As I read Isaiah again, I'm continually reminded of so much, including how very few people will live through the tribulation. And that again just goes to show that the pre wrath and post trib positions are false. There won't be that many people left, besides that fact that to be joyful about looking forward to a rapture at that point is ludicrous! Listen to Isaiah:
Isaiah 13:12 —I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. *
Isaiah 24:5–6 —The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. *Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. *
Isaiah 34:2–3 —The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. *Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood. *
Other verses in Isaiah and other books also paint this same picture, and if that's not enough, Jesus himself tells us that no one would survive without divine intervention:
Matthew 24:22 —If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. *
It is going to be hell on earth during those 7 years, not just the last 3 and a half. I'd say the only difference between the first half and the second half of the tribulation is that we can just barely imagine, barely! what the very beginning of the tribulation will be like. And that's not even really accurate because there's most likely going to be a gap between the rapture and the start of the tribulation, and it's that "gap" really, that we can imagine what it will be like. That and the first few months of the tribulation our minds can grasp, but after that....no. If you study, what every book in the bible says about that period of time, you can't help but come away from it knowing that it's going to be like nothing mankind has ever even thought of in their worst nightmares!
I think the reason so many think that only the last half is going to be really bad is because so many authors and teachers stress the point that the judgments get worse as they go along and that as far as the Jews and Christians being martyred goes, that becomes a lot worse in the 2nd half of the trib. That's all quite true, but instead of realizing that the entire tribulation is going to be quite literally like hell on earth, instead we tend to think of it as starting slow and easy so that it's not much different then now. That's not true though.
The birth pangs we're seeing now are like "mini previews", and I do mean "miniature" in every way. Compare the worst natural disaster you can think of with a world wide earthquake that's so severe it's off the scale and kills billions. That's the difference. The difference between the first half and the second half of the trib, ONLY in the way the Jew's will be treated, is that during the first half they'll be treated generally the same as the Christians- tortured and killed. During the second half though, what happens to them will make the holocaust look mild!
To start with there are going to be at least 3 major earthquakes during the tribulation and two of them will be world wide....world wide! One of the world wide earthquakes will be during the first quarter of the first half of the tribulation and another toward the end. The bible says that during these two earthquakes there will also be many volcano's erupting and that ash and debris will fill the sky. We can only attempt to imagine what will happen with the oceans...tidal waves... talk about horror! And friends, God has set the first earthquake to happen during the first quarter of the first half of the tribulation.
There are 182 weeks in 3 and a half years. If you divide them by 4 that's 45.5 weeks. As you can see then, this first earthquake will happen before the first year of the tribulation has gone by. And that's just one of the many horrors that's coming, and coming soon. It's just one of the things that our neighbors are going to go through if they're not saved beforehand. If we can't work ourselves up to being bold enough to speak up to them about Christ and His salvation because we know they will spend eternity in hell, surely knowing that they will be going through this should cause us to run over and start pleading with them to give their lives to Christ!
On the other hand, if you believe God is the kind of God who would put His Church through this - for any reason, then I guess it just doesn't matter since they'd go through it anyway. Sorry, but it's just ludicrous to me that anyone could believe such a thing, or that if they did suspect it might be true, wouldn't then grab their bibles and not take their noses out of it until they'd studied the entire book from Genesis to Revelation with God's help to determine what God really says about it.
That right there shows another reason why these kind of false teachings are being taught. Because even if people do pick up their bibles, they're just studying the "proof verses" they're given or at most the main books they think it's talked about in, like Revelation, Daniel and Isaiah. The problem is that they can't get the whole picture until they know the whole bible. God had a reason for every word He gave us and if we don't know it all, then we can't know His plans for us, the Jew's or anything else. No Christian should just accept what I say, what their pastor says, or what any famous author/teacher/pastor says. They should instead commit to obeying God and knowing His Word and finding out for themselves what's true.
Isaiah 13:12 —I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. *
Isaiah 24:5–6 —The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. *Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. *
Isaiah 34:2–3 —The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. *Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood. *
Other verses in Isaiah and other books also paint this same picture, and if that's not enough, Jesus himself tells us that no one would survive without divine intervention:
Matthew 24:22 —If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. *
It is going to be hell on earth during those 7 years, not just the last 3 and a half. I'd say the only difference between the first half and the second half of the tribulation is that we can just barely imagine, barely! what the very beginning of the tribulation will be like. And that's not even really accurate because there's most likely going to be a gap between the rapture and the start of the tribulation, and it's that "gap" really, that we can imagine what it will be like. That and the first few months of the tribulation our minds can grasp, but after that....no. If you study, what every book in the bible says about that period of time, you can't help but come away from it knowing that it's going to be like nothing mankind has ever even thought of in their worst nightmares!
I think the reason so many think that only the last half is going to be really bad is because so many authors and teachers stress the point that the judgments get worse as they go along and that as far as the Jews and Christians being martyred goes, that becomes a lot worse in the 2nd half of the trib. That's all quite true, but instead of realizing that the entire tribulation is going to be quite literally like hell on earth, instead we tend to think of it as starting slow and easy so that it's not much different then now. That's not true though.
The birth pangs we're seeing now are like "mini previews", and I do mean "miniature" in every way. Compare the worst natural disaster you can think of with a world wide earthquake that's so severe it's off the scale and kills billions. That's the difference. The difference between the first half and the second half of the trib, ONLY in the way the Jew's will be treated, is that during the first half they'll be treated generally the same as the Christians- tortured and killed. During the second half though, what happens to them will make the holocaust look mild!
To start with there are going to be at least 3 major earthquakes during the tribulation and two of them will be world wide....world wide! One of the world wide earthquakes will be during the first quarter of the first half of the tribulation and another toward the end. The bible says that during these two earthquakes there will also be many volcano's erupting and that ash and debris will fill the sky. We can only attempt to imagine what will happen with the oceans...tidal waves... talk about horror! And friends, God has set the first earthquake to happen during the first quarter of the first half of the tribulation.
There are 182 weeks in 3 and a half years. If you divide them by 4 that's 45.5 weeks. As you can see then, this first earthquake will happen before the first year of the tribulation has gone by. And that's just one of the many horrors that's coming, and coming soon. It's just one of the things that our neighbors are going to go through if they're not saved beforehand. If we can't work ourselves up to being bold enough to speak up to them about Christ and His salvation because we know they will spend eternity in hell, surely knowing that they will be going through this should cause us to run over and start pleading with them to give their lives to Christ!
On the other hand, if you believe God is the kind of God who would put His Church through this - for any reason, then I guess it just doesn't matter since they'd go through it anyway. Sorry, but it's just ludicrous to me that anyone could believe such a thing, or that if they did suspect it might be true, wouldn't then grab their bibles and not take their noses out of it until they'd studied the entire book from Genesis to Revelation with God's help to determine what God really says about it.
That right there shows another reason why these kind of false teachings are being taught. Because even if people do pick up their bibles, they're just studying the "proof verses" they're given or at most the main books they think it's talked about in, like Revelation, Daniel and Isaiah. The problem is that they can't get the whole picture until they know the whole bible. God had a reason for every word He gave us and if we don't know it all, then we can't know His plans for us, the Jew's or anything else. No Christian should just accept what I say, what their pastor says, or what any famous author/teacher/pastor says. They should instead commit to obeying God and knowing His Word and finding out for themselves what's true.
I think where I live with all earthquakes if we do have big one we so jaded we probably be saying Screw you God you still you know what just sayin that my how fellow Jaded SO CAL residents think
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