What is the purpose of the rapture - the catching away of the Church.

 A while back, I was asked several widespread questions. I separated the person's writing into assertions and questions, and this is my response.

You asked, “... does anyone else see some resemblance in the description of the rapture and the events at the crucifixion?”

While this first response may not sound so astute, I think it needs to be said,

At the catching away of the church, the “rapture,” the redeemed go up.

The rapture has a limited purpose in that Jesus, at this point, is simply coming, in the clouds, to collect those who are His. The other aspect of the “rapture” is the rescue of the living believers from any further harm. This comment feeds into the disputations against a pre-wrath rapture. 

You need to get something very clear if you are going to push your broken understanding of an “escape” from wrath, as believers in the African nations have been having their heads cut off for attending church. Those people might be firm in the idea that we must endure deadly tribulations. The problem is that when you use these dear people to bolster your arguments, you are setting aside the understanding that there will always be injustices carried out by the hands of other humans. 

The “great tribulation”, which many believe we are discussing, is an aspect of God's wrath.

If you struggle with the belief that we, as the church, are meant to endure God's wrath, consider these scriptures.

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 BSB

Wrath, in Greek, is the word orgē. It means anger exhibited in punishment.

Several internet teachers I listen to will say something along these lines. Since Jesus is the Bridegroom coming back for His bride, that is us, the Church, then why would He abuse His bride before the most anticipated time, their wedding night? There is no logical answer to a question like this, and passages such as 1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 tell us that it will not happen in an abusive manner.

One "brother in Christ" angrily told me that God will not pour His wrath upon the earth. If so, what do you do with passages like this?

Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty.

Exodus 23:7 BSB

The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
Nahum 1:3 BSB

Since the subject of the crucifixion was introduced, let's address an aspect of the work that Jesus performed on His journey from the cross to the throne.

Sin, originating in the garden, demanded a price be paid, and it was the death of God. Satan thought he had God in a checkmate, to use a chess term. You see, God set up this earth based on moral laws, His own, and by giving Adam dominion, God placed the man, as a representative of HIs throne, in control of the earth. So, in deceiving the humans, he deceived God, and God would have to pay with His life. If you are puzzled by this, I suggest you watch The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis again. That was not going to happen, so Jesus voluntarily set aside His position and authority to become a man (In the movie, Jesus is represented as a lion), and He would pay the price. This man, Jesus, was the seed of a woman, a descendant of Eve, and Satan thought that the killing of Jesus would put him solidly in control of all creation.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.
Genesis 3:15 MKJV

There are variations in the translations of Genesis 3:15. For example, enmity, an old English word that can also mean hostility, antagonism, ill will, and hatred. Interestingly, the Hebrew word êybâh was only used four times in the Torah, and two of those times, it was translated as hatred. So hatred works just as well.

Many of these passages speak of God being slow to anger; however, this does not imply that the inhabitants of the earth and those who reject His love will not experience His wrath.

God, in speaking about Sodom and Gomorrah, demonstrates His wrath but without first showing mercy toward Lot and his two daughters.

“Then the generations to come, both your own descendants and the foreigners who come from distant lands, will see the devastation of the land and the diseases the LORD inflicts on it. They will exclaim, ‘The whole land is devastated by sulfur and salt. It is a wasteland with nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It is like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD destroyed in his intense anger.’
Deuteronomy 29:22-23 NLT

Follow the narrative found in Deuteronomy 9, and you will find that God, in His anger, killed over 3000.

“Remember and never forget how angry you made the LORD your God out in the wilderness. From the day you left Egypt until now, you have been constantly rebelling against him. Even at Mount Sinai, you made the LORD so angry he was ready to destroy you.
Deuteronomy 9:7-8 NLT

Let's say you still don't see why God would pour out His wrath upon people; then pay attention to the words of 2 Kings 22:13.

“Go to the Temple and speak to the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah. Inquire about the words written in this scroll that has been found. For the LORD’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll. We have not been doing everything it says we must do.”
2 Kings 22:13 NLT

If you are asking what we did to deserve God's wrath, Daniel has the answer.

But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke on your authority to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land.
Daniel 9:5-6 NLT

Do you think God's heart has changed since He spoke these words?

“Son of man,” he said, “I am sending you to the nation of Israel, a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been rebelling against me to this very day.
Ezekiel 2:3 NLT

Even in the New Testament, we can see God's wrath coming and to whom.

But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”
Romans 10:21 NLT

In speaking with Daniel, God referred to what is to come as the time of wrath.

Then he said, “I am here to tell you what will happen later in the time of wrath. What you have seen pertains to the very end of time.

Daniel 8:19 NLT

So, the time of wrath is coming.

For I will shake the heavens. The earth will move from its place when the LORD of Heaven’s Armies displays his wrath in the day of his fierce anger.” 

Isaiah 13:13 NLT

 This period in which God pours out His wrath has several names,

The time of wrath.

The time of the end.

The appointed time.

The end of time.

The time when the mystery of God is finished.

Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The hour of His judgment.

The day of the Lord's wrath.

A day of trouble and distress.

A day of destruction and desolation.

A time of distress.

What is the purpose?

Near is the great day of the LORD, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers. I will bring distress on men so that they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the LORD; And their blood will be poured out like dust And their flesh like dung. Neither their silver nor their gold Will be able to deliver them On the day of the LORD'S wrath; And all the earth will be devoured In the fire of His jealousy, For He will make a complete end, Indeed a terrifying one, Of all the inhabitants of the earth.
Zephaniah 1:14-18 NASB

"But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. "They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.
Zechariah 7:11-12 NASB

Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you—on the peoples that do not call upon your name. For they have devoured your people, Israel; they have devoured and consumed them, making the land a desolate wilderness.
Jeremiah 10:25 NLT

As we have seen, this theme runs throughout the Torah.
That means that the Pharisees and scribes knew all too well that God's wrath was coming and why.

When John, the baptizer, said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" They knew precisely what he was talking about.

So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Luke 3:7 NASB

Paul, in writing to:

The church in Rome.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Romans 1:18-20 NASB

To the church Colossae

Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
Colossians 3:5-6 BSB

To the church in Thessalonica

For they themselves report what kind of welcome you gave us, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.
1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 BSB

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 BSB

By the time we reach chapter four of Revelation, we are already caught up with Christ and with the Father.

The final church of the seven is Philadelphia. It was to them that Jesus said,

'Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

Revelation 3:10 NASB

Revelation 4:1 opens with this.

After these things I looked, and behold, a door opened in heaven; and the first voice that I heard was as if a trumpet were speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you the things that must take place after these things."
Revelation 4:1 AFV

What things is He talking about?

The end of the church age and our being gathered to the Father in Heaven.

In Revelation 6, Jesus began opening the seals of the first scroll, which is why we see those on earth crying for the rocks to fall upon them.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the powerful men, and every bondman, and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him Who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
Revelation 6:15-16 AFV

If we can find Jesus seated upon His throne, how did he get here? 

This question is answered when you study what happened from the cross to the throne, and we will do that in the next post.

Abraham was justified because of his faith. Romans 4: 13-17.

 In our last dive into Romans, we saw that Abraham was justified because of his faith. Now he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the covenant God made with Abraham for the Jews. However, through faith, we have been grafted into the vine and are, therefore, Jews by faith.

So that Abraham might be the father of all who believe; well, that certainly means me.

On that note, let's dive in.

Romans 4:13 NASB For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law but through the righteousness of faith.

Perhaps a cleaner version would be the NLT.

Romans 4:13 NLT  Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith.

Faith, in and of itself, does not have righteousness, but a right relationship is acquired by having faith in God.

Since the Jewish community, in general, does not put their faith in a relationship with Yeshua, then all they have left is an arrogance in the law, and this is why Paul has to say,

Romans 4:14-15 NLT  If God’s promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless.  (15)  For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)

Premise the next few bits of information under this assumption, “If God's promise is for”

• “those who obey the law,”

  Let's not pull any punches here; he is talking about the Jews. None of which keep the law either. Want proof?

  Genesis 6:5 NASB Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

• “then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless.”

  If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then you know that faith is necessary, and the promise is real and gives validity to our hope that there is a heaven to gain, and finally, peace in the love of the Father's arms.

• “For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it.”

  There are many translations, and this one is not necessarily a true statement.

  Some will tell you that the King James version is the only correct and accurate translation, so let’s see what it says. “Because the law worketh wrath.” The Strong’s concordance tells us that the word worketh also means accomplishes or causes. 

  Seriously, the law causes wrath?

  If I kept the law, I might be boring, but shouldn't I be considered righteous in God's eyes, and therefore, excluded from God's punishment?

  The simple answer should be yes. You don't get punished for trying to obey the law.

  You get punished for disregarding the law. Let me ask you a question.

  How many laws (commandments) did Israel start with?

  Ten; and the focus of those laws was to love God and love on people by treating them right. Of course, the idea of being “right” is not based on human standards but on God’s character, nature, and moral standards.

  But Paul writes (NET translation) because where there is no law there is no transgression either.

  The young granddaughter, who reads quite well, ignored the signage at the park, which stated, No riding of any wheeled vehicle on the rubber playground mats, and her tire went between the cracks, which caused her to fall and scratch her face. Her dad did not realize that it was his child screaming because she was actually hurt; then he yelled at her that it was her fault, and she shrieked back, I didn’t know. I will say this, as the adult, I believe it was her father’s job to make sure she learned the rules, but he didn’t do that; he merely focused on some video on his cell phone, as he always does. She is very capable of reading, but who looks at the signs. 

  Isn't this a summary of who we are and what we do?

  Perhaps a better way of considering the law might be this; the law shows us how frequently we stumble and how much we need a savior. 

Romans 4:16 (GW)  Therefore, the promise is based on faith so that it can be a gift. Consequently, the promise is guaranteed for every descendant, not only for those who are descendants by obeying Moses' Teachings but also for those who are descendants by believing as Abraham did. He is the father of all of us,

The promise, once again, is God's promise to Abraham. Hebrews 6 covers it.

God made a promise to Abraham. Since he had no one greater on whom to base his oath, he based it on himself. He said, "I will certainly bless you and give you many descendants." (Hebrews 6:13-14 GW)

Those descendants came through both Ishmael and Issac, but the promise was through the promised seed, Issac.

I struggle to find a translation of Romans 4:17 that made sense.

Romans 4:17 Moffatt NT (as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations). Such a faith implies the presence of the God in whom he believed, a God who makes the dead live and calls into being what does not exist.

Abraham has been married to Sarah, who is now in her 90’s and well past childbearing age, and has produced NO children. Sarah suggests he try it with Hagar, and it works. I am not a doctor, but something tells me that the problem was not Abraham. The problem here is that the promise was meant to be through Sarah, not Hagar. The ability to have faith for a child just became more unreasonable. And yet, Abraham believed God.

The father of many nations, but who would think in these terms?

If we take this idea back to Noah, we can see that the entire earth was, once again, entirely populated through Noah and his descendants.

Consider something, thousands of years later, people seeking religious freedom came to America. There were already people here, but it seemed like there was plenty of land and you could throw a rock and not hit anybody. The point I am making is that there were a number of people but they were not shoulder to shoulder as it often feels now. 

Abraham, most likely, had no idea of what that would eventually look like.

What did Abraham know of God?

Not much. This is a huge assumption because as you read about Adam's transgression in the garden (Genesis 3), you come to the discernment that God instructed Adam in how to keep the penalty for transgression at bay (Genesis 3:21). We ignore the fact that Adam passed this information along orally, first to Cain and Able – whom Cain killed, and then to Seth (the third son in the lineage), who passed that same information down the line to Noah. I am pointing this out because the answers are there if you are willing to think outside the box. But then, there was this lifelike dream that was like no other Abraham had ever had. This dream is where God promises that He will make Abraham the father of many nations.

There was something extraordinary about this dream because we all read about the sacrifice, the blood, and what was said, as though Abraham was physically standing there before God.

I write these studies for believers, and many of them may be familiar with the manner in which God introduced Himself to Abraham; it is because of this assumption that I don't always insert the Bible passage that validates what I am saying. That assumption could be an issue as I am always hoping that some may be coming into a relationship with God as they read this, and seeing the passage would possibly cause faith in them.

That being said, the first interaction, where we see God speaking to, at this point, Abram, is in Genesis 12:1. We are merely spectators and can only assume how this utterance took place, because the details, like so many other incidents in scripture, are left out.

If I look up the Hebrew meanings of what seems like a simple word, “said” we find that some of the likely interpretations are to say in one’s heart, or to think. In reality, the heart is the mind. 

Many years ago, someone said that we should practice listening to God's voice. The idea behind this practice is to respond when He tells you to do something that will bring life into a situation. He will not tell you to jump off a cliff, that would be the devil. If an assertion like this is something you would say, then you should know that the fact that you are bringing out this alternate point demonstrates that you are capable of hearing voices in your head. Not to worry, we all hear voices in our heads. For some, the voice sounds like your wife; a friend; a drill sergeant, or God. Many of us have to sort out which voice we are going to respond to. Practicing listening to God's voice, which is no different than the Holy Spirit of God, could, as it did for Abraham, turn out to be an interesting and productive thing.

Moffat's translation tells us “Such a faith implies the presence of the God in whom he believed.”

Wow, how would it change your life if you did not believe in God, and then, suddenly He appears before you in a very realistic dream, as Jesus Christ, whom you recognize; and therefore, believe what He tells you.
I met such a man - a Muslim, and he now preaches Jesus.

Let's do the breakdown of Romans 4:17.

• “a God who makes the dead live and calls into being what does not exist.”

  Lacking a doctor capable of doing all the tests necessary to determine which of them was infertile could imply that Abraham's body was dead too. But we are not talking about Abraham when we talk about dead people. Paul is referring to Issac, Abraham's son.

  Wait a minute.

  God spared Issac’s life at the last second by causing a Ram to appear in the thicket suddenly.

  So how does death apply to Issac?

  It doesn’t, any more than Sarah being included in this conversation because she was barren unless these people are primarily symbolic. No doubt, all these people died, but Issac represented Jesus and his willingness to be sacrificed for sins. And, if you want to get picky, there was Lazarus, Jesus’ friend. He was dead for four days. There is a significance to that four days as the Jews believe that the spirit stays with the body for three days. This is also the reason that Jesus referred to Jonah as an example of His death and resurrection. So Jesus’ hesitation in going to see him was meant to prove that Lazarus was completely dead and his resurrection, therefore, was to be taken seriously.

• “ and calls into being what does not exist”

  For Sarah, the ability to produce a baby did not exist, and yet there it is.

  The nation Israel did not exist, and yet, there it is.

  Heaven and earth did not exist, and yet John tells us that Jesus, the Word, spoke them into existence.

  If you think about these statements, there are a vast number of other examples as well; and each of those is a call for us to apply faith to the things we think are impossible.

Premise is everything. A rebuttal of a post-tribulation rapture.

 Once again, I am interrupting my train of thought on 1 Timothy; hope you don't mind.

A few days ago, on my Twitter feed, a young lady proclaimed, “the more I read Revelation chapter seven, the more I am convinced of a post-tribulation rapture.”

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it is wrong. However, a writer, of which I have several of his books, clicked like on her comment, and that causes me grief. I will tell you that I refused to get into a fight with her, primarily because at my age I cannot remember passages that I could use as a club against her. I happen, at this point in time, to find this memory issue a blessing, as I still remember key words and themes and will take the time to find a prudent answer.

If I am going to make a brash statement such as, we are destined to go through the “tribulation”, as though the seven years that are coming are called the tribulation, then I am going to have to present a premise (Let's just say, a darn good reason why I believe that way.) Webster's Dictionary of American English (1828), tells me that an aspect of the word premise is “To speak or write before, or as introductory to the main subject; to offer previously, as something to explain or aid in understanding what follows.

In the case of this young lady, her premise was nothing more than informing her audience that she read the seventh chapter of Revelation more than once. Merely announcing that you have read something more than once tells me nothing more than you can read. And so, just this morning, after finishing my other devotionals, I intentionally played Revelation 7, repeatedly, on my phone's Bible application to see if I could pick up on what would tell me where she came to this conclusion; I found none.

Premise is everything, and if I am going to make the postulation that Revelation 7 is powerful evidence that we are going to go through the time of God's wrath, then I need to define why, but I can't do that if I don't understand or believe that this time period is just that, a time of great wrath and judgment.

I told an acquaintance that God's wrath is the basis for the seven-year period; to which he angrily responded, it is NOT. He would not back up his assertion as it was an emotional assumption based on traditional religious teaching. He merely proved to me that he had not read his Bible.

So my premise for understanding anything in the book of the Revelation, beyond chapter three, is that the seven-year-period is the time of God's wrath and judgment and is the major focus, aside from Jesus, of the Revelation.

What is the first thing you see when you begin to read the Revelation?

Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ,

If I must have proof of this statement about this time being the time of wrath, then I have dig through the majority of scripture from Job through the Revelation. The understanding that the wrath and judgment of God are coming is seeded throughout the Psalms, the Prophets, and the New Testament.

Job chapter 19 is interesting as it has Job telling those with him, even as my flesh is destroyed, I will see God. There is no assumption that anything else will happen; and I am referring to any potential wrath that he might, by religious standards, deserve.

"As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last, He will take His stand on the earth. "Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh, I shall see God;” (Job 19:25-26 NASB)

And, there is the declaration from Job that,

“wrath brings the punishment of the sword, So that you may know there is judgment.” (Job 19:29 NASB)

King David understood that Israel had become a reproach to their neighbors, and he asked the Lord if He would pour out His wrath upon the nations instead.

We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to those around us. How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out Your wrath upon the nations which do not know You, And upon the kingdoms which do not call upon Your name. (Psalms 79:4-6 NASB)

End, page one.

And this is precisely what God will do, but you should know that God's wrath is to be poured out on Israel as well.

When God began killing them, they finally sought him. They repented and took God seriously. Then they remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer. But all they gave him was lip service; they lied to him with their tongues. Their hearts were not loyal to him. They did not keep his covenant. Yet he was merciful and forgave their sins and did not destroy them all. Many times he held back his anger and did not unleash his fury! (Psalms 78:34-38 NLT)

The Prophet Isaiah declares,

Come here and listen, O nations of the earth. Let the world and everything in it hear my words. For the LORD is enraged against the nations. His fury - (many of the translations use the word wrath here) is against all their armies. He will completely destroy them, dooming them to slaughter. Their dead will be left unburied, and the stench of rotting bodies will fill the land. The mountains will flow with their blood. The heavens above will melt away and disappear like a rolled-up scroll. The stars will fall from the sky like withered leaves from a grapevine or shriveled figs from a fig tree. And when my sword has finished its work in the heavens, it will fall upon Edom, the nation I have marked for destruction. (Isaiah 34:1-5 NLT)

God also uses the term judgment(s) against the nations and Israel. Here is an example of what Ezekiel tells us.

"Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,' therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. (Ezekiel 5:7-8 NASB)

Nahum says,

A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; The LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies. (Nahum 1:2 NASB)

If Israel is the target of His wrath, then it safe to assume that many of them have become His enemies.

Mountains quake because of Him And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world, and all the inhabitants in it. Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him. (Nahum 1:5-6 NASB)

If you wanted to know some of the ways in which Israel made God angry, try reading Ezekiel 16. There are so many details here that I will limit the passages. The NASB entitles this chapter the Lord's faithless bride.

Ezekiel 16:2 NASB "Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.

The NLT uses the terminology “her detestable sins.” So then what are some of these sins?

Ezekiel 16:16-17 NLT You used the lovely things I gave you to make shrines for idols, where you played the prostitute. Unbelievable! How could such a thing ever happen? (17) You took the very jewels and gold and silver ornaments I had given you and made statues of men and worshiped them. This is adultery against me!

End, page two.

Israel was barely out of Egypt when they coerced Aaron to make them the god Moloch. A massive image in the shape of a bull with outstretched arms and a hollow body in which they set a fire; the participants then roasted their children in the heated arms of this image.

What is the modern equivalent of such child murder?

We call it abortion and classify it as women's health.

"Moreover, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to Me and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter? "You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire. (Ezekiel 16:20-21 NASB)

Perhaps by this time you understand why God is bringing His wrath and judgment, and to whom this wrath is supposed to come – the nations (We who are not Jews fall under the category of Gentiles or nations, that is, until we gave our life to Christ. We never take the place of the Jews, however, the adoption process, that God instituted, brings us into the family by placing us into Christ.) and Israel.

If you believe that those of us who are in Jesus Christ are supposed to endure the wrath and judgment coming upon those who have ignored Jesus, you have a serious problem. The Apostle Paul said, this message, in opposition to Christ coming back to rescue His church, is a doctrine of Demons, and you need to repent.

What did Paul preach?

Romans 1:18 NASB For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

What is the wrath directed at? 1. All ungodliness, and 2. The unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in the unrighteousness. When we accepted Christ's life in us, we obtained His righteousness, nothing less, and in God's eyes, we are righteous and accepted.

Just off the top of your head, who does it sound like God is talking to in Romans 1:18?

You would be right if you said the nation of Israel.

You want to know one of the ways they suppress the truth?

The rabbis in Israel prohibit the synagogue members from reading Isaiah 53 and the book of Daniel.

Why do you suppose that is?

Because both of these prophets very precisely spell out the Messiah and who He is, and they can't have that.

This next paragraph applies to all who exhibit stubbornness and an unrepentant heart.

Romans 2:1-5 NASB Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. (2) And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. (3) But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? (4) Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (5) But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

How about this one.

Romans 5:6-9 NASB For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (7) For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. (8) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

Christ died on that cross and rose again. It is because of those actions and our faith in those actions that we are saved from that WRATH that is to come. This statement is a short version of 1Corinthians 15:1-4.

End, page three.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 NASB (9) For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, (10) and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

We are not only rescued from the wrath to come, but this wrath is not our destiny. Our destiny is a seven-year banquet, in heaven, with Jesus. Let me make a point here. Over the years, some of the more heavyset speakers – who obviously enjoy food, have told us, we will sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Because of one of those men – a man who frequently dove into teaching the doctrines of demons, I did a word search for “supper of the Lamb.” It only shows up one time in our Bibles and that is in Revelation 19:9. In close proximity to that phrase, there is nothing to explain or define what that looks like, that is until you get to Revelation 19:17,18. Here a bloody scene has been described and obviously, God's enemies have been slain.

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. (Revelation 19:17-18 KJV)

Perhaps you get the idea. For me, just knowing that I will be thankfully clinging to Jesus, finally holding on to the one who was willing to give His life for me.

Pay attention, God has NOT destined us, who believe, for wrath, and that is the primary purpose of the seven-years. Surprisingly, the secondary motive is to draw all humanity to Him. Considering the horrors that are coming it is hard to conceive, but it is true as it is His nature and character.

For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, (1 Thessalonians 5:9 NASB)

The next verses speak of God keeping us from sufferings or, as some put it, tribulations. Here are the verses, and they refer to Lot as an example of how God keeps us.

Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. (2 Peter 2:8-9 NLT)

Since some of you may not be familiar with Lot I will give you a quick overview. Lot is Abraham's nephew. They lived side by side, as Abraham watched over him for a time. As their herds grew and workers fought, it was time for Lot to move on. Given the pick of the land, Lot picked the area of Sodom and Gomorrah. You can speculate on the whys of such a move, but perhaps God had a story to tell and it required Lot to go there. Fast forward, this place is a deviant, sexual orgy hot spot, and on the day the angels came to town with one purpose – to destroy, they find Lot sitting in the gates of the city. This gate thing was important as this is where the law was handed down and affairs of life were adjudicated; from this, we know that Lot was a righteous decision-maker. The dickering was done, the place was to be destroyed, and we find Lot stalling. Having read the story it is hard to understand why he stalled, so the angels grabbed him and his family, saying, we cannot bring the pain until we get you to safety.

Rescue has become a hot topic, even more so lately, as the restrictions passed down by an omniscient few (Bill Gates and friends,) have put the world under oppressive restrictions for nine months, and it's only getting worse. People who lean toward the prophetic (they read their Bibles and see that these events we find in scripture are being played out before us,) are crying out, Lord, come and rescue us, and soon. Of course, the opposition, many of whom claim there is no God, consistently screams you just want to escape. Well, this is good news for us believers, as escape is a theological concept and we see it in the word rescue.

End, page four.

Rescue is the Greek word rhuomai and it means, according to Thayer's concordance “to draw to one’s self, to rescue, and to deliver.” Does the idea of drawing an entire global community of Christ-followers sound very similar to the rapture of the Church? That is because it is!

The word temptations or tribulations creates a problem only because we call God's wrath the time of tribulation. Jesus said, in this world, because you belong to me, you will have tribulations. By-the-way, in the Revelation, there is a time period, the second half of the seven-years, of which Scripture says, that the tribulations will be so great that unless the Lord intervenes no one would survive. So a distinction has to be made between the common and sometimes violent, daily tribulations of life, and the apparent non-stop horror of the seven-years.

The English word translated here as tribulations or temptations is the Greek word peirasmos. It means to put to proof. The Word Study Dictionary tells us this, “When God is the agent, peirasmós is for the purpose of proving someone, never for the purpose of causing him to fall.”

Since we operate under the assumption that God's wrath is entirely for the purpose of killing off people who are in conflict with Him, then we cannot assign that time period to those who are deemed God's people, in any way shape, or form as we should be excluded. I am hoping you see the logic here.

At this moment, you may not feel like one of God's people even though you did all the appropriate religious steps and accepted Jesus. That's just like Satan to tell you that, but you do belong to Him, and God does see you through the shed blood of Jesus. It is that blood, which you accepted in faith, that makes you righteous.

“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 NASB)

At this point in time (in heaven,) feelings won't matter anymore as you will be like Him.

Since the time of wrath is for the dispensing of wrath, then what do we former sinners get?

A home in heaven with the Father. Simply put, all the wrath of God was put on Christ for one purpose. So that we would not have to suffer wrath for sin. We were forgiven on that cross. Those who reject Him get to stay and endure.

Do we humans punish sins here on earth?

Certainly, we do, if we can prosecute you. God instituted laws for the lawless, and those who stumble into sin. Sin is so many things, including gluttony, but who is counting. Jesus took all the sin upon Himself, voluntarily, so that scripture could say, God so loved the world, that He gave His only son. He redeemed us, paid the price for us, and bought us back so that we could walk free in His love.

How do you repay Him?

You don't, you open your arms and allow Him to come in. Remember, at that moment, in the twinkling of an eye, you were changed; you passed from life to death. Oh sure, your body will die if Christ does not come back first, but your spirit is alive to God now, and always will be.