True, Jesus paid it all.....but does that mean we need to be taken away?
Hi TMS,
The answer is 'Yes!' And because with the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments and whatever plagues the two witnesses bring, this world will be no place to live in even if one were protected by God. One comes to this understanding when doing a detailed study on the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments. By the time the seven years is up the population of the earth will have been decimated and all human government dismantled in preparation for the Lord's millennial kingdom. Daniel prophesies about this:
==============================================================================
Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.
32The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,
33its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.
34While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them.
35Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
===========================================================================================
Head of Gold = Babylon
Chest and Arms of Silver = Medo/Persia
Belly and Thighs of Bronze = Greece
Legs of Iron = Rome
Feet Mixed with Iron and baked clay = Revived Rome but not having the same strength as it did when it was pure iron.
Basically, the statue as a whole is representing the major kingdoms of the world, with the feet of iron and baked clay representing that revived Rome with the ten toes representing those ten kings. That said, notices that scripture says that the Rock that is cut out of the mountain will fall on the feet of the statue and will smash it to pieces like chaff on a threshing floor with a wind sweeping it all away without leaving a trace, i.e. the end of all human government.
Can God shelter his people through the tribulation, (without separating them completely), like Noah inside the arch?
Noah wasn't taken away from the flood but was safe with the flood all around.
As I said, this world will be no place for believers within the church to live. First of all, Jesus already suffered God's wrath on behalf of every believer and therefore God's wrath does not rest upon those in Christ. And second, God has put clues in His word, which many reject or don't agree with. One of those clues is that throughout Revelation chapters 1 thru 3, the word 'ekklesia' translated as 'church' is used 19 times, with the last usage being at the very end of chapter 3. Following that in Rev.4:1 you have a voice that sounds like a trumpet, which is the Lord's voice saying to John, "come up here and I will show you what takes place after this." This is a prophetic allusion to where the church is gathered, which is why the word ekklesia/church is never used again until Revelation 22:16 in the epilog. This is no coincidence, but is revealing something to the reader. The church is not mentioned anywhere during the narrative of God's wrath. The word changes to 'hagios' translated as 'saints,' which is referring to the saints mentioned in Rev.7:9-17 who will be those who will have become believers after the church has been gathered and during the time of God's wrath.
Rom 8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus is my safety. Jesus is my shield, and my arch. It takes more faith to go through the trouble trusting Jesus then to watch it from a distance.
The above is a reassurance for those who are faithful. As I said, the tribulation that is coming will be unprecedented. For regarding this time of God's wrath Jesus said "For then there will be great tribulation, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again." This includes the flood. Except unlike Lot who fled to a small city and Noah and his family on the ark, there will be no place on this earth for the church to run to escape the seals, trumpets and bowl judgments, which are appointed to suffer. Since this will be God pouring out His wrath upon a Christ rejecting world, the church cannot be here to experience it because Jesus already did.
Those who interpret the gathering of the church as taking place after God's wrath when the Lord returns to the earth to end the age, are not looking for the imminent return of Christ, because according to their belief God's wrath must take place first. If I was on the earth during the time of God's wrath, I could follow the seals, trumpets and bowls like a road map, knowing that the Lord could not return until after the 7th bowl is poured out. But for those who know that the Lord's appearing to gather His church is imminent, then there is nothing that needs to take place in order for Him to gather us. It is like Jesus said, if the owner of the house had known at what hour of the night that the thief was going to come, he would have watched so that the thief could not take him by surprise. That is how it should be with believers. Since the Lord's return has always been imminent, then we must always be watching and ready.
