Hello everyone, I hope you are having a good week so far. I have been thinking the past week of what to discuss today. I don’t know about you, but lately God has been leading me to Biblical Prophecy. Now I don’t know where you stand on the subject, but when I was a teenager I used to love digging into the subject and learning all about it from people such as Jack Van Impe, Perry Stone, or even doing Bible studies like “Daniel” by Beth Moore. Whatever your beliefs, whether they be the infamous pre-tribulation or post, I hope you will indulge me as I share my thoughts on the subject.

When I was younger, somewhere between the ages of 10 and 14, I remember a song that came out by Crystal Lewis (see above video for what I am talking about) called, “People Get Ready” and was discussing the Rapture – when all followers of Jesus will be taken to heaven and what is known as the “Apocalypse” happens. Well, something about that song and what I read in Revelation had piqued my interest. First, it meant the issues I faced during that time would not last forever; and second, God would rid the world of ugliness, sin, hurt, etc. and I would get to live with him forever, for any believer this is exciting news!

THE LAST DAYS/ The END TIMES

I won’t go into deep theology on the subject, especially because I am not a theologian, yet I do want to share some things I have learned and how it reflects our world today. Some people have asked the question, “Are we living in the ‘last days’, or the ‘end times’ that is talked about in the Bible?” According to Merriam Webster, the “last days” means:

Last Days, otherwise known as End-Time: “The time of the prophesied end of the world: Armageddon”

Armageddon: “1. The site or time of the final and conclusive battle between the forces of good and evil. The battle taking place at Armageddon….scene of the battle foretold in Revelation 16:14-16.”

There are numerous verses and chapters discussing the rapture and second coming of Jesus Christ. However, unless you study it in depth or read from those who are students of the subject, it can become very confusing. I would like to try and explain it a bit today. In essence, The last days, or end times, refer to what happens right before those who profess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior get taken up to heaven and God allows the forces of darkness and Satan in human flesh to unleash hell itself upon the earth. It will be the worst time the world has ever seen, and will make the corona virus seem like a Sunday school lesson. Those who refused to put their lives in the hands of Jesus Christ, and follow Him, will be left behind. According to Luke 17 it says, “For in that night there will be two lying in their bed; one will be suddenly swept away while the other will be left alive. 35-36There will be two women working together at household duties; one will be suddenly swept away while the other will be left alive.” 1 (The Passion Translation) In other words, a day will come when people will just disappear from the earth, and there will be mass chaos. Those left behind will not understand what is going on, and will even think it is some new weapon from another country that has captured their loved ones and others around the world, but the fact is that Jesus has called us to heaven to spare us of what is to come. So, how can we know when that day will come and how can we prepare for it?

PREPARING FOR THE RAPTURE

Trust Jesus Christ with your life NOW

The first, and most important thing you can do to be ready is repent of your sins – none of us are perfect -, and trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior. This simply means telling God that you messed up, you can’t do life without Him, and you want to be with Him for eternity when you die. You don’t need a fancy prayer, something as simple as, “Jesus I recognize that I am a sinner, and I need your salvation. I realize that you gave your life long ago so I could be made right with God and spend eternity with you. Please forgive me and make me a new person. I want to live for you Jesus. Amen” It is as simple as that….or even simpler, “Jesus save me!” When you do this, you have become a child of God, and He welcomes you into His arms. Unlike other religions where you have to work to be a good person and do a checklist of things to “win his good favor” All God ask of you is to trust Him with your life, and get to know Him personally everyday just like you would a best friend. Regardless of your relationship with your earthly dad, God wants to be the father you never had, and He wants to love you and help you become the person you were destined to be. That is all….seems simple, but that is the fact!

People Get Ready

The next thing is to read the Bible and get into a good church – even right now while everyone is at home you can watch church online and meet with a small group of people to help you in your walk with Jesus and who will help build your faith. After doing this, I encourage you to get bible studies and things that will help you understand biblical prophecy. My favorite was by Mrs. Beth Moore, and her study on Daniel. The study is a deep one, but will really help you understand the subject and how to be prepared for the “last days”. The next thing is to ask the Holy Spirit to give you discernment about things going on in the world and get ready spiritually, mentally, and more importantly in helping others see that the time to get things right with God is now and not later. We will never know the exact date when Jesus is coming back, according to Acts 1:7 and Mark 13:32, but what we can see are the signs telling us we are getting close.

Signs of the times

How will we know the signs of the Rapture and when believers will go to heaven? Multiple scriptures in Daniel, 1 Corinthians, and others discuss wars, famine, plague, and even natural disasters will be happening frequently (Matt. 24:6), the world will begin seeing darkness and ugliness arise – aka crime will be on the rise – (Matt. 10:21 – 22), and it even says you might see those who have died ( 1 Thess. 4:16) I am not really sure on this, but in my personal opinion, it will be like you are going somewhere and all of a sudden someone will pass you and you will think, “That looked like my grandma(or someone you know that has passed away). That is my own opinion though, I could be wrong. Something I have been taught also was there will be revival break out, and the way I know this is because the bible references many times how much of a loss the will be on the earth when we get raptured. This wouldn’t happen if there weren’t so many who have been saved from the tribulation that is to come.

There is so much more I could discuss on this, but a great place to find out how today’s events points to end time prophecy is by checking out Jimmy Evans, the founder of Marriage Today, and an avid biblical prophecy enthusiast. 2 He has studied in depth the scriptures and learned from great leaders like Hal Linsey and many others on the subject and I encourage you to check him out! Let me know in the comments what you thought and if you would be interested in learning more about Biblical prophecy and how it relates to today’s world. Also, I think I will be doing some articles on marriage in a few weeks. I have been thinking of things to write about and figured I would share some of the things I have learned over the last five years in my marriage. If there is a topic you would enjoy reading make sure to send me an email, comment below, or head over to our Facebook page and let me know.

Many blessings to you and yours,

Angela

1. All scriptures given were from YouVersion at: www.bible.com
2. Jimmy Evans: https://endtimes.substack.com/