JESUS IS COMING SOON: PREPARE FOR PERSECUTION
Introduction
A large portion of the Body of Christ believes that the Church will be raptured before last seven years (Daniel’s seventieth week.) I disagree with that based on what the Bible says. I’m not going to try to prove in any great detail that point but I want to warn the Body of Christ that He is coming VERY SOON and we will have to endure persecution before He comes. (No, I'm not a post-tribber.) This is what the Bible says:
Mat 24:9-13 ESV "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. (10) And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. (11) And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. (12) And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. (13) But the one who endures to the end will be saved.Jesus says this happens BEFORE the rapture of the Church which isn’t even mentioned until the 29th verse.
You can also see, in the verses above, the apostasy when He mentions, “And then many will fall away”. That is exactly what Paul mentioned in Thessalonians:
2Th 2:1-4 WNT But with respect to the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to meet Him, we entreat you, brethren, (2) not readily to become unsettled in mind or troubled--either by any pretended spiritual revelation or by any message or letter claiming to have been sent by us--through fancying that the day of the Lord is now here. (3) Let no one in any way deceive you, for that day cannot come without the coming of the apostasy first, and the appearing of the man of sin, the son of perdition, who sets himself against, (4) and exalts himself above, every so-called 'god' or object of worship, and goes the length of taking his seat in the very temple of God, giving it out that he himself is God.How could there be an apostasy, a falling away of the Church, if the Church is raptured and in Heaven? No, the Church will most certainly be on the earth, just like Jesus said, during the persecution and the apostasy. Revelation makes this clear:
Rev 6:9-11 ESV When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. (10) They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (11) Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.Notice this is the fifth seal. Those that believe in the Pre-tribulation rapture say there are no Christians to be slain and killed because the rapture had already taken place. But it is evident that someone is being slain here. It is the saints of God – the Body of Christ, i.e. Christians. It is not until the sixth seal that we, the Christians, are raptured. We are raptured before God’s wrath is poured out on the wicked which starts at the sixth seal. All you need to do is match up the sign of the Sun being darkened and turning to blood in Matthew 24, which is the sign of the rapture, with the sixth seal and you will find they are the same event.
Mat 24:29-31 ESV "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (30) Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (31) And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.Compare the above with the sixth seal:
Rev 6:12-14 ESV When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, (13) and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. (14) The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.Matthew 24:29-31 is clearly the same event as the sixth seal of Revelation 6:12-14. It is the rapture.
Preservation in The Midst of Turmoil
I want to prepare the Body of Christ for the days ahead. They involve persecution but take heart - God will see us through it! The events that the Church will endure on earth will be the first five seals of Revelation. They are as follows:
1st Seal - The Antichrist comes and the spirit of Antichrist invades earth through false teachers. (Rev. 6:2; Matt. 24:5)
2nd Seal - War is released (Rev. 6:4; Matt. 24:6-7)
3rd Seal – Economic collapse and famine (Rev. 6:5, 6; Matt. 24:7)
4th Seal – Death and pestilence (Rev. 6:8; Matt. 24:7)
5th Seal - Persecution, resulting in the apostasy, and Martyrdom (Rev. 6:9-11; Matt. 24:9)
These things are true regardless of what end-time doctrine you have been taught. I want to bring comfort and assurance. Paul said we could comfort one another with these words. What words?
1Th 5:9-11 ESV For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, (10) who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. (11) Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.These are truly comforting words; we are NOT destined for wrath. We will be saved, our bodies raptured and changed, before the wrath of God is poured out. What the antichrist and the world will do to Christians is nothing compared to the wrath of God that will be poured out on them. God will keep His people during the first five seals. We are not kept from persecution; God never promised we could avoid persecution. In fact He specifically said we would endure persecution.
2Ti 3:12 ESV Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
But we will be kept from feeling the full brunt of the war, economic collapse, death, famine, and pestilence that will be rampant in the earth. It will take faith and obedience to walk in the fullness of God’s protection and provision in these days but I am here to tell you that we can do it.
A PROPHETIC WORD: Paul Our Example
We will be on the earth during part of the Great Tribulation. Therefore, persecution is inevitable but the rest of the trials we do not have to fully endure. We can hide in the shadow of His wings (Psalm 91). I want to position those with an ear to hear to be spiritually prepared for the days ahead. I speak prophetically when I say that the Church will be like the ministry of the Apostle Paul in the last days.
The Apostle Paul was not always the Apostle Paul. He used to be a venomous and vicious Jew named Saul. He hated God's people and thought it was his duty to go persecute them. There are some like that today; I will call them group 1. They do not know God's heart and they are not believers - though they think that they are. This is the Church before they knew Christ. But then Saul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus and he becomes born-again.
Saul is blinded by the encounter with Jesus. He walks blind and hungry for days. This is where a large portion of the Body of Christ is today. I will call them group 2. They are born-again but they have not been fed the food of God's Word and they are blind. They have not had their eyes opened - they have not been filled with the Holy Spirit:
Act 9:17 ESV ... And laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
This is where so many are in the Body of Christ. They are believers and if they were to die they would go to Heaven but they are starved for God's Word and blind because they have not received this infilling of the Holy Spirit. They are blind and don't even know it. It is not until they are filled that they can step into the next phase God has for them which is the ministry that God has called them to. It is not until they are filled that they can walk in the fullness of God's Word.
If someone rejects the infilling of the Holy Spirit, they are rejecting God's Word in that area and they are blinding themselves. It is impossible to understand God's Word when you refuse to look at the Holy Spirit and His power. They simply go to church but have no power. These will struggle to make it in the days of persecution because they don't have the power that they will need and they are blind.
But Saul, later to become Paul, received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and therefore he received the power! He was no longer blind. This is group three. In the last days there will arise a people that have been filled with God's Spirit and will go forth into the ministries that God has called them to with great results! But just as in the days of Paul's ministry there will be great opposition from group one (the religious dead) and from the secular world.
Everywhere Paul went he was hounded by these two types of people. Dead religion stoned him to death but God raised him from the grave. The secular Roman world threw him into prison and eventually killed him but God sustained him and received him into Heaven.
Church, we will face persecution, no doubt, but more importantly we will be protected from the woes that the world is going through because our focus is on God's Kingdom - not this world's Kingdom. God will provide for us in the midst of economic collapse, famine, disease, plague, and war. If we can keep our focus on obeying God like the Apostle Paul and go about doing our Father's business, the woes of this world will not harm us. People will harm us, yes. Some in the the Church will be imprisoned like Paul. Some in the Church will be beaten like Paul. Some in the Church will be martyred like Paul. But though they may harm the body they can never harm our eternal spirits.
Look at what Jesus said about Paul's ministry for I believe it is applicable to us, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the days ahead:
Act 9:15-16 ESV But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. (16) For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."
This is the calling of the Spirit-filled Church today. Go! We are to carry the name of Jesus before the Gentiles, kings, and the nation of Israel today! We also will suffer much for His name's sake for doing so. God is showing us through the ministry of the Apostle Paul how much we will suffer for the name of Jesus. Many are not spiritually ready to handle such persecution and they will fall away and lose their salvation. However, those who are sold-out to God will focus on the Kingdom of God to the disregard of our own safety and be supernaturally sustained in the midst of death everywhere. For though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will NOT be afraid of any evil for God is with us (Psalm 23)!
I believe much of the trials of Paul that are written in great detail in the Bible are not just interesting Christian history. I believe that God is giving the end-time Church a glimpse of what it is like to be a Christian in a godless society. It was written for us. Our world is very much like the secular Roman world of Paul's day. The tyranny of today through socialism is remarkably similar to the Roman government of Paul's day. The fervent religious jews of Paul's day are very much like the zealous Muslims of today. Consider as you read the trials of Paul whether you would be willing to endure all of these things for Christ:
1Co 4:9-13 ESV For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. (10) We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. (11) To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, (12) and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; (13) when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
Christ certainly is worth enduring hunger, thirst, being poorly dressed, buffeted, homeless, persecuted, slandered, the scum of the world and the refuse of all things. Whether in wealth or lack Jesus is worth dying for because what if you were to gain the whole world and lose your soul forever? Would that be worth it? No. But what if you were to lose all things but gain your soul? Would that be worth it? Most certainly yes.
Mat 16:24-26 ESV Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (25) For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (26) For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Paul lived out these verses. He laid aside the pleasures and comforts of this life to preach and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He reached for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus and he recieved that crown as a reward. He was not seeking after material things and wealth, as so many in the churches teach today. He was seeking the truth wealth - souls for God.
To make it through the days ahead it helps to know about those days which is why I am showing you these Scriptures. But to truly make it we must have something before us at all times - HOPE. We must keep our eyes on the prize which is the return of the King and our union with Him forever, the hope of the resurrection/rapture, the reward Jesus brings when He comes, and the coming of God's Kingdom to the earth forever. Paul kept his eye on the prize which is why he was able to endure things such as this:
Act 20:22-24 ESV And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, (23) except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. (24) But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
As long as He was on the earth he put the preaching of the Gosel before everything - even his own life. Would you be ready to face this? That in every city you go to there awaits imprisonment and affliction? That is hard for anyone to face in their own strength. However, if we should have to face such afflictions, it will seem a light thing when we immerse ourselves in the Holy Spirit's strength. It would be a fearful thing if it were just us in our flesh having to face such persecution but God wil supply a supernatural strength so that the fear will disipate. We will be like Stephen as he was being stoned, looking up to Heaven, so focused on Jesus at the right hand of the Father that we will not fear a thing or feel a thing.
Act 7:55-56 ESV But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (56) And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
The key to receiving the strength to stand in the end-times is being full of the Holy Spirit. It is unfortunate that many that believe "once saved, always saved" will be the very ones who will deny Jesus and become apostate when the persecution arises. There may be many Christians who even take the mark of the beast knowing of its damnation. But for those who want to hold fast in the end times, pray for the infilling of His Spirit right now, as described in Acts 2:1-4, and stay filled, "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph 5:19, 20). Speak in tongues often like Paul who said, "I speak with tongues more than ye all" (1 Cor 14:18) so as to stay filled with the Spirit.
Justin Martry said this, "You can kill us, but you can't hurt us." I believe that is true even if we face things like this that Paul described:
2Co 11:24-27 ESV Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. (25) Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; (26) on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; (27) in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
How could it be that such things cannot hurt us? Because we know that the body is not the real "us". The real man in on the inside; he is spiritual and he cannot be harmed by men or killed by the antichrist. The body is nothing more than a shell and the true you is on the inside. Polycarp, a martyr, said this, "Let us therefore become imitators of His endurance; and if we should suffer for His name's sake, let us glorify Him for He gave this example to us in His own person, and we believed this." Christ is our example:
Heb 12:2-3 KJV Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (3) For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
We can make it through any persecution if we imitate our Lord Jesus and keep our eyes on the prize of the joy that is set before us! Never take your eyes off of the hope before us because of the afflictions in this life. You may now be thinking of the pain of persecution but when the time comes you will find a supernatural focus on God through the fullness of the Holy Ghost that will keep you in the spirit and numb to the flesh and its discomforts.
2Ti 1:10-12 ESV and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, (11) for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, (12) which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.
Paul was not ashamed to suffer for Christ because he knew His Lord intimately and was convinced that He was able to help him finish his ministry. That is what we will need in the days ahead. Know Jesus and trust Him to see us through to the end of the journey. If the end means martrydom, so be it - to God be the glory. It is a privelege to be able to lay one's life down for the Gospel of Jesus. I can think of no greater gift to God than my own life. Jesus did it for me.
This is when a true heart of faith can do what the Word of God says in James:
Jas 1:2 WNT Reckon it nothing but joy, my brethren, whenever you find yourselves hedged in by various trials.
To the natural mind it would sound utterly ridiculous to rejoice in trials and persecution but that is exactly the opposite of the spiritual man. The truly spiritual man sees the big picture. He sees the end. He sees His Savior coming to rescue him and can rejoice in faith.
God is bringing the Church around full circle. We are back to the beginning again when the Church was birthed and filled with the Holy Spirit and doing the work of the ministry in the midst of persecution. God took care of them then and He will take care of us now! Praise His Holy Name forever!!!