Friday, February 12, 2021
Soon, governments of this world will coalesce under the wicked One World Order, its nefarious agenda obscured by COVID-19, killer vaccinations mandated by authoritarian governments and global economic destruction. Having achieved success in phase one lockdowns, social distancing and mask-wearing, the globalist elite, in league with the UN’s seventeen-goals 2030 Agenda and World Economic Forum, now create evil, freedom and economic-killing regulations designed to medically disenfranchise people who do not conform to the elites’ unyielding global control.
It’s the rising spirit of Antichrist that will ultimately dominate this world for a brief seven years. As a result of these rising end-time events, Christians must be prepared to not only endure to the end of this age, but continue being “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:20), especially during the first 3 1/2 years of the seven-year tribulation. We may not be able to feed and house the flood of hungry and homeless, but we can share the gospel, love and hope in Christ, leading as many as possible to salvation faith and eternal life. In fact, now, we should do what we can to reach the lost, and even more so when we see the “two witnesses” (Rev. 11:3) begin their 1,260 days of ministry, that we in spirit and deed join them in the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But when the ministry of those two witnesses ends after 42 months, and their bodies lie dead in the streets of Jerusalem for 3 1/2 days, discerning and prepared Christians “worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass” (Luke 21:36) in the then-coming “great tribulation” find the safety and provision of God, which I believe will occur in the spring months of 2025. In finding that brief exodus to the safety and provision of God, prayerfully study and discern the Words of Jesus at Luke 17:26–37. Possessions and relationships of this world must not overshadow one’s love for Christ to quickly enter God’s provision for the next 42 months, kept from Satan’s reach.
The Scriptures reveal a true Church, the Bride of Christ, and a counterfeit church, represented by the freewoman and the bondwoman at Gal. 4:21–31 and Rev. 17 and 18, respectively. And when God at Rev. 12:6, 14 says “the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days”, God is speaking of the “the freewoman”, the true Church, the believing Church, the prepared Church, the Church “counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass” (Luke 21:36) in the last 3 1/2 years of “great tribulation” (Matt. 24: 15–28). That’s God’s nature and character throughout the Scriptures. Biblically, God has always delivered His faithful people through times of His wrath.
God’s Spirit said “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Eph. 5:25); and “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him [Christ] glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife [the Church] has made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7). Repeatedly, the Church is identified in the feminine gender. With that truth in mind read Gal. 4:21–31 which says in conclusion that “the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free”. Knowing that the true Church is referred to as a woman, read Rev. 12:6–17 with emphasis on verses 6 and 14 that reveal God’s plan of safety and provision for the woman during the great tribulation of 1,260 days, or 42 months, but here’s the qualifier – that promise is conditional and limited to those who actually believe and obey God and act upon His Word. As Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32).
That historical truth mirrors God’s character for His people at the Flood; and at the Red Sea when Israel was trapped between the Sea and Pharaoh’s army; and when Israel truly believed God at the first Passover at Exodus 12; and when He destroyed the generation of ancient Israel who disbelieved Him because they saw giants in the Promised Land, see Num. 13 and 14. And God’s promise holds, saying, “That which has been is what will be, that which is done, is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, ‘See, this is new’? It has already been in ancient times before us” (Eccl. 1:9–10).
Those truths, however, elude those held captive by dispensationalism’s pre-trib rapture lie and tradition. While the Scriptures teach the exact opposite, pre-tribbers believe that God is partial and shows favoritism to them, post-Calvary believers, as compared to other believers in history. But in Christ there is no “partiality” (Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11; Eph. 6:9; and Col. 3:25); nor does God show “favoritism” (Luke 20:21 and Gal. 2:6). But, like so many others, those biblical truths are also conveniently avoided in order to prop up the false pre-trib rapture tradition, “making the word of God of no effect” (Mark 7:13). Because of unbelief, they’ve laid the snare of their own offense, not at all different from unbelieving Israel at the edge of Canaan, see Num. 14:1–10.
We have the promise of God that true obedient Christians will not suffer the wrath of God, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9). But Christians have, and do, and will again suffer the wrath and tribulation of evil spirits of Satan and his Antichrist in the end-time tribulation. God will not remove us from it via a pre-trib rapture. The concept of a pre-trib rapture is wholly contrary to the nature, character and promises of God. Yet, millions of professing believers have been deceived to believe the ear-tickling pre-trib rapture though not a single verse of Scripture can be found supporting it – no, not one!
The truth is, many believers, since the mid-19th Century have a convoluted understanding of the God of the Bible. They’ve made Him fit into their own box of likes and dislikes. They have been led to believe a lie about the nature and character of God. And the truth is that if they believe that lie long enough it becomes their absolute truth. That’s how deception works. And in that process the testimony of Jesus is shamefully ignored for the gathering of His elect. How then can they be prepared to suffer the wrath of Satan and his Antichrist, to bear witness to the testimony of Jesus Christ as have saints for millennia past? Herein is the point: most won’t be prepared, but will be offended, Matt. 24:10, with their pastors, false teachers, and false prophets when the tribulation is realized and they’re still right here on earth. The offense will be great just as Jesus said, “then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another” (Matt. 24:10).
To demonstrate the truth that many have a convoluted understanding of the God of the Bible, I well remember a prominent university theologian addressing a student body of 15,000 college students. He emphatically preached the pre-trib rapture, and said “I cannot conceive of a God who would drag His bride through the mud of the tribulation, then turn around and marry her!” That theologian identified his own problem of unbelief, in that he “cannot conceive of a God”, and then fills in the blank with whatever doesn’t suit him! Similarly, many make God be what they want God to be, and not the God of the Bible that taught the gathering of His elect. Christ said He gathers His elect “Immediately after the tribulation” (Matt. 24:29–31). But men and women like the above theologian literally feel emboldened to speak against the Son of God!
Not only that, pre-trib rapture teachers pit God the Father against His Son! Jesus said “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). Jesus further stated “I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak” (John 12:49). So when Jesus taught the resurrections of both the just and the unjust, saying “the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth” (John 5:28–29), it means that in an hour all the just and unjust will be raised, one to everlasting life, but the other to everlasting condemnation. Jesus teaches the resurrection is “at the last day” (John 6:40, 44, 54), and Martha believed, as she declared at her brother’s burial site saying to Jesus “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24). It’s unbelief, tradition and pride that raises itself against the Son of God who spoke what the Father commanded Him, but people who have denominational church traditions to protect don’t care. But you must surely care!
The above agrees with what Jesus taught about the gathering of believers and unbelievers. He said “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, [angels] ‘First gather together the tares [unbelievers] and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat [believers] into my barn’” (Matt. 13:30). Jesus then explains the parable saying, “the harvest is the end of the age, [at the resurrection, “at the last day”] and the reapers are the angels…and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then [not before] the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matt. 13:39–43). Therefore, Jesus said that He gathers His elect “Immediately after the tribulation of those days” (Matt. 24:29–31). Believe Him!
It’s disheartening to see the number of professing Christians who say they love and believe in Christ, but then do not actually believe Him! They live in dangerous conflict between John 3:16 and John 3:36 where the Spirit concludes that “he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him”. I encourage you to read each of these references and truly discern the difference between believing in Christ and actually believing Him.
In summary, those who do not actually believe Christ and prepare in His Words, but prefer the pre-trib rapture lie and traditions of men, will not know to flee to God’s safety and provision at the middle of the tribulation, because they’re ignorant of the truth…being led in that ignorance by theologians, pastors and false teachers whose witness in today’s lukewarm church is ranked higher than the testimony of Jesus Christ. Believers, discern “the freewoman”!
Marlin J. Yoder
