alan@syacus.acus.oz.au (02/16/91)
>Beware - you may be surprised to find yourself gladdened by the war, >because it means that your personal salvation is near. I don't want >to diminish the joy in your heart, but with the return of the Lord >will also come the beginning of the end of the world (or the end of >the end, depending upon how you interpret). This will not be a time >of happiness for those left behind. And yet, there are probably some >who would even want to "help" God along with his plans by encouraging >what they see as the final signs. Darin, I didn't mean to seem too flippant about those people left behind during the tribulation period, but they are without excuse, ie those who have heard the Gospel and rejected it. 2 Thess. 2:10-12 "....because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie: That they should be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." For those who haven't heard the Gospel, they will hear it during the tribulation period. Lots of my relatives and friends who have been told how to be saved and scoffed at it will receive the mark during the Great Tribulation and be destroyed by Christ at his second coming. If it were simply annihilation, I probably wouldn't mind so much, but the Bible says they will suffer eternal punishment in hell. When I think of this, it does sadden me. Alan
divine@uunet.uu.net (Kevin Divine) (02/28/91)
Let me say a couple of things about Gene's post. 1. I have learned something in studying the Bible, that being that we cannot put God into a box, whether on a pattern traced in the Bible or some tradition of men. I mean this, that God works on His pattern, His plan. Thus we can only go by what is said on the subject itself in the Bible. 2. Who would teach the remaining masses the gospel after a pretrib rapture? In Revelation 14, If I remember correctly, it says that there are 144,000 who have their foreheads sealed with the seal of God-- meaning that they can't be touched by Antichrist--- and these go out and preach the gospel to all those who have not received the mark of the beast (Antichrist). The 144,000 are Jews, I do believe (I don't have my Bible handy right now) So I believe that a pretrib rapture is what God promises in the Bible, but let me once again say this is what _I_ believe. God works on His own plan and that plan can be any thing that God wants it to be, not what I want it to be. en agape, Kevin Robert Divine divine@plains.NoDak.edu