(Seven Things To Remember!!)
Another thought-provoking article
by Joseph Chambers
THE SADDEST DAY IN HUMAN HISTORY WILL BE THE DAY FOLLOWING THE RAPTURE OF THE SAINTS OF GOD! Once it sinks into the minds of a multiplied number of “Left Behind” individuals that Jesus has literally come to get the prepared saints and gone back to Heaven, it will be a traumatic moment of heartbreak and regrets. Some will commit suicide; some will go and kill preachers that did not preach the truth, while many will fall on their faces in sad and soul-searching repentance.
The idea of an Antichrist and the number 666 is understood by millions of people. Most ot these do not live a surrendered life to Jesus Christ. Many people are religious, but show no evidence of being truly “born again.” Even among the religious of our day, the “fear of God” is almost totally absent. There is a kind of religious facade that has come to characterize this present generation. Preaching the words of God, like Billy Sunday and D. L. Moody, etc., is utterly rejected by the church world. Many people literally hate old-fashioned ministers.
Suddenly, without warning, the Lord will descend into the clouds and the harvest of the earth will occur in a split second. The dead will rise and the saints that are still alive will be caught up with the resurrected and ascend to meet Him in the air. It will be over in less time than the benediction on Sunday morning. As the truth sinks in, the empty open graves are reported, and the missing ones are identified; an unexplainable fear will grip the hearts of millions. It will not be ordinary fear, but a kind of paralyzing fear that leaves the mind frozen in regrets. Many people who knew all about this event, but made no preparation, will be overtaken with insanity.
Preachers that bought into the liberal versions of Scripture or that did not preach the straightforward Gospel of the transformed life and holiness will be some of the saddest lost souls. Not only are they left, but also, many others are now left because of their compromise. The responsibility of misleading souls will drive some of these ministers to total despair. Liberal professors in church-related colleges and universities will be at the top of the hate list.
But No Escape!
The most overwhelming of emotions that will slowly come to grip the “Left Behind” will be the hopelessness of their state. It is impossible to fully explain the kind of world that the “Left Behind” will suddenly discover. We can usually find a light at the end of our tunnels, but the world of that day will offer no such hope.
No one who has any understanding of Bible prophesy will have any doubt that it is going to be hell on earth. It will never get any better from the moment the Rapture occurs until the Antichrist is defeated at the end of this future period. Satan will make his best effort to turn God’s creation into a wilderness beyond recovery. Only mercy can save the world from total destruction. The “Left Behind” crowd will find themselves in a world totally different from anything they ever dreamed possible.
Let’s try to imagine some of the possible effects of the Rapture of the Saints.
1. The Church Will Be Gone! Nothing will be so overwhelming as the fact that the church will be gone. Whatever is left of church related activities or ministries will be out of business. Just like the Jewish Temple was “out of business” when the veil was rent and Jesus had died on the cross, so the New Testament church will be “out of business” when the church age ends at the Rapture. Whatever activity left in churches will be the false church that will promote the new false messiah or Antichrist. There will be no church revival or anointed evangelist. Religious television will be even more deceiving than at this present time because all restraints will be lifted and utter deception will have a free reign.
2. The Tribulation Church will be a “One World Church” that is already developing between the Catholics, hyper-Charismatics, liberal Protestants, and the pagans of the world. They will produce a religious excitement and fanfare so overwhelming that the whole earth will worship Satan actually believing that he is God. The Antichrist and the false anointing will be so spectacular that miracles, signs, and wonders will flood mankind. It will be paranormal activity that looks so real that only Bible lovers can discern the difference. Anyone who experiences the Blood-cleansing of Jesus Christ and becomes a testimony for Biblical truth will immediately be subject to being martyred for his/her faith.
Those that refuse the One Word Church will be an enemy of the government and every principle the New World Order loves. The hatred for the multitude that will be converted after they realize they have been “Left Behind” will cause the false church and the unholy trinity to go mad with anger. Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace will be light stuff compared to the evil designs used to martyr the young saints almost as quick as they are converted. The Bible gives a breathtaking picture of those quickly killed following the very beginning of the “Great Tribulation.”
Listen to the results of the fifth seal of Revelation six, “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Revelation 6:9-11). Remember, every true saint of God was raptured at the beginning of chapter four. Those saints are around the throne of God in Heaven; therefore, all of these new saints have been washed in the blood during the early days after the Rapture. They “were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” There will be no wimpy believers in the hotbed of evil during this period. It is all or nothing. Their deaths will be so vicious and evil that even “saints” will call on God to satisfy the injustice manifest against them.
These saints do not yet have their glorified bodies, but are awaiting their special resurrection and their crowns of martyrdom. The Lord’s word is “until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” In other words it had just begun, it was still at the early days of the seven years and many more martyrs were to follow. Anybody who misses the Rapture and decides to surrender to Christ must be prepared to die the kind of horrendous death reserved for the darkest period of wrath and tribulation ever experienced.
3. The Restrainer Is God! The Spirit-filled life will not exist during the seven years of Great Tribulation. The Holy Ghost, as the “Believer’s Baptism,” will have ended that office and period of church history. This office of the Holy Ghost was to birth the church and prepare a Bride for the Bridegroom. While the Holy Spirit is omnipresent and in that sense is present in the world, His central focus during this seven years is to present the Bride to Christ at the Wedding Supper in Heaven. John sees the Holy Spirit before the Throne as the “Seven Lamps Of Fire”. His life giving presence will still be universal and at least open the hearts of repentant sinners to be washed in the Blood.
The absence of the Holy Ghost as the Restrainer will unleash evil to a level never known by mankind. From creation to this dark period, the Holy Ghost has always restrained the devil and his legion of spirits. Satan’s ability to act unchecked and to exert his dark will on the earth will make for an environment so vile that no man can save another, even those of his own household. Listen as the Holy Ghost actually warned of this day in plain words to Ezekiel the prophet. “The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 14:12-14). Hell is now almost ready to visit planet earth in its darkest acts of vileness known to humankind.
4. Those to be saved must be fully prepared to give their life. While much of the world will be under Satan’s delusion, any person that understands his lies will know the truth of what is happening. There will be a multitude that know they have missed the world’s greatest hope, to be part of Christ’s Bride, and they will see the devil for who he is: a liar, a deceiver, and an imposter of the true God. This multitude will also quickly understand that to own Jesus Christ as Lord is to incur the absolute vengeance of Lucifer. There will be no middle ground. The gray areas will have totally vanished.
It is Jesus Christ or Antichrist. It is God the Father or god the imposter. Suddenly, the will to die for Him (Jesus Christ) will become the only hope of the honest hearts that have escaped the deceiver.
The ones “Left Behind” now begin to wash themselves in the Blood of Jesus Christ. John describes the love of God that will be manifest in the very jaws of Satan’s fury. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Revelation 12:11). Three things are clearly described. They are washed in the Blood of the Lamb, they are bold before the fury of the devil, and they love not their life even unto death. Nothing is so bold as a faith that is manifest when men see the devil for what he really represents. Our present society has lost the Biblical vision of how sadistic and sinister Satan and all of his horde can be. When the “Left Behind” sees the true picture, somehow the best of human action will be on display.
5. This “Left Behind” multitude will fall in love with the Word of God. John indeed calls it a “multitude.” “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” (Revelation 7:9). When John saw this crowd, he was perplexed and one of the elders asked him, “What are these . . . whence came they?” (Revelation 7:13). Apostle John was wise and said to the elder saint, “Sir, thou knowest.” The elder answered his own question, ” And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:14-17).
Their love for truth, developed in the heat of the Great Tribulation, will earn them a place “in His temple” and the Lamb Himself will dwell in the midst of them to provide them Heavenly fulfillment.They are not called Elders as the saints that are His Bride; they have no thrones or crowns of the bridal position. These will probably be guests of the Bride at the Marriage Supper. Surely, they will wear crowns of martyrdom. It appears that they are the third order of the “First Resurrection,” which are “Caught Up” near the middle of the Seven Year Tribulation.
6. The Blood of the Lamb! The one factor that unites every victory over Satan and the wickedness on the earth is the “Blood of the Lamb.” Jesus Christ is identified from Revelation chapter four to the very end of this prophetic period (chapter 22) as the Lamb of God.” Twenty-six times in that period He is called the “Lamb of God.” These Tribulation Saints are never called elders; they are not a part of the church for there is no longer a true church. They are not identified in any action that suggest a church. No baptism in water, no opportunity to serve the Lord’s Supper, or any other great acts of His church before the Rapture. Individually, they have surrendered to the Word of God and washed themselves in the Blood of the Lamb.
There will be a fresh understanding of the power of the Blood that these Tribulation Saints will discover. The Bible emphasizes this because our generation has mostly forgotten the incredible power of faith in His shed blood. It’s faith in faith today or some strange kind of impartation that the false prophets have promoted. In the heat of the Great Tribulation, faith will return to its pure form and men will seek for simplicity of truth, not some titillation of flesh. These saints are certainly a robust multitude and must be reasoned in our understanding of redemption.
7. Left Behind: Can You Be Saved? Nobody in his/her right mind will dare take this article as an encouragement to wait for salvation after the Rapture. In fact, if you are unsaved or unprepared for His glorious appearing to Rapture the Saints and you ignore this warning, that in itself is very dangerous. There is a multitude of disobedient people that have rejected the truth. They have loved the world more than the Word of God and the Bible warned of a false delusion to follow such action. The Holy Ghost gave us plain words. “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received 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 all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (II Thessalonians 2:10-12). Please do not take this warning lightly. Only God knows when a man/woman passes this point of “no return.”
There will be a multitude of religious people in the Seven Years of Great Tribulation that are worshippers of the Antichrist, deceived to believe that he is the true christ. They will be damned forever. To be a part of this deceived crowd is to be the greatest of foolish souls.
Conclusion! There is a “lawlessness” that prevades the very atmosphere. Never has it been easier to put off serving the Lord or to reject Him outright. Jesus said, “And because iniquity (lawlessness) shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” (Matthew 24:12). There appears to be such a resistance in the world against anything that is narrow or straight-laced. Everything is broad and most people now believe that even Christianity has no sharp standards of right and wrong.
All of this is an evil delusion that Satan is masterminding. It is the last days and the way seems so broad and wide. It is hard to find people that will admit they are lost. Do not be fooled. Jesus gave a breathtaking warning as recorded in the Book of Luke. The Son of God stated,“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (gluttoning on the world), and drunkenness (not just alcohol, but any state of undisciplined living), and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 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.” (Luke 21:34-36).
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