The Two Trumpet Call Events
Part Six
We
cannot be indifferent and careless like the five foolish virgins in this
passage who went to sleep with no oil in their lamps but rather we are to be like
the servants who when their Lord returns were waiting to open the door to Him (Luke
12:35-48). Verses 45-48 carry a grim warning for professing Christians who fail
to abstain from evil and are unfaithful to Christ. They will be left behind at
the Rapture. Once more we learn that only those who comply with the conditions
will qualify for the Rapture (Rev 2:1-3).
Of
the Seven Churches Jesus addressed here He promises to keep one only from the
hour of trial - the Great Tribulation - and that is the Church of Philadelphia
(Rev 3:7-13). They were the only ones who remained faithful to His Word and did
not surrender to their circumstances. This also is further proof of a
pre-Tribulation Rapture.
Revelation
3:11 refers to the Rapture but it highlights another important teaching too:
while those Seven Churches were actual Churches in the cities mentioned at the
time of John's Revelation, they are also representative of all Churches in all
ages from then until the Rapture ends the Church Age.
The
letters to the Churches are to be interpreted as not only applying for that
time but as having an ongoing application for all generations, including ours.
Philadelphia
means ‘the love of brethren’.
Does
that apply to us as a body and to each of us personally?
Can
we honestly say we love the brethren as Christ Loves us, because God says that
it is only our love of brethren that proves our love for Him.
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the Truth so
that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the
heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of
imperishable, through the living
and enduring Word Of God.
1 Peter 1:22-24 NIV
Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be
sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil
with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called
so that you may inherit a Blessing.
1 Peter 3:8-9 NIV
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love
our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his
brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has Eternal Life in him.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His
life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has
material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how
can the Love of God be in him? Dear
children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This
then is how we know that we belong to the Truth, and how we set our hearts at
rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than
our hearts,
and He knows everything.
1 John 3:14-20 NIV
Dear friends, let us love one another, for Love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love
does not know God, because God is Love. This is how God showed His Love among
us: He sent His One and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.
This is Love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as
an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so Loved us, we also
ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one
another, God lives in us and His Love
is made complete in us.
We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given
us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that The Father has sent His Son
to be The Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is The Son Of
God, God lives in Him and He in God. And
so we know and rely on the Love God has for us.
God is Love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on
the Day of Judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in Love. But Perfect Love
drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is
not made perfect in Love.
We love because He first Loved us. If anyone says, "I love
God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love
his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, Whom he has not seen. And He has
given us this Command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 3:14-20 NIV
Now
to find out the time frame for the Rapture. Thus for the Scriptures have
established the fact and the manner of the Rapture, and that it will take place
before the Great Tribulation, but what is its time frame in relation to the
emergence of the anti-Christ, because it is during his reign that the Tribulation
comes upon the earth (Dan 7:25; 8:23-25; 9:27; 11:36-39; 12:1; Mt 24:15-22).
We
learn from these Scriptures that the Great Tribulation will occupy the last 3½
years of anti-Christ's seven year reign. Does this mean then that the Church
will still be on earth during the first 3½ years?
The
anti-Christ is a benevolent dictator during this period, and he will be
revealed as the enemy of GOD (Revelation 6).