In Times of Tragedy

Anytime a tragedy occurs, ranging from personal tragedies to national tragedies, the question will arise, "Why did God let this happen?"

This is not a bad question. It's natural to wonder why the Creator of the universe who holds us in our hands would allow something so terrible to come into our lives. This is a question, I will admit, that I cannot answer. I do believe God has a reason, but any attempt to explain the reason does both a disservice to God, and to the one who is suffering. So, with that in mind, I can only offer the following...

In times of tragedy, we need to have faith in the place, in the plan, and most of all, in the Man.

We need to have faith in the place. In John 14, Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you." The fact is that God has prepared a place for us in His Kingdom where we will live forever, in His presence, without pain, without suffering, and without so much as the fear of pain and suffering. It will be a place of eternal peace and prosperity, where we can walk with our Lord, and be reunited with loved ones.

1 Timothy 4:17 tells us that "We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." The "them" with whom we get caught up together are those who have passed on before us, and we will all be with the Lord forever. Better days are ahead.

We need to have faith in the plan. Often during times of tragedy and hardship, someone will quote Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." These words can ring hollow without eternity in mind. After all, none of us want a bigger house, car, better job, or more luxuries. We want back what the tragedy took from us, whether it's our ability to walk, or the close presence of a loved one.

All things work together for our good because all things are working together to bring about God's plan. God's plan is our reunion with Him in His Kingdom. God is working His plan to get us all into His Kingdom together. Anything that comes into our lives comes for that purpose. Anytime tragedy enters our lives, we need to remember that God is still on His throne, and God is still bringing us into His Kingdom.

I cannot explain how or why, but I can affirm that God's plan is perfect, and is designed to bring us to that place of eternal blessing. We don't have to understand it, and we are not prohibited from grief. All God asks of us is that we trust Him through the process. As one of my church members often sings, "The God of the mountain, is the God of the valley. The God of the day, is still God in the night. The God of the good times, is still God in the hard times, the God of the day, is still God in the night."

We need to have faith in the Man. The man is Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The way to access God's Kingdom and plan is by faith in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross, removing the stain of sin, so that we can enter His Kingdom, if we know Him as Savior.

Furthermore, having trusted the Lord to save us based on His death, burial and resurrection, we can trust that the Lord, who now lives and sits at the right hand of the throne of God, pleads on our behalf daily before God the Father. Hebrews 7:25 says Jesus "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Christ is your advocate before God, and you have no greater advocate than Jesus Christ.

Because of Jesus, we can trust that God hears our prayers, and that He takes our situations into consideration as He executes His plan. We are not just pawns on His chess board.

On top of that, we can trust Jesus to be more than fair to us and our loved ones. The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. This means that the Lord pulls out all the stops when it comes to reaching folks with the Gospel. Furthermore, when it comes to our loved ones who have passed on before us, the Bible says "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." It's precious, because it represents the physical reunion of God with His people. He gets to bring us back into His presence.

In all things, God is good. Things are not always good, but God is always good. God is good all the time, and in all times God is good.

If you are suffering right now, these words may seem hollow. That's okay. Grief was never banned in scripture, in fact, it was encouraged, as the Old Testament saints took 10 full days to grieve (that's 10 days where they did nothing but grieve, no work, no commitments, just mourning.)

My only hope is that as that dark cloud passes, you can be brought back into God's presence by remembering to trust in His place, His plan, and in His Son, Jesus Christ. May God bless you in all things.

God is bigger than our doctrinal divisions...

You can tell what is really important to a person by what they talk about. If a coworker routinely talks about sports, you can pretty well assume that he spends a lot of his time following, or playing sports. If your friend spends a lot of time talking about their kids, then their kids probably occupy a lot of their time, and their mind. We all have that friend who is obsessed with politics.

God has spoken to us through His written word, the Bible. (I use the King James Version.) If you read through the Bible, you will find that the scriptures go into great detail about God's plan with man, His salvation, His selection of Israel as His chosen people, their rejection of Him, the rebellion of God's people, and the destruction that comes with rebelling against God.

You can take all of those subjects, and consolidate them into one central theme... that God loves us, but our sin separated us from Him and doomed us to destruction. Therefore, He gave Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son to die on the cross, taking the punishment for our sin, so we could be reconciled to Him. The scriptures go into great detail, and give many examples of the proper response to that Gospel... which is repenting from Sin and Believing on Christ. That is what God spent most of His time telling us as the Bible was being inspired. If the Gospel is what God talks about the most, wouldn't it follow that it is what is most important to Him?

In my preaching at Grace Pointe Missionary Baptist Church, I tend to preach through books of the Bible. Once, I was confronted by a church member who complained that I was preaching on the Gospel and plan of Salvation too much. I was, in her opinion, failing to "move beyond the milk" of the word and "get into the meat." The truth is, I was preaching through the book of Luke, and the topic Jesus most commonly addressed in that book was repentance and faith. That's what the Lord wanted us to learn from the book of Luke.

Bible doctrines are important. Doctrines such as the security of the believer (once saved, always saved), sanctification (being set apart for the Lord), the nature of the church (local, visible body of believers), communion (restricted to the members of the church), baptism (by immersion as an act of obedience, not a work for salvation) are all important, and separate the true teachers from the false teachers. These are some of the doctrines on which it is appropriate to draw the lines of fellowship.

However, I am noticing that there are some lines in the sand that God did not draw, and some doctrines that many emphasize, that the Bible actually says very little about. For the followers of these doctrines, these doctrines are front and center, and determine whether they will fellowship with other believers. (Since many of these doctrines are foreign to the scriptures, these followers tend to be isolated.)

These doctrines include, but are not limited to, NewLightism (the belief that one does not get the Holy Spirit until one has been baptized and joined a church, a doctrine clearly debunked by example in the book of Acts), doctrines on the Bride of Christ (universal, or limited to the best faithful Christians), the rapture (pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation), and though it may cost me some friends, the doctrines of Grace (more widely known as the doctrine of Calvinism.)

I have spend the past nine years in deep study of the scriptures, and I have strong opinions of the aforementioned doctrines. I recognize that there will be differences. I also recognize that when I get to Heaven, I will find that I was right about some things, and wrong about others.While I understand that two cannot walk together unless they be agreed, I take issue with the fact that so many people take a second, or a third-tier doctrine, and elevate it to the status of Gospel.

The Gospel that Paul first delivered to the churches, the most important doctrine that he preached, is how Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). As I read that passage, and as I see it illustrated, shadowed, typed, and presented throughout the entire Bible, I have come to the conclusion that everything we do and believe should revolve around that Gospel.

If you feel that the Gospel is an elementary, entry-level teaching beyond which the believer must quickly mature, you have a skewed understanding of the Christian faith. The Gospel is the foundation of the Christian faith, upon which all true Bible doctrines are based. The deeper into the scriptures you dig, the more Gospel you find.

We violate the true meaning of the scriptures when we place improper priority on certain doctrines. Further, we do churches a disservice when we try to reconstruct them around our second and third-tier doctrines. Believe it or not, there are actually people who travel the country, visiting churches, with the intent to get them to convert to the NewLight doctrine, or to some sort of bride doctrine, or even the timing of the rapture. Some people even try to plant churches based solely on those doctrines. This is a practice in idolatry.

Our God is big. His love for us is beyond anything we can truly comprehend. His power and authority are without equal, and cannot be successfully challenged. God made the ultimate sacrifice. He gave His only begotten Son as a payment for the sin that separates us from Him, so that we could be with Him in eternity. His power, grace, love, righteousness and holiness are far greater than our understanding, and definitely bigger than our failures. Believe it or not, He is also bigger than this hidden nugget of a doctrine you've found that makes you think you are smarter than the rest of us.

God is bigger than these petty doctrinal differences. Get back to the Bible. Read the word, in context (which means you are staying true to the author's intent), and learn about our great and awesome Lord. You may just be blown away by how awesome God truly is.

Getting down to the Nitty Gritty in Revelation

We are studying the book of Revelation at Grace Pointe MBC in Brownwood, TX. For the past few months, we have been studying the seven churches of Asia, and the significance of the contents of God's throne room as is described in Revelation 4-5. This week, we begin chapter 6, which depicts the opening of the seals and the events that unfold during the Tribulation, the seven year period at the end of our current era also known as Daniel's 70th week.

At this point of the study, members at Grace Pointe will expect to hear teaching regarding the timing of the events of the seven-year tribulation. Growing up, I was always taught the following order of things:

1. The Rapture occurs.
2. The seven-year tribulation begins.
3. The four horsemen of Revelation 6 appear.
4. The two witnesses appear at the Temple or temple mount in Jerusalem.
5. The "Wrath of the Lamb" worldwide earthquake.
6. The Anti-Christ, who has appeared on the scene at some point during all this, assumes power.
7. The Anti-Christ is assassinated, but then healed.
8. The two witnesses are assassinated, then resurrect after three days in full view of the entire world.
9. The final 3.5 years of the Tribulation, known as "The Great Tribulation," begin.
10. The mark of the beast, total war, total judgment, total destruction, Christ returns and establishes His kingdom.

However, as a result of my personal study, and some teachings I received in seminary, I have concluded that the above list is inaccurate. First of all, in all passages of end time prophecy, the rapture is not mentioned. (The rapture is only described in 1 Thessalonians, and briefly in Matthew 24). Furthermore, I find it interesting that there is no mention of the Rapture in Revelation before the opening of the seals, which tells me that there is no Rapture that occurs before the Tribulation begins.

Furthermore, the two witnesses are not mentioned until Revelation 11. They will prophesy 1,260 days (or 3 1/2 Jewish calendar years.) The Antichrist (The beast) will be given power for 42 months (3 1/2 years).

This information, along with the understanding of the purpose of Daniel's 70th week (to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to reconcile God to His people, the Jews... Daniel 9:24), we find that the contemporary Christian understanding of the Tribulation is incorrect. Most Christians understand that the seven-year tribulation is God's wrath executed upon an unbelieving world. According to scripture (Daniel 9:24), the purpose is to bring Israel to repentance.

The fact that the Tribulation will be brought about to bring Israel to repentance means that it is not ALL God's wrath being poured out on the earth, meaning that God's children, those who know Jesus as Savior, will in fact endure at least part of the Tribulation. Scriptural evidence of this includes the martyrs mentioned in Revelation 6:9-11 and Revelation 7:9-16.

As for the two witnesses, I am thinking that their prophetic ministry happens during the last 3 1/2 years of the tribulation, the Great Tribulation. Why? First of all, when they minister. Revelation 11:1 tells John to measure the Temple of God, meaning the Temple will exist during the duration of the ministry of the two witnesses. Secondly, they witness for 3 1/2 Jewish years... the exact length of time of the Great Tribulation (the second half of Daniel's 70th week). Thirdly, the entire world rejoices at their demise... meaning that the world believes that its trouble is over because the two witnesses are gone. Notice also that 1 Thessalonians 5:3 says the world will say "peace and safety," then sudden destruction comes upon them. That is exactly what will happen at the end of the Tribulation.

As for the timing of the Rapture, I think I have found a passage in Revelation 14:14-20:

Rev 14:14-20 And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. 16 And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. 17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. 19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

In this passage, you have one on the cloud like unto the Son of Man with a sickle, who reaps at the cry of the first angel who comes out of the Temple (the Rapture of the Saints?), and another angel who came out of the Temple with a sharp sickle who gathers the grapes of the earth (the fruit of the world, the unsaved) at the cry of the angel from the altar.

This incident happens immediately before the last seven plagues in Revelation 15, which are filled up with the wrath of God. If the rapture is in fact in Revelation 14, then it still occurs before the wrath of God is poured out upon the earth, thus we are still not appointed unto wrath.

With this (and many other thoughts in mind) my new timeline is as follows:

1. The seven year Tribulation (Daniel's 70th Week) begins at the signing of a covenant between the man who will go on to become the Beast (the Antichrist) and Israel. The covenant (probably will be called a treaty) will be a seven year treaty. (Daniel 9:27)
2. The seven seals and the 144,000 sealed.
3. The seven trumpets.
4. The midpoint - the two witnesses emerge and the beast (Antichrist) assumes power after having a fatal wound healed. The talking statue and the mark of the beast begin.
5. Rapture
6. Wrath (seven plagues and seven vials).
7. Fall of Babylon.
8. Marriage supper of the Lamb
9. 1,000 year reign.
10. Destruction of Satan.
11. Final judgment.
12. New Heaven and New Earth, New Jerusalem.

One objection some will have to this timeline is the timing of the rapture. Paul wrote that it would be at the last trump. It is possible that the seven trumps extend beyond the midpoint of the Tribulation. Regardless of the accuracy of my timeline, God's timeline is set and secure. This means that regardless of the timing of the rapture, God's saints will endure persecution and times are set to get harder. Be prepared and shore up your faith through the study of God's word (Romans 10:17).

I am not an end times expert, nor a scholar in the book of Revelation. These are conclusions I am basing on a study of Revelation in and of itself, with a background of having previously studied Daniel. Should you have any thoughts to offer, corrections to make, or arguments to advance, feel free to do so, as long as all is done in brotherly love and is supported by scripture in context.