Today’s Topic: The Revelation of the Rapture: Will We Escape Before the Tribulation?
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 2:1; 1 Corinthians 15:51,53; Daniel 7:25; Revelation 13:6,7
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
Now for the past 2 messages I have used the word rapture but I want to define it first: Rapture is the catching away or taking up of the saints. Now does the word rapture appear in the scriptures? No. But the word that Paul uses for rapture is gathering (1 Thessalonians 2:1). So if I use the word gathering we are talking about the rapture so that we do not lose anybody. The question we are examining is will we escape or be gathered out before the tribulation hits the Earth? Quite simply the answer is no. Now I could stop there but I know we want some proof because we are a people of evidence. What we try to do in the natural when it comes to this subject is take things that are true and try to work to a conclusion that is true, but the reality is the conclusion is false. For example
1. God never punishes the righteous with the wicked. True
2. God’s wrath represents the punishment of God upon the Beast. True
If those two are true then the next question should be true?
3. Therefore the church will be gathered out to avoid the wrath of God upon the beast. False
Now what people have done is tried to make the conclusion which is statement 3 true and it is not. Now let me give you an example and then we are coming back and I will give you scriptures to prove this.
When the Children of Israel were in slavery under the Egyptian rule, where were they located? They were located in a part of Egypt called Goshen. Now before God sent His wrath, God warned Pharaoh to let His people go and informed the children of Israel to prepare to leave Egypt under the hand of God. Now after the warning and Pharaoh not responding, God told the Israelites to put the blood of a Lamb over the door post to avoid the wrath of the death angel that would come through the land. Once again God preparing His people! Now here is the revelation! When God was pouring out His wrath on Egypt and Pharaoh for their disobedience and oppression, where were the children of Israel? They were still in Egypt! They were not in the Promised Land. But God prepared them to avoid the wrath that was coming. But the point is, God did not take the children of Israel out of Egypt in order to pour out His wrath because God knows how to protect His people. His people were obedient to His instructions in preparation and were protected.
Now this whole story of Egypt and Israel is a shadow of things to come in these last days. The exact same. God will pour out His wrath on the beast (The Global Kingdom) and the leader (The Antichrist and Satan) and destroy them but He will not need to take the church out of the Earth because if they prepare like He instructs them to, they will not feel the wrath but will be protected. Does that make sense now? Now if you are still skeptical let’s confirm it for you.
Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:1 states that we are now discussing about the “Coming of the Lord AND BY OUR GATHERING TOGETHER WITH HIM (RAPTURE). Now if you read verse 3 it will bring you home.
“Let no man deceive you by any means: FOR THAT DAY (RETURN OF THE LORD AND THE GATHERING) SHALL NOT COME EXCEPT THERE COME A FALLING AWAY FIRST, AND THAT MAN OF SIN BE REVEALED, THE SON OF PERDITION”
Now verses 4 through 12 tells you what Antichrist and Satan will do. Now all of this HAPPENS FIRST, BEFORE THE RETURN OF THE LORD AND THE GATHERING. Now when the Antichrist is sitting in the Temple spreading abominations and desolations what is happening to the saints? Well if we have been reading this series, Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 13:6,7 tells you that the Antichrist is making war with the saints and overcoming them.
Now we have read Daniel, 2 Thessalonians and Revelation and all of them have stated and shown you that the saints will be here during this terrible time on the Earth. The Gathering will not happen until the Antichrist and Satan is revealed for who they are and the wrath of God is poured out on the Global Kingdom, the Antichrist and Satan.
So now we can conclusively prove that no, we will not escape or be gathered out before the tribulation hits the Earth. But we who are the saints know that when God pour out His wrath on the beast, we as the church will be protected, because just as He did for the children of Israel in Egypt, He will do for His children, the church.
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
