What if we've got it all wrong?

What if we've got it all wrong?

What if we've got it all wrong? We've talked endlessly about the rapture, tribulation, millennium, the antichrist, etc, but what if we've entirely missed the whole point? The Lord's been teaching me a lot lately, and He keeps impressing on me the same things over and over again -from one end of the bible to the other.

I'm used to how He often uses things other people say, or things I'll hear on TV or read in whichever fiction book I'm reading at the time to further illustrate and really impress on me what He's teaching me. But lately, it's been really crazy. Those things used to happen frequently, but certainly not constantly...but now they are! Every time I turn around He's again pointing out what He showed me in His Word that very morning! This past month has been like He's had me in some sort of intensive training for something. In fact, it's been a little scary because of that.

At first I thought what He was showing me was just for me because it was so very intense. But after asking some precious brothers and sisters to pray for me and praying myself, I've determined He does want me to share it with you guys. So I will. I'm starting it here in this forum because it does concern the rapture and everything that will be happening and it concerns us. But it will be impossible to tell all of it all at once. So I'll simply have to add more to it as I can .

We've talked before about how many people who call themselves "Christians" are really saved. Over the years, my "estimate" (if you want to call it that) has gone down considerably, and has gone down even more just recently.

When you think about it, Jesus has told us that in actuality very few people are really saved out of the whole population. Many are just "pretenders" or fakers, often fooling themselves as well as others. Then on top of that, He said that it's just about impossible for a rich person to be saved, and in fact would be impossible without God. Today one of the most pervasive false teachings is the prosperity gospel. Everyone wants to not just have some money, but they want to get rich. Sadly, every step they take, even when they don't actually get rich, leads them further from the Lord, because we can't serve two masters.

Even without the prosperity teachings though, most Christians today are not much different from those who aren't saved. We aren't "hated by the world" because we're no different from them. I've felt for a long time that was a good way to determine just how closely I was walking with Christ. If the world loved me, I obviously must not be walking very close to Him.

Even when Jesus was here in the flesh, the vast majority of people rejected Him. Out of the whole population of Israel and the surrounding Gentile towns, only a handful of people were truly saved.

Jesus has told us that before He returns again it would be like the days of Noah and Lot. He was speaking of His second coming then, not of the rapture, but still if it's that bad at his second coming, then it's got to be getting that way when the rapture happens, don't you think? And we've all pretty much agreed that it's certainly beginning to look like that now.

Think about the days of Noah though concerning salvation...only 8 people out of the entire world population were saved. And in Lot's time only his small family was saved. In Rahab's time, only she and her family were saved. Over and over we're shown that it's always a small remnant that are truly saved.

Yet, when we look at statistics showing how many people claim to be Christians, you'd think a good half the world at the very least are saved. I really don't think so though. I don't think it's even half of that or even a quarter of that anymore.

The scarier part of that is that most people are frightened to death to "judge" someone and talk to them about the gospel if the person professes to be saved. Even when someone says they doubt their salvation, we tend to reassure them instead of simply telling them we can't know for sure, but we can tell them how they can know, and then proceed to tell them the gospel.

That brings up the next part that's scary. Usually the whole gospel isn't presented to people anymore. Instead, only the "good part" is told to them. But that's not what Jesus did. He told people everything, the whole deal. Which is why so many left. He told them they'd have to deny themselves; give up their right to live their life the way they wanted to, and instead live it for Him. He told them they'd have to obey Him and be in Him and His Word and remain in it daily. (Matthew 16:24–27; Matthew 25:29–30; John 12:24-25; John 15:7; John 15:10; John 14:15; John 14:21; 1 John 2:5–6; Revelation 22:14; etc) Today though the church tends to leave out the part about obedience and those who do talk about it, get attacked half the time for supposedly being legalistic. But Jesus didn't mince any words. He said it straight out:

John 15:10 —If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

Therefore, even many people who really are saved don't realize there's another part to their salvation.... a part they're supposed to participate it. In 1 John 3:6–10 we're told yet again that those who are really saved don't keep on sinning. Instead they grow in their faith. Do they sin at all? Of course they do, but they don't continue to sin because as soon as they realize they've sinned, they confess it and repent of it, not doing it again. In Matthew 5:48, and 1 Peter 1:15-16, we're told to be "perfect" and to be "holy" like Jesus. We're also given the reason for that:

1 Peter 2:5 —you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. * and Revelation 1:6 —and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. *

But most Christians today sure don't act like God's Holy Priests do they? (including me) Look too at what Jesus said to John about these days before the rapture:

Revelation 22:10–11 —Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. *Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.” *

Doesn't that sound a lot like today??? People are getting either more vile or more holy. Look what He says about it in Malachi:

Malachi 3:17–18 —“They will be mine,” says the Lord Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. *And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

Sounds pretty much like what we're seeing now doesn't it? But let's see what He says next in Revelation:

Revelation 22:12–14 —“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. *I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. *“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. *

But now let's look a bit into the future so we can see more bout those robes. This is after the rapture and the Bema Judgment, but before the second coming. These are words the Lord has put in my mind and kept there this past month, as though they were blazing in fire:

Revelation 19:7–8 —Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. *Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) *

I've had to ask myself If I've made myself ready for my Lord. Let me tell you, the past few weeks haven't been very comfortable, that's for sure!

This is the beginning of what the Lord's been showing me. All this time my "end times focus" has been on how evil people were getting, and how bad things were getting, and how I wished the rapture would happen, but I never really thought about if I was really ready. Oh, I've thought about how wonderful heaven would be, how I wanted to store up treasure in heaven, and all that, but somehow I bypassed that in between part about really making myself - my heart - ready for Him. If you look back at those last 4 scriptures I posted, it looks like this could be a prerequisite for the rapture, or another way of saying it, another "sign" of His soon coming - when the bride has made herself ready.

He's had much more to show me about this, so if anyone's interested, I'll try to share more of it tomorrow.

LiveJournal Tags: rapture,heaven,God,Jesus,Scripture,Bible,wrath,judgment,second coming,Noah,end times,tribulation,millennium,Bema Judgment,love,heart,Christ,Revelation,7 churches,seven churches,intercession,prayer,submission,submit,obedience,obey,denying ourselves,deny self,first love,bride of Christ,make ourselves ready,ready,getting ready,righteous acts,fine linen,Revelation 19:7-8,Revelation 22:12–14,Revelation 22:10–11,Revelation 1:6,spiritual sacrifices,living sacrifices,priests,holiness,perfect,sin,idolatry,salvation,saved,born again,Christians in name only,CINO,antichrist,false teaching,false prophets,self sins,lovers of self,terrible times,lovers of money,boastful,proud,abusive,disobedient to their parents,ungrateful,unholy,without love,unforgiving,slanderous,without self-control,brutal,not lovers of the good,treacherous,rash,conceited,lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,having a form of godliness,denying its power,2 Timothy 3:3–5