If you study professional football players, you know they are some of the best athletes in the world. They work very hard in the off season to prepare for the games during the season. One of the things almost all of them will tell you is, there's no way to simulate exactly the intensity of the "real game." You can scrimmage, you can play off season games, but when the time for the real games comes, there's just nothing that compares with that intensity.
The same thing goes for soldiers. The best of the best, special forces, delta force, seals, all of them will tell you that regardless how hard you train, how grueling the regimen, there's nothing that can truly prepare you for real war. When real bullets are flying at your head by someone who really wants to kill you, you know the difference and its huge.
This brings us to the rapture/escape from all. There are scoffers in the world today who tell us there is no rapture. They tell us there is no escape, or they tell us that we will take most of the time of Jacob's trouble on the chin, and maybe we'll miss out on a tiny bit of the tribulation. These scoffers tell us that we who believe the bible literally are putting people at a disadvantage because they won't be ready for the tribulation when it comes. Here's a newsflash for these scoffers:
The people best prepared and positioned to face the tribulation are the least likely to ever see it.
Just like the football player and the soldier described above, we know that the coming time of testing will be more intense than anything the world has ever seen...EVER. What are these scoffers doing that "prepares" them better than us? Stocking up food? Digging a hole in the ground somewhere? There's only one preparation for the tribulation and that is faith and total belief in Jesus Christ today..PERIOD.
Guess who is looking for their master to return today? Those praying for the escape from all, which by the way is not a "cult" idea, its written clearly in Luke 21:36. Pray for the escape, if people cannot fathom words written so clearly and laid out so plainly how do they ever expect to understand the real mysteries of God. Mystery, is that what I said? Yea, the scoffer cannot grasp the plain meaning of praying for an escape from all, how can they ever hope to grasp the deeper things, the mysteries of God? Which mysteries? How about this one:
1 Cor 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed
The scoffer tells us that "rapture" isn't written anywhere in the bible. My answer? So what? 1 Cor 15:51-52 is written in the bible, call that event whatever you want, next objection please?
Back to this statement:
The people best prepared and positioned to face the tribulation are the least likely to ever see it.
Who are these people who are best prepared to face the tribulation? They are those who are "in Christ" today, who live for their master day in and day out, who seek to please him, and most importantly are watching for his return today. What's going to happen to all these servants who willfully disobey the command to be watching and ready TODAY for the Lord's return? Do you think things are going to go well for them?
The faith to overcome the obstacles of life today, is the same faith required in the coming days to face the tribulation. Our source for everything is Jesus Christ, that counts for today and everyday in the future, so...remind me again how the scoffers of escaping from all hold a superior position to ours?
I remember debating a pre-wrath guy one time and I asked him a couple very simple questions that he could not answer:
1. Why do you refuse to pray to escape all that's about to happen as you have been commanded to by our Lord?
and
2. Why do you willfully disobey the command to WATCH for our Lord's return today and everyday?
His only response was "you need to read my book." So let me understand this, I need to read an entire book "(written by men) in order to understand why the bible does'nt really say what it appears to clearly say? Notice that no counterbalancing scriptures were referenced by this guy, his suggestion was for me to read his book so I could understand what God "really" says. Uhhh, no thanks. ( I actually did read it, but after all that work found zero to convince me that the Word of God reads any differently than plainly stated. There is an escape from all coming, that's a fact. We are commanded to pray for it, that's a fact. We are told to watch, TODAY, over and over again, that's a fact, and these facts lay waste to the arguments made by men that take entire books to make, and end up flat on their face in the end.
There are no good arguments against watching and being ready for our Lord's appearance today, NONE. This one point alone is enough to demolish legions of scoffers and detractor's arguments and doctrines. The next time you debate a scoffer, pin them down on the two questions listed above 1. are you praying for the escape? no? why not? 2. are you watching today? no? why not? When they tell you that you need to read a book (other than the bible) to understand what the bible clearly says, dismiss them and their arguments.
Why I stopped debating
The Lord showed me something interesting about one of his experiences. Remember when the devil tempted Jesus in the desert? What did Jesus do? He replied with the word of God, but here's the part that applies to us today, he CUTOFF the debate. Can you imagine if Jesus would have allowed satan to go on and on and on out in the desert? There would have been no new testament written because the devil would still be spamming Jesus with ridiculous and contradictory arguments to this very day!
I spent my time answering the same things from different people over and over again. The truth is out there, I have answered the questions for myself and the scoffers, but they are'nt listening. They ask not to receive an answer, but to justify their own positions, so on and on it goes with no end till the world ends. I have willingness to repeat myself over and over again, what I do not have is time. I have been sent to warn people, and to remind people of what has already been written in plain language in the bible. To that end, the critic can search this blog and the pages of others who are wiser than myself for answers if they really want them (but the don't).
Jesus did not entertain Satan's accusations and bible twisting endlessly and I no longer suffer endless debates that go nowhere anymore. Time is the most precious commidity today, not money or anything else. If satan or his servants can pin you down in an endless debate cycle, your time to do what the Lord would have you do goes down the drain, thats a victory for the enemy. Jesus cut satan off, you should too. I spend time on my knees in the morning, if/when I need correcting the God who created eternity is more than able to jerk my chain. He's done it before, I know he is more than able..
Those of us who believe that an escape from all is coming, because the word of God tells us to pray for it, have NOTHING to lose and everything to gain from our positioning in this struggle. If we were wrong about the rapture/escape it does'nt matter. Our resource tomorrow is our resource today, Jesus Christ period.
If, however, the scoffer, the mid-pre-wrath, post trib, and no rapture at all believers are wrong, they are positioned terribly. We have nothing to lose, they have ALOT to lose. If we must indeed pray for the escape and be watching today in order to be part of the escape, then these scoffers bought themselves tickets into the tribulation when it did'nt have to be that way. As you believe it will happen, that's how it will be done unto you..thats what Jesus told the centurion, the man with the greatest faith Jesus had met up till that day.
Those who believe there is no escape are correct up to a point. There will be no escape for them...
Faith, belief, prayer, these are the things on my heart today. Only the Lord really knows what today and tomorrow hold for us, but he has not left us blind, we have his word. The scoffers and accusers will not be around on judgement day for your accounting to the Lord. You will answer for you, they will answer for themselves. What you believe shapes your destiny. How much faith do you have and what are you using it for? Faith that is not applied is like money buried in the ground collecting no interest. Remember the parable of the talents?
Return to the fundamentals of the faith. Forget everything men ever taught you about Jesus and the kingdom of heaven, pick up your bibles and fall in love with him anew today. Men can study till blue in the face, but if they do not really know the Son of God they will get no closer to the truth than when they started. Knowledge of the Holy One is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. There are many in this world today who do not know him, don't bother arguing with them:
Matt 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
grace and peace
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