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Mr.
Wilson:
I
recently came across your website. Your article
on the rapture is a challenge. I have been 100%
convinced of a pre-tribulation rapture for more
than twenty years, but in recent weeks my
confidence in this doctrine is not secure as it
once was. Your article raised some good questions
that I had not considered. One issue bothers me a
great deal. Why does God permit His people to be
persecuted and killed during the Great
Tribulation? Didn’t God rescue Noah? Lot?
Rehab? Daniel and others? Doesn’t the Bible
say that God’s people will not suffer wrath?
(1 Thessalonians 1:10) I hope you reply.
Sincerely, Paul
Dear
Paul:
Thank
you for your question. I am pleased to learn that
you are searching for more truth. I am sure the
Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth as you
study God’s Word.
(John
16:13) I am not here to tell anyone what to
believe. You have asked a very good question that
I have asked myself. I have found some points
from Scripture that may be helpful to you in your
search for truth. Each believer must assemble God’s
truth for himself and live according to what he
believes is right and true. After you read this
response, I hope you will go back to our website
and reread the article on the rapture. If you do
this, several pieces of the puzzle may “snap
together” and make a lot more sense the
second time around.
To
begin, you need to know that persecution and true
Christianity are inseparable. Jesus warned His
disciples: “Remember the words I spoke to
you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will persecute you
also…. They will treat you this way because
of my name, for they do not know the One who sent
me.
(John
15:20,21)
Later,
Jesus warned His disciples again, “All
this I have told you so that you will not go
astray. They will put you out of the
synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone
who kills you will think he is offering a service
to God. They will do such things because they
have not known the Father or me. I have told you
this, so that when the time comes you will
remember that I warned you…” (John
16:1-4)
Looking
into the future, the Bible warns that God’s
saints are going to be persecuted: “The
[leopard-like] beast was given a mouth to
utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise
his authority for forty-two months… He [the
leopard-like beast] was given power to make
war against the saints and to conquer them. And
he was given authority over every tribe, people,
language and nation.” (Revelation
13:5-7, italics and insertion mine)
Those
who stand up for righteousness are often
persecuted. Jesus said, “Blessed are
those who are persecuted because of
righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you,
persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad,
because great is your reward in heaven, for in
the same way they persecuted the prophets who
were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12) The
apostle Peter understood persecution and
the importance of not giving up. He wrote, “So
then, those who suffer according to God’s
will should commit themselves to their faithful
Creator and continue to do good [regardless
of the consequences].” (1 Peter 4:19,
insertion mine)
Please
consider one more text: “He [the
little horn] will speak against the Most High
and oppress his saints and try to change the set
times and the laws. The saints will be handed
over to him [the little horn] for a time,
times and half a time.” (Daniel 7:25,
italics and insertions mine) Who handed the
saints over to the little horn power if not God?
For reasons beyond the scope of this article,
this prophecy was fulfilled during the Dark Ages.
(A.D. 538 – 1798) During this time period,
some historians calculate that more than fifty
million Christians died for their faith. An
unescapable fact is in the past, God handed His
saints over to the little horn for 1,260 years
and it is not inconsistent that He should hand
His saints over to the leopard-like beast for
forty-two month in the future.
Look at
Persecution from God’s Point of View
Persecution
for Christ’s sake is a challenge, but God
does not view persecution as we do. According to
His infinite wisdom and love, God is able
to achieve things for and through His saint’s
when they are persecuted that He cannot achieve
otherwise. Please consider the following:
Persecution
for Christ’s sake purifies our devotion to
Christ. When people are persecuted for humbly
obeying the will of God, there is no room for
bitterness or anger toward their predators. God’s
people accept, through faith, that it is His will
that they should stand firm, paying the price
that His truth demands. (Remember that Jesus
uttered the phrase “Father forgive them”
on the cross (Luke 23:34), and Stephen uttered
the same phrase when the stones were flying.
(Acts7) When faced with persecution for Christ’s
sake, a bundle of God’s grace is delivered.
The Holy Spirit empowers the saint to deal with
the situation. God’s Word becomes paramount
and everyone involved is affected-even if they do
not comprehend all that is taking place.
The
fires of persecution separate the faith-full (the
gold) from the faith-less (the dross). When the
tribulation begins, everyone who obeys the first
angel’s message will face persecution. Our
Creator’s demand to worship Him on the
seventh day will stand in direct opposition to
Babylon’s demand that we worship God on the
first day. When persecution begins, many
Christians will discover that they really do not
have faith in Christ. They will cry out, “Oh
God, how could You let this calamity happen to
me.
Peter’s
experience is recorded in the Bible because he
perfectly mirrors between admission and
submission. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter
was bold, ready to die for the Lord. When the mob
rushed into the garden to lay hands on Jesus,
Peter whipped out his knife and a scuffle ensued.
He managed to cut off the right ear of Malchus,
the high priest’s servant. (John 18:10) Six
hours later, he denied three times that he even
knew Jesus. What caused Peter to do this?
Peter
did not know it, but he had no faith in God.
Peter had played the “admission game.”
He admitted that Jesus was the Messiah. (Matthew
16:16) Peter admitted that he was prepared to die
for his master, “…’even if I
die with you, I will never disown you.’ And
all the disciples did the same.” (Matthew
26:35) And sure enough, when the mob showed up,
Peter proved that he was ready to fight and die
for Christ’s sake, but his motive was
self-defense. Peter was self-seeking and he was
willing to die, if necessary, to get what he
wanted.
Six
hours later, Peter saw Jesus submit to
persecution and condemnation without any
self-defense. Christ’s humility humiliated
Peter. He felt betrayed and he responded with
betrayal. Peter was not prepared to accept the
Father’s will for Jesus. It was the Father’s
will that Jesus go to the cross and Peter did not
seek the same destiny as Christ. It is one thing
to die in self-defense or in defense of God and
country, but it is altogether another matter to
die for no other reason than God requires it.
This is the element in Isaac’s story that is
so amazing. He was willing to die on the altar
without resistance or complaint. Jesus said, “If
anyone would come after me, he must deny himself [lay
aside self-interests] and take up the cross
[the will of God] and follow me. For whoever
wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for me will find it.”
(Matthew
16:24,25, insertions mine)
After
the rooster crowed a third time, Peter had an
epiphany. He began to understand the meaning of
submission to the will of God. When Peter saw
Israel’s Messiah, the Son of God, submitting
to inhuman treatment because this was the Father’s
will for Christ, Peter became ashamed of himself.
Peter saw through the tears that faith in God
means total submission to God’s will and
this includes suffering because of righteousness.
Jesus’ persecution changed Peter and
millions of people since who have studied the
life of Jesus. Persecution purifies the soul of
the persecuted and in this process, God allows us
to see if self has been set aside so that the
will of God can be fulfilled. Jesus said, “This
third I will bring into the fire [of
persecution]; I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold. They will call on my
name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They
are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The
Lord is our God.’” (Zechariah 13:9,
insertion mine)
Persecution
also keeps faith in Christ vibrant! When Jesus
spoke to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and
3, the Christian faith was only sixty-five years
old. Already, six of the seven churches in Asia
Minor were corrupted by false doctrines, but the
church of Philadelphia was hanging on. Because
religion mutates quickly, God allowed the devil
to chase His people into the desert for 1,260
years. (Revelation 12:6,14) God knows the desert
is a good place for training people. This is why
He took Israel into the desert when they first
came out of Egypt. I like to call God’s
desert training, “Desert University.”
When a person is exiled to the desert, he has to
depend upon God for everything. The desert is an
unforgiving place, a hostile place, a lonely
place, a place that forbids self-indulgence and
self-reliance. The carnal nature hates the
desert. Instead, it wants pleasure, luxury, and
the “easy life.” Even though there is
very little pleasure in the desert, a person can
find joy in the desert. True joy expands the
ability of the heart to trust God and serve man.
True joy redirects our motives from self-seeking
to selfless service. “Desert U” teaches
discernment and insight. “Desert U” is
a holistic experience called sanctification, or
in Bible terms, “walking with God.” “This
is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man,
blameless among the people of his time, and he
walked [alone] with God.” (Genesis
6:9, italics and insertion mine) Looking at human
nature and knowing that God’s wisdom is
perfect, we have to admit that putting the saints
in the desert for 1,260 years had to be the best
thing that God could do for them.
Attending
“Desert U” is like putting on a
blindfold and after taking a hold of Christ’s
arm, following wherever He leads. There is no way
of knowing where you are going, but your
destination is secure! God’s people often
find themselves all alone in their faith
experience. Family and friends rarely understand
or appreciate “Desert U.” In fact,
family and friends are often opposed to God’s
will because they do not know God’s will.
Jesus said, ‘A man’s enemies will be
the members of his own household.” I
have mentioned these matters because there is a
special sense of joy at “Desert U.” God
is there. If necessary, food falls from the sky
and water flows from rocks. “The woman
fled into the desert to a place prepared for her
by God…” (Revelation 12:6, italics
mine)
The
final benefit that comes from persecution is
exclusion. Persecution keeps those who love the
world and the things of this world out of God’s
church. (1 John 2:15) When the threshold for
being a Christian is suffering, the nucleus of
God’s people remains pure. When the
threshold for being a Christian is easy, religion
mutates and the gospel suffers. The saints
become invalids when they should be soldiers of
the cross. Instead of being medics to a dying
world, church members constantly need a medic to
keep them alive.
God’s
saints do not serve Him because they want to
avoid Hell and win Heaven. God’s saints
would serve God if there were nothing beyond this
life. That is what Jesus did. He would have gone
to the cross for you and me even if there were no
resurrection. The saints serve God because He
imparts love, peace, joy, and sustaining grace.
(Galatians
5:22) This grace comes through total submission
to God’s will. This grace enables the saints
to “overcome the world.” “They
[the saints] overcame him [the devil] by
[their faith in] the blood of the Lamb and
by the word of their testimony; they did not love
their lives so much as to shrink from death.”
(Revelation 12:11)
The
apostle Paul wrote, “In fact, everyone
who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12) If
persecution were a bad thing for God’s
people, He would not permit it. God does not view
persecution as we do because His grace is
sufficient. Listen to Paul, a man who knew
persecution well: “No temptation has
seized you except what is common to man. And God
is faithful; he will not let you be tempted
beyond what you can bear. But when tempted, he
will also provide a way out so that you can stand
up under it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) God’s
saints should not fret over past, present, or
future persecution. If we surrender to God’s
will today, He will give us every grace to
glorify His wonderful name today. Today is all
that we have. In closing, consider Peter’s
words, the apostle who made an about face once he
understood God’s will. “Live such
good lives among the pagans that, though they
accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good
deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to
every authority instituted among men: whether to
the king, as the supreme authority, or to
governors, who are sent by him to punish those
who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
For it is God’s will that by doing good you
should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as
a cover-up for evil; live as servants to God.
Show
proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood
of believers, fear God, and honor the king.
Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with
all respect, not only to those who are good and
considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For
it is commendable if a man bears up under the
pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious
of God. But how is it to your credit if you
receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it?
But id you suffer for doing good and you endure
it, this is commendable before God. To this you
were called, because Christ suffered for you,
leaving you an example, that you should follow in
his steps.” (1 Peter 2:12-21)
Larry Wilson
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