While the newly elected president declares a golden age ahead for America–an eventuation I, like you, wish I could foresee but cannot—the world around this generation continues to darken. We are in a time Jesus spoke of, I believe, while He and His disciples were approaching a man with whom I can somewhat commiserate.

The man had been blind since birth, while I lost my eyesight at around age 51, so my suffering with the affliction of darkness had been much less than this man’s.

Here is that account:

“And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing” (John 9:1-8).

This story of Jesus’ encounter with the blind man touches me as few other stories about our Lord’s interaction with people while He was in the flesh. The man no doubt had spent his life unable to do what society would consider productive work. Perhaps he spent his entire life begging for sustenance from passersby.

I, on the other hand, had very good vision until, at age 50 or 51, retinitis pigmentosa (a hereditary retinal disease) invaded my central vision and quickly caused total blindness. So I can in no way fully appreciate the degree of suffering this man endured.

Today, I know people blind since birth who have accomplished far more than I did when in full possession of visual acuity. But in that culture in Christ’s time, there were no such technological marvels to give the blind the means to accomplish great things, as I have witnessed.

I myself am using one such technological marvel while composing this week’s commentary. It is a word synthesis program called JAWS (Jobs Accessible Word System). A young woman, blind since birth, taught me how to use this phenomenal computer-based system nearly thirty years ago. Liz is as close to my heart as a daughter in that regard.

All this I mention is to reveal that God, in this encounter between Jesus and the blind man, has put at the center of my spirit what He desires for my life. In regard to the key phrase in the scriptural account above is the following:

“I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”

Also, Jesus’ answer to His disciples about the man’s or his parents’ guilt that caused the blindness keeps my thoughts focused each and every day regarding the purpose for the time I am allowed to live here and now at the end of this Church Age–the dispensation of Grace. The Lord gave the reason this man was allowed to suffer total blindness:

“But that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

This truth that Jesus gave at the time of the encounter with the blind man He healed has powerfully spoken to me personally. Time is limited; soon there will not be any opportunity to serve Heaven’s purposes–to serve the True, Living God. And we are here to serve Him. That is our great overall purpose—yours and mine.

One moment, perhaps much sooner than any of us can imagine, our time on this sphere where we have been placed by Heaven’s appointment will be over. We will be called into God’s presence, either through the Rapture, to be with Christ forever, or through the portal of death, at which time we must answer for the days of light and life we were given to accomplish Christ’s Great Commission–spreading the salvation message in order that souls will be redeemed.

In these times that certainly look like night is about to fall and the Tribulation is about to begin, it is wise for us, as believers, to work in the way Jesus worked to accomplish His Father’s will.

The Lord knew His time to do that earthly work was rapidly approaching the final moments. He was about His Father’s business in a mighty way, and, as we know, He said with finality while on that old rugged cross, “tetelestai,” meaning, “It is finished!”

That is what you who come to Raptureready.com and Todd, Jonathan, editor Cindy, and yours truly are all about–finishing the work we have been put on earth to do in our God’s great cause: the saving of souls of men and women, boys and girls.

Rapture Ready–which is your website as well as ours—is devoted to carrying out our Lord’s Great Commission. Because of monetary requirements on the rise and attempts by some to interfere with our efforts, increased funding is very much needed to carry on with this work. We thank you with all the thankfulness possible to our Lord and gratitude to you, our wonderful RR family, for your love and generosity as we do our very best to serve the purpose we believe Heaven has assigned this website that is so Christ-centered and focused on the Lord Jesus’ any-moment call to you and to us. We ask for and will apply with all due diligence the donations you send under the direction of our Heavenly Father.

So let us together forge ahead in full service while there is still time and light to share, even as we see the nighttime of Tribulation approaching.

Here is how to contribute to this effort on behalf of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again so that we can, on one eternal day (perhaps today), hear Him say, “Well done, good, faithful servant.”

There are three ways you can contribute to RR: You can send a financial gift via our P.O. Box address; you can make a one-time donation; or there is a “frequent” option that allows you to make monthly donations. If you’re interested in signing up, find the links on the Donation Depot page. Donations can be sent to our P.O. Box at:

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—Terry

 

Great disservice has been done to the pre-Trib Rapture truth of God’s Holy Word. People such as Harold Camping and others have, by setting dates, thrown disrepute on the fact that Christ will call all believers into the clouds of glory before the dark and terrible time of the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week).

By making predictions of the exact date when the Rapture will happen, such as found in the book by Edgar C. Whisenant titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988, some have contributed to fulfilling the Apostle Peter’s prophecy:

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

We seem to have a growth of pre-Trib skeptics within Christianity today. That’s because the erroneous date-setters have skewed truth in the Bible that Jesus said no one knows the time except His Father.

Now, some might say these skeptics are doing little or no harm. All believers, if the pre-Trib view is biblically correct, will be raptured. The only prerequisite for going in the Rapture to be with the Lord is to be saved–that is, believe in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross at Calvary. It isn’t necessary to believe in the pre-Trib Rapture to be saved. Those who believe in another view of prophecy are “in Christ,” so will be evacuated from this fallen planet when Christ shouts, “Come up here!”

This is, of course, true. One doesn’t have to believe in the pre-Trib Rapture to be saved.

However, the first thing I would say in answer to that reasoning is that we who are in God’s family–are saved—are to strive to understand things God wants us to understand:

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

The pre-Trib Rapture of the Church is built upon an extensive body of Scripture. The Rapture is a clearly presented doctrine, and even most pre-Trib naysayers admit that the Rapture is in God’s Word. However, they, in most cases, adamantly deny that it is a pre-Trib Rapture that the Bible presents.

They give all sorts of arguments for when it will occur, all pointing to the Rapture taking place during the Tribulation, the time when Antichrist will be ruling as history’s last, most despotic dictator.

But these ignore—or convolute through twisting—God’s promise to keep believers out of that terrible time of God’s wrath:

“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10).

This promise to spare believers of the Church Age, or Age of Grace, is seen while Jesus, in His ascended form, is revealing prophetic truth to John, who wrote the Revelation. Jesus here is talking to the seven churches. That’s the churches now in the dispensation of the Church Age. Jesus is telling believers of the Church Age that He will keep them out of the Tribulation.

Most who come against the pre-Trib timing of the Rapture refuse to accept that God deals with humankind in dispensations. And therein lies much of the problem with them not being willing to “rightly divide the word of truth,” as found in 2 Timothy 2:15. Unless this concept of dispensations is understood, the pre-Trib Rapture cannot be easily discerned.

And this matter of not understanding dispensational truth, I prayerfully hope, brings this article’s title into proper focus. Looking at prophecy yet future through the pre-Trib prism procures discernment. The pre-Trib viewpoint provides accurate perspective on issues and events as they might pertain to things to come. For an example, we only have to look at the prospect of nuclear war at this moment in history.

As I mentioned above, we, as a generation alive on the earth, are in the Age of Grace, or Church Age dispensation. Within the pre-Trib view, a nuclear war or even a World War III that would decimate the planet just isn’t foretold in God’s Word.

Yet rumors of nuclear war are abounding at present. Even writers on Bible prophecy are warning that nuclear war is about to break out at any moment. These writings are coming from those who are, in some cases, avidly against the pre-Trib Rapture viewpoint. These also, in most cases, deny that God deals with humanity in dispensations, as I’ve mentioned.

As of this writing, I have before me several articles proclaiming that China is on the verge of attacking the United States. The drone sightings, the huge balloons shot down some months ago, the sightings of Chinese subs off the coasts of America…all of these things indicate that China is scoping out our defenses in order to launch nuclear attacks.

I heard just hours ago a U.S. representative voicing that all of the illegals pouring into the nation, many of them young Chinese men of fighting age, portends an attack from the Chinese war machine that is about to take place.

And these kinds of warnings have been going on for several years.

I can say with authoritative confidence based upon God’s Word that such war-making by China is not in view for this dispensation. Here is what I mean.

Any such massive nuclear attack would bring equally massive retaliation by this nation. America has submarines under the ocean waters of the world–including waters near China. Each of the subs has as its nuclear repertoire MIRV ballistic missiles, each with multiple warheads armed with nuclear ordnance. These would obliterate the Chinese mainland when launched upon America being attacked.

So the world would be drastically and profoundly damaged if this scenario was played out.

Jesus told us (Luke 17:28–30) that when He next catastrophically intervenes into earth’s evil, all will be going along as it was in Sodom at the time Lot and his family were removed. There would be no destruction preceding that removal. People would be, as we are at present, conducting the business of life as usual–buying, selling, planting, etc.

Massive nuclear exchanges involving Earth’s military powers simply are not scheduled this side of the Rapture.

We can logically understand that China will be a power as part of “the kings of the east” found in chapters 9 and 16 of Revelation. At that time, they will indeed destroy one-third of all humankind, the prophecy says. So they won’t have been destroyed but will be greatly enhanced militarily.

So looking dispensationally at the fearful things to come through the pre-Trib scope of the Bible’s prophetic radar, we get an accurate—even precise, in some cases—picture from God’s great and perfect perspective.