Unbelievers Waiting for the Rapture!

Believe it or not, it's true. Many unbelievers and haters of the Judaeo/Christian God of the bible concede that if the Rapture ended up being a real event, they'd be more than happy to see every single born again believer taken from the face of the earth. Many believe that born again believers are intolerant, sexist, immoral, phobic, hateful, and judgmental. They call born again believers Nazis, fascists, white supremacists, terrorists, and every other hateful name. They curse us with foul and indecent language and even assault some of us. It used to be, in the modern era, that born again believers were only persecuted in countries like China, North Korea, the Middle East and in other areas of the world where anti-Christian sentiment had a strong hold. Now Christians in free western countries like England and the United States are being persecuted. Sure, it hasn't reached the point where they're murdering us on the streets, but it's not a huge leap from assault to murder. 

Sooner or later, persecution like we see it in other parts of the world, will rear it's ugly head in the western world, bringing with it physical torture and death. Just look at how some of these individuals/groups treat those who have a different ideology or lifestyle than they do. These individuals have had objects thrown at them, been spat upon, had their belongings ripped off of their body, been physically assaulted, been harassed to the point where they are forced to leave an establishment with which they're doing business or had their lecture cancelled. They've had their house surrounded and defaced, received threatening phone calls and messages on their social media accounts, been face to face with someone spewing hatred toward them, and had their livelihood ruined by frivolous lawsuits. 

Look at what continually happens to those who are peacefully trying to educate the population that abortion is the torture and death of a child. They're assaulted verbally and physically, they have their educational materials (posters, signs and pamphlets) defaced, destroyed and taken from them, and they're often the ones removed from the space instead of the offender, in order to quell any hostilities. Born again believers are shouted down, cancelled, threatened, bullied, injured, and thrown in jail. Why? Because the principalities and powers don't want the truth to be spoken. They don't want the salvation message to be shared, and they'll use their human hosts to tamp down any attempt to share that truth. 

It's not just the average citizen exhibiting these types of vengeful, fascist, and anti-Christ behavior. Unbelievably, many of our political leaders and educators are actually endorsing these types of behaviors by standing in front of these crowds and encouraging them to act this way, conditioning them to believe that by violent and confrontational behavior, they're acting both for the good of the country and for the good of the world as a whole. These crowds are encouraged to use violence and intimidation to force those who don't agree with their belief system to fall in line or to retreat and be silent. How easy is it going to be for the Antichrist to whip up this type of resentment towards born again believers when the world is in the midst of a strong delusion? People are already displaying this type of behavior, so it wouldn't take much to kick it up a notch and solely focus this abusive and criminal behavior toward the Christian community, if it doesn't reach that point by then. What the Christian community is dealing with as a whole in this country and other free countries in the world, is like a walk in the park compared to what will happen during the Tribulation.

All of the prophecies in the word of God have come to pass, except those that are linked to the Rapture and everything that follows. Want proof that prophecy is still relevant? Look to Syria. There is a prophecy that states that Damascus is going to be so utterly devastated, that it will become a barren city. This prophecy has yet to be fulfilled. Will that happen before or after the Rapture? Who knows, but it will happen and hopefully it'll help bring some to the Lord.

Isaiah 17:1 "The burden against Damascus. "Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, and it will be a ruinous heap."

You may scoff at what is written here, but I guarantee you that when this prophecy becomes reality, right in front of your eyes, you'll remember what you've read here. Either you'll urgently seek the Lord, knowing what's coming, or you'll explain it away as something other than biblical prophecy. It doesn't matter, because biblical prophecy will have come to pass. You can either accept it as the fulfillment of God's word, or you can try to convince yourself that it was just a coincidence.

In the mean time, this article is about many unbelievers halfheartedly hoping that the Rapture is a real event so that they can be rid of Christians once and for all. They believe that life on this earth will be a paradise without Christians getting in their way. They believe they'll finally be living in a utopia once all born again believers are gone and they can finally run the world as they see fit, without any interference. What they don't realize, is that this will be the global event that changes everything, the great reset for which the world's been yearning, and the world will never be the same. Not only will they need to deal with the aftermath of the Rapture, which you can read about here, but there will be unexpected consequences that occur after that event. What will they be?

One of them will be the unexpected resurgence of Christianity all over the world. Yes, what many unbelievers don't realize is that this event will trigger spiritual conversion in the hearts and minds of men and women worldwide. Those who drifted away from the faith, those who've been evangelized but didn't believe or understand what they were told, and those who will have their heart pricked when they hear the word of God preached by the 144,000 Messianic Jews whom God will be sending out to evangelize the world... they will repent and be forgiven! They will believe and be saved! The world, thinking they've finally rid themselves of born again believers, will find themselves in the midst of millions of new born again believers. 

The other unexpected consequences will consist of the events awaiting everyone during the seven year Tribulation. Worldwide earthquakes, pestilence, famine, death, starvation, the loss of fresh water supplies, a one world economic system controlling everyone's finances, a one world religion that will call for the hunting down and execution of "Christians," and a one world government that makes modern-day fascism look like a puppet show. There is so much that the world will have to endure and you can read more about it here.

Unbelievers don't realize that they will be living through biblical history, taking part in what was foreseen since the beginning of the world. They'll be living and breathing biblical prophecy. They'll be so hard-hearted that they'll consciously reject the truth, because it will be in conflict with everything they've ever believed. They'll be under a strong delusion that what they're doing is right, accepting lies and rejecting the truth, just as so many people today are convinced to do by celebrities, politicians, mainstream media, and the like. They choose to accept what's spoon fed to them instead of digging deeper for the truth. They will experience the sights and sounds of all that was prophesied, and a majority will die shaking their fist at God because they refuse to bring themselves to believe that they were wrong. They will refuse to submit to God, who they will see as evil, unloving, and unjust. 

Unbelievers should be hoping that the Rapture is a long way off or that it's a fairy tale, because the reality of it isn't what they're hoping for. They're going to expect man-made heaven on earth, but what they're going to experience a little taste of hell on earth. 

If you're an unbeliever who is scoffing at this, remember that there's no guarantee for tomorrow, but if tomorrow does come, and another month and another year, and you are allowed to live long enough to witness the destruction of Damascus or live through the Rapture, then don't harden your heart. Stop and understand that there's little time left. The Tribulation lasts seven years, but there's no guarantee that you'll live through the entire Tribulation. In fact, most of the earth's population will perish before the end of those seven years. Odds are, you won't live through it.

I encourage you to read the Salvation Message on this web site. Think about what's to come and understand that biblical prophecy is real, that God is real, that Jesus lived and died to pay for your sins and remove the stain of that sin from you in order to save YOU from eternity apart from Him. 

Those who wish Christians would disappear are living on borrowed time. Yes, God blesses them with every breath they take and causes their heart to beat; He causes the sun to rise on their day just as the sun rises on ours. He loves us all and wishes that none of us would spend an eternity apart from Him. There will come a time, though, when that last breath will be taken, when the heart beats for the last time, and when the sun no longer rises on another day. Then, and only then, when they take that first step into eternity, will they realize that there is another life after this one. By then, it will be too late to change anything. Which future will you choose?

If you like this article, or any of the other information on this web site, please consider following me. You'll be one of the first to be notified when I create new content! You'll find the section at the top of the right hand column on this page. It says, "Follow Tribulation Harvest by Email." After entering your email address, you may be prompted to sign in to your Google account. Thank you!!!

Repent and be forgiven! Believe and be saved!

TribulationHarvest.net

Re-Evaluating Our Christian Walk

There are times when we need to re-evaluate our lives as born again believers and make the changes necessary to strengthen our relationship with God.

I think this is a subject we can all relate to. There are times in our Christian lives when we need to stop, think about where we've been, where we are, and what we hope to accomplish in the future.

Knowing where we've been, and reflecting on the road that has lead us to where we are now, is a morale booster, but we can't live on past glories. The point to looking back is to check our progress and give us the opportunity to make any course corrections that are needed in order to continue moving forward. Of course, this needs to be done through prayer, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, and through the wisdom that the Lord has blessed us all with.

The older I get, the more I realize just how important it is to use my time wisely in order to accomplish what the Lord has sent me here to do. God created me to exist at this particular point in time in order to complete specific tasks. As I get older and time grows short, I understand more that my time here on earth is valuable and I need to ask myself whether there needs to be a course correction. Am I accomplishing all that I can for the Lord?

I woke up from a dream a little while ago. In this dream I was helping a brother who had turned away from the church body. I felt the power of God flowing through me as I counseled him. In my dream, I brought his plea before the pastor in order to create reconciliation between him and the person I was counseling. Long story short, I found myself begging with the the pastor to listen to reason. When I woke up from the dream, I understood even more how some of the decisions I have made in the past few years separated me from the church body and from the work that the Lord had planned for me to complete.

I began thinking of how many opportunities had been wasted apart from the body, and how much time had been used for other things, sin being chief among them. Although I've repented, I still find myself separated from the body of believers that I was born to be a part of. Phone apps, world news, social media sites, online videos... all of these things had taken the place of my relationships within the body of Christ.

I have come to terms with the fact that even though the structure of the modern day church doesn't reflect how the early church operated, I need to be okay with that, because even in such a setting, God works through His body of believers. I don't agree with some church traditions, but it's the best system we have in this modern age, and to abandon it wouldn't be wise. Yes, God has brought me full circle on this issue. Because of this, I believe it's my responsibility to work within this framework to complete the work that the Lord has for me. 

Right now I have a fire in my heart that says I needs to move forward. I need to link arms with those brothers and sisters that are truly serious about their relationship with the Lord and who are in it for the long haul. We need to stand side by side at the front line, put our shields up and advance together, step by step, into the enemy's territory. We can't be looking back and patting ourselves on the back for the amount of territory with which the Lord has blessed us. We just need to focus on what lies ahead and constantly move forward. There will be plenty of time to look back at the efforts we put in to the battle once the battle is over and we're home with the Lord.

The church has always been filled with social butterflies, chatterboxes, gossipers, the uncommitted, the "religious," etc... We won't ever find a church body where we won't find at least one or more of these types of individuals, but we can't let that divide us or stop us from encouraging one another. We can't let that stop us from fellowshipping with one another. We can't let that stop us from praising and worshiping God as a body. Whether we gather together in a church building, at someone's house, walking on the beach, driving in a car...wherever, we need to operate as one body in support of each other and encourage one another to continue the race, growing in wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God and His word. 

If going to an organized corporate church is too much for you right now, think about checking out a few online sermons through church websites and apps. Keep tabs on local full gospel churches through their websites as well. Remember, you can visit a church without making a commitment to that church.

Join me and really commit to making some of the tough choices to help refocus our relationship with the Lord. The less time you spend with Him, the more time you spend in the world. You may want to consider...

• Uninstalling games on your electronic devices and fasting from playing videos on your gaming system. 
• Limiting the amount (and type) of television and video that you watch. 
• Limiting the amount of news that you take in on a daily basis. If you're checking out 20 news sources 3 times a day, cut it down to your top 5 and check it once a day (at the end of the day).
• Limiting your time on social media. Even Christian social media can be a time eater, so be careful.

Instead, you may want to consider...

• Praising and worshipping God through Christian music.
• Chatting or texting with your Christian friends about positive and spiritual things instead of spending time with worldly friends talking about worldly things.
• Picking an interesting topic and search the Bible for correlating scripture. Then memorize one of those scriptures (admit it, you're going to choose the shortest one...lol), and then pick another topic to study.
• 
  

These are just a few basic suggestions to get you to think about the things in your life that change and which will enhance your relationship with God and draw you closer to Him. And what does it say in James 4:8a? It says that if you draw close to God, He will draw close to you. That's an awesome scripture to stand on, and an easy one to memorize ;)

Consider whether the skills you have can be used to glorify God. If you're a creator, then why not use your skills to create something for God? The skills with which the Lord has blessed me have allowed me to create this very blog site. If you have a great voice or play an instrument, make some noise to the Lord at church, online, or in your local community. If you have technical skills, then make His presence known online or use your skills to help the church.

Just as we evaluate other things in our lives, our spiritual walk with the Lord deserves even more attention. You may come to realize that the Lord is leading you in a totally unexpected direction, and that it may be time to re-evaluate and plan for the direction you see the Lord taking you. 

I pray that your walk with the Lord grows daily and that you will make an effort to draw closer to God so that He can fulfill His half of His conditional promise and draw closer to you. May we all be more like Jesus every day, and may we all rejoice in His presence together on that great and glorious day when He returns to take us all home.

If you like this article, or any of the other information on this web site, please consider following me. You'll be one of the first to be notified when I create new content! You'll find the section at the top of the right hand column on this page. It says, "Follow Tribulation Harvest by Email." After entering your email address, you may be prompted to sign in to your Google account. Thank you!!!

Repent and be forgiven! Believe and be saved!

TribulationHarvest.net

Christmas - Compromised Christianity?

Christmas is not a biblically sanctioned day of observance. Nowhere in the New Testament are there examples of born again believers celebrating the actual date of Jesus' birth, nor are there any commands from God about observing such a day. That is my shorthanded opinion on the subject. If you want to hear more, please continue reading.

In the Bible, there are God appointed feasts (appointed times) for His chosen people... Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Weeks, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. These all reflect the work of redemption through Jesus Christ. These seven feasts were appointed by God, giving specific instructions on how they should be observed, including the dates and times. These feasts, and only these feasts, were appointed by God as a way to foreshadow Jesus. Nowhere in the New Testament did God appoint a day or time to celebrate the birth (or the death/resurrection for that matter) of our Savior.

Tradition and nostalgia can be powerful weapons in the hands of the enemy. They can cause us to ignore scriptural truths in our blind attempts at keeping tradition alive and to keep those powerful feelings of nostalgia stirring within us. I know how powerful nostalgia can be. It doesn't just involve reliving past memories, it involves the things that trigger those memories as well. A sound, a photo, a song, a decoration, food, or even a "remember when" moment, but especially an anniversary or holiday.

Unbeknownst to me, the Lord had been bringing me to a point where I would be receptive enough to have my perception of Christmas challenged. It occurred one winter, when I sat staring at my beautifully decorated tree. It was nighttime. The lights in the house were off and I was alone. The only source of light was the Christmas tree. The colors were beautiful and the single set of bubble lights that I had somehow managed to spread out evenly on the tree were bubbling away among the multitude of multicolored mini lights strung evenly from top to bottom. I sat looking at the hand painted angels hanging here and there on the branches. The blue glass ornamental balls painted with scenes of the manger and the three wise men (I have an issue with the story of the three wise men as well as their supposed visit to the manger, but that's explained in another blog) reflected the lights as they hung on the tree as well. Since she passed away, the angel my mother used to have on the top of her Christmas tree has adorned mine. I was so glad that I had a "Christian" tree that didn't reflect "worldly" themes. It was then, in the quietness of the evening, in the midst of my silent thoughts, that everything changed.

Clarity of mind suddenly came to me. It was as if I had an epiphany. At that moment, I asked myself, "What am I doing?" I had known for a while that the act of putting up a tree was a pagan ritual that I probably wasn't supposed to be participating in, but it was a subconscious thought that I always brushed off every holiday season, and by avoiding that thought, I was able to put the tree up every year without any guilt. At this moment, though, I was beginning to understand that what I had standing before me was a compromise tree. What do I mean by that? Well, as you know, compromise is something we all do sometimes in an effort to convince ourselves that we're not doing anything wrong (consciously or subconsciously). We deceive ourselves and disguise something that we know to be wrong as something that is acceptable. It's how I used to treat Halloween so many years ago. I knew I shouldn't be participating in Halloween, but I compromised because I didn't want my children to feel excluded. I used to tell them that they could go trick-or-treating as long as they wore a costume that wasn't considered "evil." They dressed as Moses, an angel, funny freaky Frankenstein, the spirit of Christmas, etc... They were compromise costumes. I eventually ended that practice, but now here I was, going in the same direction with the Christmas holiday. I was compromising. I was putting Christian decorations on a pagan symbol as well as using other pagan symbols around my home to celebrate Christmas. I was trying to disguise a pagan holiday with Christian themes and attempting, in my own mind, to pass it off as a celebration of Christianity. 

I had never heard of Christians totally abandoning the practice of celebrating Christmas, but that didn't stop me from turning away from what I saw as a celebration of paganism. It was the last time I participated in Christmas. 

It was a while after that when I met a married couple online who felt the same way that I did. They revealed to me that there were many other born again believers who were being led to reject the Christmas holiday. There are plenty of videos and articles out there that explain the paganism surrounding Christmas and the symbols associated with this day, so I won't get in to all of that here, although I will ask you a question. Have you ever questioned where holly, wreaths, mistletoe, trees, lights, candles in windows and yule logs originated? You should educate yourself in the origins of some of these traditions and symbols.

My favorite saying when talking about holidays such as these, is that you can't take a pagan tradition, wrap it in a Jesus ribbon, and think that this makes it okay to participate in it. It just doesn't work that way.

Christians have been trying to convert Halloween into a more biblical friendly event. Why hasn't it been a success? Simple. Christianity and Halloween are incompatible. The symbols and traditions of Halloween are evil and the only way to combine them with Christianity is through compromise. You need to change the symbolism and traditions of Halloween and create a new narrative where they meet Christian expectations. This is exactly what happened with Christmas. To put it in more modern terms, paganism was rebooted and re-branded as Christmas. Pagan symbols were whitewashed and given new meaning in order to make the pagan symbolism more acceptable, while still keeping their original meaning to those pagans who continued to worship outside of Christianity. Christianity took pagan wreaths, mistletoe, yule logs, etc... and decided to brand them as "Christian" for the faithful, even though they knew that these things were pagan in origin. One thing is for sure...God doesn't recycle paganism. Paganism is anti-God. 

The way I see it, I can't participate in pagan traditions that have been dressed up to look like a Christian holiday, even if I claim that my celebration of these symbols is my expression of faith in God. We can put a Christian spin on pagan objects and traditions to try to make it our own, but why? Why are we spending so much time, energy and money on a holiday that God never required or encouraged us to celebrate, that the early church never participated in, and that has pagan roots? There were times in "church" history when they tried to expand through compromise, and it only weakened the church as a whole because these compromises have become nostalgic traditions that have been blindly accepted by the majority of believers. 

There is no day more important on the calendar than any other day when it comes to how we are to live our lives as born again believers. We don't need a day to remember Jesus' birth or resurrection, because we should be living our lives celebrating those moments daily, which is how I believe God meant it to be. How can we witness to others effectively if we don't have that sustaining joy and thankfulness of Jesus' birth and resurrection? 

Most born again believers are not ready to accept the fact that Christmas is a man-made holiday based on pagan symbols, traditions and celebrations. That's understandable. The important thing is to keep an open mind and to leave yourself open to the leading of the Holy Spirit on this matter. 

I'd be interested in knowing what your thoughts are on this subject. Please keep your comments civil and profanity free. All comments are reviewed by me before being posted. Any comments that do not meet these requirements will be deleted before even making it on to the blog. 

If you like this article, or any of the other information on this web site, please consider following me. You'll be one of the first to be notified when I create new content! You'll find the section at the top of the right hand column on this page. It says, "Follow Tribulation Harvest by Email." After entering your email address, you may be prompted to sign in to your Google account. Thank you!!!

REPENT AND BE FORGIVEN!

BELIEVE AND BE SAVED!

TribulationHarvest.net