“Is the Rapture fact or fiction?!”

“Find me a Rapture definition in the Bible!! Can you prove that it will happen? . . .”

The Tribulation has started and no one is asking or debating these types of questions anymore. These are now echoes; a shadow and a memory from another time.

The Church has gone – family, friends, colleagues . . . ‘POOF!’  Outta here. 

As quickly and dramatically as those who were Raptured disappeared, life for those remaining changed forever. Devastated and confused, heartbroken and afraid, the Left Behind just have to keep going – somehow. 

A suave leader enters the World’s Stage. All eyes are on him. He seems to have the answers to the many problems facing the earth today: global warming, pollution, corruption, poverty . . . war. A seven-year peace treaty with Israel? An end to all the fighting in the Middle East! 

Saccharine solutions from the long-awaited (false) Messiah that give the world hope for a better tomorrow. Appealing quick fixes, just sweet enough to hide the deadly poison lurking in the mix.

Progress!             

Order!             

Prosperity!            

A New World Government!   

A One-World Government: Disneyland communism on steroids, hiding in plain sight. 

But then this charismatic, silver-tongued leader ‘changes his tune’. The peace treaty is revoked. He declares that he is ‘god’ and suddenly things aren’t looking so good again.

Some wonder: “Where did we get this guy from?”

His real agenda exposed, he demands that the world worship him. Many are fooled; thankfully not all. He is the Antichrist (Revelation 13:2-4).

Once the Tribulation is in full swing, money in hard currency will have become obsolete. This is no surprise, as banks and governments have been working to eliminate currency, coin and paper transactions for decades since it is expensive to produce, lends itself readily for drug trafficking and, with high tech equipment, is too easily counterfeited. 

But these are all the official, politically correct, ‘happy world’ reasons given to the masses. Bottom line is that hard currency is difficult to control and track. And when you control money, you can control people.

As soon as the Antichrist has play-acted the King of Heaven – soon after the Two Witnesses are killed (Revelation, chapter 11) – things really start to heat up. 

Martial Law will come into play and everyone will be required to get a Mark on their right hand or forehead in order to buy and sell. That’s right dear reader, you thought you were in charge. You thought you could choose how you would want to live. But that gift of being able to choose freely given by the one, true God – your Maker – will be taken away with the rise of the Antichrist. For he is the opposite of God in every way. He is Anti-Jesus. He is darkness and is described in the Bible as The First Beast. Although God’s Word contains a great deal of symbolism in its prophecies, don’t let your 21st-century mind make a reference to ‘Beauty and the Beast’  even for a second. This Beast is nothing but harsh, hard, evil, and cruel. In fact, you can see that the Bible rightly refers to the Beast(s) as ‘It”.

Then I saw a second beast (The False Prophet – Religious Leader), 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 (The Antichrist) 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 honour 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

Do not, DO NOT, DO NOT under any circumstances participate by receiving this Mark. 

All those who receive this Mark (known incidentally as “The Mark of the Beast”), are doomed for eternity. By taking this Mark you are swearing allegiance to the Antichrist – namely, Satan. You may as well attempt to enjoy life as best you can because eternity for you will be hell. 

It is at this point that God will have separated His followers from Satan’s followers. Those who have taken The Mark will persecute those without it. God will render judgment on those with the Mark by inflicting them with a hideous looking and very painful ulcer covering their bodies.

So how can a person without it survive? Firstly, start storing up food and living supplies and put them into hiding in some remote and difficult to access area. You should include weaponry to defend yourself and medical supplies as part of your living supplies.

But what of buying and selling? Again, this will be very difficult, but there will be people who are part of the Antichrist’s regime but don’t actually believe in him; they are just ‘survivors’ who pick the ‘winner’ and seek to profit from that relationship. 

Therefore, save up for yourself gold. Gold has always had value as money and always will, even in a cashless society. Identify one of these profiteers and seek to purchase food and living supplies from him. However, don’t ever disclose to him how much gold you have and where it is. You want to be more valuable to him as a dealer than as a bounty. 

You will have a price on your head for not taking The Mark. Most likely you won’t be living an open life, as you will be in hiding somewhere at a remote location or in the forest on the outskirts of a large city. Your only goal will be to eat to live and hope to escape the militia hunting for you and those like you. Should you get caught, your fate will be either death or slavery.

What do we do with this terribly bleak picture in light of the saving power of Christ? Where on earth is the God of Love in all of this?! Are people just left to suffer and die during this terrible time without help? Without care or compassion from the One who made them?

No friend, help is always at hand. There will be people who will come out of this incredibly dark time with a testimony for Jesus! People who did not at first believe and were Left Behind; people like you (Revelation 7:9-17).

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Revelation 20:4

God is very present during the Tribulation, for He appoints and sends out The Two Witnesses, The 144,000 Jewish Evangelists (Revelation 7:1-4) and the Gospel Angel (Revelation 14:6-7) to urge people to come to Christ and receive His gift of Salvation. Your eternal future will depend upon how you choose to respond to God’s messengers. 

But sometimes we first need to look back, in order to have a clearer picture of the present and the future. We need to see our circumstances through God’s eyes.

God is highly motivated to save people. He loves us! That’s why He sent us Jesus. Long before Jesus came on the scene, God often performed the miraculous for His children when they faced serious trouble. 

Daniel was one such person who experienced God’s miraculous saving power. The king of Babylon at that time was Darius and Daniel found himself in a nasty predicament where he was ordered by the king to be thrown in the lions’ den. Daniel trusted in the Lord and God shut tight the mouths of the lions and he was not harmed. The full account can be found in the book of the same name: Daniel 6:16-23.

Then in another account from the same book, three young Jewish men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) faced a problem akin to the mandate to take The Mark and worship the Beast. These three were thrown into a fiery furnace but God protected them and they were not burned:

3 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon . . . ⁴ Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: ⁵ As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp,pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. ⁶ Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.” . . .
 
⁸  . . .  At this time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews . . . ^12 “But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”

¹³ Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, ¹⁴ and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? ¹⁵ Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.¹⁸ But even if He does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

¹⁹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual²⁰ and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. ²¹ So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace.²² The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, ²³ and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.

²⁴ Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?”

They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.”

²⁵ He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods (Jesus).”

²⁶ Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”

So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came outof the fire, ²⁷ and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

²⁸ Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent His angel and rescued His servants! They trusted in Him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. ²⁹ Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way.”

³⁰ Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

Daniel 3:1; 4-6; 8; 12-30 

What can we learn from this account today? That we need not be forced into the worship of a false god like The Beast, but instead we can call out to the one true God to come to our aid and He will help us. We won’t know in which form that help will come, but help will come. 

Take His advice, heed His Word and find your way through and out of this dark period with Him: “casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully] (1 Peter 5:7).

Right now, as this article is taking shape at the keyboard, a precursor to The Mark is already circulating around the world and is in use. There is a microchip currently being inserted into the hands of people which is used to open locked office doors and grant access to work computers. It is an NFC type 2 NTAG216. Please note that: 6 x 6 x 6 = 216. Coincidence? Doubtful. 

God, who knows the beginning from the end (Isaiah 46:10; Revelation 22:13) wrote in the Bible about this and many other things that are taking place in order to forewarn you. He is the person you need to have on your side during this evil time.

If you turn to Him in repentance (simply acknowledge that you have sinned in your life and wish to turn from it), and receive Him as your Lord and Saviour (choose to believe He is the Son of God and accept His payment for your sins on your behalf), He promises to enable and strengthen you for what is to come: But He said to me,“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I (the Apostle Paul) will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-11).

He also promises that you will not be tempted beyond what you can handle.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

To be clear, taking The Mark will be a choice, just as accepting Christ is a choice. You will not be held down and forced to take it against your will. Your free will is a gift from God and God will not allow Satan to take that away from you  – even during the Tribulation. The choice to reject the Antichrist won’t be an easy one to make, but God will help you stick to it if you so choose. 

You will not need to be tempted to take The Mark, for He is a God who can make a way for you where there is no way; who “creates rivers in the dry wasteland” (Isaiah 43:16-19). He is the God who parted the Red Sea (some 2,211 meters deep), like a lace curtain for His chosen nation – the Israelites – enabling them to cross over a dried seabed and escape Egypt and their captors. He IS the God of the impossible and nothing is too hard for Him! (Luke 1:37; Jeremiah 32:27).

This is the One you need to have standing in your corner. It’s not the ‘end of the road’ for you because of the Tribulation. Receive Him and His help today and every day after that, and live on with the newfound hope in His sure and soon return (Second Coming) to earth and your new and final home in Heaven!

Put your trust in Jesus and tell the Devil to keep his Mark and ‘take a hike’.

Just say “NO!”

Dear Reader, what do you think? Is the Rapture fact or fiction?

The sudden, simultaneous disappearance of millions around the globe is hard to refute. But, is the Bible able to explain this world-wide event? Has the Bible predicted the Rapture? Is there an actual Rapture definition in the Bible?

Delve into this subject a little further and find the answer by simply leaving this page and clicking on the neighbouring blog: Health Concerns Post-Rapture. Alternatively, find and click on the NEWS category of the English Menu on this site.

Find out more about the Tribulation by clicking on QUICK GUIDES, and find the drop-down: Left Behind. Or scroll down from the home page and immerse yourself into the FULL GUIDE for deeper study.

Search this site and find the truth about the Post-Rapture world as foretold in God’s Word, thousands of years beforehand. Gain knowledge and understanding from the Bible to gird and strengthen your resolve to never, EVER, take The Mark!

Proverbs 4:5-6

Get wisdom; develop good judgment. Don’t forget My words or turn away from them. Don’t turn your back on wisdom, for she will protect you. Love her, and she will guard you.