Notice John the Baptist’s apocalyptic warning to the
Pharisees and Sadducees and the Jews.
Matthew 3:7 ¶ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who
hath warned you to flee from the wrath
to come? 8 Bring forth therefore
fruits meet for repentance: 9 And think
not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto
you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10 And now also the axe is laid unto the
root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is
hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11 I
indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose
fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat
into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
And note Paul’s declaration to the church.
1Thessalonians
1:10 And to wait for his Son from
heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Revelation 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on
us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For
the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
In the following a sequence of events is given; the wrath of
God, the judgment of the dead, and eternity but the Bible is not written like
the owner’s manual for your computer or car so try not to view it as meaning
that one comes strictly after another rather than the mention here being to
what is happening at the end of human history in a more general sense.
Revelation 11:12 And
they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they
ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them…18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the
dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy
servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small
and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
(Note that these
verses speak of being delivered from God’s wrath, not the wrath of some other
person like the Beast.)
Further evidence is supplied by the following verses from
Paul to the Corinthian church. We shall
not all sleep with sleep being
used as a reference to death as in the narrative of Lazarus’ resurrection by
Jesus in John 11. The rapture or translation of the church is said to take
place at the last trumpet, with the trumpets following the seventh seal, but
the sixth seal is said to be the time of Christ’s wrath, as we will see, so
this is a general statement of events happening in a general timeframe so I would
not set my clock by it. I think that it is clear that the church will not see
or experience this horrible period of time and will be translated before it
begins leaving an unbelieving world of men and women behind. As Christ said to
His disciples just remember when something happens that He told you it would so
don’t try to set a date.
(John 16:4 But these things have I told you, that when
the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things
I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.)
1Corinthians 15:51
¶ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
The error of modernism is reading the Bible like a textbook
as I have shown repeatedly. God is under no compunction to provide you with a
schedule of events and times that constrict when He can or cannot do something.
Generally, we can be assured that the church will not experience the following
terrors from the perspective of the unsaved world of men.
Back to Revelation 11 and the timing of this at the last
trump before the vials.
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were
great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
There is a period of time in there where the translation or
rapture occurs and the marriage supper of the Lamb and then the return of
Christ with the glorified believers, both Jew and Gentile, all the church.
Hebrews 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the
firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect,…
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