Things To Come - Part 2: The Immediate Future

                          "Things To Come - Part 2: The Immediate Future"

The very thing to follow the events that we discussed comprise the "perilous times" which we find ourselves currently living in will be the rapture of the church.  The word "rapture" does not actually appear in our Bible, and this is one reason it trips up believers and non believers alike.  The second issue believers have is the exact timing of the event.  Believe it or not, there have been church splits based on the timing issue!  I have held and will present a pre-tribulation stance.   If I am wrong, at least I was ready at the earliest possible moment of His coming, right?  A friend in the ministry told me, "I hold to a mid-trib view, but I sure hope I'm wrong!" The rapture will happen, and Jesus wants us to be ready.  Things will only get worse once the perilous times have ushered in the Antichrist, blessed are believers for that glorious escape at the very moment separating the two events!

In my days in seminary, my professors made a great illustration I'd like to share.  It involves a great man of faith named Noah.  God told him to warn of an impending flood that would cover the earth and would destroy everything.  He told him to also build the ark so lives would be spared.  Because there had never been such weather, people laughed at Noah.  When the time came, only Noah and his family with animals made it out.  Everyone and everything else died.  This was a "type" of or preview of God's redemptive plan for the church through the rapture.

First we might look at what this thing called "the rapture" is,

1Thessalonians 4:16-18,
         "¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

1 Corinthians 15:51-52,
      "⁵¹ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² 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."

The important thing is that you be aware and watching (recall Jesus said when we saw all the signs covered in part 1 to look up as our redemption draweth nigh).  He wants us to look for Him where He will come to gather His saints, up - in the clouds!  Our redemption is our escape from that which will come over the earth after we depart.

Why is it going to be Pre-Trib? 

As a reward for faithfulness of the church that endures in patience throughout these perilous times.
  
Revelation 3:10,
      "¹⁰ Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

I believe in a literal and chronological order of events in the book of Revelation.  Therefore, first we have a picture of the various churches, with criticisms, advice, and praises from our Lord, then John hears, "Come up hither!"

Revelation 4:1,
      "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter."

The "He who letteth" is God Himself.  The spirit and the Church shall be taken out of the way so the Wicked (Antichrist) can be revealed.  Only God is capable of removing him (the "he" that is taken out of the way is the third person of the trinity - the Holy Spirit).  Thus, we must endure these perilous times -->Rapture-->Antichrist revealed as Paul tells us,

2 Thessalonians 2:5-8,
   "⁵ Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
⁶ And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. ⁸ And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:"

Jesus tells us to watch and pray that we escape (which is the purpose of the rapture, the faithful escaping the coming evil world - Tribulation),

Luke 21:36,
   "³⁶ Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."


Because we know the Tribulation is a definitive seven year period (see part 3), the rapture would be both timeable and predictable once the 7 years began (for those holding to mid-trib the rapture would be three and a half years, etc.) which would make the following statements false:

Matthew 24:36,
   "³⁶ But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

Matthew 24:42-44
   "⁴² Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. ⁴³ But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. ⁴⁴ Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."


In these last verses, Jesus equates the rapture to a coming thief in the night.  He said if you knew there would be a thief coming to your house, gave the conditions surrounding his arrival, you'd not only want to be ready, you'd be more than ready for him!  He said we should treat His coming the same.

I will never set dates, it is wrong, it is anti-Biblical.  I will tell you all to be aware of the signs as the Saviour told us to, and make sure of your salvation.  If you do not know Jesus as your personal Saviour, ask Him now to forgive your sins and fill you with His Holy Spirit.  Ask Him to guide you for the remaining days of your life.