First, I want to say that Facebook hates me. If I write more than a few sentences, it has no idea what to do with me other than lock up the page! Apparently, I must be meant to be a blogger. I do like being able to edit, edit and edit some more what I write.

So, a bit of a different entry today, thanks to Facebook. :) Here we go. I will try to make it more like my usual flair.

There is nothing like vacumming or outdoor exercise to clear the mind or think on something. The Lord's Word is always, always on my mind, and I find as I think on something I have read today or at another time which has ended up in my thoughts at His prompting while I am doing either, it's interesting what He might point out that I may not have seen and considered before. Yet another reason to vacuum or exercise, yes?!

So today, I am vacuuming my stairs as my children are chasing one another playing and Shaun the Sheep is on the television not being watched....wouldn't want anyone to think that my  house was actually quiet. Totally unnecessary for the Lord for a suburban stay at home mom, thankfully, to have a quiet home to think on His Word or I am not sure what I would do. I digress....

But I am thinking on Revelation 6, the fifth seal, which reads:

⁹ When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. ¹⁰ And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.

There is something interesting here.  I have never noticed it before, but this is what I was thinking about on the stairs and decided to write about it today. I will also say that I am not sure that I am right, but I think it's worth writing about. We will know for sure when we are in Heaven.

The Rapture of the Church happens at the beginning of chapter 4, as promised by the Lord, and all real believers who have truly repented of their sins, dead and living, who asked Him for His payment for their sins, the finished work of the cross, are kept from His wrath (Jn 14, 1 Cor 15, 1 Thess 4). This is a group of Tribulation saints (the Tribulation is seven years long (see Daniel 7) and starts with the opening of the first seal, which is the rider on the white horse, the anti-Christ) who become believers after the Church, Christ's Bride, has been taken to Heaven for our wedding. These 7 years are 360 day years, per the Bible's account of how long a year is to the Lord for us (not our current calendar), and this group of Tribulation Saints have no idea how long the brutal killing of believers will go on and ask Him that very question. That is very interesting. Why don't they know?

A little more information to consider:

We see in the next chapter a parenthetical view of the ministry of the 144,000 Israelites who preach the Gospel during part of the Tribulation and are sealed by the Lord for His work. No mention of anyone else being sealed and divinely protected from death and the other judgements---just these 144,000 men. We see a huge harvest of souls--more martyrs and not the last time we are going to see this in Revelation either--- in Heaven as we continue to read through that chapter who come out of the Tribulation that are a result of their ministry. This is not the Church and cannot be for all kinds of reasons, first of which is the promise Jesus made to keep all true believers out of that time (Rev 1-5, Jn 14, 1 Cor 15, 1 Thes 4, 2 Thes 2) and we are told to comfort one another with this knowlege AND to be always alert, watching and sober looking for Jesus to come for us. How comforted do you think the believers in Revelation 7 are through the breaking of those seals? They are already in the Tribulation and the Word there says they washed their robes in the blood of the Lord and came out of that very time. How does this even get taught? Are we reading the same book? Digressing again.....

While we know that one generation will see ALL the signs He gave us in Matt 24-25/Mk 13/Luke 21  will also see His return, there is also the parable of the fig tree, the fig tree always represents Israel in the Bible, illustrates the prophetical rebirth of Israel as a nation starting that time clock for that same generation...that was May 14, 1948. Tick tock.

So here is this group back in Rev 6 of martyrs whose blood has been shed at the Heavenly altar for their belief in the Lord Jesus  and His Word and they have no idea how long this will go on. Their understanding of His Word is limited, aparently to not much mor than a saving faith before their life is taken from them. Now, not every Christian today knows how long the Tribulation is, so I don't want to make a real believer feel any condemnation for not knowing, though I do want to encourage all to study your Bibles and beg the Holy Spirit to hide it in your heart and illuminate and teach the Word, which is a lifelong process. These martyrs don't have a clue here. Why ask the question if you know the answer? And this trial for believers is only for a very, specific time. The Bible is very, very clear about this.

The world at the time of the Rapture is going to go from the Church being here, then being taken (2 Thess 2) and no believers left on earth, the current ministry of the Holy Spirit finished. The Church is the only group of believers who is the Bride of Christ, began at Acts 2 the Feast of Weeks/Shavuot/Pentacost and will stop at the Rapture (Romans 11, as well) when the Lord is going to turn His eyes back on Israel, pour out His wrath on an unbelieving world, and it's going to be unlike any time in history (see Revelation). Satan and his fallen buddies all know exactly Who Jesus is and they have far better knowlege of the Scriptures than we d0, and neither of those things makes them saved from eternal destruction. There are many within the Church who are unsaved today. The Restrainer, Who is the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell inside the heart of every real believer at the moment of belief, will be taken out of the way (2 Thess2).

How did this particular group we are shown here come to faith in Jesus? There are some Bible teachers who teach that if one has rejected the Gospel before the Rapture, they will be deluded afterwards without a choice. There are definitely two times the Bible mentions when someone can no longer accept Christ: one is after death. The whole teaching of purgatory completely flies in the face of the entire volume of Scripture, and I pray any Catholic who reads this might grab a Bible, do some studying on your own and check out places like Luke 16, just as a for instance. The second is found in Revelation 13 when someone knowingly takes the mark of the Beast (the anti-Christ) and worships his image. Other than that, the Lord is the discerner of hearts, and while someone will end up with a hard heart walking in continual sin away from the Lord, only the Lord knows what it will take for that person to come to a saving faith, if they are going to. We are never told to stop praying for those we witness to who reject the Lord or to stop sharing with them. I do not personally subscribe to that train of thought that they are doomed to delusion, and I am not sure that I see Biblical evidence that is what 2 Thessalonians 2 is teaching. I also know the Lord remains unchangingly merciful and gracious because that is His character, and that it is we who have hard, sinful hearts. I read through Revelation and see My God of Grace and Mercy on every page always wanting all men to repent and come to a saving knowlege of His Son, the Only One Who can save!

So here is the reason I sat down to write and felt I had to: it may be that those martyrs we see in Revelation 6 at the breaking of the fifth seal are those who have come to a saving knowlege of Jesus because of sharing the Gospel right now by those believers who are faithful to share it today. The prophet Amos records:

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
¹² They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it.     Amos 8:11-12


Sharing the Gospel with the lost is for every believer--it's called the Great Commission. It's awesome to help storm victims, feed the poor, clothe the needy, but that is not the Gospel! The Gospel is the sharing with words the Good News of Who Jesus according to the Holy Bible and what He did on the cross to pay for sins so that some will believe and be saved from eternal separation and punishment in hell. We also cannot earn salvation. Ephesians 2:8-10, just as one example, is so clear about this very thing. Apart from works, free from the Lord's grace, no boasting flesh--just the Lord being glorified. The end. If you are taught salvation by any other way, the Bible says that is false teaching, the doctrine of demons. If that is what you have been taught, might you cling to the Everlasting Word or to a body that is leading you to eternal hell? Wow, Nicole, that is a very serious thing to say, offensive to some even. Yep, it is, but that is what the Bible says. The Lord says He places His Word above His own Name (Ps 138:2). Are you going to believe the Lord (go look it up!) and place your faith in Him or trust a bunch of men who are teaching contrary to His Word? His Word is the measuring stick for doctrine, not the other way around. And the Bible is very confrontational to false teaching and beliefs. I say that in love, understanding that the Lord's heart is for none to perish but all men to be saved. Most reject Him. What say you?

Take an imaginary journey with me for a minute and consider a Sunday morning if the Rapture took place then........do we really believe that everyone around us in our fellowships is saved? Who might be left when we who are saved go home to be with the Lord? Who might we have shared with and prayed for many times who is finally convicted of their sins and who Jesus is who ends up under that altar? How many pastors, worship leaders, Sunday school teachers, generous givers will be left in those seats? How many will know what happened? This group of Trib Saints group seems to only have enough knowlege to be saved from their sins and not much else. This is something to really think on and consider today as believers. We are called to be seed planters and waterers. God gives the growth. The harvest belongs to Him, not to us. Are we going to be faithful to do His work? Many reject the teaching of the Rapture, but the Bible is very clear about it in many places and with my types as well of it in the Old Testament, and you will probably be told you are crazy to believe it. Just wanted to warn you. Blessed are you who suffer for rightousness in Jesus, my friend. It's a narrow and difficult path that few find but praise be to Him who secures our footing on the Rock of our salvation. Take heart and be of good cheer and courage! The cross is the power of God to those who are saved and foolishness to those who are perishing, Paul writes to the Corinthians. Speak boldly of your faith in Jesus and let His Spirit work on conviction of sin and righteousness!

The Bible says that all in our churches are not saved in more than one place, but I would point right to Revelation 2 and 3 to those letters and what Jesus has to say about this very thing AND the time of the Tribulation specifically right now. Our fellowships are a place where we should share the Gospel everytime we meet. Unbelievers are there, but the lost are mainly out in the world and we are called disciples....that means "sent out ones" "set apart ones". We are not going to be popular. We are going to be hated and persecuted by the world and they are not going to give us any more of a warm reception than Jesus received---He promised this would be so! We are set apart and sent out to share the Good News of Jesus Christ so that some might be saved--our lives don't have meaning or value apart from Jesus and eternal things. This life, this world, they are passing away and set for judgement, and that time is very near. If those signs of the Tribution are here, how much closer are we to the Rapture, a signless event? Are you ready to share your testimony of Who Jesus is and What He did with someone gently at any moment like Peter exhorts us to? Some might be saved now. Some might be saved later.

I believe we are very close to the time of the Tribulation. The signs are not only all appearing, they are also accelerating and becoming more intense. You won't understand them without your Bible, and you won't understand your Bible unless you are filled with the Holy Spirit and in a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. If you have not done the last, you will have a great deal of trouble with the other, and the Church is so filled with false doctrine now, as prophesied throughout the New Testament, that it's become very difficult to hear the Bible taught on a Sunday, much less taught correctly. The Lord defines all symbols used---no guessing required or allowed---and He means what He says. His Word is not allegorical, it's literal and plain, and pay special attention to pronouns! I cannot tell you how many times I have ended up confused because I forgot I was an "us, we, you" and not a "them or those". And we grow up in Christ. We don't come in as grown ups, but we can be malnourished. We can be immature. Pray for wisdom--He says He wants to give it--and cling to Him, wanting only His Truth. There are plenty of things to learn out there, but only one Truth, Jesus, and then you are going to have to check His Word to be sure it's the same Jesus!

So, that's it for me today on this beautiful and hot day in Houston, loving Jesus and His Word and praying for the lost and for those of us who belong to the King of Kings to be praying people and evangelising people and to depart not only from iniquity but from false teachings as well and cling to the Only One Who can save.

Blessings in Christ, Nicole