While none of us gain, or fail to gain, salvation because of our beliefs about End Time prophecies - how we view Biblical prophecies can, and does, affect the peace of mind of Christian believers. How can a person have peace in God when he/she does not believe what is written in the Bible authored by God?
The difference between the PreTribulation Rapture / PreMillennial Second Coming believer and the PostMillennial and Amillennial believers - is their view of Bible prophecies. A PreTrib/PreMillennial believer views the Bible prophecies through the lense of literal interpretation, i.e., hermeneutics. The Amillennialist does not believe there will be a literal Millennial Kingdom of God on earth and views Biblical prophecies as allegories and symbolism only. And the PostMillennial believer is somewhere in between.
The PreTrib/PreMillianial believer interprets the complete Bible as the inspired, inerrant, literal Written Word of God - and that includes His prophecies. Do we see every word of the Bible as being literal? No, there are often times in Scripture where metaphors, allegories, and symbolism are used. However, our approach is to first look at the passage as literal - and if the shoe fits, wear it. If not, look for a figurative meaning.
Most PostMillennialist and Amillennialist view the Bible as literal - except for prophecies. These they spiritualize and allegorize.
So Amillenial believers will say that we are living in the Millennium now. And as things get better and better - one day Jesus Christ will return, pass judgement, and immediately send non-believers to the Lake of Fire and take believers into eternity with God. No Rapture, no Tribulation, no Millennial Kingdom - just keep doing what we are doing until He comes. And then the judgment. They view the Great White Throne Judgment as including all believers and non-believers. One general judgment - and then eternity, heaven or hell.
And PostMillennial believers say there will be a Tribulation and a Millennial Kingdom - but, no Rapture. Christ will stay in heaven. The church will stay on earth during the Tribulation and the Millennial Kingdom periods with Christ ruling from heaven. Then, at the end of the Millennium, He will return, pass judgement at the Great White Throne Judgment - and immediately send non-believers to the Lake of Fire and take believers into eternity with God.
The big problem is that neither of these beliefs is Biblical. And, in the dialogue below I will be honest - for a while I have been having dialogues with my TimesDaily Forum Friend, Beter - and I have no idea whether he is an Amillennial believer, or just entrenched in a legalistic church, or just wants to argue. Many times I have suspected the latter. However, his questions and comments today lead to a good discussion of the End Times judgments which I feel could be a catalyst in bringing others deeper into their own personal Bible study.
So I feel the dialogue below which we had on the TimesDaily Religion Forum is worthwhile.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hi Beter,
In my earlier post, I wrote, "At the end of the Millennial Kingdom - those who died not believing in Jesus Christ will be resurrected and will face Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment - a judgment of punishment for rejecting Him all their lives. They will then join the Antichrist and all other non-believers in the Lake of Fire, hell."
And, you tell me, "Bill, the judgment you call the 'Great White Throne Judgment' is the same as the judgment described in Matthew 25. There, 'all nations' shall be judged (v.32). The righteous and the unrighteous shall be judged (v. 46). Jesus, in describing the judgment in Matthew 25, neither says, nor implies, anything remotely to suggest that this is anything other than THE judgment, the ONLY judgment. According to your theology, the judgment of Matthew 25 could only be a 'post-Tribulation' judgment and the only persons being condemned in that judgment will be those who survived the Tribulation."
Matthew 25:31-46 is describing the Sheep and Goat Judgment. When Jesus Christ returns, His Second Coming after the Tribulation, there will be those who survived the Tribulation. Although most who become believers during the Tribulation will have been martyred by the Antichrist - there will be a large number of believers still alive at the end of the Tribulation. And there will be many non-believers, those who took the Mark of the Beast and continued to deny Christ.
His main purpose in the Second Coming is to put an end to the Tribulation, the time of refining for His chosen people, Israel - and to establish His Millennial Kingdom, the Kingdom of God on earth. When Adam disobeyed God; he gave a "Quit Claim Deed" for earth to Satan. Jesus will come to redeem the Title Deed to earth - and to send Satan into the abyss, his jail, for one thousand years.
At the judgment described in the parable of Matthew 25:31-46, there will be two things asked: First, what did you do with My Son, Jesus Christ? Did you receive Him as your Lord and Savior - or did you reject Him? Second, what did you do with your fellow man? Did you display the fruit found only in the salvation of a Christ Follower and tend His sheep, the people for whom He gave His life - or did you care only for your own worldly pleasures and desires?
The first, those who received Him as Lord and Savior, His sheep, He will stand at His right hand. Those who denied Him, the goats, He will stand at His left hand. And, Matthew 25:46 tells us, "And these (the goats) will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous (His sheep) into eternal life."
But first, those on His right, His sheep, will go into the Millennial Kingdom of God, Christ's Millennial Reign on earth, in their mortal bodies. For one thousand years they will be marrying and having children. Yet they and their children will still have the sin nature inherited from Adam's disobedience. The sin nature can and will only be removed through death or the Rapture. All mortals going into the Millennial Kingdom will be saved, yet they will still have their sin nature - just at we believers today, before the Rapture, still have our sin nature.
Those who enter the Millennial Kingdom after the Tribulation are saved, they are Christian believers and have eternal life in Christ. However, those born during the Millennial Kingdom still having their sin nature and will still need to invite Jesus Christ into their hearts
(Revelation 3:20) to have eternal life.
During the Millennial Kingdom, Satan is locked in the abyss - so his temptation which has led so many down the wrong path during the Church Era (from the Day of Pentecost to the Rapture) and even through the seven year Tribulation - will be missing. However, even though the temptation of Satan is absent; those born during the Millennial Reign of Christ must still, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ - believe and receive His "free gift" of salvation.
Surprisingly, there will be a great number who will not, for whatever reason, apathy, etc., do this. These are the recruits Satan will find when he is released from the abyss after one thousand years. And from this group he will recruit his army of billions who will come against the Holy City and Jesus Christ (Revelation 20:7-10) where they will be supernaturally destroyed. This is the last battle of the End Times.
The Great White Throne Judgment is still pending at this point. It will happen after the Final Battle and after Satan has been thrown into the Lake of Fire where the Antichrist and his False Prophet await their leader. The Great White Throne Judgment is God's final act in dealing with all non-believers.
From that point on -- it is the New Heaven, the New Earth, the New Jerusalem -- and eternal life with Jesus Christ, in the eternal presence of God the Father.
Then, you tell me, "Bill, your interpretation of the 'Rapture' is based on 1 Thess. 4. That passage teaches that both the righteous living and the 'dead in Christ' will be 'caught up together...in the clouds' and will 'ever be with the Lord.'"
That is almost true. We read in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."
This tells us that those who died in Christ, i.e., those Christian believers who have preceded us in death -- their bodies are still in the grave, but, upon death, their spirits went directly to be with the Lord -- will be raised first in the Rapture. Then, those of us who are still alive will follow them in being Raptured. However, we are talking about a very brief time between the two events; say, like the time it takes for a blink of the eye. So, technically, those dead in Christ rise first -- but, in reality, it will all happen so quickly that who can notice the time difference?
Next, you ask a good question -- and, you have answered your own question, "Who does that leave behind for the 'Tribulation'? The only answer to that is that only the unrighteous will be left. That being the case, one has to wonder just who John was writing about in 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.'"
As we are told in Jeremiah 30:7, the seven year Tribulation is the "Time of Jacob's Trouble or Distress." It is God's time to bring His chosen people, Israel, through the Refiner's Fire -- to separate out the remnant of His people who will believe and receive their Messiah, Jesus Christ. While the Tribulation is primarily for the sake of Israel; many Gentiles in the nations will also believe and receive His "free gift" of salvation.
Who is left after the Rapture? You answered correctly; only the unrighteous, only those who have not received and believed in Jesus Christ. However, there will be two great Revivals happening during the seven year Tribulation. First, there will be those who had knowledge of Jesus Christ, many who actually taught about Jesus Christ -- pastors, priest, Bible teachers, Sunday School teachers, deacons, deaconesses, elders, and many other supposedly mature Christians.
And, still, they never truly believed what they themselves were teaching. Yet, from what they have been teaching, they have knowledge of the Rapture, whether they believed it or not -- and when the Rapture does occur -- they will become instant believers. They will recognize the fallacy of the theology they have been following and teaching -- and, they will repent and become true Christ Followers. This will be the First Great Tribulation Revival.
The second will come from the 144,000 new Jewish Billy Grahams we find in Revelation 7:4, "And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel."
These 144,000 zealous evangelists, 12,000 from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel -- will bring in a harvest of souls during the Tribulation unlike any that has ever occurred before this. We are told of this in Revelation 7:9, "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands."
This "great multitude" is comprised of those who were saved in the initial First Great Tribulation Revival and those who heard and responded to the teaching of the 144,000 Jewish Billy Grahams. And, can you imagine -- a great multitude, the number so large, that one could not count them? That, my Friend, is one great Soul Harvest.
But, the reason they are standing before the throne of the Lamb, clothed in white robes -- is because, as fast as the 144,000 evangelist could bring them to belief in Jesus Christ -- the Antichrist was killing them, making them Christian martyrs.
These are the same martyrs we find in Revelation 6:9-11, "When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also."
Keep in mind that the book of Revelation does not read chronologically from time A to time Z. This is one of the reasons many folks get confused in studying Revelation. Yet, here, there is some continuity. First, in Revelation 6:9-11 we read of those slain, martyred, for their faith -- and then, in Revelation 7:9-17 we read of them standing before the Lord washed in the blood of the Lamb and clothed in His white robe of righteousness.
These were Left Behind -- but, now are saved and have eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Then, you tell me, "If only the unrighteous dead and the unrighteous living were left behind at the 'Rapture' (as you believe), and and if, as you say, 'At the end of the seven year Tribulation, Jesus Christ will return to earth, His Second Coming, where he will judge the nations, the survivors of the Tribulation: non-believers will go to the Lake of Fire, hell -- and believers will go into His Millennial Kingdom in their mortal bodies' -- then how did those allegedly unrighteousun-Raptured survivors of the 'Tribulation' somehow become righteous during the Tribulation?
Would they not, by your reckoning, have received a second chance? They were 'left behind' because they were unrighteous, and presumably in a lost state. Then, after the Tribulation, you assert that some of them were saved. But you also say: 'And, you are also correct that NO ONE gets a second chance. I have stated that so many times that I have lost count.'
Count this: One chance to be saved before the 'Rapture.' Another chance to be saved after the 'Tribulation.' I count two chances."
Once again, a good question which will help us clear up any misunderstandings. When we speak of "not having a second chance" to repent and receive His "free gift" of salvation -- this is referring only to this mortal life. In this life, one has until his last breath to repent and be saved. If, however, that person dies, breathes his last breath in this mortal life, without believing and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord, Master, and Savior -- there is no second chance. This person's eternal fate is sealed.
However, those who are Left Behind at the Rapture have not died, they have not breathed their last breath -- so, just as folks do now, they still have the rest of their mortal life to repent and be saved.
Yet, leaving repentance and salvation until the last moment, until just before that last breath -- is rather like trying to walk up an ice covered hillside wearing leather soled shoes. It is a mighty precarious position in which you could find yourself -- a mighty slippery slope. One never knows when that last breath will come.
That is true for us now. Can you imagine how much worse it will be during the seven year Tribulation -- when folks are being killed left and right -- for no other reason than it pleases the Antichrist? That will be a very precarious time in which to live -- and a very unwise time to put off your repentance and salvation until the last moment.
Beter, my Friend, I pray this clears up any misunderstandings we have about the End Times -- and that it encourages many of our Forum Friends to test what we write by comparing it with Scripture (Acts 17:11). And, I pray that our dialogues will be the catalyst which will bring many more to their own personal study of God's Word.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
The difference between the PreTribulation Rapture / PreMillennial Second Coming believer and the PostMillennial and Amillennial believers - is their view of Bible prophecies. A PreTrib/PreMillennial believer views the Bible prophecies through the lense of literal interpretation, i.e., hermeneutics. The Amillennialist does not believe there will be a literal Millennial Kingdom of God on earth and views Biblical prophecies as allegories and symbolism only. And the PostMillennial believer is somewhere in between.
The PreTrib/PreMillianial believer interprets the complete Bible as the inspired, inerrant, literal Written Word of God - and that includes His prophecies. Do we see every word of the Bible as being literal? No, there are often times in Scripture where metaphors, allegories, and symbolism are used. However, our approach is to first look at the passage as literal - and if the shoe fits, wear it. If not, look for a figurative meaning.
Most PostMillennialist and Amillennialist view the Bible as literal - except for prophecies. These they spiritualize and allegorize.
So Amillenial believers will say that we are living in the Millennium now. And as things get better and better - one day Jesus Christ will return, pass judgement, and immediately send non-believers to the Lake of Fire and take believers into eternity with God. No Rapture, no Tribulation, no Millennial Kingdom - just keep doing what we are doing until He comes. And then the judgment. They view the Great White Throne Judgment as including all believers and non-believers. One general judgment - and then eternity, heaven or hell.
And PostMillennial believers say there will be a Tribulation and a Millennial Kingdom - but, no Rapture. Christ will stay in heaven. The church will stay on earth during the Tribulation and the Millennial Kingdom periods with Christ ruling from heaven. Then, at the end of the Millennium, He will return, pass judgement at the Great White Throne Judgment - and immediately send non-believers to the Lake of Fire and take believers into eternity with God.
The big problem is that neither of these beliefs is Biblical. And, in the dialogue below I will be honest - for a while I have been having dialogues with my TimesDaily Forum Friend, Beter - and I have no idea whether he is an Amillennial believer, or just entrenched in a legalistic church, or just wants to argue. Many times I have suspected the latter. However, his questions and comments today lead to a good discussion of the End Times judgments which I feel could be a catalyst in bringing others deeper into their own personal Bible study.
So I feel the dialogue below which we had on the TimesDaily Religion Forum is worthwhile.
Hi Beter,
In my earlier post, I wrote, "At the end of the Millennial Kingdom - those who died not believing in Jesus Christ will be resurrected and will face Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment - a judgment of punishment for rejecting Him all their lives. They will then join the Antichrist and all other non-believers in the Lake of Fire, hell."
And, you tell me, "Bill, the judgment you call the 'Great White Throne Judgment' is the same as the judgment described in Matthew 25. There, 'all nations' shall be judged (v.32). The righteous and the unrighteous shall be judged (v. 46). Jesus, in describing the judgment in Matthew 25, neither says, nor implies, anything remotely to suggest that this is anything other than THE judgment, the ONLY judgment. According to your theology, the judgment of Matthew 25 could only be a 'post-Tribulation' judgment and the only persons being condemned in that judgment will be those who survived the Tribulation."
Matthew 25:31-46 is describing the Sheep and Goat Judgment. When Jesus Christ returns, His Second Coming after the Tribulation, there will be those who survived the Tribulation. Although most who become believers during the Tribulation will have been martyred by the Antichrist - there will be a large number of believers still alive at the end of the Tribulation. And there will be many non-believers, those who took the Mark of the Beast and continued to deny Christ.
His main purpose in the Second Coming is to put an end to the Tribulation, the time of refining for His chosen people, Israel - and to establish His Millennial Kingdom, the Kingdom of God on earth. When Adam disobeyed God; he gave a "Quit Claim Deed" for earth to Satan. Jesus will come to redeem the Title Deed to earth - and to send Satan into the abyss, his jail, for one thousand years.
At the judgment described in the parable of Matthew 25:31-46, there will be two things asked: First, what did you do with My Son, Jesus Christ? Did you receive Him as your Lord and Savior - or did you reject Him? Second, what did you do with your fellow man? Did you display the fruit found only in the salvation of a Christ Follower and tend His sheep, the people for whom He gave His life - or did you care only for your own worldly pleasures and desires?
The first, those who received Him as Lord and Savior, His sheep, He will stand at His right hand. Those who denied Him, the goats, He will stand at His left hand. And, Matthew 25:46 tells us, "And these (the goats) will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous (His sheep) into eternal life."
But first, those on His right, His sheep, will go into the Millennial Kingdom of God, Christ's Millennial Reign on earth, in their mortal bodies. For one thousand years they will be marrying and having children. Yet they and their children will still have the sin nature inherited from Adam's disobedience. The sin nature can and will only be removed through death or the Rapture. All mortals going into the Millennial Kingdom will be saved, yet they will still have their sin nature - just at we believers today, before the Rapture, still have our sin nature.
Those who enter the Millennial Kingdom after the Tribulation are saved, they are Christian believers and have eternal life in Christ. However, those born during the Millennial Kingdom still having their sin nature and will still need to invite Jesus Christ into their hearts
(Revelation 3:20) to have eternal life.
During the Millennial Kingdom, Satan is locked in the abyss - so his temptation which has led so many down the wrong path during the Church Era (from the Day of Pentecost to the Rapture) and even through the seven year Tribulation - will be missing. However, even though the temptation of Satan is absent; those born during the Millennial Reign of Christ must still, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ - believe and receive His "free gift" of salvation.
Surprisingly, there will be a great number who will not, for whatever reason, apathy, etc., do this. These are the recruits Satan will find when he is released from the abyss after one thousand years. And from this group he will recruit his army of billions who will come against the Holy City and Jesus Christ (Revelation 20:7-10) where they will be supernaturally destroyed. This is the last battle of the End Times.
The Great White Throne Judgment is still pending at this point. It will happen after the Final Battle and after Satan has been thrown into the Lake of Fire where the Antichrist and his False Prophet await their leader. The Great White Throne Judgment is God's final act in dealing with all non-believers.
From that point on -- it is the New Heaven, the New Earth, the New Jerusalem -- and eternal life with Jesus Christ, in the eternal presence of God the Father.
Then, you tell me, "Bill, your interpretation of the 'Rapture' is based on 1 Thess. 4. That passage teaches that both the righteous living and the 'dead in Christ' will be 'caught up together...in the clouds' and will 'ever be with the Lord.'"
That is almost true. We read in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."
This tells us that those who died in Christ, i.e., those Christian believers who have preceded us in death -- their bodies are still in the grave, but, upon death, their spirits went directly to be with the Lord -- will be raised first in the Rapture. Then, those of us who are still alive will follow them in being Raptured. However, we are talking about a very brief time between the two events; say, like the time it takes for a blink of the eye. So, technically, those dead in Christ rise first -- but, in reality, it will all happen so quickly that who can notice the time difference?
Next, you ask a good question -- and, you have answered your own question, "Who does that leave behind for the 'Tribulation'? The only answer to that is that only the unrighteous will be left. That being the case, one has to wonder just who John was writing about in 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.'"
As we are told in Jeremiah 30:7, the seven year Tribulation is the "Time of Jacob's Trouble or Distress." It is God's time to bring His chosen people, Israel, through the Refiner's Fire -- to separate out the remnant of His people who will believe and receive their Messiah, Jesus Christ. While the Tribulation is primarily for the sake of Israel; many Gentiles in the nations will also believe and receive His "free gift" of salvation.
Who is left after the Rapture? You answered correctly; only the unrighteous, only those who have not received and believed in Jesus Christ. However, there will be two great Revivals happening during the seven year Tribulation. First, there will be those who had knowledge of Jesus Christ, many who actually taught about Jesus Christ -- pastors, priest, Bible teachers, Sunday School teachers, deacons, deaconesses, elders, and many other supposedly mature Christians.
And, still, they never truly believed what they themselves were teaching. Yet, from what they have been teaching, they have knowledge of the Rapture, whether they believed it or not -- and when the Rapture does occur -- they will become instant believers. They will recognize the fallacy of the theology they have been following and teaching -- and, they will repent and become true Christ Followers. This will be the First Great Tribulation Revival.
The second will come from the 144,000 new Jewish Billy Grahams we find in Revelation 7:4, "And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel."
These 144,000 zealous evangelists, 12,000 from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel -- will bring in a harvest of souls during the Tribulation unlike any that has ever occurred before this. We are told of this in Revelation 7:9, "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands."
This "great multitude" is comprised of those who were saved in the initial First Great Tribulation Revival and those who heard and responded to the teaching of the 144,000 Jewish Billy Grahams. And, can you imagine -- a great multitude, the number so large, that one could not count them? That, my Friend, is one great Soul Harvest.
But, the reason they are standing before the throne of the Lamb, clothed in white robes -- is because, as fast as the 144,000 evangelist could bring them to belief in Jesus Christ -- the Antichrist was killing them, making them Christian martyrs.
These are the same martyrs we find in Revelation 6:9-11, "When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also."
Keep in mind that the book of Revelation does not read chronologically from time A to time Z. This is one of the reasons many folks get confused in studying Revelation. Yet, here, there is some continuity. First, in Revelation 6:9-11 we read of those slain, martyred, for their faith -- and then, in Revelation 7:9-17 we read of them standing before the Lord washed in the blood of the Lamb and clothed in His white robe of righteousness.
These were Left Behind -- but, now are saved and have eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Then, you tell me, "If only the unrighteous dead and the unrighteous living were left behind at the 'Rapture' (as you believe), and and if, as you say, 'At the end of the seven year Tribulation, Jesus Christ will return to earth, His Second Coming, where he will judge the nations, the survivors of the Tribulation: non-believers will go to the Lake of Fire, hell -- and believers will go into His Millennial Kingdom in their mortal bodies' -- then how did those allegedly unrighteousun-Raptured survivors of the 'Tribulation' somehow become righteous during the Tribulation?
Would they not, by your reckoning, have received a second chance? They were 'left behind' because they were unrighteous, and presumably in a lost state. Then, after the Tribulation, you assert that some of them were saved. But you also say: 'And, you are also correct that NO ONE gets a second chance. I have stated that so many times that I have lost count.'
Count this: One chance to be saved before the 'Rapture.' Another chance to be saved after the 'Tribulation.' I count two chances."
Once again, a good question which will help us clear up any misunderstandings. When we speak of "not having a second chance" to repent and receive His "free gift" of salvation -- this is referring only to this mortal life. In this life, one has until his last breath to repent and be saved. If, however, that person dies, breathes his last breath in this mortal life, without believing and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord, Master, and Savior -- there is no second chance. This person's eternal fate is sealed.
However, those who are Left Behind at the Rapture have not died, they have not breathed their last breath -- so, just as folks do now, they still have the rest of their mortal life to repent and be saved.
Yet, leaving repentance and salvation until the last moment, until just before that last breath -- is rather like trying to walk up an ice covered hillside wearing leather soled shoes. It is a mighty precarious position in which you could find yourself -- a mighty slippery slope. One never knows when that last breath will come.
That is true for us now. Can you imagine how much worse it will be during the seven year Tribulation -- when folks are being killed left and right -- for no other reason than it pleases the Antichrist? That will be a very precarious time in which to live -- and a very unwise time to put off your repentance and salvation until the last moment.
Beter, my Friend, I pray this clears up any misunderstandings we have about the End Times -- and that it encourages many of our Forum Friends to test what we write by comparing it with Scripture (Acts 17:11). And, I pray that our dialogues will be the catalyst which will bring many more to their own personal study of God's Word.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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