Bible verses that tell a story

1 Corinthians 15 (51) Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, (52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMPET; for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

1 Thessalonians 4 (16) For the Lord Himself will descent from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (17) Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Revelation 11 (15) The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever." (16) And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God, (17) saying: "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. (18) The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great - and for destroying those who destroy the earth." (19) Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within His temple was seen the ark of His covenant. And there came flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

These are just some of the verses that came to my attention when I started questioning a pre-tribulation rapture of the saints. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, is returning to the earth to vanquish the enemy, satan, and will then rule. He is returning at the LAST TRUMPET. Also, according to scripture itself, the resurrection of the dead happens at that same time. And according to scripture from the apostle Paul, we who are alive should have hope for our dead in Christ because they will rise before anyone who is alive. So, when you put all of those scripture together you have the complete story.

Jesus is returning at the last trumpet at which time the resurrection of the dead will take place and then the rapture of the church. Since Jesus doesn't return until the last trumpet, and at that time He takes over rulership of the earth, this is at the end of the Great Tribulation period.

This means that the writers from the early church all the way down through the church age until the early 1800's were correct in their belief that the church will be going through the Great Tribulation.

Right now the church, for the most part, believes that it is going to be taken out prior to the Great Tribulation. You might ask, what is the harm of believing that? There is great harm in believing that. It leads to a false sense of security. Why in the world would someone spend time getting ready for something that they are never going to experience? They won't.

I like to use the example of a marathon runner. Any serious runner knows that you don't just wake up one morning, decide to run a marathon, put on some brand new shoes and head out the door. That is ridiculous and anyone would laugh at you for even thinking you could do that. No training and your shoes are not even broken in.

No, a serious runner trains for months before running a marathon. They go out almost every day and run for practice, running longer and longer as they build up their stamina. They might even run some smaller races to get ready for the adrenaline rush the marathon will bring. They will start eating right, they will get enough sleep. They will understand that there is a link between running and the mind. They will train their mind to overcome that voice that tells them they can't do it. They will get through injuries and they will go to the gym for weight training. They will understand that they'll hit a wall and train themselves on how to break through it to their goal.

This is what the serious Christian needs to do to get ready for the Great Tribulation. We need to be in serious training. Our training consists of daily reading of God's word, daily prayer and communication with God and walking our daily life imitating our Lord Jesus Christ. When we have obstacles to overcome in our walk, we go to the Lord and overcome the way He would. This gives us strength, through Him, to get through. Each time we do that we build up our strength in Him. Depend on Him for strength to get through tough times. The tough times that we have now are there to help us build up strength for the really tough times ahead. We shouldn't look at them as trials, but as opportunities to grow in Christ so we are more able to handle things as they get worse. We are training for the hardest marathon ever to take place. It's going to be 7 years of going through the hardest thing imaginable. Are you ready?

This morning I was reading through my latest copy of the Voice of the Martyrs magazine. I strongly recommend every serious Christian to get on their mailing list and study that magazine every month. These are Christians on the front line right now, things we will all be faced with in the future. Reading their stories will help you build up your faith and your strength in our Lord Jesus Christ. You can find out more at http://www.persecution.com/. And please do not make the mistake thinking that just because you might live in the U.S.A. that you will be safe from things like this because you will certainly not. In fact, in future blogs we will be talking about the future of the U.S.A. and it's place in biblical prophecy.

I truly pray that these words will give you some things to think about, pray about and study about. Get into God's word and find the truth for yourself. Do not take my word for it - I am only a student such as yourself. I am no bible expert. I am only sharing my thoughts in hopes that it might cause you to dig more deeply into this for yourself. Don't listen to any man, or woman for that matter. Listen only to God. Pray for wisdom and discernment. Pray for strength from Jesus Christ. He is our only hope.

For His glory, Kathe