I was thinking recently that we don’t have enough theories about the end times. I thought I should come up with one of my own. My thinking went like this:
Things are bad and they are getting worse. For many, tribulation is here. Whether it’s “great” or not depends pretty much on whether it’s happening to you. In some places, dozens of Christians are dying daily for their faith. Here in America we are just beginning to be marginalized, but the process is moving pretty fast. I’m getting pretty upset about it and I suspect so is my Father.
We are promised persecution. At some point however, God’s wrath comes into the picture. When that happens it isn’t just a persecution from non-believers. It’s the anger of God. At that point, it seems to me, the church is no longer the target. The target will be a world that has rejected the love offering of Jesus. When that happens it makes no sense for the church to still be around. It’s like that point in the old western movies when the Calvary (See what I did there?) shows up. The good guys stop getting beat up and the bad guys run for the hills. The good guys are the ones in Christ. The bad guys are everybody else.
That’s consistent with God’s character. He took the righteous out of the flood in the time of Noah. He passed over his people in Egypt. When he unloads his full wrath on this world, you would expect he would do the same. So my theory is that the rapture will happen before God’s wrath falls upon this earth. I am hoping it’s a long time before, but that’s moving from thoughtful theory to blind hope.
I was disappointed to discover that I wasn’t the first to think of this. If you google “Prewrath Rapture” you will find a host of sites. If you look at the images, you will see tons of complicated charts. It seems there are prewrath rapture folks already. The problem is they are trying to set the precise point this rapture will happen in the scheme of prophesy. My position is much simpler than that. I’m not smart enough to do that. Frankly, it looks like they aren’t either. Trying to read their charts or their explanations gives me a headache. It just makes sense that the rapture will happen before the wrath. That’s all.
I find hope and joy in thinking that, under my theory, Jesus could call us home any minute. I’m ready. I would be really happy if he did it before the election.
That still leaves a lot of time for persecution and lots of it. We still need to be ready. How do we prepare? I think we prepare by doing what we ought to be doing anyway: Looking to God. Getting closer to God. Doing what God has told and commissioned us to do. It’s not that complicated. It’s really pretty simple. That’s probably why “my theory” won’t catch on. There’s just not enough to argue about and there’s too much to do.
Be blessed.
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