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Would you mind sharing your view on the rapture, please?
Thank you!
You can check what Jesus said in Matt. 24, Mark, 13, and Luke 21.
You can check what Paul said in 2 Thess. 2 to see the sequence of events he gives that is the same that Jesus gave.
From what I have read, I have not found one verse that states explicitly that there will be a pre-trib rapture, but the sequences given by Jesus and Paul are explicitly stated and do not mention such an event as the pre-trib rapture.
You are surely welcome. What a good thing it is to pray for one another.
Matthew 24 and Mark 13 speak about the Great Tribulation, Christ's return, and the Rapture of True Believers. It can be shown, I believe, that we are currently living in the period of God's plan for this world that He calls the Great Tribulation spoken about in these chapters.
There is only ONE Rapture of believers and it occurs, as we read in Matthew 24:29, "IMMEDIATELY after the tribulation of those days". And that is referred to in the Bible as "the Last Day".
You will be in my Prayers.
God Bless.
The Bible is clear that the Resurrection and Rapture of all True Believers that God has saved throughout the history of the world will occur at the Last Day. ( John 6:39,40,44,54). This is when Christ will return to complete the salvation of all whom He has saved by giving them their resurrected Spiritual Bodies in which they will live with Christ eternally in the new heavens and new earth, which He will create as He destroys this sin cursed earth. This is also when God's Final Judgement will occur on all of the unsaved. The Rapture is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17. Read also Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.
The C word is always unnerving, my prayers are with you. I am one who don't always post my prayers so I am sure others out there are praying for you.
The Lord will be with you through this.
God bless
RLW
We certainly will be praying for you.
God bless you.
Not exactly sure what you are saying in this post but you seem to be making a grave error if you believe the Bible, the written Word of God, is somehow not for us today. And that God had some different "Salvation" for Old Testament true believers than for New Testament true believers.
Before the Bible was completed, God spoke directly to individuals and actually appeared in various forms to them. Once the Bible was completed with the book of Revelation, God very clearly states in Rev 22:18,19 that we are neither to add nor take away anything from the Bible and there are very serious penalties for doing so. This means that we are never to look for any communication from God in the form of a dream or a vision or a tongue, etc. The Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal God Himself, identifies Himself with the Bible very directly in John 1:1-5 He states:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Today, Christ, the living Word, speaks to us ONLY through His written Word, the Bible, as God, the Holy Spirit would lead us into Truth as we search the scriptures. Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by HEARING and HEARING by the WORD OF GOD.
The Bible alone and in its entirety is the Word of God.
Rev 22:18,19
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and from the things which are written in this book.
I am very happy to pray for you. The "not knowing" can be a bit worrisome, but God knows all and He has you in the palm of His hand.
Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?
Jonah 3:4-10
Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Ezekiel 36:24-31
For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes
Thanks for helping out on this request from John.
When we have dark times it can be hard to see the light of the truth of Jesus who is our "all in all", being completely self-sufficient within himself, we can trust Him to be all-sufficient for us in each and every need, fear, doubt, hardship, pain and sufferings. He will never leave us nor forsake us. So good to know that we will never be completely forsaken! How comforting to know that our Father is truly good and willing to give good gifts to those who ask. When all else and everyone else fails us, God will not fail us. he looks after us with tenderness, mercy, and lovingkindness for we are Hi children by His choice.
It is such a good thing to extol God in all of His perfections. We serve the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and the Eternal Living God who does not sleep or slumber. Praise be to Him from the bottom of our hearts!
The other passage is in 1 Corinthians 10:13: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." There were many temptations, trials, & sufferings that the Corinthian Christians faced, not only because they were Christians, but that they lived in a very pagan corrupt society. The apostle here is assuring them that their trials & temptations in life were not uncommon, but to His children, God will give them 'a way of escape'. It's true that God can remove the temptation or point us in a different direction to escape, but God's Spirit also gives us power to endure & bear up. Here too, we must exercise implicit faith for God to do as He Wills.
I was wondering if anyone on this forum has dealt with this same thing and ask that you share how God helped you to overcome this feeling of being tempted to give in to faithlessness and hopelessness.
For me it comes down to what Peter said in John 6:68 "To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."
This tells us that when we are at the edge of turning from God we can realize that there is no other hope but Him and His saving work and words. This realization helped me to pt my trust in God, hoping against hope that He is all that He revealed Himslef to be and alone can save and satisfy.
I would like to say that I don't do any grumbling or complaining; but alas then I would be lying. Thankfully anything but blasphemy against the Spirit can be forgiven. As Jesus pointed out to the self-righteous Pharisees; these bad fruits come from within. And 2 Peter 2:21 makes it clear that it is better not to have known the truth than to become reprobate. The blood of Christ is our only hope as Jeremiah 17:9 shows how sick the heart is.
There are Post Millennialists who dispute this; but I don't believe anyone from the church age who is a believer will be at the Great White Throne Judgment. I DO have the opinion that since the verse indicates that those who aren't in the Book of Life are going to the lake of fire; there is room for those who physically survive the Millennial period to go through that as saved people and hence be translated into heaven without dying.
In any event; 1 Corinthians 3:15 indicates that one can make it into heaven and suffer loss. That would be analogous to losing rewards as Revelation 3:11 warns. Paul indicates how we run for the prize. Only a few gain great rewards; as would be indicated by those making 100 fold as opposed to 30 fold returns or others ( Mark 4:20). We should not be confined to just the saved and lost divisions when scripture gives us admonitions for certain crowns that those who persevere; are martyred or are pastors as well as other situations are given for faithfulness.
Matthew 6:19-21 shows us that our treasure is to be in heaven. And that means that He must trust us with earthly riches as well ( Luke 16:10-12) as a test; a prerequisite for heavenly riches. Our brothers in Christ that we support in the ministry will be able to enjoy the harvest with us (see John 4:37). That and personal witnessing are components of fulfilling the Great Commission to finish well.
Well spoken and God bless you and all you do brother.
Let me add to those wonderful verses Gigi has given.
Galatians 5:22-23 list faith as one of the fruit of the Spirit so faith is something WE don't produce however it's what we bare as branches.
It's Christ faith in us!
He was able to plant faith inside us and how He increases it is us abiding in his word.
Romans 10:17. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
1 Peter 2:2. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
Prayers;
The Lord answers our prayers.
To a lost world he's telling them to turn to him.
To us he know what we need before we even ask.
He's asking us to trust him as a father who loves his children and his timely answer is always what's best for us.
We just keep serving and growing in the Lord.
Tarry with the Lord.
God bless you.