Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We continue looking at the coming Biblical event called, “The Tribulation.” The Tribulation is a seven-year event that will end with the return of King Jesus Christ, and all Believers in Heaven, to establish the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ on earth. We’ve been looking at various Scriptures and at the context of a loving, gracious, compassionate, and merciful Father, and how The Scriptures and the context of The Father together provide us the timing of The Rapture. Again, as I’ve mentioned several times previously, I’m not providing an in-depth study. I provide just enough Truth for you to get started with a deeper, diligent study in which The Holy Spirit will lead you into Truth if you’re willing to receive it and not allow yourself to be blinded by philosophy, opinion, vain deceit, the traditions of men, and the rudiments of the world (Colossians 2:8).
The Book of John has a reference in John 14:1-3 which refers to Christ’s coming again to take His Church out of the earth. Let’s look at John 14:1-3.
John 14:1-3
1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Yes, Jesus is speaking to the physical Jews when He states this. However, remember that every verse has a physical and a Spiritual connotation to it. While it is addressed at this time to the physical Jews, it is also addressed to the Spiritual Jews which includes ALL Believers after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This means you. The Gentiles that will be saved in the Dispensation of Grace are grafted into the Spiritual Family of God. You are a Jew in the Spiritual sense.
Notice how closely the promises of John 14:1-3 and I Thessalonians 4:13-18 parallel each other. Jesus promises a presence with Him in John 14:3 and that we will always be with Him in I Thessalonians 4:17. Jesus also promises comfort in John 14:1 by stating, “Let not your heart be troubled…” and in I Thessalonians 4:18 with the command to “Wherefore comfort one another with these Words.” Jesus promises in John 14:3 that He “will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” and in I Thessalonians 4:16-17 that “the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout…and the dead in Christ shall rise first…..Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air…..” The Gospel of Jesus Christ and The Gospel of Grace align with each other. Jesus is promising to return and take The Church out of the earth. Why does Jesus need or want to take The Church out of the earth to Heaven if He is going to return to the earth for the Millennial Reign? We’ll see later in this message.
Now, let me throw another fly in the ointment of a Post-Tribulation rapture. Let’s just pretend for a moment there is a Post-Tribulation rapture. Why would Jesus have us meet Him in the air, only to immediately descend to earth without experiencing what is promised in John 14:1-3? We would never experience the mansions in Heaven and dwell for a meaningful time with Christ in The Father’s house. We must remember that once we leave Heaven to descend to the earth for the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ, we never return to Heaven. God will purge the post-Millennial earth and its atmosphere with His pure fire of justice and judgment (removing all of the corruption of the curse). God, Himself, will descend into the earth and God, The Father, and Jesus Christ, The Son and King, shall reign forever in the new earth and the new heaven (earth’s atmosphere) from the new city of Jerusalem, which descends out of Heaven, into the new earth. This alone destroys any postulation of a Post-Tribulation Rapture.
In an earlier message on The Tribulation, I spoke of dispensations and how The Tribulation is sandwiched in between the dispensation of Grace and The Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ. I want to peel back another layer of grace. During the Dispensation of Grace, which we are currently in, God’s grace extends to ALL men, and He has withheld His wrath from the unsaved. We clearly, clearly, clearly showed through The Holy Spirit’s revelation to Paul that The Church of The Dispensation of Grace will NOT experience the wrath of God. Now, when The Tribulation begins, there is a difference between The Dispensation of Grace and The Tribulation. God still extends His grace in that there will be people saved during The Tribulation, but they still have to go through the horrors of The Tribulation until their deaths. Many will be martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. However, the DIFFERENCE between The Dispensation of Grace and The Tribulation is God no longer holds back His wrath from the unsaved during The Tribulation. God’s wrath against the unsaved increases in intensity from the start-to-the-finish of The Tribulation.
In closing, we have to look at the context of God in His dealings with His children. James 1:17 is the measuring stick for all Believers in The Dispensation of Grace.
James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from The Father of lights [we, the Believers, are the lights], with Whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Notice The Father CAN ONLY give His children good and perfect gifts. If He did anything different, then He would be variable, and He would be turning to the left or to the right hand – meaning He is a liar. Is wrath a good and perfect gift for God’s children? Of course not. If God released His wrath, and His children had to experience it, He would be a liar, a terrible father, and no different than the enemy because He didn’t keep His Word. Psalm 138:2 makes it clear God answers to His Word and Psalm 89:34 makes it clear God will NEVER break it. This is why we can wake up every day and rejoice and be glad in the day The Lord hath made.
My greatest blessing ever is mine today, it’s happening today, and it belongs to me today. Is this your testimony every day? Why not if Proverbs 4:18 promises that every day for the Believer should be even more blessed than the previous day? Why don’t we take God’s promises for Truth and experience The Blessing He spoke over us in Genesis 1.
Proverbs 4:18
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
Blessings in Christ,
Larry