this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love learning how the bible is a book of science. If true and honest science were to be considered, scientists would accept that the earth is a young earth. Science shows it, but they “believed the lie” – the lie being (in my opinion) that God didn’t create the universe. And if He is not Creator, therefore maybe He is not Redeemer either. Hey, that lie works for satan.

In any case, I learned about quantum leaps this week.

The heavens and the earth (Hebrew phraseology for the universe) will disappear. That is a fact. But how? And where will we be? My question regarding the first was answered to my satisfaction this week. It involves quantum physics. LOL, stay with me!

If you make a fist and bump your fist from below with your other hand, your fist moves up from the bump. Keep that in mind as I explain. A quantum leap happens when a photon strikes an atom, it boosts an electron into a higher orbit. And when that occurs the electron moves from the lower to the upper orbit simultaneously without having traversed the intervening space. That’s a quantum leap. (Definition from John MacArthur). Or this, “A quantum leap is a leap from A to B, without passing through any of the points between A and B. Imagine that you enter a train in A-ville. You sit in your seat, and the train is instantly transported to your destination of B-ville. You just made a quantum leap.”

Amazing! The electron blinks out and then blinks back into a higher state of being – instantaneously! This makes sense to me when thinking of two biblical events prophesied to come: the Rapture and the New Heavens/New Earth.

Rapture: “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:52). When Jesus calls us with the last trump and the voice of an archangel, we will be translated instantaneously from fleshly human with sin nature to glorified eternal person with no sin nature. This will happen in the blink of an eye, which is said to be 150 milliseconds. The how of it seems to me to be a good definition of a quantum leap. We are translated from a lower state of being to a higher state of being, instantly.

At the end of time when Jesus makes a new heavens and a new earth, it appears to me also that it could happen as in the definition of a quantum leap. The earth is translated from a lower state of being to a higher state of being, instantly.

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10) … “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” (Verse 12-13)

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.” (Revelation 21:1)

When I read things like this and I ponder the enormity of the unified system that is the universe, (yes I believe string theory is correct) it makes me feel a great sense of awe for Him and I love the Creator all the more. That we polluted his perfect creation with sin and He redeems us anyway makes me feel humbled and I love Him all the more. It’s all good!
Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/05/make-quantum-leap-with-me.html

rapture, salvation, time of jacob's trouble, tribulation

Will there be Christians saved after the rapture?

Posted on April 24, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A question I’m asked quite often is “Will there be Christians after the rapture?” If the Holy Spirit is taken away from the earth, how will He draw men to salvation?

Lars Justinen, “Robe of Righteousness”

These are good questions and I’ll do my best to offer scriptural answers.

The first basis to answer this is to understand that God has plans. I think we all agree on that. Jeremiah 29:11 reveals that God has plans for Israel. Isaiah 14:26 reveals that God uses nations to fulfill His plans. Amos 3:7 reveals that God has plans and that He reveals them to His prophets (and in the NT, through the Holy Spirit Who set them down in the bible).

photo credit: khalid almasoud via photopin cc

In addition, God’s plans are different for His people & His nation Israel; and the church who is His bride. This is called dispensational biblical interpretation. You can read about this doctrine here in succinct fashion-

“What is dispensationalism and is it biblical?“

and here

“What are the seven dispensations?“

All it means is that God has different plans for Israel and the Bride. Ultimately however, His plans merge in general by His grande redemptive plan. No matter what dispensational epoch we lived in, we will all be trophies of His grace for all eternity. And how we all get there is the same (Old Testament believers from Adam, to Noah, to Moses to Abraham to Anna- through belief in and faith of the promise of a coming savior; for New Testament believers, from John and Peter, Mary, Paul, and on through to today’s born again believers throughout the world, belief in and faith of the promise of an already risen savior).

Secondly you have to understand that the rapture will occur prior to what the Jews call the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) and known to New Testament believers via the Olivet Discourse Matthew 24 as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation. I am not going to argue this fact, it is explicitly and implicitly set out in scripture that this is so. I have written about it at least ten times on this blog. Search in the search box above for ‘pre-trib’ and many results will come up.

Once you understand that the Age of Grace in this dispensation will end with the rapture and then the tribulation begins, we also can go on with answering the post’s main question. Will there be Christians after the rapture?

Yes. There will be Christians after the rapture.

Biblical proof of this is myriad. For example, Revelation 4:1 seems to be the pivot point in the Book’s largely chronological unfolding of events. The first three chapters are letters to actual churches of John’s day outlining praise and/or condemnation of their deeds. This section of Revelation is also a metaphor for believers in days of yore and us today in church, as to what Jesus will praise or condemn in our corporate worship life. As we begin Revelation 4:1 we read from then on, ‘These are things which will take place after’. By Revelation 5, the seals are about to be opened and we are told, gloriously,

“Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:5)

In Revelation 6, when He opened the fifth seal unleashing the wrath of God, we read:

“I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.”

Those who were slain for God and their witness are Christians. They are not Christians from the Age of Grace because the Christians were raptured before the beginning of the Tribulation. These are souls who had come to saving knowledge of Jesus as Savior afterwards. How do I know this? Because all Christians were raptured prior to the wrath. The Bride is not appointed to wrath. (1 Thessalonians 5:9). The wrath begins in Revelation 6:1.

Another question that is asked is, how did they become Christians after the rapture if the Restrainer had been removed? This question is in reference to 2 Thessalonians 2:6. The Restrainer mentioned here is the Holy Spirit. One of His ministries is to restrain the devil in raising up the man of sin before his time.

MacArthur explains,

So he says to the Thessalonians…you know this, you know that there is a force, a supernatural force that keeps Satan from doing what he would otherwise want to do. Listen, you think the world is bad now, you haven’t seen anything yet. Fortunately if you know Christ you won’t see it, but in the day of the Lord when the restrainer is gone and all hell breaks loose, the world will see what happens when God does not restrain Satan in his plans.

In Genesis chapter 6 there is an important verse, verse 3, “Then the Lord said, My Spirit shall not strive with man forever.” What you have here is a concept. The Holy Spirit battling against wicked men. And God says My Spirit isn’t going to do that forever. My Spirit isn’t going to fight your wickedness forever. It wasn’t long until He drown them all, right? And I think you have there the work of the Holy Spirit that is a restraining work. The Holy Spirit was battling against the flood of wickedness in the ancient world. In Acts chapter 7, one other verse that shows us the Spirit’s ministry in this kind of area. In Acts 7:51, “You men who are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit.” Now here again [in 2 Thessalonians 2:6] you have the Holy Spirit battling against sin, battling against iniquity, battling against evil, trying to restrain, as John tells us, to convict in John 16. (more here)

photo credit: Viqi French via photopin cc

So the Christians who are part of the Bride are whisked away before the wrath begins. Christians who come to faith after wards are not part of the Bride though they are appointed to eternity as well. The man of Sin is unveiled and the total saturating sin as it was in the Days of Noah repeat, (Dan 9:24) except worse. Yet Christians still come to saving faith. That is because though the restrainer is not holding back sin nor the man of sin any more he is still drawing men.

God supernaturally seals 144,000 super evangelists (Revelation 7:1-8) and by Revelation 9, a great multitude of the redeemed are standing before the throne and praising Him!

God also sends an angel flying at mid-heaven to pronounce the Gospel (Revelation 7:6) and the result is that by Revelation 7:12 there are saints enduring in the faith.

None of this would be possible if the Spirit had not drawn them. (John 6:44, John 6:65). Even during the Tribulation the Father, the Son and the Spirit are working in perfect unity to perform His plan and to redeem trophies of grace for His glory!

Finally, of course there are Christians who come to faith after the rapture, because it is those believers who are alive – in the flesh- and left upon the earth who enter the Millennial Kingdom. GotQuestions explains,

Matthew 25:31-46 is another passage that should be considered. This passage is commonly called the separation or judgment of the sheep and the goats. The sheep and goats refer to righteous and unrighteous Gentiles. Christ will judge the unrighteous Gentiles (goats), and they will be cast into the lake of fire for eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46). Therefore, no unbelieving Gentile will survive to live on into the millennial kingdom. The righteous Gentiles, or sheep, will live on into the millennial kingdom. Read more

The Lord our God is a God of steadfastness to His persecuted ones. He sent His Son to be persecuted and die for our iniquities, and thus the finished work of His salvation to the elect was completed when God exhausted His wrath in Jesus.

The Holy Spirit continues to draw all those people whom God had written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8, 1 Peter 1:20, Matthew 25:34). No matter when a believer lived or will live, in the Garden in the Age of Innocence, the Age of Conscience which was pre-flood, the Age of Human Government which was post flood, Age of Abraham and the Promise, during the Age of Law with Moses, the Age of Grace which is the Bride, or the Millennial Age to come, if your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life you are His trophy of grace and will never be set aside, lost or otherwise disowned.

As Paul says in Romans 8:23,

“And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

So yes, Christians will come to faith after the rapture, as they will also in the Millennium age after that. What a wonderful eternity we will have, sharing and listening to the stories of His graceful redemption of humans throughout the ages, all the while praising the Holy Spirit who worked throughout to draw men unto the God of Salvation! (Hosea 13:4)

Lars Justinen, “Robe of Righteousness”

rapture

Picture of the rapture

Posted on April 14, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Just a thought…

“And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. (Matthew 27:51-53)

The photo above was from an old historic, overgrown Georgia cemetery I’d ambled one fine day in the early spring. I saw the burst-open tomb. It reminded me of the verse above, and also of the blessed day when we will be changed, and the dead shall be raised-

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
1 Corinthians 15:51-55

That wonderful day is one day closer today than it was yesterday! Soon, my friends, soon!

children, rapture, sin

How society is polluting the children with sin instead of correcting them

Posted on March 30, 2013 by elizabethprata

I am writing two other blog entries for today and tomorrow that are related to the season, but in between this has been on my mind. Kids.

I work with small children. I used to be a teacher and now I am a teacher’s aid. I love being around kids, listening to what they say, watching what they do. I love how they learn, and best of all is being a part of opening up the world of literacy for them. Even tying their shoes and wiping their noses is satisfying because it helps them. I especially love working with them in the faith setting, teaching them about Jesus, because their faith is sure and innocent.

Though children are not sinless, they are declared innocent. In Deuteronomy 1:39 we read about little ones who have no knowledge of good or evil. There’s a point in life when you don’t have conscious knowledge of good or evil, you haven’t reached that condition of accountability before Holy God. Isaiah 7:16 says the same. Based on those verses and others that tell me there is an age of accountability, and prior to that, a child’s deeds are not held against him.

But children DO sin. Oh, yes. Make no mistake. I believe that in former times, children were more innocent and less sinful and willful early in their lives than they are now. The rampant sin that has polluted the earth has touched the hearts of children at an earlier and earlier age. When I began teaching in 1982 I never saw what I am seeing now. Let me give some examples.

There is a video going around called something like ‘bed time bandit’. It is a short video of a two-year-old boy who is covetous of his sister’s pillow pet. He had kept going into his sister’s room to steal it at night, so the parents said to the sister, ‘lock your door.’ (Nothing is said of how they punished the brother for stealing it in the first place.) Even though she locked it, the sister still insisted the brother was stealing the pet. So the parents set up a video camera to watch what was happening at night. Not to be thwarted in his coveting of the item, the boy devised a plan when confronted with the locked door. The video depicts what unfolded…

The boy emerges from his room at night, gripping a pair of opened fingernail clippers. He carefully closes his bedroom door, I surmise so that the light wouldn’t alert anyone. He spends a few moments carefully picking the lock of his sister’s door, and when successful, goes back to his room to replace the clippers. I surmise he did this so as not to be caught with the tools of breaking and entering. Then he goes in, grabs the toy, and scuttles out, all the while silent in his footie pajamas and silently closing all the doors behind him. The video ends with his parents laughing.

I’m not laughing.

The boy devised a plan to thwart his parents’ orders, and to illegally enter a place he was told not to go to get a thing that was not his. He thought about this plan for a while, so we have malice aforethought. He was studious at every step of the way, in replacing the clippers, being quiet, and closing the doors, so we have stealth.

How often does a two-year-old have the fine motor skills to pick a lock? How much mental energy was given over to decide which tools would do the job? He didn’t choose a knife, or a screwdriver or a fork or a stick. He selected just the right tool because he spent time thinking about it first. How often does a two-year old have the patience to perform a minute fine-motor task, in the dark??

What happens when the kid is sixteen and he wants some beer from a locked store? Or to change his grades which are on a computer behind a locked office?

And what does that tell the sister, that she has to lock her door against her brother just to be safe in her own home? And how safe is it to have a child sleeping in a locked room…what if there is a fire?

Here is second example I thought was repugnant. It is called “Tooth Fairy fake-out.” A little girl who has lost her tooth explains to her mother that she has devised a plan to ‘trick the tooth fairy’. She will trick the tooth fairy because she wants to keep the tooth but she still wants the money. She decided to roll up a piece of paper and put that under her pillow instead. She is quite happy with that plan.

Until the next day, when instead of the money she expected, she received a ‘ticket’ from the tooth fairy. She was furious.

Thirdly, on the playground I overheard a discussion. Several kindergartenters were fussing because one of them had been told that they could not be on stage. (There is a concrete pavilion with picnic tables they use for various purposes). The child was mad because she had been told by another child that she “was a no-talent and couldn’t be on the stage with the rest.” She was angry and said that she had plenty of talent. I pondered that for a while. I wondered, where do kids get the idea of talent and no talent and stages and performing and talk to each other like that?

Ohhh. Now I see- it is the effects of the Simon Cowell-like barbs and insults. Kids watch these reality talent shows like Dancing with the Stars and The Voice and American Idol and watch the adults shame each other at another’s expense. Then they repeat that behavior on the playground.

I don’t blame the kids. They’re kids. And the pervasive influence of instant video that captures moments like these and social media which repeats them are also helping to serve up sin on a silver platter. In 1982 when I began teaching, there were no video recorders, or internet. I’m sure that these behaviors still happened, but they weren’t replicated and they certainly weren’t celebrated, or rewarded!

No, kids are kids. They model their behavior after watching us and by what they are taught. Sometimes they are actively taught to sin, as in the above cases.

How so, you ask? Well, the family of the child who tried to cheat the tooth fairy was given $100,000. They were the big winners of the America’s Favorite Video contest and feted with confetti and streamers and prizes and affirmation. “Cheat and lie, win money!”

Not the tooth fairy family, but you get the idea…

It isn’t the kids fault, but parents. They are teaching sin, accepting it, laughing about it, and getting money for it. Kids aren’t sinless but they learn how to handle sin from us. And we are failing them.

I pray for the rapture to come. I say that unashamedly. What Christian would not want to be with Jesus in person, given a choice? Away from sin and disease and in glory and perfection? But I also pray for it on behalf of the children. They are suffering so badly. Not just the ones who are actively being abused, neglected, abandoned and killed in the womb. (or outside of the womb). But I pray for the ones who are abused by sinful adults who do not teach the child the way he should go. (Proverbs 22:6). Who celebrate their sin and profit from it instead of teaching them God’s statutes.

“Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.” (Proverbs 29:17)

Won’t it be a beautiful thing when children can be brought to the Lord Jesus in the Millennium, and they can learn directly from Him?!?!

Meanwhile, I say that the children are polluted with sin from birth and it is up to us to train them in righteousness, not capture it on video and celebrate it. Why pollute the children more?

end time, jesus, rapture, tribulation, wrath

Police restrain crowd from taking food after supermarket eviction

Posted on March 28, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Apparently, a couple who owned a grocery store went way behind on their payments. The bank closed the store and evicted the owners. All the merchandise they’d had in the store was put outside to go to the landfill.

The owners say they offered the food to a church, but members didn’t show up to claim it. That’s when word that store products were abandoned spread through the community. When people who got wind of the goods stacked up on the ground outside the store, they hurried down to see if they could scavenge some. Instead of being able to get some food, the police were called to evict the growing and restless crowd who were told the food had to go to the landfill because it wasn’t theirs to take. The crowd got more restive and the police had to restrain them.

They asked, “People have children out here that are hungry, thirsty, could be anything. Why throw it away when you could be issuing it out?”

About 300 people came to take merchandise home, but they were held back by law enforcement. “These are brand new items; we saw the potential for a riot was extremely high,” said Sheriff Richard Roundtree. more here

So where did this crowd of hungry people show up to scavenge food? Where were police dispatched to hold back a potentially riotous crowd? Greece? Slovenia? Cyprus?

No.

Augusta, Georgia, USA.

My heart breaks for folks who are hungry. We see it all over, not just GA, though I live in GA. An increasing amount of kids are qualifying for free lunch and breakfast. More people are relying on either the emergency room at hospitals or the school nurse for their non-emergency medical care. More people are using the county or church food banks. It’s a sad thing to see a hungry person, and in formerly the wealthiest nation in the world. Still are pretty wealthy, compared to many other nations. But that cliff is coming up quick and we are on a fast slide down.

The Tribulation will be much, much worse. When the Third Seal is opened according to Revelation 6:5-6 it shows us that food will be scarce. The Fourth Seal will bring famine. At that time a fourth of the earth will die.

The police that were called today were sympathetic, mild, and peaceful. The scene was tense, but remained controllable.

It will not be controllable after the rapture, when hunger, famine, violence, starvation sets in and desperate people behave in unrestrained manner. (2 Thessalonians 2:6).

In the bible, there are scenes of cannibalism. (Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53-57; Jeremiah 19:9; Lamentations 2:20; 4:10; Ezekiel 5:10). “Moses and other prophets predicted that, if the Israelites forsook God, they would fall into such awful degradation as to cannibalize their own children. These harrowing prophecies were fulfilled during the siege of Samaria during the reign of King Jehoram. Cannibalism was the physical horror which accompanied the spiritual horror of apostasy.”

I do believe America has gotten on God’s last nerve. No, the church is not Israel and the USA is not Israel. No we are not in Old Testament times. However, God does not change. Do we believe that we can apostatize and not be punished for it? That such things won’t happen to America, just because we are America? Of course not. God shows no partiality. (Romans 2:11).

The Tribulation, AKA The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, (Jeremiah 30:7) is a 7-year period when God will allow sin to come its full measure. (Dan 9:24). The Holy Spirit will have stopped His restraining ministry and sin will bloom like putrid oil bubbling to the surface of every person (except those who come to salvation after the rapture). People standing in a parking lot today, pleading for food but obeying the officers, will, in the Tribulation, simply use their guns to shoot anyone in their way.

Like also in GA this week, two teenaged boys attempted to rob a woman, and when she said she didn’t have any money, they shot her baby in his stroller, in the face. And this is before the Tribulation.

The only reason you won’t go to heaven in a glorified body at the trumpet call and miss all that terrible times, is because you have not repented and believed on the resurrected Jesus as Lord. That’s it.

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)

“We” means believers. To become a believer,

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”(Romans 10:9).

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

You cannot get to the Father God because we are sinners, (meaning, we think, say and do wrong things that are against God’s holy standard). So God sent His Son Jesus to earth as a man in a real body to teach us, and then He was put on the cross as the sacrifice for our sins, the payment for which God poured out His eternal wrath. Thus, Jesus took our sin upon Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21). Instead of us dying, we will put on incorruptible and live forever in His house. This is all due to Jesus dying in our place (Romans 5:8). Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead, proving His victory over sin and death (Romans 6:4-5) and that he is the Son of God, forever to live and reign. Why did He do all that? He loves us, that’s why. Jesus loves you. Yes, you.

Refusal to believe on Him and repent of our sins, thus being cleansed of them through the sacrifice of Jesus, will put you squarely under God’s wrath, which He will pour out on all flesh in the Tribulation and then forevermore on the unbelievers in hell. (Rev 6:15-17; Rev 19:1-3).

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36).

Your belief or unbelief in Jesus is all the difference between eternal joy in perfected glory with Him, and eternal wrath that begins at the Tribulation which will be hell on earth. Yes, you can be saved after the rapture, but there is no guarantee that you will even live until that day. There is no guarantee that you will live thorough the Rapture event. There is a minimal chance you will live through the Tribulation, given that most of the world’s population will be killed. Now is the time of your salvation.

I hope you’re hungry now, hungry for Jesus. He will save you from all that. Believe on Him!

aleppo, children, end time, rapture

The end time through eyes of a child

Posted on March 23, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I work with five-year-old children for my job. It’s with kindergarteners at a public elementary school. I love children and I contend that I have the best job in the world.

Sometimes it’s a little disheartening, though. I just want the best for every kid, and some kids never get the best. Enough said.

The Lord is THE most sensitive about children. He spoke much about them and this is recorded in the bible. We know one of the most famous verses about children:

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” (Psalm 127:3-5)

“When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” (John 16:21). Therefore you can guess what the Lord thinks of abortion…just sayin’.

“Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.” (Proverbs 17:6)

Look at the scene here in Mark 9:35-37-

“And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”’

Not just what He said but the scene. Picture it in your mind. Jesus had been teaching The Twelve all day and then they came to the house at Capernaum where they stayed. He continued teaching. And to illustrate His point, “He took a child”. So I ask, what child? Where did the child come from? Luke 9:47 says the child “was by His side.” Usually didn’t the children remain outside the adults’ purview, especially when important matters were being discussed? Yet Jesus hadn’t dismissed the child when He continued teaching the Twelve inside the house.

The idea there was that children are weak, powerless and innocent. You come to the Kingdom like that, with no achievements, no portfolio of awards, nothing to commend one’s self. Like a child.

Susannah Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, raised seventeen children and had these words to say about raising children: “The parent who studies to subdue [self–will] in his child works together with God in the renewing and saving a soul. The parent who indulges it does the devil’s work, makes religion impracticable, salvation unattainable, and does all that in him lies to damn his child, soul and body forever” (cited in The Journal of John Wesley [Chicago: Moody, n.d.], p. 106).

In other words, children are important to Jesus.

I follow a guy on twitter who tweets from Syria. As you know, the situation there is one of chaos, strife, hunger and war. The rebellion against Dictator Bashar al Assad has been going on for two years and there is much shelling in all areas of the nation, including Damascus (Isaiah 17:1) and Aleppo, one of the largest cities in Syria. The gentleman posted the following last night:

A young child who looks to be about age 12 is interviewed after a rocket barrage had destroyed his neighborhood in Aleppo. The set of his chin, struggling mightily to not cry, the dignity and the cut-to-the-heart question of “Why”, brought tears to my eyes.

I post this not to depress you but that though we are mindful of the times, let’s also be mindful of the people. Especially the children. When we in America say ‘man up’ to a young kid usually we mean get along without your cell phone for half a day. ‘Man up’ for this boy means pulling out dismembered cousins from the rubble of their home and telling his father he is not injured so as to spare him further worry.

Please be in prayer for the people of Syria, and all children around the world who are experiencing unimaginable hardship, who don’t know Christ and don’t understand why this is happening.

Reporter: “Tell us what happened.”
Boy: We were sleeping. It was about 10 pm. At a point we heard a sound coming from above and we said get out of here. I screamed to the people to help me but those were the people who needed help. We entered and pulled out my brothers, cousins. 40 have gone. My grandfather’s family members have gone. The missile fell on their home, and there was a leg and there was a…what can I say to you? My grandmother was in 4 pieces, my aunt “flew away” because we have not found her. We don’t know. I just want to know, why is he shelling us? For the law of the powerful over the weak? Only for that?”

He goes on to say that though he was injured, he did not want to tell his father, who was having enough trouble with the situation. Throughout, he manfully tries not to cry.

Gabriele Galimberti photographed children around the world with their toys. That’s it. Accompanying each photo is a very short bio. That’s it. And though the photo is simple and the text is short, these photos are powerful in their storytelling.

Arafa and Aisha are twins. They sleep in the same bed, have the same clothes, go to school together and share the same toys. They live in a two-room house in which both of the rooms are bedrooms, and the kitchen and restroom are outside. The big photo above the closet is a portrait of the formal president of Zanzibar.

Bethsaida was born in Port-au-Prince where she has always lived in a house with her family since, almost 2 years ago, a big earthquake destroyed it. Her parents are both deaf and dumb but fortunately she’s not. Now they live in a camp site out of the city. The camp was built from an American NGO which works with deaf and dumbs, so in the camps almost 90% of the people can’t hear and talk. All the toys that Bethsaida has are donated from the NGO. She wants to be a hairdresser and loves combing her doll to practice, but unfortunately her brother has cut off half of the hair of the doll.

Chiwa lives in a small hut with her mother, father and sister. They don’t have electricity and running water. Chiwa used to help her mother to carry water at home from the river. In the village there are other 50 children (more or less) and they always plays all together outside. Chiwa has just 3 toys that some volunteers of a NGO gave to her when she was born. Her favourite is the dinosaurus because she says that he can protect her from the dangerous animals.

Tangwizi was born in a Masai village in the south of Kenya in a small hut made of dung and straw. His bed is made of a few rags on the ground. He always plays outside with all the other children of the village but every night he sleeps together with his unique toy: a little pelouche monkey.

Kalesi loves to cook for her dolls using her small cook tools and the mud from the garden. She has an older brother which goes to school every morning and she love to pretend to go to school too. She puts small toys and some paper in her back pack (the one from transformers is her favourite one) and she goes in the garden where there is a small table that she uses as a school desk.

Niko was born in a small town in the mountains of Alaska in the Kenai peninsula. His father is a fisherman and his mother is a teacher. Niko loves to play with Legos and similar games. He built a small Lego spaceship and likes to imagine he’s bringing little men up to space.

There are many more photos at the link. They are wonderful.

The end time is a time when mature Christians pray and sing and anticipate with joy the coming of the Lord to remove us from this earth and bring us to glory before the Tribulation. Often, this attitude is mocked by others who call us escapists, or weaklings. Aside from being the wrong attitude to have (because every Christian should want to be with the Lord more than cling to the sinful world and the things in it) I say that why wouldn’t we want the rapture to come…if that means that all the children will finally be safe??

Though the bible does not specifically address the issue of children being taken in the rapture, I believe it is consistent with the implicit verses in the bible, and consistent with the character of God’s mercy to take the children and babies in the rapture. GotQuestions thinks so as well.

O, come, Lord Jesus, remove us, and the children from the world. Its sinful effects are so towering and so devastating, and wear the most on those least powerful or able to comprehend.

eschatological, rapture, tribulation

Where the vultures gather

Posted on March 16, 2013May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I’m sure you’re familiar with this verse. It is in Matthew 24 and here from Luke 17

“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17:33-37).

The above is a real photo that I took when driving along in my hometown in GA. They are indeed vultures, turkey vultures, and I thought the composition was interesting. They didn’t budge when I stopped my car under the branch and snapped a few photos. Then I inverted it, changed the mode to B&W and voila, spooky birds.

Vultures always seem kind of spooky, don’t they. While camping in the Everglades, the buzzards used to glide in and stand on the picnic table, staring at us. They are huge birds, made all the more spooky by knowing they eat carrion. Or live things, it doesn’t matter. We kept our cat holed up in the VW pop-up while we were there. The birds just seemed way to interested in chomping either her, us, or our lunch.

And that is the point of the verse. So many people think that it is a rapture verse. It is not. The Lord had spent the bulk of the Matthew passage explaining the labor pangs of the Tribulation to the disciples, in order and in detail. Luke has a shortened version of it. Then in Matthew, the Lord explained the Abomination of Desolation, which is the unveiling of the antichrist at the Temple, calling himself God. Then He said when you see that happen, do the following, and He delivered instructions to the Jews.

He concluded with “Immediately after the tribulation of those days…” and gave a couple of parables to finish it off. The verse is contained in the section at the end of Matthew 24 and Luke 17, where the Lord tells us that no one will know the day nor hour of His coming. The world will not know because the sun is dark, no one knows what day it is, the antichrist had sought to change times and seasons. They lose track of what day it is. THEN the Lord will come in a blaze of glory.

The people taken are those non-believers taken alive who displeased God, and those who are left are those believers who pleased God. He takes the non-believers away to judgment. He cements this thought by saying they will be where the vultures gather. Vultures are carrion birds which gather where the (spiritually) dead are. Believers are left to enter the Millennial kingdom on earth. Jesus concludes with reminding us that where the carnage is, the spiritually dead and the physically dead in judgment, there the vultures gather. It is the wicked who are taken- to judgment.

Any person can escape all these things by believing on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He came to save the world and make the payment to God for our sins, taking on God’s wrath instead of allowing it to be poured out on us, as it should have been. He was crucified and died. He was buried but by the power of God, who was pleased with His son, resurrected Him from the dead. Jesus is in heaven now, reigning on His throne, and will come again to earth to judge the living and the dead.

If you are still not sure about the interpretation of the Matthew 24 passage as a Tribulation and not rapture passage, and also the Luke 17 parallel passage, here is a lesson at Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) on How to Interpret the Bible and they use these exact verses to share how to interpret a passage. It will lead you through it verse by verse and step by step.

If you believe you are a sinner disqualified from entering heaven, and believe that Jesus is our savior and Lord, you can be saved. Saved from what? His wrath. That is what the Luke and Matthew passage refers to, the spiritually dead who are already under God’s wrath and which will come fully one day to judge you. Pray to the Holy Spirit, Who is also God, for more information, as you read more here too: God’s Simple Plan of Salvation. Or speak to a local pastor of a bible believing church. You are spiritually dead and are gathering where the vultures are. The miraculous grace of God can regenerate you alive. Think on these things- they are real issues and eternal, too.