What I Think I Can Say So Far About the Future in Bible Prophecy

Jesus is Lord and Messiah and Saviour

All who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution

In the world you shall have tribulation - but be of good cheer: Jesus has overcome the world

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations - all the way up until the End

The last day is coming - but no-one knows when: only the Father

The last trumpet shall sound

The Lord shall descend

He shall bring the dead in Christ with Him

The graves shall be opened 

The dead in Christ shall rise to inherit eternal life 

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds

Death shall be abolished; we shall put on immortality

We shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye 

We shall meet the Lord in the air

We shall appear with Him in glory, and all the angels with him, to the awe of all the world

The wicked also shall rise - but to receive damnation

The Lord shall judge the world

The earth and all the works in it shall be burned up 

All these things shall be dissolved 

The heavens will be dissolved by fire 

The elements shall melt with fervent heat  

The earth shall pass away 

There shall be new heavens and a new earth

The righteous shall live in it with God and the Lamb forever  

The Lord won't require anyone to offer blood-sacrifices anywhere at anytime in future

Questions About Dispensational Pre-Millennialism

I've asked:

When will the people who get saved during 'The Great Tribulation' and who survive 'The Great Tribulation' begin to experience immortality?

What Scripture-passaged describe that event (if I Thessalonians 4, I Corinthians 15 and Revelation 20:4 describe a Pre-Tribulation resurrection or the resurrection of saints martyred during 'The Great Tribulation' only, and if Revelation 20:5 describes the resurrection of the wicked only, after 'The Millennium')?

And what do you have to do to a Scripture-passages in order to 'see' that event described in it?

Someone answered: 

Only those saints who "die physically" during the Tribulation will be immortal during the Millennium. All saints who survive physically to the Millennium will enter into the Kingdom in mortal bodies.

To which I replied:

So that presents a seeming contradiction. 

It would mean that pretty-much "All Israel" will be mortal, during 'The Millennium'. 

Because according to Dispensational Pre-Trib Pre-Millennialism, "all Israel shall be saved" either during 'The Millennium' or at 'The Second Coming' or during 'The Great Tribulation' - AND Israel shall survive the Great Tribulation because they shall be spared from annihilation by the nations at the 'Second Coming'.

Whereas 'Tribulation Saints' among the Gentiles don't have any prophetic promises of protection. Many of them will be martyred. But because they will have been martyred during 'The Great Tribulation', you say they won't be mortal during 'The Millennium' - but the saints who survive 'The Great Tribulation' - most of whom will presumably be Jews, because they have the prophetic promise of protection - "all Israel" - will be mortal. 

So that would put saints for whom "the days will be shortened" at a distinct disadvantage for a thousand years! They would have been better off getting martyred, so they could be immortal and enjoy the entire 'Millennium', instead of being subject to mortality and die and miss out.

And the nation which will have the highest proportion of mortals, during 'The Millennium', will therefore be "all Israel". Because the entire nation will have been saved and yet survived 'The Great Tribulation'. 

So that would mean that a majority of people in other nations; plus 'the Church' (which was Raptured before 'The Great Tribulation') will enjoy privileges over national-Israel during 'The Millennium' - they will have glorified bodies; they will not be subject to mortality; they will get to enjoy "The Kingdom of God" for the whole thousand years - whereas "All Israel" will still be subject to mortality, because they were spared from death during 'The Great Tribulation'.

So - they were spared from dying during 'The Great Tribulation' - but miss out on immortality during 'The Millennium'. 

The contradiction in that, is that according to Dispensationalism, 'The Millennium' is necessary in order to fulfil promises to Israel. 'The Millennium' is largely meant to be centred on Israel. And yet, you would have Israel as the most disadvantaged of all nations, during 'The Millennium' - disadvantaged also in comparison to the Pre-Tribulation Church, because Israel would have the highest proportion of mortals of any nation - because they will have had the highest proportion of survivors of 'The Great Tribulation'. 

To me that sounds fraught with contradictions. 

I also said to someone:

It seems kind of self-defeating, doesn't it.  

A Dispensational model of 'The Millennium' is created in order to put Israel at the top again (to solve the imagined dilemma of unfulfilled promises; and to avoid that dreaded 'Replacement Theology') - only for Dispensationalism's own systems to mean 'all Israel' will actually remain the most disadvantaged of all saints during their own 'Millennium'.

Additional Remark:

Dispensationalism insists that 'The Millennium' is necessary in order to fulfil Israel's promises. But wouldn't their own system keep Israel at a disadvantage to the Church during the Millennium? Because 'all Israel shall be saved' and survive 'The Great Tribulation', they say - therefore Israel would enter their own Millennium as mere mortals, while the Church would reign immortal for the duration.  

Questions About the Pre-Trib. Rapture Postulation

Why would the dead in Christ need to accompany Christ to the earth, only to turn around and go straight back to heaven again? Just to come along for the ride?

If it's to get their bodies, why would they suddenly need their bodies in heaven then, when they haven't needed their bodies in heaven before where they'd just come from, and some of them have already been there for thousands of years? Couldn't wait another seven years? 

How could that possibly be a secret event, if all the graves will be opened, the saints will rise again bodily, then the living will be caught up bodily to meet them in the air? If it's physical, it's visible! (The resurrection; and the catching up.)

Why will Christ even need to come (as far as the air), if it's just to get the living? If He has no purpose on the actual earth at that time, couldn't He just translate the living like He did Enoch, or catch them up like He did Elijah?

But if Christ is coming at that moment in order to dwell with the righteous in the new earth forever, then it would make TOTAL sense why He will bring the dead in Christ with Him, and why it would be appropriate that they be clothed with their resurrected bodies at that time, and why the living will be caught up and transformed to meet them in the air - it's so we can all be reunited, and appear with Him in glory, to the awe of the whole world - the elements also will melt with fervent heat in that very day - and there will be new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness - the consummated eternal kingdom of God on earth, the new earth.

But if instead His coming at that moment will just be to take us away - then we've got all those dilemmas posed above.  

Any thoughts?

Six English-Tagalog Sentence-Structures

The apple is red (Ang mansanas ay pula)
It is John's apple (ito ay mansanas no John) I give John the apple (ibinibigay ko kay John ang mansanas) We give him the apple (ibinibigay namin sa kanya ang mansanas ) He gives it to John (ibinibigay niya ito kay John) She gives it to him (ibinibigay niya ito kay John)

Changing the "ibibigay" to "ibinibigay" for present participle application

Six Basic English to Tagalog Sentence-Structures

1. The apple is red

Ang mansanas ay pula

2. It is John's apple

Ito ay mansanas ni John 

(For a proper flow of Tagalog, this should be said as "Ang mansanas na ito ay kay John.)

3. I give John the apple

Ibibigay ko kay John ang mansanas

4. We give him the apple

Ibibigay namin sa kanya ang mansanas

5. He gives it to John

Ibibigay niya ito kay John

6. She gives it to him

Ibibigay niya ito sa kanya.

(But to be gender specific: Ibibigay ng lalaki ang mansanas kay John; or Ibibigay ng babae ang mansanas kay John In this application, the subject the 'apple' will have to be mentioned rather than using "it". Because the introduction of gender specific created another subject in the phrase, therefore "it" can no longer be used to refer to the main subject.)

A Beginning Language-Learning Tip

Translate:

The apple is red

It is John's apple

I give John the apple

We give him the apple

He gives it to John

She gives it to him


Then add negations:

The apple is not red

It is not John's apple

We don't give him the apple

He doesn't give it to John

She doesn't give it to him


Then add 'helping' terms:

I need/want to/must/should/can/

Then negate them:

can't/shouldn't/mustn't/don't want to/don't need to


Then add qualifiers:

(straightaway/eventually/-ly words like reluctantly, quickly, slowly, eagerly)



And then change tenses


Then add plurals


Then alter the point of emphasis in each sentence


Then change identifiers:

(A/an/the/this/these/that/those/that over there/those over there/some/all/one, two, three, twenty)


Learn sentence-linking words:

And/but/however/then/so/accordingly/because


Translate:

The apple gets given

The Age to Come

Praise God for the timeless message of the Book of Revelation, and the New Testament, and the whole Bible: there is a glorious age to come. The more persecuted the church has been, the more that hope has been 'good' news. 

But the fact that it's 'news' (it's not just a forecast, it's also 'news') also means the kingdom has already been inaugurated in some sense - even though we still wait for His second coming and kingdom with patience. Spiritually it's already a quite-different - and better - state of affairs right now than it was back in Old Covenant times. That's the 'news' part - the 'good news'. So there's that. 

Yet as wonderful as this foretaste of the age to come can be, it seems there was still to be at least some sort of final showdown with the devil, before the End, no matter what view of Revelation one takes. 

No matter what that was going to look like, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death itself. That will require nothing short of a supernatural intervention by God every bit as supernatural and interventional as Jesus' own resurrection from the dead. Reversing death isn't something that can be achieved by just doing cosmetic touchups to this present world - it will mean a whole new world! 

Only the born-again shall see the kingdom of God, Jesus told a leader in Israel. Peter said only righteousness shall dwell in that new earth. 

Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, after His crucifixion for our sins, is the beginning of that new creation. We who believe are already experiencing resurrection-life spiritually, by the Holy Spirit - if any man is in Christ, he's a new creature. And there has been an overflow of that into the world - opening the eyes of the blind; setting the bruised prisoners free. And on the last day physical creation itself will see resurrection! Then God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes; and He will be all in all.

All of that together is the 'gospel' - the gospel 'of the kingdom' - already now inaugurated; making its impact in the world; but yet-to-be consummated, at Christ's second coming - the message of all prophets and holy men since the world began. 

Praise the Lord!

How to Pray for Your Unsaved Loved-Ones

Perhaps you've prayed for an unsaved loved-one, but a long time has passed, and they haven't been saved yet.

So maybe now you find you've succumbed to treating it a little bit like you're not in all that much of a hurry for an answer to your prayer; or you've become a bit general and vague in how you pray for them.

But time is slipping away! The Lord is coming with and for His bride. Today is the day of salvation! 

So maybe what we can do is change the way we pray for them. 

When I was still not much more than a teenager I think, I remember reading a small booklet by Corrie ten Boom about how she learned to pray for the lost. 

Instead of just asking God to save them, she used her authority (which believers have been given, to use the Name of Jesus), and rebuked specific demons which were hindering them from coming to the Lord - and then she saw results, she said.

I also recall brother Kenneth E. Hagin telling how he learned to pray a similar way. Instead of repeatedly asking God to save a particular unsaved relative, brother Hagin said he changed the way he prayed for him.

This time he 'claimed' his salvation - and he contended with the devil over it - he laughed, right back at the devil, with the stance of faith he was taking over it - and in just a matter of days his relative got saved!

So one night at a church Connect Group meeting, we decided to do it. 

(Actually, it so happened that I saw a 'vision' of a big red book - bigger than foolscap size - so I told the guys. 

One of the guys went to his room, then came straight back out and said, "Does it look like this?" - and held up a big red ledger book that had been given to him but he'd had no use for.

Perfect! So he wrote on the cover, "The Book of Souls'. In it we wrote the names of specific friends and relatives whom each of us desired to see saved.) 

Then instead of just asking in a general way for God to save them (like perhaps some of us had already done in the past), for many of them we prayed in a very specific way.

First, we 'claimed' their salvation. 

Then, we rebuked specific spirits which we felt were hindering them from coming to the Lord. That was something 'we' did - not something we asked God to do. 

Then we just thanked God for it, like God was now on it - in fact, like it was already done.

The very next Sunday, the friend I'd prayed for told me he was coming to church with me that morning - and I didn't even have to ask him! 

Another member of our group prayed for his family-members. Within just a few days his mother, brother and sister came to church and got saved. 

As each person got saved, we wrote a tick ✓ beside their name. We were on a real roll! 

Has everyone we desired to see saved been saved? No, not yet. (With some cases, for some people, a different kind of prayer might be necessary - like the prayer of intercession, perhaps - or some other kind of prayer.) But for many whom we felt led to pray for in this way, it made all the difference - often an immediate difference!

(I've prayed this way for believers who seemed to have drifted away from fellowship too, over the years - and often, the very next Sunday he or she was back in church! 

We can pray for finances the same way too. Instead of just asking God for it, 'claim' the amount you need; 'command' the devil to take his hands off your money - then by faith confess that the angels of God have been sent forth on your behalf and are causing the money to come in.)

Pray for your unsaved loved-ones like this:

"Father, I claim _______ 's salvation [name him/her]. 

I rebuke any spirit(s) which may be hindering him/her, in Jesus’ Name! [name the hindering spirits or hindering issues or circumstances, if you've discerned them]."

Then just thank Him for it!

"...Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:22-24).

"And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full...

...At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 

For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God" (John 16:23-24,26-27).

Claiming and Commanding in Prayer

There are different 'kinds' of prayer (see Eph.6:18 "...praying always with all prayer..."). 

So, I think:

a) We probably can't guarantee that everyone will be saved (see I Corinthians 7:16 "For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?")

b) Therefore we mightn't be able to 'claim' everyone's salvation

c) But sometimes we might perceive in the spirit that 'claiming', and rebuking the devil, is indeed an appropriate way to pray about someone's salvation (see Acts 27:10 where Paul said "...I perceive..."; or Acts 9:15 where God showed Ananias in advance Saul's future calling.) Perhaps some of those people might get saved sooner rather than later, if someone prays for them in this way.  

d) In other cases the prayer of 'intercession', or some other kind of prayer, might instead be more appropriate 

e) And with other 'things', whatsoever we desire, sometimes we may perceive that it wouldn't be appropriate to 'claim' it - even though Jesus said "all things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23) - if the thing would overreach certain ethical and other parameters, known or unknown 

f) But other times we might perceive in the spirit that claiming that thing specifically, and commanding the devil to take his hands off it, would indeed be an appropriate way to pray for it. Notwithstanding its intended parameters, the scope is so broad that Jesus still said "all things are possible to him who believes". And I would say many of us are yet to grasp the scope of it!

g) Sometimes just expressing a desire for something - or even a sigh - without 'asking' for it, per se - without even being sure whether it's God's perfect will or not - is enough, and your heavenly Father Who always hears us promptly grants it anyway, in detail. Because that's just the wonderfully kind Father He is! (As in Isaiah 65:24 "...it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear")

h) With other matters, the prayer of 'consecration' might be called for: "Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt"

i) Or the prayer of just "casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you" - and leaving it there

j) And when we still don't know what to pray for as we ought, we know we can always pray with the spirit - with an unknown tongue - rather than with our understanding (I Cor.14)

Either way, we ought to "pray always and not to faint" (Luke 18:1). Praying "always with all [kinds of] prayer" (Eph.6:18).

Win!

Walking to Church

One Saturday morning, our church had a men's breakfast. 

I decided to do something I'd never done before: I decided to walk to church instead of drive. (It's about 7 kilometres.)

Something else I'd never done before: I took my Cebuano-language New Testament off the bookshelf and put it in my back pocket. 

When I got about halfway or more, on that sunny morning, I said to the Lord, "I really want to do your will". 

Straightaway I felt the Lord answer, "Okay, turn up that street".

I crossed the road and turned up the next side street.

There was a young woman washing-down a caravan parked on the kerb, and I stopped to talk. 

I soon realised she was a Filipina. As it turned out, she was from a remote part of the Philippines - from a village I happened to visit many years ago. And her language was Cebuano. So we talked in her language (as best I could) for the rest of the conversation.

She told me she'd only just arrived in Australia, and hadn't had a chance to meet anyone yet. She'd only just gotten married - and her husband had been speaking roughly to her, she said. So she was feeling misunderstood, vulnerable and very alone. 

I listened and sympathised as she poured out her distress. We talked a short while. I got the Cebuano New Testament out of my pocket, and desired to comfort her.

(I don't think she had any idea what the odds were of the first person she would properly meet being a Cebuano-speaking Aussie who had been to her remote village and who happened to have a New Testament in her language in his pocket. But she was expressing herself uninhibitedly in Cebuano - like that's just what we do on the streets of Broadbeach, Qld!) 

By now she was feeling noticeably relieved. I invited her to our church's Filipino service the following day.

Next day she turned up, all nicely dressed for church. The women in the church hugged her and loved her - and our Filipino Pastor at the time led her in a prayer to receive JESUS Christ as her personal Lord and Saviour, and comforter and friend. 

I don't remember exactly how I got home from the men's breakfast after that, but I don't think I ended-up needing to walk home. But it doesn't matter! 

When you consciously make yourself available to do God's service, that's when He can speak to you.

"...when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I” (Exodus 3:4).