By Daniel Payne -
The Pre-tribulation Rapture of the believing remnant of the true Bride of Christ-will be a supernatural deliverance from the judgment of the Son of God:
"The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son" (John 5:22).
There were times in the past when the judgment of God fell upon just one city-Sodom, Jericho, and Jerusalem, for example. There were other times when it fell-and will fall-upon the entire world-the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and the Tribulation.
Did you know that there is not a single time recorded in the entire Bible-that God ever hurt or allowed any harm to come to anyone who followed His instructions and heeded His signs and His warnings before His judgment came?
God has always protected those who obeyed His voice and observed His signs leading up to a widespread judgment that He warned of and prophesied beforehand. Why would the Tribulation be any different?
Here are just a few examples:
Noah and his family rose above the destruction of the Flood in the ark (Genesis 6-8)
Lot and his family were led out of Sodom (Genesis 19)
All of Israel was led out of Egypt after the Passover (Exodus 12)
Rahab and her family were led out of Jericho (Joshua 6)
Those who sighed and cried were protected in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 9)
Those who fled out of Jerusalem were protected from the Roman legions in 70 A.D. (Luke 21)
God has always provided a physical deliverance of His people from citywide or earthly destruction. When judgment came upon the entire earth during the Flood, all the people of God consisted of only one family-and He delivered them.
When the judgment of God came upon an isolated city or country-such as Sodom or Jerusalem-again the people of God were delivered from harm. The time will come when one day the judgment of God will fall upon the entire planet. At that time, the people of God will exist far and wide-among many nations.
God will then provide a supernatural deliverance from a worldwide force and destruction. Titus surrounded only Jerusalem, and Joshua surrounded only Jericho-hence the isolated earthly deliverance of God's people from that area. The Antichrist will rule over the entire planet, and God's judgment will fall everywhere-hence the supernatural heavenly deliverance of all God's people from around the earth.
Several times God has delivered His people before His judgment came such as the Passover in Egypt, Lot and his family from Sodom, and the people who fled Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
Such will also be the case in the very near future when Jesus will Rapture His Bride before the worldwide judgment known respectively as: The Tribulation, The Time of Jacob's Trouble, The 70th Week of Daniel, The Great Tribulation, and The Day of the Lord.
The Bride of Christ is the remnant of the true church:
"For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:30-32).
And Jesus Christ Himself-the Lion of the tribe of Judah-is the Lamb of God worthy to judge the earth:
"But one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals'" (Revelation 5:5).
"Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: 'You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth'" (Revelation 5:8-10).
Why wouldn't Jesus protect and deliver His own wife from His own judgment-meant not for those who love Him but meant instead for those who deny Him?
After all, the most significant and most important judgment of all time-the judgment that God prophesied beforehand throughout His entire Word and His creation-protects everyone who trusts in Him from eternal destruction: His judgment of all sin and death at Calvary.
"Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.' This He said, signifying by what death He would die" (John 12:31-33).
That is why Christ Jesus is called "The Lamb of God," because He bore our sins and our judgment for us. How can it make any sense at all that He would beat and bruise His own wife that He loves and died for-while He is carrying out His own judgment, not against her-but against the rest of the world during the Tribulation?
Jesus loves His Bride:
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her" (Ephesians 5:25).
We can take comfort (1 Thessalonians 4) that the Lord Jesus loves us and has already suffered the penalty of our sins, and He will deliver us from the wrath to come. Those who deny His sacrifice for their sins have no release from His judgment and feel no comfort.
"Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" (Revelation 6:16b-17)
The verse above clearly states that the judgment of the Tribulation is God's judgment upon the world-not the devil's judgment upon the world. The devil is just a tool used by the Lord. The devil has no right to judge right from wrong as God does.
God has used others to execute His judgment at various times in the past-such as Titus and Nebuchadnezzar. In like manner, He will also use the Antichrist to execute a portion of His judgment in the very near future.
However-make no mistake-the Tribulation will be the righteous judgment of the One who alone is worthy to judge right from wrong:
"For He has set a day for judging the world with justice by the Man He has appointed, and He proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31 NLT).
Anyone who is not blinded by Satan can see very clearly that the world is now ripe for the judgment of the Day of the Lord. In fact-the world is past ripe-it is rotten.
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, 'These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens:
"Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown" (Revelation 3:7, 10-11).
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