This is encouragement from the Lord, not from the mind of this writer.
The Lord spoke specifically to the Churches in the very beginning of the book of Revelation. Then He speaks specifically to the Churches no more in the book of Revelation. There are people who try to explain this away but they do it to their own shame. Either our God is all knowing and all powerful or He is not. Either He does everything with absolute perfection and clarity of thought or He does not. Our God does not make mistakes, nor does He forget, nor does He commit oversights. There is a reason He speaks specifically to the Churches in the beginning of the book of Revelation then you cannot find the Church and instead by Revelation 7 He is speaking specifically to the tribes of Israel, not to the Church....
Here in Revelation 7 we see the tribes of Israel on earth and the Church in heaven:
4And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
5Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. 6Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. 7Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. 8Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.
Praise from the Great Multitude
9After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 10And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 11And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, 12Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
13And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? 14And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 16They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 17For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Israel is on earth, the Church is in heaven.
What promises has the Lord made to His Church? How about this one:
Rev 3:10Because 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.
So, here is what the Lord spoke to my mind out on that walk about "the hour of temptation" we are to be kept from. We cannot make stuff up, the Word has to interpret the Word so what exactly does the Word tell us about this 'hour'?
He tells us about an unknown day and hour here:
Matt 25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
but what the Spirit specifically brought to my mind was this:
Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Arguing about the rapture is pointless. The harpazo/rapture is going to happen in the Lord's time but the rapture is not the only escape we see in the Bible. So those who have so fervently dedicated their lives to "debunking" any escape have had their entire argument torpedo below the waterline and their ships are sinking. What will the Church escape? The unassailable facts presented not from man but by the Word of God are:
1. Some will escape all that is about to happen:
Luke 21:35For 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.
Here ^^ the Lord tells us about an escape and there is no direct link to the rapture so instead of making their case for them it digs them a double grave. How so? Not only is the rapture and escape from this world but now we have at least two escapes from this world (if Luke 21:36 is not the rapture...) and this one is an escape from all that is about to happen. Did the Lord elaborate on what "all that is about to happen" actually is? Yes, He did. Its right there in context, in the previous sentence. All that is about to happen is this: a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. What event is coming that is going to be a snare on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth? You do not have to be a Bible scholar to figure it out.
2. The Church of Philadelphia will be kept from as the Lord puts it to us "an hour"
Rev 3:10Because 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.
And once again, the Lord gives us some detail on what this hour is that the Church will be kept from. What is this hour? Its right there in the same sentence "which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."
Once again what we have is the Church being kept from some event that 1. will come upon all the world. 2. to try them/test them. And once again you do not have to be a Biblical scholar to figure out what this event is. The Lord goes on to elaborate on this 'hour' here:
Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Does this ^^ help fill in the blanks about this 'hour'? Sure it does, its exactly what we thought it was and we will be kept from it.
There is in fact a lot of escaping going on in the book of Revelation and elsewhere which must terribly vex those who want to see the Church drug through the tribulation for the sake of their own manmade doctrines. If it was the Lord's will that the Church was to go through the tribulation, why are the tribes of Israel sealed and the Church is not?
We have already covered Revelation 7 where all the tribes of Israel are called out by name and sealed, what we do not see is the Church called out by name (which did happen in Rev 2-3 but does not happen in Rev 7 or anywhere else in Revelation). So, the tribes of Israel are sealed in Rev 7 then in Revelation 9 we see this:
1And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 2And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Problem? Yes, but only if the Church was still on earth....
We see escape from all, we see the Church kept from the hour of trial, we see the woman escaping the beast in Revelation 12
5And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 6And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
and the child being "caught up unto God", another escape from the dragon. Yes, I see alot of escaping here which does cause a vexing problem for those who tell us that God's people get dumped wholesale into the time of Jacob's trouble (not the Church's trouble, but Jacob's trouble).
While we do not see the Church called out by name in Revelation 7, we do see the tribes of Israel called out by name. Meanwhile back in Revelation 5, right before the seals are opened in Revelation 6 we see elders in heaven described by our perfect all knowing God as being from every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Here we have to put our math hat on. 24 elders but how many nations are on earth? 24? No, alot more than 24. How many tongues are there on earth? 24? No, alot more than 24. So, has our Lord made a mistake? He does not make mistakes so its for us to figure it out....
The fact is, there will be believers in the tribulation but the million dollar question is which ones? Obviously all Christians will not enter the tribulation, nor live through all of it. The fact that the Spirit of the Lord brings back to my remembrance over and over again is the fact that up through this very day, not single living soul that dies in Christ will have entered the tribulation. Not one...let that sink in. So much for this 'need' for the Church to be on earth during the time of Jacob's trouble, most of the Church (those who have already died in Christ) have already escaped it!!!
Glory to God. You should be encouraged today. Those who see the dark days of the tribulation coming and are already down on their knees in prayer and repentance do not "need" the tribulation to get them where they need to be (in right standing with our Lord). The tribulation, as with everything else our God does has a purpose and that purpose is not to grind the Church into the ground. We know that because the Bible does not tell us that. Tribulation comes from tribulum which is what they used to grind the hard shell off of wheat. Those who are on their knees in prayer and repentance today do not have a hard shell to thresh off.....its already off. There are those who will need the tribulum and the tribulation to grind off their hard shell but it is not the Church in right standing with Christ today.
Our God has made us many promises. Those who inherit the promises are those who receive them by faith and patience.
Heb 6:12 That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
We can take His promises to the bank. Through faith and patience we will inherit every single one of them because our God cannot and will not lie. Millions of Christians have already escaped the tribulation through death in Christ up through this very day. Many of us will escape the tribulation with our brothers though not necessarily through death. Our God has promised many escapes to come in the days ahead. It is for us to be in right standing with our God today. We are to be a people of prayer and repentance in a world filled with gross darkness.
Our Lord sent this message of hope to you through these fingers that type it out on a keyboard. There is an escape from all that is about to happen and we are to pray for it
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.
grace and peace
