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My
E-mail answer to a friend who asked the question, "What are your
beliefs on the Rapture?"
Hi
Judy,
I will answer your question with scripture.
Proverbs
10:30The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not
inhabit the earth.
And if that is not enough let's look at the words of Jesus:
St. John 17
15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that
thou
shouldest keep them from the evil.
Then go to Matthew Ch. 24
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating
and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe
entered into
the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so
shall also
the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the
other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,
and the
other left.
People want to use verse 40 and 41 as being those taken in the
rapture. Verse 39 tells us that it would be as in the days of
Noah. It is the wicked who were taken away. Now let's go to
verse 21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh
be saved:
but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Who are the ELECT Jesus is speaking of here if the Church has been
raptured out? Verse 29 tells us that it will be immediately after
the tribulation of those days. Verse 31 tells us that He will send
His Angels to gather his Elect.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
darkened,
and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall
from heaven,
and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and
then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of
man coming in
the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet,
and they
shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end
of heaven to the other.
Every one of Jesus deciples died horrible martys deaths. Why does
this church in the earth today think that they will not have to suffer for
the Name of Christ.
The early Church in Acts recognized that it would be through much
tribulation that we would enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Acts
14;22 Confirming the souls of the
disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must
through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Corrie Ten Boon has been warning the Christians for years to prepare for
tribulation.
CORRIE
TEN BOOM TELLS OF THE CHINESE CHURCH BEING UNWARNED AND ILL-PREPARED FOR
THE PERSECUTIONS THAT BEGAN IN 1949 UNDER MAO TSE TUNG'S RED GUARDS. SHE
ALSO WARNS THAT TODAY'S POPULAR FALSE TEACHERS OF A PRE-TRIBULATION
RAPTURE ARE SIMILARLY FAILING TO PREPARE WESTERN CHRISTIANS FOR THE COMING
TRIBULATION.
Don't worry, before the tribulation comes
you will be translated.
Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch survivor of the Nazi Concentration Camps,
and a lifelong missionary. Corrie was a believer in facing tribulation.
She was one of the many people who were persecuted in concentration camps
during the World War II. Her family was murdered before her eyes, but
though her life was threatened, God led her through that terrible time.
She lived to testify all over the world of how God brought her out of that
time of trouble. In an interview titled "Prepared for the Coming
Tribulation", she shared the following plea for the saints to prepare
for their faith to be tested. It serves today as a timely warning to the
comfortable and complacent western church as it approaches the threshold
of the endtime drama. Here is her exhortation, to us, the endtime saints,
from a letter she wrote in 1974. We might entitle this message, -
AN
EXHORTATION TO SPIRITUAL PREPAREDNESS FOR TRIBULATION AND FOR THE COMING
TRIALS OF OUR FAITH IN CHRIST.
- BY CORRIE TEN BOOM. "The
world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has
already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great
work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water,
channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is
possible for them to do this because they are overcomers. Christians are
ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this
dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change.
My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck
because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us
from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room
built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only
two representatives of Heaven in that room. We may have been the Lord's
only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence
there, things changed. Jesus said, "In the world you shall have
tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
We too, are to be overcomers“ bringing the light of Jesus into a
world filled with darkness and hate. 
Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this
world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible
coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that
I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting
"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" for I have found where it is written
that Jesus said, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things:
and I will be His God, and he shall be My son." This is the
future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive“
but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world. Betsy and
I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so
weak and sick. "Yes, the Lord will heal me,", Betsy said
with confidence. She died the next day and I could not understand
it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with
all the other corpses of the women who died that day. It was hard for me
to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet
because of Betsy's death, today I am traveling all over the world telling
people about Jesus. There are some among us teaching there will be no
tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this.
These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the
latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is
already going on across the world. I have been in countries where
the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China,
the Christians were told that they would be"
raptured." Then came a terrible
persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death.
Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly,
"We
have failed.
We should have made the people strong for persecution rather than telling
them Jesus would come first.
Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution,
how to stand when the tribulation comes,“ to stand and not faint."
I
feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that
it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in
training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of
Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is
no way to escape it.
We are next. Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus' sake, and
since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I
think, "Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation."
Then I write it down and learn it by heart. When I was in the
concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out
alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, "Nothing could be
any worse than today." But we would find the next day was even
worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory
gave me great hope and joy.
"If
ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of
glory and of God resteth upon you;
on their part evil is spoken of,
but on your part He is glorified."
(I Peter 3:14)
I
found myself saying, "Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus
is glorified!" In America, the churches sing, "Let the
congregation escape tribulation", but in China and Africa the
tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two
hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like
that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political
relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to
think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes
to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ
are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on
as though we are all going to escape the tribulation. Several years ago I
was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into
power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were
commanded to come to the police station to register. When they
arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed.
The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The
third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were
being systematically murdered. The fourth day I was to speak in a
little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and
tension. All during the service they were looking at each other,
their eyes asking, "Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one
killed? Will I be the next one?" The room was hot and stuffy
with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around
the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story
out of my childhood. "When I was a little girl, " I said,
"I went to my father and said,
"Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr
for Jesus Christ."
"Tell me," said Father,
"When you take a train trip to Amsterdam,
when do I give you the money for the ticket?
Three weeks before?" "No, Daddy, you give me the money for
the ticket just before we get on the train." "That is
right," my father said, "and so it is with God's strength.
Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr
for Jesus Christ.
He will supply all you need“ just in time¦" My
African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy
descended upon that church and the people began singing,
"
In the sweet, by and by,
we shall meet on that beautiful shore."
Later
that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I
heard later that the other half was killed some months ago. But I must
tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to
encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word
of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He
had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to
the end, He would give a crown of life. How can we get ready for the
persecution? First we need to feed on the word of God, digest it,
make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study
each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the
principles to work in our lives. Next we need to develop a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the
Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive
and sitting at the right hand of God. We must be filled with the Holy
Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely
necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under
the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for
Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the
tribulation without it. In the coming persecution we must be ready to
help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until
the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit
should be the dominant force of every Christian's life. Many are fearful
of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little
bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the
horrible nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the
tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad. When I am
weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners
for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit
was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped
us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the
tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him
who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the
Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down.
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him", for I know that to
all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life.
Hallelujah! -Corrie Ten Boom-1974 I got this letter from the Jesus
is Lord website who in turn got it from the Liberty
To The Captives Website who in turn got it from the Not
Deceived Message Board This is an excellent site that is
well worth visiting.
Judy I hope this answers your question. It is going to take great
persecution to wake up the sleeping church in America. Christians in
other countries have been martyed by the multiplied millions and are still
suffering greatly for their faith in Jesus Christ.
Your Sister in Christ,
Sylvia
I
am sorry to report that I have not received a response from my friend to
this E-mail.
11 Timothy 4:3--For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4:4--And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
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