Back to Business as Usual
Once again, I want to address the belief expressed by a number of those who watch in anticipation of the Rapture of the Church. I’m referring to those who assert that now it looks like that glorious event will occur later than expected. Things now look not so Tribulation-like in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. It is now back to business as usual, with prospects much brighter. “It will have to get much darker again before Christ will call the Church out of this doomed planet of God-rejecting rebels” represents the thought of many.
The prophecy by Jesus frames how the times must be when He calls the Church in the Rapture. I’ve written about this prophecy many times. I believe this prophecy is exactly where the world is on God’s prophetic timeline. I believe it is the most relevant prophecy for this moment in regard to expecting the Rapture. Here, again, are Jesus’ words:
“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30).
My series of articles I titled “Scanning a Fearful Future” had this prophecy at its center. I, therefore, did have some reflective/introspective moments when I observed the economies of America and the world growing extremely tenuous under the Biden regime. With inflation, the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and an invasion of illegal aliens, this administration was increasingly funding with US taxpayer money; I was reflecting on whether my thoughts about this prophecy might be in error. It didn’t look like it was the “business as usual” environment I thought necessary to meet Jesus’ words recorded in Luke 17:28–30.
Here is a snippet of what I wrote in the series–written at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011.
Yet Jesus tells us that it will be business as usual right up until the moment He removes believers from the planet. There is no man-made, worldwide catastrophe in Christ’s prophecy. As a matter of fact, Jesus says all will be relatively normal, in terms of human activity, until that removal. Then He will be revealed by way of His cataclysmic judgment that begins to devastate planet Earth. It is God who causes the cataclysm, not George Soros or any other human or other entity.
I went on to say in the series that business as usual, like in the days of Lot in Sodom, meant that business would be more or less booming, not on a downward trajectory like during these last four years.
So, unlike those who look for the Rapture in a darkening economic environment as the most likely time for Christ to call in the Rapture, I see the opposite. Jesus says business will be as usual. And business in Sodom in Lot’s time was apparently booming, even though the culture and society beneath the surface of activity there was as wicked and evil as our own subculture has become within the last number of years.
And unlike those who think the Rapture must be farther off than before because of Mr. Trump’s election, my thinking is opposite. I believe it is Back to business as usual… There will be no collapse into economic dystopia that will be in effect at the moment of Rapture.
Since Trump’s landslide election, the business world, even as reported in Trump-hating European media, is looking for business to boom. The American stock market recorded a record high immediately following election results.
Here is one such report.
LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Global investors changed their expectations on the global economy in the wake of Donald Trump’s election win, and now see higher growth than they did before, as well as higher inflation, according to Bank of America’s monthly fund manager survey.
As a result, investors have increased their allocations to U.S. stocks and to U.S. small caps, which are more domestically focused and so potentially likely to benefit particularly from a stronger U.S. economy.
BofA polled 179 participants with $503 billion assets under management. Of those, 22% responded after the U.S. election, won by Republican former president Trump.
A net 23% of those polled after the result said they expected the global economy would get stronger in the next 12 months, the most optimistic since August 2021.
This is a turnaround from October’s survey, which had shown more respondents thought the economy would be weaker in 12 months’ time…
Investors upped their allocations to U.S. stocks. A net 29% are overweight U.S. equities, the highest since August 2013, the survey showed. (“Investors expect more growth and inflation after Trump win, BofA survey shows,” Reuters, November 13, 2024)
All of America’s most knowledgeable folks in the world of finance and business are optimistic about the coming Trump presidency. He is a businessman of first order. It is provable that he had the nation going in a positive direction that verged on a boom when, in my view, the election was stolen in 2020.
My desire is to exhort pre-Trib Rapture believers to not be part of the think not generation. We are certainly in times like the days of Lot as recorded in Genesis chapter 19. At the same time, there appears on the immediate horizon every signal Jesus gave as what to look for when the time of His Return nears.
Let us therefore do as our Lord instructs through that conversation He had with the disciples who were at His side that day on the Mount of Olives:
“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).
—Terry
On the Edge of Suddenly
In just the past few weeks, we have witnessed a dizzying array of signs pointing to the nearness of the Tribulation and, thus, to the Rapture, which happens before it begins. The world lies breathtakingly close to the start of the catastrophic conditions described throughout Revelation 6, and yet God’s judgments seem mysteriously paused.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, Paul explains why the world can rest on the edge of cataclysmic events and yet escape the dire consequences of what surely lies ahead:
“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.”
Revelation 6 begins with the antichrist riding throughout the world on a white horse, but this can’t happen until the Lord removes His restraining hand, which for now keeps him from unveiling his true nature. The restricting force is the Holy Spirit’s presence in true believers through which He not only holds back the man of lawlessness, but also the start of all we read about in Revelation 6.
After the Rapture, the beast will be free to ride.
Closer to the Edge of Destruction
Just this month, we have witnessed events that have brought the world closer to the time when we will watch the Lord open the seven seals. What follows are but a couple of examples of this.
On Sunday, November 17, President Biden took the world a giant step closer to a nuclear world war by allowing Ukraine to fire U.S. missiles into Russia, which happened two days later. As I write, we await Vladimir Putin’s response. Will he carry through on his threats of a nuclear response? If nothing else, the President’s decision has put many people on edge and will surely escalate the war, resulting in the deaths of many more people.
And just this past week, the U.S. debt total passed the thirty-six trillion-dollar mark. There’s no rational explanation for why the American economy hasn’t completely collapsed with worldwide implications that align with Revelation 6:5-6.
Suddenly
How does this seeming delay fit with Bible prophecy? 1 Thessalonians 5:3 reveals that when the world falls off the edge into the coming series of catastrophic events, it will happen abruptly and unexpectedly:
“While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
In a moment, everything will change. The word normal will remain in dictionaries, but any sense of normality will instantly disappear.
As New Testament saints, we will disappear in the “twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52). The Lord will instantly change our mortal bodies into ones that will never perish or grow old. We will immediately experience the eternal life that we now possess through faith.
Our departure alone will cause a rapid deterioration of any remaining sense of calm and result in great chaos throughout the world. I believe that the antichrist will begin his crusade for peace in the weeks or perhaps months after the Rapture.
Revelation 1:1 provides us with another indication of just how quickly world conditions will deteriorate.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.
The Greek word for “soon” in this verse is tachos, which more often denotes the speed or quickness of an action. John is not saying that the prophecies of the apocalypse would happen soon, at least with how we reckon time, but rather that they would happen quickly. Like a large boulder rolling downhill, they will happen with increased speed and intensity.
Yes, the Bible tells us that the Tribulation will last seven years, beginning with a peace agreement between the Antichrist and Israel. However, the Day of the Lord will begin suddenly and continue with a series of judgments that will continue in rapid-fire succession. The experience of “sudden destruction” will repeat over and over again through the Tribulation.
The Warning
Everywhere we look, we see precursors to the fulfillment of so many things that we read about in the book of Revelation and, in particular, chapters 6 and 13. As a result, some mistakenly believe that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are already riding through the earth. I believe the Lord is allowing the world to see glimpses of what lies ahead as a warning of what’s to come.
At the moment, the world is speeding down the road to a nuclear war. Could we be hours, days, or weeks away from the “sudden destruction” that will inaugurate the Day of the Lord after we are safely in Heaven with Jesus? Yes, we are that close to the Lord’s appearing. Or might He continue to restrain the forces that He has allowed to take the world to the edge of suddenly?
If nothing else, the events of the past few weeks should be a wake-up call of just how quickly our lives can instantly change. I know that many in the world still cling to the belief that normality will prevail, but what about the church?
Sadly, many saints plan for their future with no thought of the Lord’s nearing intervention in their future aspirations nor with any consideration of the warning that comes from James 4:13-17.
-Jonathan