Shan,

             You had written:

“The tribulation is bulging and leaking out the top of this pressure cooker that the world, and especially the Middle East now is.”

That is such a power packed statement!

If the LORD tarry much longer, how great will be that pressure become?

 

I believe in the pre-trib catching away (blessed hope).

However, the alternative would be bleak.

The hatred of countless evil spirits, allowed to persecute the church & Israel, to a level never allowed before.

Numberless people, possibly possessed by these evil spirits, allowed, also, by the nations, to take persecution to a darker depth than ever before.

Many have wondered how the SS could be so hideous in their “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, 75 years ago.

Many have wondered how the church of Rome could be so hideous in their Inquisition, especially against born again Christians.

As unfathomable as that was, to have been like it was, what is coming will be worse.

It will be far more nefarious, fierce, and driven by principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places.

Then when it would seem that it couldn’t get any worse, it does.

Those principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places, will be cast down, with the dragon, unto the earth.

Then their wrath will be exceedingly great, compared to their already horrific, hatred & blood lust against the LORD’s people.

Then the beast, also will be at his peak of evil & power.

People will be terrified by the hordes of people possessed by an army of evil spirits, that will be much more frightening than Hollywood’s hordes of zombies.

They will also be terrified by the evil creatures from below, let loose on the earth.

They will also be terrified by the power & destruction unleashed by the vengeance of numberless fallen angels with unimaginable power.

They will also be terrified by all the incalculable disasters striking around the globe.

They will also be terrified by signs in the heavens & things falling to the earth.

They also will be terrified by the thought of starving to death or dying of thirst.

They will be terrified by the power & wrath of the beast.

What will terrified people do?
Will people turn in family members & friends, that are Christians, handing them over to be tormented & killed?

 

Up to now, post-trib, or even pre-wrath, have not been very encouraging doctrines.

The Smyrna church knew it had ten days of tribulation coming, yet the words of Jesus encouraged them, strengthened them, and prepared them.

The Philadelphia church, on the other hand, knew that it would be kept from the hour of temptation that was coming on all the earth.

One church was told that it would face tribulation, while the other was told that it would be kept from it.

Therefore, for those that are telling the church, today, that it will face the tribulation, like was told the Smyrna church, I hope they take heed.

First, that they would be absolutely sure that they are speaking for Jesus, when they tell the church that it will face the tribulation.

Secondly, that they, like Jesus, speak words of great encouragement & strength, to prepare the people for the tribulation.

If that doctrine is correct, then where is the encouragement? Where is the strengthening? Where is the comfort? Where is the hope?

If the LORD has sent them to speak to the church, to tell them that they will face the tribulation, then why are they not speaking like he did, to Smyrna?

                          Gino