I've had people say to me in the past... Steve, why do you even do this? The ignorant out there want to stay ignorant and even believers don't believe the word of God.
That may be true, but like the apostle Paul said, I also believe.
13 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
Ignorance is nothing more than not being informed about something.
The apostle Paul assured all the believers that no one will be left behind when the Lord returns.
AND 17 Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Let me just say this very clearly... God will remove His people before His wrath is poured out on this earth. This is not the tribulation. This is the wrath of God.
9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.
Paul uses the word "asleep" whether we're awake or asleep. We will live together with him.
God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.... I want you to notice here that he says "asleep" he never says dead, because believers cannot die ONLY their body, but after that eternal life. Paul always says asleep.
Do you know why he says that? Because he knew the account of when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead... and He told Martha...
23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her. 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
(You see, if every believer TRULY believed this, they would've never complied with the 2020 fear tactic mandate that the world system worked so hard to place on all of us.)
Paul said, 1 About the times and the seasons: Brothers and sisters, you do not need anything to be written to you. (notice he didn't say the day or the hour, but he DID SAY the times, and the seasons you will be very aware of) 2 For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 When THEY say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and THEY will NOT escape. (YOU WILL.... BUT THEY WILL NOT.)
Who is he talking about? He's talking about the people of this world and the world system who are not believers in Jesus Christ. They will be caught SO off guard with what's coming because they have no spiritual eyes to see, and the god of this world has blinded their eyes.
4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, for this day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. 6 So then, let us not sleep, like the rest, but let us stay awake and be self-controlled. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled and put on the armor of faith and love, and a helmet of the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.
Christians are people who are living just as opposite as light is to dark. This is why they will hate us. Because we are light and they are darkness.
What happens after the tribulation period? Jesus tells us.
29 “Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
This is what Paul was talking about that those who are asleep will rise first, and then we who are alive and remain, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
I believe that the catching away of the church will take place sometime before the opening of the sixth and final seal. Why do I say that? well let's look at what's very obvious in these verses....
12 Then I saw him open the sixth seal. A violent earthquake occurred; the sun turned black like sackcloth made of hair; the entire moon became like blood;13 the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when shaken by a high wind; 14 the sky was split apart like a scroll being rolled up; and every mountain and island was moved from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and free person hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 because the great day of their wrath has come! And who is able to stand?”
Notice what all the people on earth are saying... and crying out to be hidden from the face of God and from the wrath of the lamb, and they say because the great day of their WRATH has come.
As well as encouraging you I want to also warn you if you're not walking close with Jesus...
Paul told the Corinthian believers... I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if a person comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you had not received, or a different gospel, which you had not accepted, you put up with it splendidly!
13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 So it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.
23 because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God.
We don't fully understand the supernatural event of our new birth. But, just like a human being born of the seed of a man, we have been born again by the seed of God and His Holy Spirit.
And remember what the apostle John said, "9 Everyone who has been born of God does not practice sin because His seed remains in him; he is not able to keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
Think about it…
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