Category Archives: Last Days

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? (Pt. 8)

What Does It All Mean?

For a number of years I believed that Christians would not have to go through any of the tribulation period described in the book of Revelation.  Like many of my contemporaries, I assumed that everything between chapter 4 and the end of chapter 18 was going to be God’s pouring out of judgments on a rebellious, sinful world.  I believed that we Christians would have been conveniently raptured out of this world before those horrible things began to come upon the earth.  I taught that only after the Christians escaped would the awful tribulations come, followed by the final return of Jesus Christ described in Revelation 19, where we see a picture of Christ as Conquering King.

Then I read chapter 10, verse 1.

And read it.

And read it again.

The more I read it. The more convinced I became that this can only be one person – Jesus Christ.  It is not Gabriel, Michael, or some other special angel, as I had been taught and as I later taught thousands of other people.  The characteristics John describes can only be rightly attributed to God, not any created being.

Keep in mind what we know about the signs of the presence of Almighty God – He appears often in a cloud, the rainbow, bright light, and fire – and look at what I believe is the point in Scripture where Jesus Christ returns:

I saw still another mighty angel (messenger) coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud.  And a rainbow was on his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.  He had a little book open in his hand.  And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. (10:1-2 NKJV)

I believe with all of my heart that the Person being described here is Jesus Christ.  He is coming in the clouds.  Only God Almighty has a rainbow on His head.  Only His face is like the sun.  (Moses reflected a bit of that glory when he came down from Mount Sinai, after receiving the Ten Commandments.)  His fiery feet indicate that He is coming to judge the world.  (Jesus said in Matthew 28:18, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (NKJV).  And he places one foot on the sea and one foot on the land, to show that He has absolute power and authority over the world.

This is the Jesus that every eye shall see – not the Babe of Bethlehem, not even the Lamb for sinners slain.  This Jesus is the regal, awesome Judge of all creation!

For nearly ten years I kept my thoughts on Revelation 10:1 to myself.  Finally, as I continued to study, and as I began to speak about what I believed God had shown me in prison and in the years following my release, I felt that I must go public with the message He had given me.  I knew it would not be a popular message, and I knew that the prevailing opinions in many Christian circles would be adamantly against my views.  Nevertheless, late in 1997 I began to voice my opinion that although the picture of Jesus in Revelation 19 is indeed a portrayal o four King, Revelation 10 is an equally accurate presentation of our victorious Lord.  And if we are to understand these Scriptures in any chronological way, it might well be that Jesus will return some time after the tribulation period begins.

I had just spoken on the subject for the first time when I was riding with my daughter, Tammy Sue, and my assistant, Shirley Fulbright.  We turned on the radio and to our surprise heard Bible teacher David Jeremiah speaking about Revelation 10.  Dr. Jeremiah was one of the Bible teachers I had often listened to on my tiny transistor radio while I had been in prison, and I had greatly benefited from his shound, careful analysis of Scripture.  Now, as we listened in the car, I was intensely interested in hearing what he had to say about Revelation 10.

David Jeremiah presented an exposition of the passage and then said, “people won’t agree with me, but I believe this can be only one Person:  His name is Jesus.”

I was thrilled!  I had thought that perhaps I was a Lone Ranger in my thinking that Revelation 10:1 refers to Jesus.  Not that I minded:  I had long since learned that the majority opinion can often be wrong.  Still, it was a tremendous encouragement simply to hear that a devout student and teacher of the Word had come to a similar conclusion as my own.  In his book Escape the Coming Night, Dr. Jeremiah examined the issue again and stated succinctly, “Although the identity of this messenger from heaven seems clear to me, there has been quite a controversy about who He is.  I believe this angel is the Angel of Jehovah, the Lord Himself.”

The angel, or messenger, as the world can also be translated,

Cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars.  When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.  Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.” (10:3-4 NKJV)

This passage is a great enigma to Bible scholars because it is never explained further.  Apparently when the Angel cries out like the roar of a lion (see Rev. 5:5), the message resonates throughout the world and is answered by the seven thunders.  It is the only part of the Apocalypse that John was not permitted to disclose.  The message of the seven thunders remains sealed to this day.

What happens next is one of the true high points of all Scripture.

(To Be Continued)

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 1
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 2
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 3
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 4
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 5
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 6
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 7
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 9
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 10
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 11

Excerpt from Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse

Published in 1998

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? (Pt. 7)

A False Hope

The more I studied the Scriptures, the more I became convinced that we are living in the last days, and that we will soon begin seeing the fulfillment of the predictions in the prophetic books of the Bible, including the cataclysmic conditions on earth, which will precipitate the rise of the Antichrist.

I also saw a connection between the escapist Rapture and those who espouse a materialistic gospel.  I became convinced that we are wasting so much time and energy teaching people how to get rich and how to become self-fulfilled, we have not adequately prepared them for what is to come.  Instead of the Church presenting a false hope by preaching the pretribulation Rapture, we should be spending this time informing believers that they will have to go through the Tribulation, or at least some part of it.  We should be teaching people to fall in love with Jesus.  We should be spending our time, energy, and resources getting spiritually ready for a severe period of persecution and a time of unparalleled upheaval.

To think otherwise, one must totally ignore church history.  Brutal persecutions have often been the normal experience for believers.  From the earliest years of Christianity, believers were stoned, burned at the stake, dragged through the streets with their feet tied to stampeding animals, and used as human torches.  During these persecutions God did not magically remove His people from their tormentors’ grasp, but He gave them the grace necessary to go through their tortures.  What makes us think God should cut us a break and allow us to escape before the onslaught of hell comes on the earth?  Have we been more faithful than those early saints?  Are we more worthy of an easy ride to heaven than they were?

Going back to Matthew 24, I found that throughout Jesus’ listing of the signs of the times, He does not even hint at a pretribulational Rapture.  In fact, He laid the emphasis on just the opposite order of events.  Jesus described some of the signs that are even now beginning to take place, but the overall tenor of the passage is that even though we will see these things, the end is not yet. Jesus then said:

For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall.  And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short.  (vv. 21-22 NASB)

Reading the account naturally, without imposing our own ideas or wishful thinking into it, the order of events seems to take place logically.

But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.  And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.  (vv. 29-31 NASB).

Notice the order of events.  These things happen after the Great Tribulation, “and then… (we) will see the Son of Man coming.”  And they certainly do not seem to be done in secret.  In fact, the tribes of the world, those who do not know the Lord, will mourn at His coming.  In the chapters ahead, we will see that they have good reason to mourn.

Will Christians go through the Great Tribulation?  I believe we will experience at least some part of it before Jesus Christ returns.  When I speak on this subject nowadays, I facetiously tell audiences, “I tried my best to keep us out of the Tribulation.  For years I preached that we would escape it.  In my studies while in prison, I searched for hours on end, trying to find some way that believers would escape the difficult times about to come on the earth, but I couldn’t do it.  I am convinced now that we are going through.  Hold on tightly to Jesus.  It’s going to be a wild ride!”

(To Be Continued)

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 1
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 2
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 3
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 4
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 5
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 6
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 8
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 9
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 10
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 11

Excerpt from Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse

Published in 1998

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? (Pt. 6)

The Origin of the Pretrib View

When I dug into the matter further, I was surprised to discover that many of the ideas associated with the pretributional Rapture originated not in the Bible, but in an extrabiblical vision experienced by a young Scottish woman named Margaret Macdonald in 1830.  The woman sent handwritten copies of her “revelation” to Edward Irving, a controversial minister, who, with his great gifts of oratory and his magnetic personality, was drawing large crowds to his church in London.  In his pamphlet, “Why I Believe the Church Will Pass Through the Tribulation,” David MacPherson described what happened after Irving got hold of Margaret Macdonald’s vision.

It was from this supposed revelation that the modern doctrine and modern phraseology respecting the pretribulational rapture arose; it came not from Scripture, but from that which falsely pretended to be the Spirit of God.  Irving accepted this teaching and it was taught at prophetic meetings at Powerscourt House in Ireland, attended by Plymouth Brethren organizer John Darby.  Irving’s views influenced Darby, C. H. Mackintosh, and C. I. Scofield, whose Bible popularized the new theory.  Later, some of the leading Plymouth Brethren scholars, including Benjamin Newton and S. P. Tregelles, rejected this pretrib theory.  For 1,800 years the Church had believed only in a postrib coming which, during persecution, was occasionally thought to be imminent.  There is not a shred of historical evidence before 1830 that the Church ever believed in a double coming, or rapture before the Tribulation.

David Mac Pherson goes on to list some of the elements of Margaret’s radical vision, which included splitting the second coming of Christ into two phases – first, a pretrib rapture; then later, after the tribulation, the return of Christ to earth.  Her own statement clearly contains more of the major tenets found today in pretrib dispensationalism – meeting the Lord in the air, secrecy, suddenness, invisibility, immanency, a pretrib separation of believers and unbelievers, distinction between the raptured bride and the tribulation elect.

How, you may wonder, could a vision experienced by a relatively unknown young woman with no platform or sphere of influence have such an impact?  Actually, most people of her time did not know the vision was Margaret Macdonald’s.  They thought the new truth was something Edward Irving had discovered in the Bible.  Keep in mind that Irving was a popular preacher in those days, and his views were quickly adopted.  In The Rapture Plot, David MacPherson lists four reasons why he believes the young woman was not “credited” with her vision at first:  “She was a female in the male-dominated theological world of 1830; she was young; she was uneducated; and she had been a Christian only a year.”  Interestingly, many of the tenets in the teachings of highly respected prophetic teachers, and other advocates of a pretribulational Rapture, are similar to those first espoused by Margaret Macdonald.

(To Be Continued)

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 1
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 2
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 3
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 4
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 5
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 7
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 8
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 9
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 10
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 11

Excerpt from Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse

Published in 1998

On Being a Bondservant of Christ (Pt. 1)

When I was in Master’s Commission in Phoenix, one of the most important things we learned very early was what it meant to be a bondservant of Christ.  This is not a popular topic, but then again, Jim and I are not known for our preaching on popular things!   In our “it’s all about me” generation, this is not a topic one would hear in “happy church” – but it is a topic that is essential for the Revelation Days which are immediately upon us.

I believe we’re in a time frame in the Revelation of Christ where we need to review this topic again and determine the condition of our own individual hearts in regards to it.

I’m going to be doing a series of blogs about being a “bondservant” and I hope you will tune in.  Please open your heart and your spiritual ears.   We do not want to be among those who say “Lord, didn’t we do <fill in the blank> in your name?  And then hear “away from Me – I do not know you!”

The term “bondservant” comes from the word dulos and is defined as:

  1. 1.     a slave, bondman, man of servile condition
  2. 2.    one who gives himself up to another’s will
  3. 3.    those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men
  4. 4.    devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interests

 

Being a bondservant of Christ means a lot of things.  We are going to get started with just a reminder of some of the simple things we may have heard long ago in Sunday School, but forgotten as time and the pressures of our environment take its tolls.

The culture we live in subtly works against the principles of God in every way.  The principles of the Kingdom of God are exactly upside down of  what we hear and see in the world – but if we’re not careful, we accept the world’s attitudes and deceptiveness into our own lives and it creeps in on us.  We repeat things that sound right, but aren’t – and the ultimate end of our not staying on the right path is missing the mark!

In the last 100 years especially, we have been inundated with the “I have a right” rhetoric in our country which has reached an absurd tempo and twisted the truths of God to call evil good, and good, evil.  We are now disregarding the things of honor, and honoring wicked things.

Nobody is exempt.

Nobody is beyond deception.

We must guard our hearts and minds in the Last Days!

In order to stay on the right path in our thinking and in our Christian walk, we must revisit what the Word of God really says about living godly lives.

Jesus is our Supreme Example:

“… but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.  And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43-45)

Jesus came to serve:

“For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves?  Is it not he who sits at the table?  Yet I am among you as the One who serves. (Luke 22:27)

Jesus is the epitome of servant leadership.  He humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples, a task thought to be the lowest of any servant.  Yet, Jesus did even more… He died on a cross – crucified so that we would live.  He was and is the Master who taught us what it means to lead by serving.

Be sure to tune in for this continuing study of what it means to be a bondservant of Christ.  Together we can keep it real, and keep it right.

(continued)

Love,

Lori

On Being a Bondservant of Christ – Part 2
On Being a Bondservant of Christ – Part 3
On Being a Bondservant of Christ – Part 4
On Being a Bondservant of Christ – Part 5
On Being a Bondservant of Christ – Part 6
On Being a Bondservant of Christ – Part 7
On Being a Bondservant of Christ – Part 8
On Being a Bondservant of Christ – Part 9
On Being a Bondservant of Christ – Part 10

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? (Pt. 5)

For me, belief in the Rapture played right into my prosperity theology.  It made for a perfect package: people could get saved by saying a few words, they could live in luxury and excess throughout this lifetime, and then Jesus would return to take them out of the tough times that others were to experience during end-time tribulation.  It was pure escapism.  My favorite prophetic passage was, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the son of Man” (Luke 21:36 NKJV).

I liked that verse because it gave me an out.  Christians did not really have to suffer.  They would be taken home to glory before all the bad stuff started happening on earth.  I felt it went against God’s very nature to allow His family to go through the horrors of the Tribulation.  Surely He loves us too much to allow that.  “Just keep praying, brother and sister, that you may be counted worthy to escape.”

Not only that, but it was easier to raise money if one believed in a pretribulational Rapture.  Many sincere Christians who want their lives to count for Christ are easily stimulated to give to ministries when they believe that Jesus Christ could come back at any moment.  After all, who wants to send money to a ministry that tells them tough times are coming and you will have to go through them?

In the preface to his book The Rapture Plot, author David MacPherson hints at a link between pretrib theology and money.  MacPherson describes belief in the Rapture as “Protestant evangelicalism’s most popular and most lucrative view of the future.”  Not surprisingly, most popular prosperity teachers – with a few rare exceptions – hold strongly to a pretribulational view, including belief in a Rapture that will allow believers to escape the calamities to come.

My own thinking on the matter began to change when, in prison, I began a daily, concentrated study of the Scriptures, especially those relating to Jesus Christ.  Naturally, I wanted to learn about Christ’s return, so I began searching for those passages that described a rapture that preceds the Tribulation.

To my amazement, I couldn’t find any.  Oh, sure, I found Scriptures that I and other preachers had twisted or had imbued with our own interpretations, but when I allowed the Bible to speak for itself, I came face to face with the fact that my preconceived notions of a pretribulational Rapture were baseless.  About that same time, God began to impress upon me that I myust warn people concerning the dark days to come.

Over the years since then, I have discovered that I am not alone in my opinion that there is no biblical basis to believe in a pretribulational Rapture.  For instance, Dr. George Eldon Ladd, the esteemed former Professor of Exegesis and Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, wrote, “The Scripture nowhere asserts that there is a Rapture which will take place before the Revelation.”

Dr. Ladd studied the prophetic Scriptures carefully and wrote numerous books on the Second Coming, including The Blessed Hope and A Commentary on the Book of Revelation.  In his book The Last Things, Ladd contends:

The only coming of Christ that is spoken of in Matthew 24 is the coming of the glorious Son of Man after the tribulation and the only thing that resembles the Rapture is the gathering of the elect from the four winds (Matt. 24:31).  There is not a hint of a pretribulational return of Christ and Rapture of the church before the Great Tribulation.

(To Be Continued)

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 1
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 2
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 3
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 4
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 6
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 7
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 8
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 9
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 10
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 11

Excerpt from Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse

Published in 1998

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? (Pt. 4)

The word rapture comes from the Latin rapiemur and means “we shall be caught up”.  Although the word rapture does not appear in the Bible, we based our concept of it on a passage in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, in which he encouraged the believers:

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 shall rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words.  (4:16-18 NASB, emphasis mine).

This catching away of the saints was to take place secretly, at least as far as unbelievers were concerned.  Only believers, it was thought, would be able to witness the appearing of the Lord.  Suddenly, Jesus was to appear for us, and in a twinkling of an eye we would be gone, whisked off the ground to meet the Lord in the sky.  The dead in Christ, believers who had died prior to His coming, would rise first and together we would all meet Him in the air.  From there He would take us to live with Him eternally.  Later, Christ would return again, this time in power and glory to judge the word and set up His eternal kingdom.  Some Christians who agreed on a pretribulational Rapture had more difficulty agreeing on just how much time would elapse before Christ’s final return – some thought it to be after the one thousand years of peace predicted in Revelation 20:3, others thought it might be before that millennium – but all pretrib preachers and teachers were confident of Christ’s final victory over Satan and the Lord’s return for His people.

Many Christians plastered bumper stickers on their cars with slogans such as, “If Jesus comes, this car will be driverless.”  Pastors sometimes quipped, “If the Rapture takes place while I am preaching, you’ll have to get someone else to finish this sermon.”  Christians often joked, “Imagine what a mess it’s going to be when the Rapture occurs – when millions of people don’t show up for work the day after the Rapture because we are all in heaven!”  Those with a more morbid outlook fretted over what would happen to planes being piloted by Christians, or buses being driven by Christians, or patients being operated on by Christian doctors at the moment the Rapture takes place.  Planes spinning out of control, buses careening off highways, and patients left to die on the operating table were part of the down side to the Rapture.

Although most of my pretribulational mentors were relatively unknown, some of the more recognizable names associated with pretribulational Rapture position include C.E. Scofield, whose notes in the Scofield Bible influenced many of the preachers of my generation; Hal Lindsey, whose book The Late Great Planet Earth did much the same for many laypeople; John F. Walvoord, a Dallas Theological Seminary professor whose book The Rapture Question has impacted many who have studied the issue from a more scholarly approach; and Charles C. Ryrie, whose study Bible was one of the best-selling study Bibles in the 1980s.

(To Be Continued)

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 1
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 2
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 3
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 5
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 6
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 7
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 8
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 9
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 10
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 11

Excerpt from Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse

Published in 1998

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? (Pt. 3)

Believing and expecting the return of Jesus Christ is something most Christians can agree on, but the question that rankles the hearts and minds of many believers – and sometimes even divides Christians into separate camps and denominations – is the issue of whether believers will have to experience some or all of the rough times described in the book of Revelation and other prophetic Scriptures.

Basing their beliefs on information found in the Old Testament book of Daniel and the New Testament book of Revelation, conservative Bible scholars generally concur on the fact that the Great Tribulation will last a total of seven years. During that time the earth will undergo a horrendous time of chaos, including unparalleled earthquakes, floods, famines, pestilences, meteor strikes, and wars. Out of the chaos, rising on a platform of peace and security, will be the Antichrist, a powerful world leader under the direct control of Satan himself. The question is this: will Christians who are alive at that time (which I believe is coming upon us in the near future) escape the Tribulation, or will we have to go through part or all of it? Sincere Christians and intelligent Bible scholars can be found on both sides of the issue, holding to radically different opinions of just when Christ will come and when His church, the body of true believers, will be removed from Earth.

For many years I believed and preached adamantly that Christians would not be here to see the horrors of the Tribulation period. Admittedly, most of my thoughts on the matter were not original; nor were my views arrived at by years of studying the Scriptures and coming to biblically based conclusions. For the most part I simply believed what my mentors had taught, naively accepting their positions as absolute truth. When I continued to teach the things I had heard other sincere men and women of God proclaim – namely, that Jesus was coming back before the seven-year Tribulation, in an event we called the Rapture.

(To Be Continued)

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 1
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 2
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 4
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 5
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 6
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 7
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 8
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 9
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 10
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 11

Excerpt from Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse

Published in 1998

This Generation Will Not Pass…

Matthew 24 is a passage of Scripture that tells what to look for just before the Lord returns.  Jim preaches from it often.  Right after the Word tells about wars, earthquakes, famines, etc., it says that this generation will not pass away before we see the coming of the Lord. 

What generation?  The generation that is living at the time those things spoken of in Matthew 24 are happening. 

The New Living Bible says it like this:  “I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place.”

Unless you completely ignore the signs of the times, you must know that we ARE the last generation – it’s not a cliche’, it’s a reality.  We are truly a chosen generation – chosen to occupy this earth and see the Lord coming again in great Glory and Power.

Have you ever thought about why He would choose you and me to be here at this time in history?  Some think we’re here by accident – the product of happenstance.  Yet, those who are truly believers of Jesus Christ know that nothing in this universe is happenstance with our God. 

There are so many scriptures that tell us we are not an accident – we were planned before the foundations of the earth.  Think about that for just a minute.  Before our Creator made the earth that we live on, He knew us and knew we would occupy that earth at this crucial time in the history of the world.

We are a chosen generation.  With that, comes privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility.

Spiritual truths are being revealed every day that herald the Second Coming.  Light is equivalent to truth, and when we receive light or truth we have more responsibilities. So not only do we have more light today, but we also have more accountability.

The more truth that we understand, the more you and I are required to walk in the level of understanding we have been given and to carry that light to others.  That’s why many people will only go so far with God and then they balk at knowing the deeper things.  They know they will be held accountable!  I wouldn’t want to stand before God and tell Him that I refused His gifts because I didn’t want to be accountable for them.  As a matter of fact, there is a parable about that in Matthew 25, and the end of the one who would not use what God had given him wisely – well, let’s just say it doesn’t end well.

In the last generation, God is sending a message of truth to the entire world, and after you receive that message of truth, it draws a line in the sand for you. 

Now in the last generation, Jesus has chosen you to carry the message of truth to a sin-sick world.  Much of this world has so twisted things that they now call evil good, and good evil.  But truth is always the standard bearer in this earth.  The scriptures tell us that when evil comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God will lift up a standard against it.  Will you do it?  Will you be His standard bearer in these Last Days?

There has been so much talk and preaching about a purposeful life – but there is no greater purpose under heaven than to be a standard bearer for the Lord Jesus in these Last Days!

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? (Pt. 2)

Procrastinators, Beware!

Maybe Jesus did not get more specific so we would live with a constant sense of expectation, looking for His soon return.  Clearly that was the message of His story about the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13), five of whom were prepared for the bridegroom’s coming and five of whom were not.  Jesus emphasized the point of the story:  “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (25:13 NKJV).

God knows that some of us are terrible procrastinators.  We would gladly put off until tomorrow what we should have done yesterday.  On the other hand, my mother always prepared well in advance.  She had a disciplined manner, and my family members could set their clocks and calendars by Mother’s schedule.  She washed clothes on Monday; she ironed on Tuesday.  She bought groceries on Friday.  Her pattern rarely changed.  If we planned a picnic, and something happened that we could not go, my mother cried because her plans had changed.

Perhaps as a reaction to Mother’s rigidity, I have always been just the opposite.  I hate to prepare for trips ahead of time.  An hour (or less) before it is time to go, I will be scouring my clothes closet, tossing shirts, socks, and underwear every which way, trying to figure out what I should pack.  Similarly, if I am preaching at a church, I wait until the last minute before getting dressed, usually arriving just in time to walk onto the platform.

By not telling us the exact time and date of His coming, perhaps Jesus was being especially gracious to procrastinators like me.  If Jesus had given us an exact date for His return, some people would no doubt waste much of their time, talents, and treasures on meaningless or trivial pursuits.  They would wait until the last minute to prepare to meet the King of kings face to face.

When it comes to the Second Coming, we will not read an announcement in the newspaper the day before Christ’s return.  You will not hear an anchorman declare on the evening news, “And tomorrow at five o’clock, Jesus Christ will return to earth in power and glory, with His holy angels, Film at eleven.”

Yet, if you listen carefully, you will hear prophetic “voices in the wilderness” proclaiming the message that Christ’s return is imminent.  It is “gettin’ ready time.”  This is no dress rehearsal, this is the real thing.  Furthermore, we need to fall in love with Jesus now, and not wait until the last minute.  If Jesus really is coming soon, how much more important it is that we get to know Him better, and that we center our lives around the things that are important to Him.

Years ago, an artist painted a scene in which a young woman was standing on a cliff, looking out to sea, her hand shading her eyes as she eagerly scanned the horizon, watching for the first sign of her husband’s returning ship.  Her face is filled with love and desire, as though she is recalling exactly what he had promised her concerning his return and when she might expect to see him again.  As she looks for his ship, she is already preparing a welcome for him in her heart.

Christians who truly love the Lord Jesus will have a similar attitude as we look for signs of His soon appearing.  We should be recalling His every word, studying the Scriptures to help us remember what is important to our loving Lord, scanning the horizon, watching for hints that the time is drawing near, and preparing our hearts in anticipation.

(To Be Continued)

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 1
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 3
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 4
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 5
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 6
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 7
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 8
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 9
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 10
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 11

Excerpt from Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse

Published in 1998

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? (Pt. 1)

Some dramatic events on God’s calendar must take place before the Lord returns to earth, and many of these are not going to be pretty.  Those Christians who have adopted a materialistic, escapist view of the Christian life may be terribly surprised.

Many of the world crises we are beginning to experience were predicted in the Bible hundreds of years ago.  What is shocking, however, is the rapid-fire speed at which these events are now racing ahead.  Against all odds, the frameworks of the world’s economic, political, and social systems are being shaken and are beginning to crumble.

Before going any further, allow me to make a confession:  I do not understand everything the Bible reveals to us concerning the Second Coming.  I consider myself a student of the Scriptures, but I must admit, I still have questions about many aspects of eschatology, the study of future things.  I do not know when Jesus is coming – it may be in my lifetime or it may not – but I believe He will return to Earth in power and glory, just as He said.

I used to listen in amazement (and sometimes with amusement) to some of the prophecy teachers we hosted at PTL.  With their charts and graphs they would dogmatically teach exactly when the events described in the book of Revelation were going to come to pass.  “This is going to happen, then this will happen, and then will be the Battle of Armageddon…” on and on they would go.  I do not mean to imply that these teachers were insincere in their teaching or unlearned in the Scriptures.  They were godly Bible teachers who felt strongly that they had exceptional insight or an unusual understanding of a complicated message.

Yet the truth is, we do not know when Jesus Christ is going to return.  I can point you to the Scriptures that describe what will happen before His coming; I can (and will in the pages ahead) show you Scriptures that describe His return in power.  But to set a date for His return is not my intention.  Jesus said, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32 NKJV).  In one of His last statements to His disciples, after the Resurrection and just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus said, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority” (Acts 1:7 NKJV).  For me to give you a play-by-play description of the events scheduled to take place in the future, events whose timing is known only to our heavenly Father, would be the height of presumption on my part.

On the other hand, I do not subscribe to the popular notion that it is impossible for us to know approximately when to expect our Lord’s return.  Many Christians are fond of saying, “I am neither pretribulational or posttribulational.  I am pantribulational.  I just believe it will all pan out in the end.”

That’s a cute (and non-confrontational) way to look at the last days, but it flies in the face of Scripture.  Jesus definitely gave us a lot of information concerning His return and, as I noted previously, numerous signs to watch for, signs indicating that the time of His return is near.

Sometimes I wish Jesus had been more specific in the information He gave to us.  Imagine all the theological arguments He could have prevented if He hand only said, “I am coming back at the beginning of the Tribulation period, or the middle, or the end of the Tribulation.”  Better yet, He could have said, “I am coming back on January 1, 20XX, so be ready.”

(To Be Continued)

Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 2
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 3
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 4
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 5
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 6
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 7
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 8
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 9
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 10
Will We Go Through the Tribulation? – Part 11

Excerpt from Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse

Published in 1998