After my letters were posted yesterday, I received a note from a sister-in-Christ who is upset that if there is no "pre-trib" rapture, she is desperately worried how she and her family will endure; and she feels a sense of hopelessness and turmoil.  This is my reply to her - and I am sharing it in the hope that people will see that we CAN get through the three years (if we have to) before we all go home.

Shalom ---- !
       First of all let me say, I'm glad you wrote.  We are to COMFORT ONE ANOTHER!  I can understand your feelings - really!  I have been there...and some days, I still am!   When I looked forward to a 'pre-tribulation rapture' I just let it be assumed (as much to myself as anyone else) that it was because I WOULD LOVE THE LORD'S APPEARING (which I will), BUT....it was also because I feared being here through the tribulation.  I hung onto that which I called the "Blessed Hope" because I believed that "we are not appointed unto God's wrath."  (which we aren't.)  But the real heart of the matter is in knowing what exactly is God's wrath.  God's wrath will abide (rest) on the UNBELIEVER....NEVER on the Believer for the sole reason that the wrath of God is ETERNAL SEPARATION from Him.  The Blessed Hope, then, is NOT the rapture (or promise of escape), but instead it's the blessed and glorious and wonderful promise that we will be forever with Him in glory! >Life eternal WITH God!

But nobody wants or looks forward to "tribulation."   I, too, have a deep concern in my heart that is (for right now) un-answerable as far as how my kids will "endure in the midst of persecution."  It's natural.  We want to protect them....but I keep reminding myself that as much as I love them, God loves them MORE!

I was discussing this very thing with my son the other day.  I have two daughters (39 & 35) who are totally pre-trib believers and they refuse to hear anything else......and a son (32) who is pre-trib but not quite sure, allowing for "we may see some tribulation first."   He was a Marine, so he has a "set your face, clench your jaw, and endure it" kind of attitude.  But my two daughters, being the soft & lovingly protective mothers that they are....well, sometimes I worry & wonder how much they would be able to endure for the sake of their children.  We think we know what we would do....but when it comes down to it, no one knows until it's time.  HOWEVER, God provides sufficient Grace at the moment it's needed.  So, between these two facts, all I can say is "He who is in you, is greater than he that is in the world.   "In other words, His  Grace is sufficient."...that's what I have to trust in to put the worry to rest.

My kids have always been my biggest concern too.  In fact, before I got saved one of the reasons I "held back" was because "I didn't want to be anywhere where my children were not."  But the wonderful lady who led me to the Lord pointed out, "Sherry, if YOU don't come to the Lord FIRST, it's doubtful your children ever will."  Then she quoted "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved...and thy house."   And even though each person must choose for themselves to believe in their heart,  I put my faith in the Lord and asked Him to somehow bring my kids to His salvation to keep us together as a family eternally.  He did just that.  One by one they got saved.  I no longer have the fear of them being lost - but I do sometimes fear
how they will endure.  However, I have willed myself to trust in the Lord that He is in control.....that, even now or even during the tribulation....that He ordained their days before there was even one of them....He wrote their names in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundations of the world.  We either have that faith - or there is nothing.  I choose to have that faith.

I personally know quite a number of Holocaust survivors from the conservative synagogue I attend on Saturday mornings.  Each of them have horrid tales to tell.  Each of them lost family members - some of them their entire families.  Some saw their families tortured and killed before their eyes.   But they lived.  They go on.  The ones attending the synagogue have gone on with faith in the God of Abraham, Issac & Jacob....others, who they tell me lost faith in ANY God, never come.   At one time I would have considered it impossible that I would be able to endure what they did and still live.  But now I live with (and constantly remind myself that) "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able, to keep that which I've committed (my children and grandchildren) unto Him against that day!"   There is simply nothing apart from that.

But, -----, I see by your letter that you are in terrible turmoil, so much so that it is affecting you physically.....yet you KNOW, by your very own words, that you are wrong to let it.

The thing I see in your letter that is causing this is your statement >" I feel so alone in this like I;m not saved anymore"  Let me assure you, if at some time in your life you accepted and believed in your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God...your Savior....that He loves you and died for you, that He has redeemed you and reconciled you to God the Father through His own imputed righteousness and nothing you have done of yourself.....then you are not lost.....you are saved for eternity.  He will not lose even one....will not allow anyone or anything to pluck you out of His hand.  There is NOTHING that can separate you from His love.  Read Romans 8:35-39> "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

THERE!  In red are all the things you are so in turmoil about.  And there in blue is your answer - NOTHING will separate us from Him.  I believe in Eternal Security.....and NO, it is not a "license to sin," nor does it give you an excuse to do so.  It is simply that when you come to Him (and at the time you do, you are a sinner, and will remain one until we are taken out of this world) His blood becomes your covering and He imputes unto you His own Righteousness so that Holy God the Father (who cannot have sin in His presence) is able to look upon us.  That is what is known as Atonement.....reparation, expiation, recompense, for sin typified by the sufferings and death of Jesus in our place.
So, -----, don't minimize what Jesus did.  He did all of this for YOU...and for me.....and for all of us who at one time placed our belief and trust in Him.  He will never leave you nor forsake you.....or your children.

As for leaving church.....although I am not keen anymore on the corporate institutional church (which just happens to be the Laodicean church of the last days (the one which Jesus has spewed out of His mouth because it's so sickening) STILL, there is a reason to attend.  You can still worship together with other believers....even if it is only the musical portion....and all of us need to fellowship with other believers, if only to shake a hand, pat on the back, smile, and acknowledge that there are still others who love the Lord also.  I've found the more you stay away, the harder it is to get back into fellowship - that goes for not just our relationship with the Lord.....but our relationship with others.   We need one another.  Indeed, we are to love one another......which is the greatest commandment second only to You shall Love the Lord God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind!   It also helps to be around others so as not to feel such isolation as you obviously do.

It's one thing to seek those in cyber space, on the internet, on places like the Doves, and find people who love the Lord, are watching for His return, and enjoy fellowship with them.  But it's also needful to connect with others who believe as you do in your daily life too.   We touch one another's spirit in cyberspace.....but it's also necessary to touch one another's soul day to day - to help and comfort one another, and to put practical application to our words.  So - I encourage you to re-connect with your Christian friends.  Perhaps they, too, are having some of the same concerns as you and you can find help in one another....or, maybe the Lord will use YOU to comfort them!    How amazing it is that when we focus on others, our own worries shrink & fade!

Well, ------, I am not minimizing your concerns - I am only trying to tell you that it is not shameful to have a doubt, or a lapse of faith or to forget what God can do.....in fact, in Mark 9, we see a father who, for lack of any other hope, approaches Jesus because his son is suffering with an evil spirit....and Jesus says to this worried & desperate father, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."  To which the grateful father replies with tears,  "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."  He acknowledges his own lack of faith (which you have also done) and then he simply BELIEVES!   I charge you to do the same, ----.

If you feel you want to write again, please don't hesitate.  That's what I'm here for.
                                     Shalom, YSIC......Sherry Vance
P.S.:  If you don't mind, after removing your name, I would like to send this as a post to the Doves as it may help someone else that has the same concerns as you do.  I just know there are others in the same situation.  God bless you, -----.  And....see you in New Jerusalem!  I'll be looking for you!  :-)