Dear friends:

Dr. Adrian Rogers is one of the great preachers of our time.  He is the founder of Love Worth Finding Ministries, and is three-time past president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

In his televised sermon on August 21, 2005, Dr. Rogers spoke about the rapture and the tribulation.  He gave several compelling biblical reasons why he believes the rapture has to come before the tribulation.  Two of the reasons stood out to me because they expressed my own long-held conviction.

Quoting the Lord Jesus, Dr. Rogers said when the rapture happens it will be “as it was in the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37) and “in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28).

People will be eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, planting and building.

In other words, it will be a time of relative normalcy.

It will not be a time after all hell has broken loose on the earth and half the world’s population is being been killed by the war, plagues and the natural disasters of the tribulation.

Further, in Lot’s day, the sins of Sodom were not just sexual perversion, but were “pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness… neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49, KJV).  Before Sodom’s sudden destruction, there was prosperity, pride, plenty to eat, much idle time, selfishness, as well as widespread homosexuality.

Does that sound like the West today?  Things are relatively normal.  People are eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, planting and building.  Homosexuality is rampant. The stock market is doing well. And now that the Cold War is over, the Taliban and Saddam are overthrown, and Israel is giving away its God-given covenant land to the terrorists, people are saying “Peace and safety.”

In Noah’s and Lot’s day, judgment came swiftly and with no notice, except to Noah and Lot and their families, whom God delivered just in time. He took them out, types of the rapture.

The rapture will happen in such a time – and at such a time as this, such as we are in right now.

The day of the Lord will also come swiftly and with no notice, except to those whom God has chosen and will take out.  “The day of the
Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3).

When you stop and think about it, it appears that the rapture cannot happen either BEFORE or AFTER the sudden destruction.  Why?  Because if it happened AFTER, then the times would not be as in the days of Noah and Lot.  If it happened BEFORE, the missing people would make things so chaotic that it would not be like a thief in the night or when people are saying, “Peace and Safety.”

That is why many believe the rapture and sudden destruction will happen simultaneously, or almost simultaneously.

In these present days of relative tranquility, what threatens us with sudden destruction as a thief in the night?  Here are three possibilities:

1.  WMD destruction from terrorists and/or hostile nations.  There is evidence that terrorists already have WMDs and their cells in the West are ready to use them.  They may be used in cooperation with hostile nations, such as Iran and Syria, and maybe even Russia and China.

2.  A meteor impacting the earth.  Previously undetected meteors whiz nearby us all the time.  All it takes is one hit to destroy all of or most of civilization.

3.  Earthquakes and volcanoes.  The India Times reports what you will not find in the Western media: “Tectonic plate shifts have increased the number of serious earthquakes in the past one year by 80% and the rate is exponentially increasing.”  Volcanoes are also threatening.  Most people do not know that this summer the super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park was added to a list of active volcanoes being observed as sites for potential disasters or that it has been showing serious signs of possible eruption.  Experts say that if this super-volcano does blow it could be 2,500 times as powerful as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption and kill millions of Americans, including everyone within a 600-mile area.  The park now has 28 electronic detection stations scattered around the park and plan at least a hundred more.  One 28 X 7-mile area within the park has risen five inches since 1996 and the ground temperature on that bulge has risen to 200 degrees.  Everything is dying and animals are migrating out of the park  A bulge at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake has risen over 100 feet and the water temperature at the bulge has reached 88 degrees.  J.R. Church discusses this in detail on a recent program.  To view and listen, go to www.prophecyinthenews.com .

Or all the above.

The destruction the Bible prophesies will come suddenly, without expectation, as a thief in the night.

But what about us?

“But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation (Greek: soteria, deliverance, preservation, safety) as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation (Greek: soteria, deliverance, preservation, safety) through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing (1 Thessalonians 5:4-11), NIV).

Jim