How to Survive Hard Times like Christians Have Through the Ages
This article will probably not be very popular, even though it is very Biblical. I doubt that you will hear this message from any pastor supported by a large congregation or large following. In book form, I doubt that it would ever be on the New York Times Best Seller list. But it is something that God is increasingly laying on my heart and which I take seriously. Every Christian, especially in this formerly free country, who is wise will benefit from the message here. I personally am hoping to benefit from what God has inspired me to write. So with this warning I will begin.
Scripture about the “Rapture” is scarce
According to the topical index in the New International Version of the Bible, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, there are fifty-one references to some aspect of the second coming of Christ. However the topic of the rapture is not even mentioned. Only four of the fifty-one references say anything about our meeting him in the air, commonly called “the Rapture”: Matthew 24:30-31, Mark 13:26-27 (a repeat of the Matthew passage), 1 Corinthians 15:51-54, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. All of these are within descriptions of the second coming of Jesus, which occurs at the end of the tribulation caused by the antichrist during the last seven years, Daniel’s seventieth week. There are important lessons to learn from this.
History of the Rapture theory
In 1820 a young girl had a dream like the current rapture theory. A local pastor picked up on her dream and started preaching with it. D. L. Moody learned of this and he, too, picked up the theory and started promoting it. Since D. L. Moody was widely known and respected and had a large following, the theory has gained momentum to become a major preaching point by many influential preachers. It was never demonstrated to be Scriptural. All attempts to twist the few Scripture verses about those who are left meeting him in the air are all associated with a discussion of Jesus’ second coming, not an isolated great disappearance before then.
Wrong Emphasis
The first lesson to be learned from this is that the present emphasis on the rapture is grossly misplaced. We should instead be focusing on the second coming and how to be faithful to God during the antichrist’s reign, which will precede the second coming. According to Scripture, the rapture is only a small part of the events of the second coming, a significant event but nevertheless small by comparison. All the emphasis on the rapture and thinking we are going to be taken out of here and don’t have to concern ourselves about how to live faithfully during a time of tribulation is misguided and dangerously false.
True Preparation for the “Rapture”
Since the antichrist, at the direction of his lord, Satan, will stage violent warfare against anything having to do with God, whom he hates, including those who follow Jesus, we must put on the armor of God (like Dale Black said “https://daleblack.org/preparing-for-the-rapture-dale-paula-black/”) as described by Paul in Ephesians 6:11-18. Far more important than being excited about the rapture (which won’t come as quickly as some preachers are saying), we need to be focusing on what Scripture says we should do.
Suffering for the Lord has been a constant for all the last 2000 years.
Many Christians in the world today suffer daily for their obedience to Christ. The apostles suffered in their society and time for their obedience to Christ. Christians throughout the history of the last 2000 years have faced suffering. Why should the comfortable Christians of the United States be any different? We have been blessed to live in a nation established on the freedom of religion as well as other personal liberties. However all those are under assault right now.
What we need is not to be excited about the Rapture, but rather on how we can live faithfully for Him no matter what comes. The knowledge that we will be with Jesus and the Father for all eternity in an absolutely unimaginably wonderful place (see Heaven Is Beyond Imagination) should excite us to the point we will do anything to remain faithful to Him, not give up the fight and not hope to be taken out early before we have to suffer also. Jesus did not promise us a suffering free life, but rather warned that we would have testing of our faith, persecution, and even death because of Him. The world will hate us because of His name, just as they hated Him.
Suffering
But to have the kind of faith and love for the Lord that would enable us to have His protection like the remnant in Israel, we need to learn how to suffer for Him and remain faithful. Jesus suffered for us, more than we will ever suffer. Paul and all the apostles suffered to follow Jesus. The early church suffered at the hands of the Pharisees and the Romans. At the end of this article, all the passages in the New Testament are listed that tell us about suffering, the sufferings of the apostles, the early church, and how we should approach suffering today. Please read them with an eye toward what they are telling you that will prepare you to face similar trials.
I say all this because most of the Christians around the world today are familiar with suffering. And we are seeing increased suffering in this country. People here have lost jobs, been threatened with lawsuits, or have been “canceled” because of standing up for the truth of God. The signs are that this is only going to get worse as it has been an increasing pattern in recent years. We can hope for a revival of loyalty to God in this country, but the last days described by Jesus (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, and Revelation) will be days of Satan’s final assault on everything relating to our wonderful Creator, whom he hates, and that includes us. So rather than imagine you are going to be taken out of here before all this happens, you would be wise to work instead on increasing your love for God in your heart, increasing your belief that He will save you but with the same attitude as Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego by their Babylonian names) when they told the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-19) We need the same commitment to the truth of Jesus regardless of what the world says or does to us. “O antichrist, we don’t need to defend ourselves with regard to our objecting to your godless requirements. If we are cancelled or tortured or sentenced to death, the God we serve can rescue us and provide for us. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O Ruler, that we will not receive your mark on our forehead or hand and we will not bow down to your statue (that by Daniel 9:27 says is an abomination that causes desolation).” After all, they cannot kill us. Since we have been born again, we will never die. The worst they can do is to free our eternal spirit from the bondage of the flesh and allow us to be in God’s glorious presence. (Again, see the testimonies in Heaven Is Beyond Imagination). Anything less will be suffering that a close identification with Jesus will enable us to endure. God’s love for you is “beyond imagination”; so don’t sell Him short. Learn to love Him and depend on Him no matter what.
Be prepared for what?
The lesson we can gain from the scriptures given below is how to be prepared. We must learn to trust God and stay faithful to Him no matter what. The real battle is a spiritual battle because the real enemy is not the Far Left, the woke cancel culture, China, Iran, Russia, or illegal terrorists, it is Satan and his minions, because all of these forces of evil are Satan’s servants. The unfortunate part is that too many former followers of Christ in this country are believing the Satanic lies of the Far Left whose goal is to change America into the next socialist totalitarian state in which the elite get all the benefits and the rest of us become freedom-less servants. Compare with Soviet Russia, Red China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, etc.
Losing God’s hand of protection
We must be preparing to have a faith and love of God that will enable us to have patient endurance, like the Bible tells us (2 Corinthians 1:6, Revelation 1:9, Revelation 13:10, and Revelation 14:12). We can be praying for a spiritual awakening in this country to get back to being a God-fearing and Jesus-loving nation, but we must also prepare to have the patient endurance to which the Scripture calls us. Hopefully God will enable a significant turnaround in this country, but we must be prepared in case it does not happen and God’s judgment on our nation’s perversity must take place. Indeed the predictions in Scripture of the last days don’t mention anything that could be interpreted as exceptions for the United States. But God does tell us He will protect His elect during the hard times, just as He did the apostles when they were threatened by the Pharisees and rulers of the synagogue, the Israelites when they left Egypt, Elijah when he was with the widow at Zeraphath, and when Jesus fed the five thousand. In this country’s efforts at the beginning of our nation to establish a free country that would honor and follow Him, we were blessed in such a way that the patriots were able to beat the world’s most powerful military of that time. There were numerous times when the hand of God’s protection could be seen. But now we are mostly a nation that has forgotten our God and how wonderful He is. When Israel did that, God was patient for a while but soon allowed them to lose what He had given them and to be defeated by an enemy. God allowed this to fulfill His prior word to them. But the United States has strayed the same as ancient Israel and we can expect the same consequence.
Scriptures on suffering in the New Testament
Romans 5:1-5 says: “1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
Romans 8:17-18 says: “17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-10: “3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,”
Ephesians 13-19: “13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. 14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Philippians 3:10: “10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,”
1st Thessalonians 1:6: “6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.”
2nd Thessalonians 1:4-10: “4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. 5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”
2nd Timothy 1:8 & 12: “8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, … 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”
2nd Timothy 2:8-10: “8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.”
2nd Timothy 3:10-12: “10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings–what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”
Hebrews 10: 32-36: “32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.”
James 1:2-4 says: “2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
James 5:10-11: “10 Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”
1st Peter 2:19: “19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.”
1st Peter 4:12-16: “12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. 16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.”
1st Peter 5:8-10: “8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
Revelation 1:9: “9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”