This is a topic that keeps raising its ugly head among Christians today. Will the Church go through the great Tribulation, the wrath of God? Of course there are many interpretations being pushed on a public that for the most part won’t study the scriptures for themselves. Those Christian’s who wait for someone else to do the studying so they don’t have to, are, besides risking being led astray, missing a huge blessing from God.

If you’re a hard core Calvinist you might want to stop reading here.

I’ve written commentaries on this subject before but it’s become clear that my explanations as to why the Church won’t see the wrath of God were lacking some sufficient content. So allow me to make another stab at why I believe God’s Church will not be on planet earth when His hammer falls.

“…and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

First of all, let’s keep the following premise in mind, God plays no favorites. Every person on the face of this planet is equally known to God.

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30).

So there’s no doubt He knows us better than we know ourselves. And He loves us more than we can ever fully grasp. If you’re not a Christian today and you’re wondering if God loves you too, the answer is absolutely, there’s no question of that. There is one main difference between Christians and non-Christians though, and that difference is their ultimate eternal destinations.

God has had a long term plan for mankind which started way back before time and long before the Garden of Eden, before our prehistoric parents came on the scene. He hasn’t changed His mind about humankind. He wants to establish a relationship with us, a close relationship, a Father to child type of relationship. He’s loving, caring, longsuffering, patient, kind, full of grace and mercy. On the other hand He has been storing up wrath and that wrath will be poured out on the disobedient of mankind.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them” (Romans 1:18, 19).

Unavoidable is the wrath of God for those who remain in disobedience.

So who are the disobedient? Everyone who has denied that God sent His only begotten Son (Jesus our Messiah) to die for us, they are those who will see the wrath of God come upon them unless there is repentance in time. Many people today believe they’ve committed so many sins and have been so very disobedient to God that there is no way they can ever be forgiven. Here’s a news flash, everyone has been disobedient in the past and everyone has committed sins, and there is none worthy of salvation, not one.

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

That’s true, there are none who are worthy to merit salvation but there are many who’ve placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Those of us who’ve been born again are those who won’t see, feel, or go through “the wrath of God” when it arrives on an unsuspecting Christ rejecting world.

“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain” (Isaiah 26:19-21).

Believers will be taken out of this world and placed in a place of safety and comfort while the wrath of God punishes those who’ve rejected His free gift of salvation.

“For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

God doesn’t want anyone to experience His wrath, sadly many, of their own accord will.

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25).

There is coming a day in the not so distant future when God will tell His only begotten Son to go get His Church, we will be raptured and taken to be with Jesus for a period until it’s time for Jesus’ Second Advent. Then we who are with Him shall return with Him to earth to witness His awesome power in putting an end to war, evil, plagues, famine, the wrath of God will have ended. The earth will be restored to its pristine pre-human perfection.

The raptured saints (His Church) will rule and reign with Jesus for one thousand years. A devastating war (Armageddon) will have taken place just prior to Jesus’ return in which a majority of earth dwellers will have perished. Will you be one of those?

“And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, ‘Men and brethren, listen to me: Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name (the Church). And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things. Known to God from eternity are all His works’” (Acts 15:13-18).

The Rapture of Christ’s church is a controversial subject to be sure. The controversy stems from a lack of understanding of scriptures. I suspect that some Bible teachers feel the “Rapture view” is too fantastic to consider. Their finite minds just won’t grasp the concept. This lack of understanding and rejection of the truth causes them to conjure up alternatives to God’s word. But we just can’t get around the subject of a near future event occurring which we call the Rapture. God’s Word is replete with verses that point to this event clearly coming to pass. We shouldn’t just shrug them off, or consider the view as fantastical.

“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10).

Hence the term earth dwellers is referring to those who are still remaining after the Rapture. We who are born-again aren’t earth dwellers but sojourners just passing through. Pursuing the whole council of God should bring any diligent Bible student to a point of understanding and affirm the truth surrounding the Rapture. The very fact that we who are born again, born from above, born from God will not see or feel His wrath is clearly delineated in the scriptures.

Don’t misunderstand; there is a huge difference between God’s wrath and the persecution that comes from our fellow man, those who follow Satan. Christian persecution is prevalent and ugly but scriptural.

[Jesus said,] “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. John 15:18. As Christians we aren’t excused from trials and tribulations but we will be excused from the God’s wrath, and it’s surely coming to planet earth.

I must reiterate that if you are reading this commentary and are not born again, when the Rapture of Christ’s church occurs you will not be among those taken. You will be left here to see and feel and watch the wrath of God as He punishes those who remained in unbelief. That’s one scenario.

The other is you’ve accepted the truth of the Gospel of Christ, you’ve repented of your sins and you’ve become a believer and are among your brothers and sisters in Christ as we all head to Heaven in the Rapture. That’s the scenario we should all be striving for.

There is a massive amount of people who don’t believe, and won’t ever come to know and believe the truth of God’s word. There will be multitudes remaining in that state of unbelief when the wrath of God is poured out. It’s not going to be pretty.

God’s wrath will be devastating and horrible, and impossible to endure. Men will want to die; they will want to commit suicide but there will be a period of five months in which God won’t permit anyone to die.

“And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months” (Revelation 9:5).

Those who remain after the Rapture of the Church won’t be able to live in a cave somewhere or in the far outreaches of nonexistent civilization expecting to escape what everyone else will face. You can’t hide from God. Many believe in suicide as a way to obtain peace through death. For the non-believer suicide is only jumping from the frying pan into the fire, the lake of fire.

There is precious little time remaining. When God wills it, up will go His Church, and down will come His wrath. Your eternal destiny is your choice, heaven as your ultimate destination depends on your making the correct choice.

God bless you all,

Ron Graham

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)

Both the Old and New Testaments make it clear that God created everything we see including people. It wasn’t “luck” that brought about the human race. All through God’s word nothing is left to chance.

I suppose everyone has heard the phrase “good luck” and even used such a phrase themselves, I know I have. Repeating the phrase “Good luck” has become a habit with most folks and habits are hard to break, but I’m trying.

Where in the world did such a phrase come from? Another similar expression is “By chance.” Some say it came from Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” Regardless of where the phrase came from, its inception has its roots in paganism.

It’s uncanny how commonplace it’s now become to wish good luck on another person. I can understand the lost of this world expressing themselves in this fashion because they either don’t believe in God or they don’t understand the foolishness of such statements.

The question is this: Why Christian believers, in many instances, express themselves as the pagans do when they know there is no such thing as luck or chance? Those of us who know and believe God’s Word know that only through our God is it possible to receive blessings of goodness.

Wishing someone luck, whether good or bad, has no place in a believer’s vocabulary.

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” (Psalm 90:2)

Luck is nonexistent. Luck in any form is not of God. We don’t get lucky. The dictionary describes luck as “success that seems to happen by chance.” Good luck, good fortune, chance, bad luck, these are all derived from a pagan mindset.

In paganism God is replaced by a lucky set of circumstances. Yet true Christians know nothing happens by chance. This is how the whole idea of evolution got started and promoted to the extent that it is today. People are overwhelmingly inclined to believe in chance because they’ve been so programmed.

Those of us who believe in an awesome God who created the universe and everything in it,  know that chance does not happen. Everything we know and see was predetermined before the foundation of the world.

Jesus knew before the foundation of the world that He would die for His creation and He knew how He would die. Imagine knowing something as horrible as exactly how He would die and living with that knowledge, as Christ did, all the while watching His creation continually rebel and grow farther removed from Him with every passing day.

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

God knew His creation would need a Savior so all mankind could be reconciled to Him. Human beings were at one time in a right and loving relationship with their Creator, but mankind rebelled against their Creator thus ending the awesome relationship which began in the Garden of Eden. Mankind could never expect to get “lucky” and obtain a reconciled relationship with God without God’s intervention. Luck had nothing to do with what Jesus did for us.

It’s interesting how many words are associated with luck, even a word like providence, which is usually associated with God—is a synonym for luck in the dictionary. Divine providence is not luck, but again we have been programmed to associate luck with God. Yet luck plays no part in God’s economy

“When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.” (Isaiah 27:11)

Believing in luck or chance will play a very distinct role in the lives of the lost and the consequences of such belief will be severe.

Those of us who are born-again need to be mindful of using the word “luck” or even the phrase “by chance.” Anytime we use the word “luck” to describe an emotion, or any other word that relies on chance, we’ve just eliminated God.

When believers, in Christ, invoke the word luck in their conversations instead of the truth, God  is quietly but instantaneously relegated to a position not at all becoming of who He is. Why do we do this? Our witness becomes ineffectual each time we rely on the word luck as a form of expression especially if used during witnessing. Christians can’t even bless one another when  the word luck materializes in their conversations.

“God bless you” is the response we who are believers in Christ should practice and be unafraid to proclaim. Even when speaking to unbelievers saying, “God bless you” is much more significant and effectual than the phrase “good luck.”

Saying God bless you to a non-believer will embed that phrase in their minds. We may get laughed at or hear snickers behind our backs, possibly even be ridiculed, mocked and scorned, but  it may take nothing more than a simple “God bless you” to jar those who do the ridiculing into hearing the Holy Spirit.

I’ve watched some older movies in the past, English and Irish and such, and have noticed in some of those movies when a character enters a house he/she announces themselves by saying “God bless all here.” I thought this was a great way to begin a conversation. Can you imagine entering a home and wishing everyone there good luck. It just doesn’t compute.

“I went fishing the other day and caught a big one; man did I get lucky.” No, you were blessed. That fish was just another of God’s many blessings which pagans refer to as luck. How often do we take the honor and glory from God when we insert the word “luck” into our conversations? How often is God marginalized by the vocabulary of His own children? Think about it.

“Lucky you!” No, God blessed you. Why is that such a hard statement to make? If there is no such thing as luck, then there is no occasion to insert that word into our vocabulary. Everyone knows leprechauns are fictitious so how would it sound if we gave leprechauns the glory for all our blessings? “The leprechauns gave me good fortune.”

How would God look upon His creation as they insult Him with such a statement? Yet we do exactly that with every utterance of “good luck.”

“The great God that formed all things both rewardeth the fool, and rewardeth transgressors. As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” (Proverbs 26:10-11)

People will travel miles out of their way to reach a place known as a gambling casino, they park their cars and their brains outside, and as they enter that establishment they are completely reliant on the pagan idea of luck to win money. Luck is what gambling is all about. Yet, if luck is nonexistent then why do some win at gambling?

“…for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:4)

God’s ways are far above man’s ways. Why He allows some to win at gambling and others to lose is beyond me. But I can tell you this, if you come out ahead at gambling it’s because God blessed you, God gets the glory, not luck.

Statistics prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that losing is the order of the day for the huge majority of those who submit to such temptations. Why? Because God knows and you know  that there are much better ways to use your funds than to throw them away at a gaming table.

Somehow the word luck wormed its way into the vocabulary of the human race. I believe it is satanic and should be avoided with extreme tenacity. Satan wants us to believe in luck and by doing so he’s eliminating God from our lives.

If everything that happens to us is pure luck then God had nothing to do with any part of our lives, thus He doesn’t exist. This has been Satan’s plan from the beginning. Get as many as possible to believe that lie and they will forget all about God, which is exactly what we see  being promoted around the world.

In its past, England once had a bustling Christian culture. Currently though, Christian’s comprise approximately 2 percent of England’s total population (that statistic can be found on numerous sits on the Internet). Why has this phenomenon occurred in England?

Because God’s enemy and ours corrupted that island by convincing that population that chance had occurred billions of years ago and that God was not involved. Sadly, every nation on earth is now headed in that same direction, away from Christianity and fully embracing luck and chance.

Although America was founded on Christian principles, that foundation has been eroded through the teaching of evolution “chance.” Everything we see happened by “chance” and we are very “lucky” to even be here after evolving out of pond scum. God? What God? Chance and luck is our god.

The big bang theory can be explained thusly: At first there was nothing, and then it exploded. We sure are lucky to have been in the path of that explosion so earth could evolve and life could appear on this meager planet, and all because of an explosion out of nothing.

Never mind that scientists know that we live on a knife edge; with the slightest variation in atmosphere or temperatures life could not have come about or currently exist. But the Bible fully explains how this all came about, and it could only have been created by an all powerful God.

According to resources I’ve read lately, most secular scientists don’t even believe in evolution, yet they refuse to admit it in any public setting because most scientists derive their livelihoods from secular government funding. Apparently they would rather remain in their sins and not be accountable to God.

Evolutionary “chance” is now looked upon as fact and taught as such in our public schools, as well as in most schools around the globe. Most people will attribute evolution to the “luck of the draw” instead of believing a loving and most merciful God could have created everything just with the power of His word.

Nothing creates nothing, just try adding 0+0 any way you want, you will still have nothing in the end. Life, planets, or even the universe could not come about without information, and only God can supply information. Thus, only God creates. God is responsible for life on this planet; it was not luck stirring a pot of pond scum that brought about life.

f“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

In the very first verse of the Bible we see nothing left to chance or luck. God gave Moses the words to the first five books of the Bible so we who would follow would have the truth about creation at our fingertips and nothing would be left to chance.

 

I think by now everyone can see that placing ones faith in luck has had a devastating influence on planet Earth. Satan planned his strategy prior to the fall of man and he has been hard at promoting his agenda for the last six thousand years. But God has His own agenda, and of  course it includes Satan and all who follow him. They are those who will one day be the recipients of God’s judgment. Nothing lucky about that.

Jesus Christ is our Creator God and our Savior. All who choose to believe in and follow Him will have everlasting life. All who follow Satan’s luck will have everlasting damnation. So the question is, do you still feel lucky or blessed?

God bless you all,

Ron Graham