The Plan

As we become immersed in the overwhelming current events and watch the signs around us, it is important to never forget our future plan:

Current Issues and Events through the Lens of Bible Prophecy:

                         Thrilling Pre-Trib Thinking

During this soul-trying, end-times darkness, trepidation crushes in from every side, quenching the remaining, lingering rays of hope. This is the picture troubling issues and events force us to commit to the electronic page each week in these commentaries. But there is about to burst forth a dazzling spectacle of a future world brilliant beyond all imagination. It is this spectacular prospect I wish to present before you in this week’s commentary.

You and I, of all generations of all of human history, are hereat this moment in time–put here by the Creator of all that is. No other people of any previous generation have been so near to attaining the things the God of Heaven has prepared for those who love Him. Those who have chosen to accept God’s offer to be part of His family have at the forefront of their spiritual understanding,a spectacular panorama of what is to come.

We get this truth from the words of the apostle Paul:

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Corinthians 2: 9-12)

God’s love letter to mankind–the Bible–makes it clear that this world system will come to an end and a new era will begin in which planet earth will be restored to a perfect geophysical environment like that of the Garden of Eden. All hunger will be replaced by abundance far beyond any known since Eden was in full bloom. Human government, with its murderous, tyrannical, self-serving rulers, will be forever done away with, replaced by the absolute perfect reign of King Jesus.

All citizens of the millennial kingdom will prosper in every way. Although sin will still exist, Christ’s perfect rule with a “rod of iron” will assure that all sin will be kept beneath the surface of the society and culture of that marvelous era. Crime will be instantly dealt with, as nothing can be hidden from His Majesty’s omnipotent law enforcement.

Who knows? If you are a child of God now, in this pre-Tribulation dispensation, you might be one of the King’s millennial, perfect law enforcement agents during Christ’s one-thousand-year reign.

All of God’s children who have lived and died during this Church Age or Age of Grace will, at the moment Christ calls “Come up here,” be instantly changed into immortal beings –supernatural citizens of God’s Kingdom.

As Christ’s Bride, Church Age saints will Reign with the Lord,  judging even the angels of Heaven. Having the perfect, sinless mind of Christ, each of His beloved family members will bless the millennial earth with contributions commensurate with the heavenly administration rewards received at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Each raptured saint will be fellow possessor of all of God the Father’s heavenly riches.  When you accept Christ while in this present dispensation, you become joint heirs with  the Lord Jesus Christ. All of God’s treasury will then be yours when you find yourself in the presence of the Lord Jesus at the moment of Rapture.

That instantaneous movement into the heavenlies at the time of death or Rapture is without even a microsecond of hesitation. I can testify to that Truth whether I am believed or not by those who I no doubt keep boring with my own Good Friday experience of April 22, 2011. Regardless of that risk, I cannot help but proclaim yet again that, as Paul the apostle said: “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord!”

The instant my heart was stopped three separate times by a “widow-maker” heart attack on three occasions that day and the doctors declared me dead on arrival, I was instantaneously staring at the cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 12: 1-3. I didn’t see Jesus, but then, again, I wasn’t kept in that eternal realm, but was sent back to, for one thing, write today’s column!

I’ve been shown in my spirit that they were cheering the very things we are considering in this commentary in thinking on the promises of God’s prophetic Word regarding Christ’s any-moment call to His Bride, the Church, and the glorious post-Rapture things to come.

I am of the strongest conviction that all believers are about to instantaneously find ourselves looking directly into the soul-piercing gaze of the Creator of all things –into the eyes of Jesus, Himself. Everything points to the certainty that this Age of Grace is on the cusp of completion. The very next event that is prophetically scheduled is, from what I believe the Bible foretells, the change from mortal to immortality–the Rapture.

What a glorious prospect! As our Lord escorts Heaven’s newest citizens into the Father’s house, the effulgence of the glimmering, shimmering spectrum of colors, sights, and sounds never seen or heard this side of eternity will drench our supernaturally enhanced senses while we proceed. This is not pie in the sky, as mockers often taunt in scoffing at those who have faith that God’s Word presents the Pre-Trib Rapture view of prophecy. This is really about to occur!

The ultimate fulfillment of prophetic promise for believers in Jesus Christ, securing their future life that will never end, rather will only increase in pleasure and power beyond the ability to fathom, is at hand.

We too easily forget Jesus’ promise to come for us and take us to His Father’s House:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14: 1-3)

While we involve ourselves in the daily pursuits of life, thinking on jobs, our children, our friends and social obligations and functions, our pleasures and our problems, we must, as believers in our Lord’s Promises, look around us at the prophetic signs and discern these strange times. We must understand that Jesus could at any moment stand from his seat at His Father’s right hand and come to gather and take all of those who are but strangers upon this fallen planet into the Father’s house–into Heaven.

All the signals point to our going Home!