Eternal life resides in Jesus and in Him alone. No one else! This is true now and will also be the case after Jesus removes His true church from the earth.
In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
What do people need the most? The answer remains the same as it’s always been: A clear understanding of the Gospel. By this I mean that people need Jesus, not the one that so many today create in their mind but but the One revealed on the pages of Scripture.
While primarily a defender of biblical prophecy against the onslaught of false teaching, I see another point of confusion among the saints that I feel compelled to address. This teaching has led many believers astray with its assertion they can walk away from their faith and lose out on eternal life.
One would think that with all the chaos in just the first six months of 2020 we would see a concentrated focus by pastors on biblical prophecy and warnings about what is to come, but such is not the case.
Why do we see such lack urgency in our churches as biblical signs of the coming tribulation explode around us like fireworks in the sky? Why do Christians, some of whom profess to believe in pretribulation rapture, flock to churches where they sadly hear no mention the Lord’s soon appearing or the imminent tribulation?
“What is truth?” Do you recognize this question? Pilate asked this question during his interrogation of Jesus. These words came in response to the Lord’s assertion that He had come into the world “to bear witness to the truth.”
Now two thousand years later, Pilate’s question seems more relevant than ever. We live in a world full of delusion, fake news, and deception. It’s difficult to know who or what to trust.
My heart ached this past Monday morning as I read about the chaos and lawlessness near the White House. I felt both anger and fear as I saw pictures of violence and deadly attacks on law enforcement in cities throughout the United States.
It was not until I read several Psalms and through about Jesus’ promises return that my heart began to settle down and my focus began to change from the rioters to my hope in Jesus.
A comment on my blog referred to our current day as the “shadow of the tribulation;” I think that is quite accurate. The horrible conditions of the tribulation have not yet started, but we see its ever darkening shadow everywhere in the world.
Here are some examples what it means to live in the shadow of the tribulation:
It was an overcast day when those on the left dragged a disheveled President Trump before the Lord Jesus. The President had in their opinion, committed impeachable offences. They also hoped that his past immorality and impure speech would make him all the more offensive and vile to the Savior.
The Lord did not immediately respond to their numerous accusations of wrongdoing that took a good half hour to recount. Instead, he stooped and wrote something in the dust.
Do you remember the EF Hutton commercials from several decades ago? In the midst of a loud and boisterous party someone uttered these words, “EF Hutton says. . . .” Instantly the noisy room became quiet as everyone leaned toward the person speaking to hear the latest investment advice from the corporate giant.
The commercials no longer appear on our television screen. As the result of a check kiting scandal, EF Hutton dissolved into other companies and no longer exists.
Jesus is coming for His saints, for us, before the start of this awful period in human history.
In the points below, I review the previous signposts that have led to our destination. I believe that combined they provide a solid scriptural foundation for placing the rapture before the start of the day of the Lord.
This brings us to our next signpost on the path to establishing a biblical basis for the pretribulation rapture: church history. The purpose of this signpost is not to justify our belief in the pretribulation rapture on the basis of history nor is it to convince those who reject it on this faulty basis.
Rather, my intent is to provide those who already believe in the rapture with evidence of a belief in it from church history.
Premillennialists regard the book of Revelation as future prophecy, the very thing it claims to be (22:18). As we have acknowledged from the beginning of this series, a discussion of where to place the rapture only makes sense within premillennialism, which maintains beliefs in a literal tribulation and a thousand year reign of Jesus on earth before the millennium.
This brings us to our next signpost on our way to establishing a biblical basis for a pretribulation rapture: Absence. The book of Revelation excludes the church from judgments of the tribulation.
As we saw in our last signpost, the false report informing the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord had already begun put these new believers in a state of severe panic (see signpost #6). In response,
This brings us to the next word on our signposts: “Restrainer.” Why is this word so significant? A key event at the start of the tribulation, the revealing of the antichrist, cannot happen until God removes the Restrainer who is currently holding back his unveiling to the world.
No, you have not taken a wrong turn on our journey toward establishing a biblical basis for the pretribulation rapture. The word “panic,” our next signpost, confirms that the Thessalonian saints expected the Lord to come for them before the start of the day of the Lord,
First, let’s back up a bit and set the stage for Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. With the ink scarcely dry on the parchment of the apostle’s first letter to them, false teachers forged a message to these new believers telling them the day of the Lord had already begun.
Dwight L. Moody once gave the following illustration during a sermon to demonstrate that our salvation is all of grace and not of works . . . .
Each and every one of our good works as believers results from our regeneration that occurs at the moment of our rebirth. Works contribute absolutely nothing to our salvation nor do they keep us saved. It’s all of grace from beginning to end.
A news story about a burglar in Rochelle Park, New Jersey recently caught my attention. In the process of robbing a home, the thief woke up the couple who lived there. Not wanting the owners to catch him, the robber climbed out a window and fled from the scene of the crime.
Sticking with his escape plan, he ran down the street and quickly hopped into the backseat of a car. Unfortunately for him, he soon discovered he had gotten into a police car, which made his ensuing arrest rather easy.
In 1 Thessalonians 5;2, Paul compares the arrival of the day of the Lord to the surprise of discovering a intruder in one’s home. He likely had a more competent thief in mind than the bungling burglar in New Jersey.
My fingers raced to the book of Habakkuk early this morning.
Why would I seek the wisdom of an ancient prophet to ease my troubled mind? His opening complaint, written 2,650 years ago, captures the cry of my heart.
I so often cry out to the Lord to stop the senseless murder of children as well as the killing of those precious little ones who survive the horrific evil of abortion.
A common response to those like me who believe we live in the last days is this: “The world has seen violence and wickedness all through its history. What’s so different about today?”
I fully understand that question especially when one considers the world wars of the previous century. Seventy-five years ago many Christians thought Hitler was the antichrist based on his hatred of the Jews and his efforts to establish a worldwide socialist empire. This was truly a terrible time in world history, but it was not the prelude to the tribulation.
I could not have written this article several months ago. Although I had no doubts about the biblical truth of premillennialism, I did not fully comprehend the perils of denying Jesus’ thousand year’ reign over the nations of the world as described in Revelation 20:1-10 and Zechariah 14. The denial of Jesus’ rule over a restored Israel is known as amillennialism.
When I heard a popular prophecy preacher refer to amillennialism as a “false teaching” and a “doctrine of demons” (Tim. 4:1), I shuddered; I was not sure I agreed with him. Now I know he was correct.
