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Shortly after I
accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I was setting in church and
heard our Pastor Dr. James Lougheed of the Flint Baptist Temple
say in a morning message “the very next thing that we will hear
is the last Trump of God”. What he was trying to convey was the
theory of Pre-Tribulation Rapture as taught by Baptist theology.
I went to him afterwards and ask privately when had the other
trumpets sounded? I was told that the trumpets in 1
Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians and Revelation aren’t the same and
this answer started my 34 year study on the trumpets and
Judgment. From my studies, and I have looked at many opinions
and read many books both old and new, I have come to the conclusion that the Bible
teaches that the Church will go through the Tribulation but not
the wrath of God. See the
Tribulation Chart.
The Tribulation is not the Wrath of God,
the wrath is for those who know not God. (2TH 1:8) The
Saints of God who have not past on will be taken out at the end
of the Tribulation period, after that God will pour out his
wrath upon the earth. {Dan 12:9 -12} After the wrath has been
poured out Christ will reign on earth for 1,000 years with
His saints who stay true until the end.
In the following verses you can see that
the elect will be taken out after the tribulation. The question
now is who is the elect? I believe that it is those who have
accepted the Lord as Savior and have stayed true until the end.
I do not believe the Bible teaches “once saved always saved” but that is for
another study. There are many who teach that the tribulation is
for the Jews that have not accepted Christ.
I am not an expert in theology
but I learned English from my Mother who was born in Scotland
and had learned old English, she also was a school teacher in
her early days. All we need is to
have a good command of the English language and let the Holy Spirit teach us, line upon line, precept upon precept. Peter say to make
your calling and election sure, {2PE 1:10} so if we
are of the election why are we not the elect? What we see is
the elect taken out after the tribulation not before.
MAT 24:29 Immediately after the
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from
heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: 30 And
then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great
glory. 31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of
a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Here we see that God has a plan
to protect His
people through the tribulation. I do not know how our Lord will
do it, but He will take care of us and I fully trust Him.
MAT 24:21 For then shall be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those
days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved:
but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Psalms 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me
in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide
me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
Psalms 37:39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD:
he is their strength in the time of trouble.
Daniel 12:1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great
prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and
there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since
there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy
people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written
in the book.
ZEP 1:15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and
distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness
and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 A day
of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and
against the high towers.
2PE 2:9 The Lord
knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and
to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
1 John 4:17 Herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
Revelation 7:14 And I said unto him,
Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which
came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes,
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
This is the verse that started the study of
the trumpets. I was told that the last trump here didn’t mean
that this is the last time that God would sound the Judgment
call. Is the word of God true or not, does God say what He means
or means what He says?
1CO 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall
be changed.
1TH 4:15 For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever
be with the Lord.
There will be some
who make it to the end of tribulation, but I believe that the
majority of those in the Church
today will not. The Bible teaches that we are to let the
wheat and tares together and God will sort them out at the end.
{Mat 3:11, 13:27-30}
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