If the blessed hope happens real soon, and if some of us aren't taken at that time, how will we know why?

If, suddenly, most of the Christians we have known for years, are gone in an instant, what would be our first thought?

Wouldn't most of us, if suddenly we are in that situation, immediately wonder if perhaps we were never saved in the first place?

Rather than considering, that, as Christians, we were not living well enough to go.

That may seem like merely hypothetical reasoning, but "if" the following are true:

1) The teaching by some, that there will be a partial catching away, based on how well the Christian has lived

2) That some of us have not have been living above that bar

3) That the blessed hope happens real, real soon

4) That most everyone of us that read letters, here on FiveDoves, will be alive the moment the trumpet sounds

Then, panic may set in: "Why didn't I go?", or "Am I actually lost, and was never saved?", or "Have I been lying to myself all along?", or "How wicked am I really?"

Those of us that find ourselves in that situation, at that moment, will probably not be necessarily encouraging ourselves with the following scriptures:

II Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Seriously, if we missed the blessed hope because we were not saved, then neither of those two scriptures apply to us, anyway - we need to be saved!

But if we are saved, yet didn't make the cut, because of sin, then we don't need to encourage ourselves in our backsliddeness - we need to repent!

Then, where do we go?

Most likely John won't be here anymore, after the blessed hope, to put any new letters on FiveDoves.

Also, anything still being put on YouTube, after the blessed hope, will no doubt be by severely false prophets, and doctrines of devils.

Any church we may go to, that may still have people and services, will all be in the same sinful, state as we are, either lost or backslidden.

It will be like the blind leading the blind.

I was about to write, "Any recommendations for us that will find ourselves in that situation?"

When I realized, that maybe the first thing to consider, the very moment that I miss the blessed hope:

II Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

i.e. "Am I actually saved?"

If I am not convinced that I am, then I need to immediately repent of whatever religious thinking I have that kept me from getting saved, and then call upon Jesus to save me.

But, if I'm convinced that Jesus has saved me, then I need to consider that perhaps I've fallen backwards, and have lived somewhat reprobate:

Galatians 5:4b  ye are fallen from grace.

Titus 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

Then I still need to repent, like I will no doubt be thinking that I should have done, before the blessed hope:

Revelation 3:19b be zealous therefore, and repent.

Because I will then have to endure living in the most troubling of times.

The delusions and temptations during the tribulation will be even far greater than those that I succumbed to before the blessed hope, that led to my backsliddeness, keeping me from going up.

Jeremiah 12:5 If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?

I may lose my job and where I live.

I may be known to those around me as, "one of those hypocrites, who said he was a Christian, but here he is with the rest of us!"

I'll most likely face persecution, probably severe, possibly imprisonment, and maybe even starvation, and in the worst case, torture.

If I loved the world more than Jesus, before the blessed hope, and was thus kept from going up, how much more difficult will it be to love Jesus, in some chamber of horrors?

I really, really, hope that the doctrine of a partial catching away, is not correct, because I'm greatly concerned that I'm certainly not a good enough Christian to merit it!

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