Edition 489: October 1^st 2019

Left behind!

Introduction:

These are words of life!

If you, believing that you are a Christian, get left behind at the rapture of the church, it means that you are not really saved. Ultimately, you will have no excuse. But all is not lost!

A professing Christian is only a true Christian if born-again of the Spirit of God. A person who claims to be a Christian because he goes to a church, sings songs, and prays, or is not a Jew or Muslim, is not a Christian. The Bile speaks in numerous places of many and few. Many who will not be saved who thought they would, and few who will be saved.

If you have any doubts about your salvation, I strongly suggest you read the verses listed under the tab “Salvation” on the right hand side of this website. Read them and do them.

In this edition I want to paint a picture of what sort of world the left behind will be left to.

You cannot make sense of what is going on in this crazy world without a thorough knowledge of God’s word, and particularly the prophetic word. Only the word of God informs you of what is really going on and why, and what you must do about it.

Immediately after the rapture, heaven will be out of your reach. There is no second rapture or second chance at being caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and no second invitation to attend the marriage feast of the Lord in heaven.

As a left behind one, you will go with the world, immediately into the tribulation period, which begins immediately and not later as some false teachers claim.

The events that will start the tribulation period:

The events of the tribulation will come about suddenly, in one day. They will begin in a moment in the twinkling of an eye!

There are a number of things that the Bible groups together. They will happen at the same time or very close to one another. They are: ●The ending of the church age or dispensation. ●The start of the seven-year tribulation period (Daniel’s 70^th week). ●The rapture of the true born-again church. ●The removal of the restrainer, which is the Spirit-filled church. ●The identification of and release of the antichrist. ●The signing of a peace covenant for seven years.

These events all occur simultaneously. There is no inter-dispensation time-period.

The Old Covenant began in an instant as Moses came down from the mountain with the law cast in stone. (This was on the original day of Pentecost.) The Old Covenant ended in an instant as the Holy Spirit descended and the law was transferred from stone, to the hearts of man. This was on the day of Pentecost as the church age or dispensation began.

Likewise, the church age will end in a moment at the rapture. Then the next dispensation, the seven-year tribulation (Daniel’s 70^th week) begins immediately. If not, where do those who die in the interim period go? Are they heaven bound or Millennium bound?

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 “You yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say ‘peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labour pains and they shall not escape.”

The term “Day of the Lord” above is a reference to the entire tribulation. There is a verse where the “Day of the Lord” is a reference to the final day of the tribulation and there is also a verse where it relates to the entire church age. You must go by context.

Here we see that the context is the tribulation period as the words “peace and safety” relate to the coming signing of the peace covenant of Daniel 9:27 at the start of the tribulation.

Note that the people crying “peace and safety” will not escape!

Interestingly the original word used in the verse above for “peace” is not the regular word. It is: Strong’s: “Peace” G1515. Meanings: National peace, or a political peace treaty.

The original word used for “sudden” is Strong’s G160 meaning: Sudden, unforeseen, or unexpected.

Note what the verse above does not say: It does not say, “When they say peace and safety then comes peace and safety for three and a half years!” It does not say, “Then comes a delay for anything up to ten years before the tribulation begins”!  The coming destruction of the tribulation period will be sudden, severe and will run right through the seven year period, intensifying to a crescendo in the last half. No unsaved people will escape it!

So, if you miss the rapture, you are in for untold hell on earth. Amongst other names, the tribulation is called: The day of sorrows, the wrath of God, the indignation, the day of vengeance, and a time like never was nor ever shall be again!

It’s good to remember that God’s love includes severity and the judgment of sin and evil, to create real peace, safety, harmony, glory and all things godly good!

The God of a second chance:

So, if you are left behind at the rapture, is it all over for you? Are you hell-bound?

It most certainly is all over in terms of the destination of the true born-again church. It is all over in terms of hell on earth – the tribulation period. But no, you will still have a second chance to get and be saved in the tribulation.

You will then become what we call “the tribulation saints.” A great many people, both Jew and Gentile will be saved in the tribulation. What constitutes salvation in the tribulation will not be the same as it is now in the church age. People will be saved, but not born-again of the Spirit as we are.

The destination of those saved in the tribulation will be the new Millennium.

There will be a huge number of people who will not respond to salvation in the tribulation. They will become supernaturally motivated and driven enemies of God and His work and will end up in hell.

Here are a few phrases I’ve strung together from the Revelation to seven churches. Note again – these are messages to the churches:

“I will remove your candlestick from its place.” “I will spew you out of my mouth.” “I will cast you into great tribulation.”

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

The judgements of the tribulation are a great horror. The judgement of the believer for reward is a great honour!

Rapture, resurrection, judgement and the display of the rewarded believer to the universe, will once and for all demonstrate the glory of God’s correctness.

A message from God to the world’s leaders:

Isaiah 14:9 Hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you. All the chief ones of the earth it has raised up from their thrones, all the kings of the nations...”

Isaiah 10:13-14 “By the strength of my hand (antichrist) I have done it, and by my wisdom for I am prudent. I have removed the boundaries of the peoples and have robbed their treasuries; I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth and there was no one who moved his wing, nor opened his mouth with even a peep.”

Ezekiel 28:17-19 “Your heart (Lucifer) was lifted up because of your beauty, you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendour, I cast you to the ground and laid you before kings that they might gaze at you...You have become a horror and shall be no more – forever.”

Isaiah 5:14 “My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Therefore Sheol (hell) has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and multitude and pomp, and he who is jubilant shall descend into it.”

Revelation 17:13-14 “These (nations) are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast...They will make war with the Lamb...”

These verses above are indeed a horror. They speak succinctly of the socio-political world in the tribulation period. They speak of mass control in a one-world system of domination.

Be careful of Satan’s love for you! Tolerance and relevance to the world is a deadly trap. They are the danger words.

How to spot the dangerous false teachers and messages:

Deception is prevalent now, but will be far worse in the tribulation. It will have many of the same characteristics, although it will be more intense and with supernatural manifestations.

Deception always works through those with a spirit of error within them. It always works through those with pride in their hearts. There are many fruits and ways to spot it.

The big common denominators in false messages are an overt or covert anti-Israel bias. Secret Jew hatred lurks in the shadows. They will get worse and worse. They will fool many who will have “itching ears” and who are ignorant of the scriptures.

A major, most important thing to look for or to note amongst any teacher at any time is the place of the cross of Calvary, and the need to take up your own cross. The cross must always be central. Those who don’t teach the cross, very soon teach “another gospel”, full of all sorts of error!

You can make Yeshua easily acceptable to the masses – just remove the cross. You can never be at peace with the world with the cross active in your life. The cross removes Satan. Where there is no cross, Satan is there! The cross separates you from the world and makes you at peace with God.

1 Corinthians 2:12 “We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given us by God.”

Galatians 1:6-8 “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Messiah to a different gospel...Even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”

Jeremiah 2:21 “I planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?

Jeremiah 6:17-19 “I set watchmen over you saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’ Therefore hear, you nations and earth...Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded My word, nor My law, but rejected it.”

If you or your church won’t teach eschatology, you have capitulated to the enemy, whose desire is to obscure the importance of end-time doctrine.

Israel it is your time:

Israel it is your time! Immediately after the rapture, God’s salvation will swing over to Israel! Many nations will surround you, Israel and hate you, and try to destroy you. Some nations will love you and support you.

You will be their light in the very dark tribulation world! You are about to shine like never before! Your coming light will be the light of God in you. It will bring salvation amongst the nations, before the nations meet their doom in judgement.

Have a look at the following verses. What a dramatic, incredible picture:

Acts 13:47 “I have set you (Jews) to be a light to the Gentiles that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah 60:2-3 “Behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you (Jews), and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

Isaiah 42:6 “I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles.”

Zechariah 12:10 “I will pour on the House of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; the they will look upon Me whom they have pierced...”

Romans 11:12 If their (Jews) fall is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?”

Romans 11:15 “If their (Jews) being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be, but life from the dead.”

Ezekiel 20:41-42 “I will accept you (Jews) as a sweet smelling aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I lifted My hand in an oath to your fathers.”

Isaiah 14:1 “The Lord will have mercy on Jacob and still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. Strangers (Gentiles) will be joined to them and they will cling to the house of Jacob.”

Israel’s great sign:

Isaiah 66:19 “I will set a sign among them (Jews)...they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles.”

So, what is this great sign that causes the Jews to declare the glory of God to the Gentiles? This is obviously a tribulation verse, because it is the job of the church to declare the glory of God to the Jews now in the church age.

The sign to the Jews can only be the rapture of the church, leaving them, God’s chosen people behind! That will be the catalyst, the fuse, the spark that ignites salvation amongst the Jews, causing them to get saved and to be the agents of evangelism to the Gentiles!

What incredible drama!

Genesis 28:15-17 “Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you. Jacob (Israel) awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.’ And he was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’”

The verse above should silence every ant-Semite out there and every teacher of replacement theology! If you mess with or change God’s plans and order of things - you are a fool.

In the tribulation period, those left behind will become God-haters. Some will repent, but the masses will go headlong into their great eternal dilemma.

Two attitudes amongst those left behind:

Revelation 16:11 “They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and they did not repent of their deeds.” (Verse 21 “They blasphemed God because of plague of hail.”)

Revelation 11:13 “In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell and seven thousand men were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

Note in the verses above that many will turn on and blaspheme God as the tribulation judgements intensify. They will not repent. Note also that some did repent and wisely gave glory to God. But anyone who thinks that this time period will be a pick nick, are greatly mistaken. Just have a look at the following two scriptures.

I can’t even image it:

Revelation 9:6 “In those days (tribulation) men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die, but death will flee from them.”

Revelation 6:16-17 “They said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come and who is able to stand.”

At the end of the day, God is right, pure and holy, and His people will also be right, pure and holy. It is His love that destroys and gets rid of all attacks on His ways, character and plans.

All the nations of the world will ultimately be shot down and destroyed. The world in the Millennium will be a whole new deal – totally different. There will be no United Nations! It will go up in smoke.

Finally

There is a new excitement in the spiritual air! Can you sense it? Something is happening in the spirit realm. A transition is already there!

If you are left behind at the rapture, when the shock subsides, turn your eyes upon our Lord. Turn your heart to Him. Turn your ways to Him. Stand with Him and His purposes and above all, receive His word afresh in your hearts and mind. Make it your determined effort to endure through to the end.

You will have a chance to be saved in the tribulation period, but not from the tribulation troubles. You will need great strength and courage to stand. You will not have another chance after that.

Psalm 96:9 “Oh worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him all the earth.”

I took the background picture of the thundering Augrabies Falls in flood, and superimposed the heron which I took in the Okavango, into the picture.

Shalom and grow in His Grace!