When Does The Church Leave The Earth – Part IV?

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Today’s message closes out the topic of “When Does The Church Leave The Earth.”

This will be a wrap up or compilation of what has been stated in past messages with a little additional detail added.  There are schools of thought for Pre-Tribulation, Mid-Tribulation, and Post-Tribulation Rapture of The Church from the earth.  However, The Scriptures are clear as to when this occurs.  God is not a God of confusion, chaos, strife, and discontentment.  Now, when I say The Scriptures are clear, it is clear to those who diligently seek after The Lord on this matter or any other matter.  It may take time.  We may move through believing in one or more of the time periods/doctrine, but ultimately, with diligent seeking, The Holy Spirit will clearly reveal the timing to God’s Children.  God doesn’t promote fear, He promotes faith.  There is no such thing as “fear” in The Kingdom of God.  Confusion, doubt, chaos, etc. promotes fear and are tools of satan.

Here are some things to ponder in meditation with The Holy Spirit:

1. If God miraculously preserves The Church in the earth through The Tribulation, what is the need for The Rapture?
2. If The Rapture takes place with The Lord’s Post-Tribulation coming, the subsequent separation of the sheep from the goats will be redundant.  The separation will already have taken place with the very act of translation.
3. Who will populate and propagate The Kingdom of God on earth during The Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ if all Tribulation Believers are raptured and glorified just prior to the Millennial Kingdom?  The Scriptures are clear the living unbelievers will be judged at the end of The Tribulation and removed from the earth.  Yet, The Scriptures also teach that children will be born to Believers during The Millennium and these children will be capable of sin (Isaiah 65:20; Revelation 20:7-10).  This will not be possible if all Believers on earth have been glorified through a Post-Tribulation Rapture.
4. Lastly, a Post-Tribulation doctrine leaves no time for the Bema, the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ, to occur (I Corinthians 3:10-15; II Corinthians 5:10).  Nor does it provide time for The Marriage Supper of The Lamb (Revelation 19:6-10) to occur.  This eliminates two critical end-time events and is completely incongruous with The Scriptures.
5. God has clearly promised the Believers of The Dispensation of Grace we will never face His wrath (I Thessalonians 1:10).  God poured out His wrath and anger on Jesus Christ at the cross.  To try and provide a doctrine for God’s wrath against us, as Believers, is to take Jesus off the cross and place ourselves on the cross as the substitute.  This is simply pride.  God’s wrath is reserved for the Tribulation, increasing in intensity from the beginning to the end of the seven years against the unsaved.

As I mentioned at the start of this topic, this is not an in-depth study of The Tribulation or The Rapture.  However, it is a good starting point from which to set out to prove what I’ve written as being right or wrong.  No matter whether a Brother or Sister in Christ believes in a Pre, Mid, or Post-Tribulation Rapture, we are to love and to pray for one another.  Jesus instructed us to live one day at a time, to be in the present.  This is why Jesus instructed in The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:11, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Notice Jesus said nothing about “tomorrow.”  He said, “this day.”  What does that have to do with this message on “When Does The Church Leave The Earth?”  Simply put, we are not to get caught up in something we have NO control over in the future, such as when The Rapture and The Tribulation occurs, when we haven’t even mastered the basic doctrine of The Gospel of Jesus Christ and The Kingdom of God to live for today.  This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t study The Rapture or The Tribulation, we sh0uld.  However, as Paul said, meat is reserved for the Spiritually mature, not for babes or young children in Spiritual maturity (I Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:12-14).  Paul is admonishing all of us, as Believers, to learn to use the wisdom and power stored up for us in The Kingdom of God before handling the weightier matters over which we have no control other than preparing ourselves to meet The Lord.  The wisdom we are given with respect to the weightier matters is to be used to encourage The Church NOT TO FEAR and to go forth and occupy until Christ returns.  We are not rewarded at the Bema for what we know of The Rapture and The Tribulation.  We are rewarded for what we have done in and with The Kingdom of God on this earth.  We are called to “be blessed and to be a blessing to others in this earth.”

Proverbs 18:21

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

“Keeping a healthy tongue keeps a healthy and prosperous life.”

In Christ,

Larry