Further Evidence

MANY other passages in Scripture corroborate the great fact that God will not bring judgment upon the earth until the saints of God are first caught away. Speaking of the coming day of the Lord and the tribulation, Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7:

“And you know what is restraining him [the man of sin] now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.”

The entire structure of Revelation teaches the same thing. In Revelation 2 and 3 we have the history of the Church beginning with the Ephesian Church and ending with the Laodicean, and a repetition of the days of Noah and Lot, when Christ is pushed outside the door. In Revelation 6 to 19 we have the tribulation, but before it can begin, John is raptured into heaven. There, representing Church, he beholds the judgment on earth from his place in heaven. God has said unto Lot, “Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there” (Genesis 19:22).

Soon that day foreshadowed by the destruction of Sodom will be here. Everything seems to be ripe for the coming of the Lord, when quite suddenly:

“The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

The question is this, Are you my friend, ready? Yes, I am addressing Christians. Are you ready? When the shout occurs from heaven, will you like Noah be ready to go when God says, “Come you and your house into the ark?” Or will you, like Lot, have to be torn out and be saved so as by fire? Will you go in with your children because you have trusted God and claimed them for Him, or will you, like Lot, have to leave some of your precious ones behind? The blessed hope is only a blessed hope for those who are ready. For others it will be, as for Lot, a time of shame and regret and tears. They will find their works all burned and they themselves saved so as by fire.

Sinner, while this message is particularly to believers, there is also a word for you. Remember Lot’s two sons perished in the fire. Remember Lot’s wife. She too was a professing Christian, and made a start as though to leave. She acted as though she belonged to those who would escape the judgment, but when the test came it was revealed that her religion was only a profession and a sham. Remember Lot’s wife. You may rely upon your church membership, your profession, but it cannot save you in the end for Jesus said, “You must be born again”

Adapted and modified excerpts from Studies in the Life of Abraham by M. R. De Haan (1891-1964)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
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