Luke 21:
34And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares. 35For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
Rev 3
8I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. 9Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 10Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. 11Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
We have spoken and heard about the Lord coming back soon. We have done this for years and yet here we are. Why would the Lord preach and teach a message of "be ready for me to come back soon" if it was going to take years and decades and centuries for it to happen? 1. Each day one of us mortals is alive is one less day we will spend on this earth-time is short for each and every one of us by virtue of the fact that we are human/mortals. 2. There is a generation (and it could be ours) that will not see death before the Lord comes back unexpectedly for His Bride/the Church.
We read and understand the Word of God through the understanding the Spirit of the Lord gives and our faith. This is why there can be such a wide variety of opinion in people who read the exact same scripture. We are today looking at the verses above from Luke and Revelation. The servant who writes to you today has grown in the Lord over time (not that that makes him anything) but "how he reads" these scriptures today is the same as it has always been:
Luke 10
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
This servant reads the scriptures at the top as follows: The Lord is coming back soon and He wants each and every one of us to live today as if today could be "the day." It has been proven through the Word that this world has not yet entered "the" tribulation, the final 7 years before the "second coming." That means we still today live in a pre-tribulation world. That said, the events around us suggest it might not be far off before the tribulation actually does start which means if we are going to be kept from "all that is about to happen" we should be watching and praying with some intensity today. All those who preach and teach a different message because of man made doctrines or the doctrines of demons, that is their problem to deal with. We are to pray and believe according to our faith based on "how do you read it (the scriptures)."
We will all stand as individuals before the judgement seat of Christ. We will not have some priest or pastor or some internet troll standing there with their pet doctrines to defend us at the time of judgement. It will be us and the Lord and we will have to answer for ourselves which means we will have to rely on our own faith and understanding (with the ongoing help of the Spirit) to navigate the Word and come to correct conclusions about what has been written.
This brings us back to today. Current events suggest we could be close, maybe we are maybe we are not but the Lord told us to live as if each day was the day. That is why we teach and preach exactly as the Word is written not how we think it should be. What if there is not much time left before all hell breaks loose (the tribulation)? Are we doing what we were instructed to do:
36Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
Yes, there is an escape from all that is about to happen. That is clearly stated fact in the Word of God and anyone who has a problem with that fact and teaches otherwise is a liar. The Lord does not instruct us to perform nonsensical actions. If He told us to watch and pray always for an escape, then that is what we should be doing. Those who refuse to do this? That is their problem. Those who teach others not to do this? They have an even bigger problem.
If we do what we were told to do we do not have to get into pre/mid/post trib debates. We were told to be watching and ready always. Always means today. If we are watching and ready today, and today is a pre-tribulation day then I guess today makes us "pre-trib." If we are still watching and praying always 3.5+ years from now and it happens to be mid-tribulation and thats when the Lord unexpectedly comes back then I guess that would make us "mid-trib." See how nice and neat just doing what we were told to do without adding or subtracting anything works out?
We need to do what we were told to do, period. If we have individual questions about what was written we need to get down on our knees and ask the author who happens to be the Lord God what He meant when He said whatever it is we are asking about. This is not rocket science.
This was written here today by the instruction of the Spirit of the Lord. We were told specifically it would be a day like today when the Lord came back unexpectedly:
34And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares.
How does your servant read this ^^? It is an ordinary day. Kind of like here:
Luke 17:27
People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
It was an ordinary day until WHAM, it was'nt ordinary anymore......
We who serve the Lord must be ready for this extra-ordinary day.
Grace and peace
Glory to God
