Survival Guide for the Great Tribulation

The Great Tribulation. It has been the subject of bad Christian movies and television preachers that obsess over interpreting the messages of Bible prophecy. Do bad movies and zealous preachers make it unreal? I do not think so. It is mentioned a lot in the Bible. I believe the Bible, so I believe it will eventually happen just as is predicted. There are a lot of uncertainties. What we know that is predicted by the Bible purposely doesn't speak in clear words on every aspect of the matter, but some of the things it talks about are clear enough to understand and should be believed.

Given my belief of what scriptures teach, I do not think I will be present for the Great Tribulation, assuming it were to happen within the span of my natural life. I believe the Bible teaches that the Church proper, that being all of those whose faith is real and biblical and is a saving faith, will be removed from the face of the earth prior to the Tribulation. This is commonly referred to as The Rapture. My beliefs, and therefore this post, will be from the pre-tributlation pre-millenial point of view. What this means in simple terms is that the church (as defined above) will be taken away before the tribulation, the tribulation will follow and after the tribulation, Christ will return to earth for a thousand-year reign. There is a lot of disagreement as to what all of these end-times scriptures mean, but people I respect interpret it this way, so I'm sticking with it. I would not mind being proven wrong by actual events, and there is a good chance it will happen after I've already been long gone. People have been looking for the return of Christ for the last 2,000 years, so what is one more lifetime to see it fulfilled?

My intention in writing this is not to inform in the sense of explaining about the Tribulation as a whole, or the Great Tribulation as a subset of the Tribulation. My intention is to give hope to anyone who was not raptured and has been left behind to endure the Tribulation.  I believe God has not closed the book yet, and although it will be difficult, those that repent and believe in faith can still be saved during the Tribulation. "Saved" in this sense means brought into God's family and saved from eternal punishment, which is the post-death post-judgement existence for all outside God's salvation.

What I will now do is list some statements about the Tribulation, not in any firm or fast order and support those with verses from the Bible, my authority and foundation for all I will say.

Matthew 24:36-41:

 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;  and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

 This is from a passage, commonly known as "The Olivet Discourse" in which Jesus tells of things that will happen in the end times. Read the entire chapter. It gives a good picture of some of the things that will happen then and will begin with the Rapture.

My first suggestion is that you humble yourself, realizing that it is your sin and your rebellion against God that separates you from Him in the first place. Realizing and admitting you are a sinner, you should also acknowledge that God, wishing that none should perish without Him, made a way of forgiveness. This is through his son, Jesus, who paid the price required for our forgiveness when he died on the cross. This is the only way. God has said so. Jesus was...

...made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:7-11)

 This--all of this--is true. Amidst the events of the Tribulation, when many of the prophecies of the Bible will become real events, you can hopefully see the evidences that prove it. Those who refuse to see the truth will pay the same penalty God has set aside for Satan and his followers. So, assuming you believe and seek for God's deliverance of the things to come, here are some suggestions for surviving the Tribulation:

1.  Get right with God - Deal with what separates you from God, your Creator: your sin. Confess your sins and your rebellion and beg for God's forgiveness and mercy. The Bible tells us:

"...If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

 Don't wait. Every moment you wait--every second you put it off--takes you closer to a time when you will no longer have the opportunity and your judgement for living a life of rebellion and disbelief will be at hand. 

2.  Separate yourself from everyone else. - The Tribulation, aside from a time during which God will pour out his judgement and wrath on the unbelieving world,  is ultimately a time in which God will redeem his chosen ones from the nation of Israel. They will acknowledge the Messiah, or at least some of them will, and will turn to Jesus and embrace him as their salvation. Many of them will survive by seeking refuge in the deserts outside Jerusalem (read Revelation 12:13-17. The "woman" here symbolizes those Israelites, the "male child" is Jesus, born out of the Jewish nation). There will be such a refuge that will save a number of Israelites, plus perhaps other such refuges that will do the same for others converted during the Tribulation. Find yourself such a refuge, wherever you are, and prepare to remain there. Pray that God will guide you to such a place. 

3.  Refuse to take the "Mark of the Beast". - This all sounds very science-fictiony, but is also prophesied in Revelation 13. 

Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666. (Revelation 13:11-18)

The Mark of the Beast will identify those aligned with the Antichrist (the "Beast"), those who have bended their knee to worship and follow him. These people will be judged for this and will not be saved from the wrath that is to come further into the last half of the Tribulation, that is "The Great Tribulation". The actual mark could take any form, but will most likely be a modern form that will both identify loyalty to the Antichrist and will be necessary to make any kind of financial transactions. It has been theorized that it may be in the form of a universal identifier that will link to your accounts and replace cash, checks, credit cards, debit cards and any other form of receiving or making payments for services or products. Think a tattooed bar code, an embedded chip or some other unique identifier on the forehead or right hand. Refusing the mark will put a person in a very small minority, a minority certain to be maligned and vilified, perhaps even put to death, which is also a good reason to be separated from the rest of society in some type of refuge.
4.  Listen carefully to voices claiming to represent God or Christ. - False Christs will abound. They will serve no other purpose other than to lead people astray. However, God will send two supernatural witnesses (Revelation 11), plus three angelic witnesses (Revelation 14:6-13).  The third angel has a message of specific importance to those wanting to survive the Tribulation:  "A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus."
5.  Remain patient and endure until the end. - God has promised to save those who endure until the end, as it says in verse 13 above: "This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus." I guarantee you it will be hard, perhaps more difficult than anything any human has experienced. Yet it is far better to suffer for a season--even if the suffering leads to death--than to suffer an unending torment for all eternity. 

So there you are. God has prepared a way for those who remain into the Tribulation. It won't be an easy way, but it is a way He has prepared. It is also the last chance you will have. Read the Bible. It is God's word, sent to communicate His will to us. You have ignored it up until now, but don't ignore it any longer. 

Watching the World Burn

 It was one of the more memorable quotes from "The Dark Knight". Alfred Pennyworth, after telling Bruce a story about his days as a mercenary in Burma, wraps it up by saying: "..Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." His words were pithy and meme-worthy, but echo sentiments often seen in the world today. 

There are people walking the earth with us today who cause trouble, not to better their life or to further an agenda or to gain anything positive. They just want to cause trouble and watch the aftermath. It's like an arsonist who sets a fire, then joins the gathering crowd to watch the efforts to put it out. 

It's my opinion that there is no better playground for these cultural arsonists than the internet, more specifically, social media. You don't have to be a longtime Twitter user or be wholly invested in the world of Facebook to know this. The same types exist on every platform that they can use to spread the flames of hatred. Personally, I don't use Twitter or Facebook, but I use YouTube like everyone else in the world. The comments section is a frontier where anything is allowed in the name of free speech. 

Common decency is not so common anymore. People don't recognize the need to exercise common decency or common respect. If you hold the door for someone, it is right for you to expect a "thank you". Get angry when you don't receive it and you are withholding decency in your own way. My pet peeve of late is the withheld thank-you wave. If someone lets me into traffic in front of them when I didn't deserve to be there, I offer a thank-you wave. I expect it, too, but seldom see it these days, so much so that I'm filled with joy when I see someone offer the wave. Common decency isn't quite dead yet, I say to myself. Not dead, but definitely in the throes of death. 

Back to YouTube comments...

If someone creates content for YouTube, they find value in what they are doing or showing or exhibiting or saying. If you don't necessarily agree, or if you don't find value in the content, that's OK. No content creator in their right mind could think that their creations should appeal to everyone. If YouTube has 2.3 billion users worldwide like they say they do, then even a small portion of that can find value in almost anything. 

Right now, I support, through my viewing, liking and comments, a number of woodworkers. There is a nice community of woodworking content creators on YouTube, and they work to support one another. There are, after all, enough views and viewers to go around and a rising tide does indeed lift all boats. Every now and again, someone will slip in and criticize a lapse in safety here or a method there. While I'm sure it was supposedly offered in a spirit of goodwill, it doesn't often have the same effect in was intended to have. In a line of positive comments, the negative stands out. 

One of my favorite woodworkers was creating an item that had a particular motif incorporated, a three-dimensional star with 6 points. The host called it the "Texas star" design. I quickly took issue, if only within my own thoughts. As a lifelong Texan, I knew that the Texas star--a symbol widely used in the Lone Star State--has only 5 points. The State Seal of Texas incorporates the 5-pointed 3d star, as do many other official and unofficial symbols of Texasness. What I ultimately decided is that nothing positive would be served by correcting his harmless mistake. There are times in the past that I haven't been so gracious in not correcting mistakes of little consequence. I usually regret saying anything at all. 

Assuming that my own little observations here will make any difference...well, I know better. I know that American society is on an irreversible slide toward something less than it has ever been. I know that freedom of speech, long a hallmark of American foundational freedom, is disappearing. One only has freedom of speech if no one disagrees with what is said. This isn't freedom though, is it? 

To me, it seems to have began when the notion of "hate speech" was created. If certain speech can be labeled as "hate speech", then it can be labeled as wrong. If you disagree with what is said, label it as "hate speech", and you've won a victory. Speech may be hateful, but outlawing it doesn't remove hate. It just transforms it into a more dangerous form. 

It is also easy to see how our present society that is propelled along by easy communication and free access to social media--where opinions are freely shared and restraint is a "boomer" virtue--how this fuels the fires of this present hatred. 

Ultimately, I blame the Godlessness of society. Worship, specifically the worship of the God of the Bible, is the worship of the source of virtue, goodness and everything positive in this world, and those who worship this God have supported and encouraged virtue in this world for generations. The absence of Godliness and Godly virtue has created a vacuum into which everything unsavory has flowed. 

Call me hopeless, but I see no return to these golden days of Godly virtue, whether rooted in worship or in tradition. Our present trend spirals toward the bottom, where no good thing dwells and where all hope for goodness and love are snuffed out. 

But, being a worshipper of the One True God, I know He exists and sees over all things. He watches men destroy decency and is not surprised. He's known it would happen all along. 

The ages-old question of the faithless has always been, "If there is a God, why is there evil in this world?" Well, it's because the world is populated with people like you, and honestly, like me, too. The good things in this world are covered with God's fingerprints. As we work feverishly to wipe down this world and remove all evidence of it's creator's touch, how is it that we expect Him to overpower us and miraculously save us from ourselves? 

 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Read the rest of Romans 1. It's all good. 

So, rather than trying to save the world, try to save yourselves. Turning back to God, or turning toward him for the first time, is the only thing that will turn things around. One person at a time.