What Not to do if You Miss the Rapture

Folks, I am convinced the Rapture of the Bride of Christ is upon us.  I pray always, according to the exhortation of Jesus in Luke 21:36, that I am counted worthy to escape those things that are going to happen.  I suggest you do too.

If you are new to eschatology, the study of the end of time or the age, let me take a moment to fill you in a little about the Rapture.  There are several schools of thought.  I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining these schools, but I will mention them before I get to my point.  

There is the preterist view.  Many call this the post-tribulation rapture view, but many preterists don't believe in a rapture at all.  Common  beliefs among preterists are that all prophecies were fulfilled by 70 AD with the fall of Jerusalem, the Church replaced the Jews, and  the Millennial Reign of Christ is the Church age in which we currently live.

I grew up in an a-millennial family (to my knowledge, all amillennials are preterists, though not all preterists are amillennial).  They believed the return of Jesus could happen any time and it would be with The Great White Throne.  Heaven and Earth will pass away we will all live for eternity in the New Jerusalem, that 'city built four-square' as the old hymn goes.  No millennial reign on Earth and no tribulation as defined by most Evangelicals today. My grandmother would say, "Why in the world would Jesus want to come back to earth where they killed Him?!"  And she obviously believed in replacement theology.

Mid-Tribulation folks say that since we are not appointed unto God's wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9), and it is the the second 3 1/2 years of the tribulation that are the 'Wrath of God' (Revelation 16:1), we Christians will go through the first half.  They say that the midpoint event, The Abomination of Desolation will trigger the Rapture. This, in my mind, is a closer interpretation of scripture than the preterist but I still disagree somewhat, though this is where I lean the most.  

Daniel gives a countdown from the Abomination of Desolation (Daniel 12:11) to the Return of Jesus, but Jesus said:

"But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only," Matthew 24:36.  

The words of Jesus indicate a pre-tribulation, or secret, rapture to the pre-tribber.  This is the main view of Evangelical Christians today.  

I can't even begin to tell you all the scriptures and types of the rapture that are found in the Bible.  These types and scriptures is why I am firmly convinced that the preterist view is wrong.  It isn't a salvational issue, but I believe they are in error.  The main scripture that comes to mind is 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, part of which says,

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

This isn't the 'touchdown' return we read about in Revelation 19.  This is a gathering in the air.

But I have to say.  we still haven't hit my belief completely yet.  I believe in a partial, somewhere around the middle of the tribulation rapture.  Please see my post, "My Controversial View of the Rapture," for more information.

Now, what if I and the other millions of pre- and mid-tribbers are correct and the church, or at least the Bride, is soon to be whisked away?  The Great Tribulation or The Time of Jacob's Trouble would begin shortly thereafter.  The Bible doesn't indicate that the Rapture is the trigger event for the Tribulation but it has to be close.   What can you expect during the last years know as the Great Tribulation?

I'm going to give a running list.  It is partial but should give you a pretty good idea.  Here goes:

1. Jesus breaks the seals on the seven-sealed scroll.  Each seal brings a different judgment.  The first four seals are know as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  The breaking of the first seal brings the Rider on the White Horse, Revelation 6:1-2.  Many think this is the Antichrist.  I don't, but either way it is the beginning of the end and the Beast will indeed come, white horse or not.

3. Jesus breaks the second seal which is War, Revelation 6:3-4.  The Bible says the rider on the red horse has the power to take peace from the earth.  I take this to mean lots of war, all over.  Consider Venezuela.  Who would ever have thought we would have all the major world powers converging on a country in South America?

4. The third seal is broken bringing the rider on the black horse, or famine, Revelation 6:5-6. Consider the flooding of America's Bread Basket.  This is the bread basket that feeds the world.  As a matter of fact, there is unprecedented flooding, hail and locust all over the world.  The rider on the black horse doesn't take all food, he just makes it very expensive and he seems to bring global inflation.  In other words, no one's money will be worth anything.

5.  The breaking of the fourth seal, Revelation 6:7-8, brings Death, The Rider on the Pale Horse, and Hades themselves.  This seal brings death to one fourth of the earth's population by the sword, famine, pestilence and the beasts of the earth, or over 1.75 billion people.  That's a lot of death!  The sword of this rider could be from the wars but it probably means murder, genocide, looter and rioters being killed, and things like that.  As far as pestilence goes, Ebola is poised to single-handedly be the new 'Black Death'.  I have an article in the works that you can read, "Superbugs are Eating Us Alive," for more information.

6. The fifth seal, Revelation 6:9-11, reveals the outcry of the martyrs that have been slain.  They cry out, "O Lord, how long before you avenge our blood on the earth?".  The Lord answers the it will be just a little while longer until the rest of their brothers are killed.  If you live in a Western country and you have difficulty serving God now when thing are relatively good, how in the world will you serve God when you are faced with death.  I mean, if the pestilences and murder that are coming don't kill you, you will very likely die a martyr if you choose to serve God at that time. 

7. The heading some Bible translations use for the sixth seal is 'Terror', Revelation 6:12-17.  This is something like a super-volcano eruption accompanied by a massive earthquake. event or something equally catastrophic.  The sun darkens, the moon turns red, all the islands and mountains are moved out of their places, the sky rolls up like a scroll.  Notice when you read this passage how the kings of the earth run for their bunkers.

8. Between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals, Revelation 7:2-8, the144,000 are sealed.  Folks, the next time you see these guys, they are in Heaven.  I believe they are the raptured Bride of Christ.  I've written about that and explained my view in a article called, Could There be Another Interpretation of the 144,000.  You don't have to agree with me but you may find my unusual take interesting.

9. The opening of the seventh seal brings a half an hour of silence in Heaven.  That's bad.  It also bring on the next set of judgments, the Seven Trumpets.  The first trumpet sounds and brings fire and hail mixed with blood, Revelation 8:7.  I don't know exactly what this means but it burns up one third of all green things in the world.  Talk about Global Warming!

10. The second trumpet brings some kind of event in the sea, Revelation 8:8-9.  This causes one third of the sea to become blood and kills on third of all sea creatures.  It also destroys one third of all ships.  I think it could be something like the face of La Palma in the Canary Islands slipping into the sea causing a mega tsunami.

The back draught of such a tsunami could easily poison 1/3 of the sea and, since the mega-tsunami would hit Norfolk Virginia in the United States, it isn't hard to imagine, because of the wealth of the US, that 1/3 of the world's ships would be destroyed.  Just so you know, if you think these might be events localized in Israel, Stromboli in Italy is expected to fall into the sea as well.

11. The third trumpet, Revelation 8:10-11, poisons one third of the rivers, streams and springs, in other words, all the fresh water.  The Bible calls the star, or asteroid that falls, Wormwood and says many will die from the bitter waters.  

In case you are wondering how an asteroid could poison 1/3 of all the fresh water, consider that Chernobyl (think Russian nuclear power plant) means Wormwood in Russian an there is a lake in Siberia that contains 1/4 of the fresh water on the planet.  That water flows outward and could easily poison 1/3 of the world's fresh water.  All I'm saying is don't think any of the things in the book of Revelation are out of the realm of possibilities. 

12. The fourth trumpet causes the sun, moon and stars to lose one third of their light, Revelation 8:12.

  
I'm going to try to make this list quicker.

13. The Bottomless Pit opened, demonic creatures set loose on unbelievers who will wish to die but will be unable and the whole first half of the 9th chapter of Revelation is dedicated to them.

14. A Hoard of 200 million (arguments are as to whether they are men or demons) loosed on the earth and will kill one third of the population of the earth, the second half of the 9th chapter of Revelation.

15. Revelation 11:3-12 tells us about the Two Witnesses.  The Bible says  they will preach during the Tribulation Period for 1260 days or about three and a half years (probably the first half of the tribulation).  They will have supernatural power like calling fire from heaven but will finally be killed.  All people of the earth will party and exchange gifts because of their deaths and their bodies will lay in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days. After this time, God will resurrect them and call them to heaven.  This causes great fear in the earth.

16.  In the same hour the Witnesses are resurrected and ascend, there will be a great earthquake.  This is probably a local event in Jerusalem, because only 7000 people die.  Just an interesting side note, the Dead Sea fault boundary runs just east of Jerusalem. This is part of the great rift that runs from the Middle East right down through Ethiopia.  By the way, Zechariah says that The Mount of Olives will cleave in two when Jesus comes back.  It is interesting to note that several faults run through the hills that make up the Mount of Olives complex. 

17. The seventh trumpet sounds which brings on the Seven Vials of God's Wrath.  The Seals and the Trumpets are pretty bad.  The Vials or Bowls are much more intense.  Remember when Jesus compared the End Times to a woman in labor in Matthew 24:8?  We are talking the baby is 'crowning' here.

I'm going to stop listing here.  I fear this post will become so long that no one will want to finish reading it and I really do want to tell you what not to do if you miss the rapture and find yourself in the heat of the wrath of God.  DO NOT TAKE THE MARK OF THE BEAST! (Revelation 13:16-18)

The Bible says that there will be a strong delusion so that many will believe the lie and be damned, 2 Thessalonians 2:11.  Arguments abound as to what the strong delusion is but I think it is just the World System that includes science, false religion, the arts, etc.  This strong delusion will make it simple for the masses to accept the mark of the beast.

More arguments abound about what this mark is but, I think you will know when you get there.  Whether it is a micro-chip, a bar-code tattoo, or some kind of DNA altering thing, I believe you will have to make a conscious decision to accept it thereby surrendering your soul to Satan. 

You may think that you would never take this mark but have you considered the possibilities?  The Bible says that you will not be able to buy or sell anything without it.  What if your sick baby needs medicine?  Will you be able to watch that baby die, comforted by knowing you will soon be reunited in eternity?  Will you have the fortitude to watch your loved ones starve to death because you can't buy anything for them to eat?  Pray that you may be counted worthy to escape those things that are coming upon the earth.

I'm tacking this post to the top of my blog (meaning the date will be wrong) so that it is easier to find.  Yes, I believe it is that close.  I'm going to write two more posts, one on prophecy and one on why you should believe the Bible, pretty quickly because world events indicate there isn't much time left.

The Bible says, 

"They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation," 2 Peter 3:4.  

But I'm telling you Jesus said, 

"So, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.  Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place," Matthew 24:33-24.

I'll link another article that I never sent for publication here so you can see exactly what Jesus is talking about.  Be kind.  It is something I started and never finished but you will see why I think things are urgent. Could This Spring Mark the Beginning of the End?

If you don't know Jesus, please read my post on the Gospel.  Here is a video on You Tube called, "What Must I do to be Saved?", that is pretty good, too.  You can always email me at areasoningtogether@gmail.com if you have any questions.  God bless and I hope to see you at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!