A Quick Look at the Rapture and the Second Coming (Tim Lahaye Prophecy Library) by Tim LaHaye

Author:Tim LaHaye [LaHaye, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780736958714
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Published: 2013-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

The Coming Seven-Year Tribulation

The most horrific period in the history of the world is yet to come. It is described by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 24–25, where He calls it the “Great Tribulation.” This raises a big question: Why would a loving God—who gave His only begotten Son to die on the cross for the sins of all mankind—permit the world to go through such a catastrophic time of suffering and misery?

To answer that question we must go back to the Garden of Eden, when Satan, the archenemy of God and mankind, enticed Eve and Adam to sin against God by deliberately disobeying Him. This caused the human race to fall from the perfect environment God put them into and led to the sin-cursed sojourn of mankind through history. This will all come to a gigantic crescendo, Jesus said, with “wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:6-7).

We humans, with our limited intelligence, cannot expect to understand the infinite ways of God, which the Bible declares are “past finding out” (Romans 11:33). Still, why would God unleash such horrific judgments upon the Earth in the last days? The answer to that is understood only in the light of God’s eternal plan for people and the fact we are living in the most significant period of all time—the days just before Christ’s coming and the end of the age.

What is the most significant meaning of Jesus’ words “all these things” in Matthew 24:6? “All these things” refer to the birth pangs we are to watch for. Later in verse 42, He said, “Watch therefore,” and in verse 44 He warned, “Be ready.” In Matthew 25:13 He said, “Watch for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Matthew 25:13). These verses give ample proof that the time to prepare for the awesome events of God’s eternal plan for mankind is now! That is what the Bible means when it states, “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Why all these alerts? So that we might realize the urgency of calling people to Christ, not knowing how much time is left.

The way I have reconciled God’s love and mercy with His judgment for sinners and those who reject Him is timing. That is, God knows what lies ahead. After the rapture, God will shake the earth with 21 judgments (described in Revelation 6–19) in a divine attempt to force people into making the eternal decision that will assure them of heaven forever, which is God’s desire, for He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). But He has given that choice to each individual.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.