This page is quite long. I'm sorry, but it is necessary to tell the whole truth. Don't skip or skim - this is probably my most important message.
On the page, Get to the point - when is it?, I ended with a question - are you ready for the Rapture? I would like to show you how you can spend eternity with God and be part of the bride of Christ, miraculously missing the horrors of the Tribulation.
These seven paths are intertwined through a timeline described throughout the Bible, Daniel and Revelation in particular, where these events will take place in this order:
A nice graphical outline can be seen at: www.jvim.com/timeline.htm
First, let me give you the bare truth about your future, in a quick, unemotional outline. Afterwards, I will explain the details in a more diplomatic manner. Brace yourself - depending on your standing with God, this might be uncomfortable.
If you die before the Rapture (this window is getting very small):
1. If you have been healed by God (explanation coming) while alive you will be resurrected into an immortal body right before the Rapture. You will be in heaven for eternity.
2. If you refused God's healing before death your soul will be in hell for 1000+ years and then be thrown into the lake of fire. Whether you will suffer in it for eternity or be annihilated by it (my guess) is not absolutely clear.
If you live until the Rapture:
3. If you were healed and stayed uninfected you will have been taken in the Rapture to heaven before the Tribulation. You will be in heaven in an immortal body for eternity.
If you are left on earth after the Rapture either because you refused God's healing or you chose to be reinfected (this is explained later):
4. If during the Tribulation you got healed, refused the mark of the Beast, and died for it, you will be in heaven in an immortal body for eternity.
5. If you took the mark, regardless of any previous actions, you will have died in God's wrath in the Tribulation, you will be in hell for 1000+ years, and then be thrown into the lake of fire.
6. If you got healed, refused the mark, and somehow escaped a long list of things that will kill you (most of the population will die), then after Jesus comes back you will enter the 1000 year Millennium and live a very long mortal life in peace on the earth. At the end of the Millennium you will be translated into an immortal body and be in heaven for eternity.
7. If you refused God's healing, refused the mark, and somehow escaped death, then after Jesus arrives He will say to you, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." You will be in hell for a 1000 years and then be thrown into the lake of fire.
This probably sounded quite harsh! I agree with you - but I think there is value in hearing a concise and accurate prognosis when faced with a life threatening disease. After the initial hearing there are always questions, so let's get to the details.
If you are reading this and the Rapture has already taken place, you need to know what is in your immediate future. Read this Post-Rapture Survival Guide.
Why is it that in a courtroom you are asked to 'tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth'? It's because, without telling a single lie, if you intentionally leave out any part of the truth it turns into falsehood!
Too many people today are spreading only half the gospel. What most of them are telling us is true but they stop before giving the whole prescription.
Why? Because it involves change - and change can be painful.
When going to the doctor, most us don't want to hear about how to fix the cause of our ailments. Instead we want a pill - a quick fix to treat the symptoms - when most of the time our ailments are caused by diet, environment, or behavior. The same is true of our common spiritual disease.
We are all born with it. It's a cancer of the soul. At some point in our youth, at the age of accountability, the disease turns terminal. If we die after that age with the disease, our soul will die in eternity. If we are cured we will live with our creator for eternity in perfect love and peace.
There is a simple way to get cured of it by going to the Great Physician and asking for the cure. It's free (to us - not to God)! If you have lived very long you will likely have heard of it. It's described by many phrases such as being born again, getting saved, accepting Christ, asking Jesus into your heart, and others. Most descriptions don't do it justice nor accurately describe what it really is.
If we follow the whole prescription then we will live forever!
The medical book for the soul is the Bible.
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12
The Biblical name for the disease is sin.
The soul who sins shall die.
Ezekiel 18:20a
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
Everyone is born with the disease.
...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
1 John 1:10
For as by one man's [Adam's] disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's [Jesus'] obedience many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:19
The Great Physician's name is Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew).
Note: 'Christ' is one of His titles (similar to President or Doctor).
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12
Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick."
Luke 5:31
The Great Physician created the cure at great cost to Himself.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:7-8
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
You cannot do anything to pay for nor deserve the cure.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
If you ask, the Great Physician will give you the cure without cost.
...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:9-10
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
1 John 5:13
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.
John 1:12
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
There is no other way to cure the disease.
Jesus said to him [Thomas], "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
John 14:6
You must turn away from behaviors that will prevent healing and cause reinfection.
Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Matthew 4:17
Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out...
Acts 3:19
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
James 1:14-15
He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Proverbs 28:13
God will cause your spirit to born in you.
Jesus answered and said to him [Nicodemus], "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [from the womb] and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
John 3:3,5,6
God will also place His spirit in you.
Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."
John 14:23
He will place Godly desires in you.
Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Psalms 37:3-4
Remember that 'whole truth' thing? This is where it gets critical. Many 'soul doctors' are not prescribing the whole cure. They are giving the initial cure but not telling you how to avoid getting infected again nor how to get cured again when you do.
"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good.
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Matthew 22:37-39
And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."
John 8:11b
It's not that God expects perfection but He does want a willing spirit to change as He asks you to. If you fall you can ask forgiveness and get right back up and walk again.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
James 4:7,8,10
In path #4 I inferred that you could be left in the Tribulation even though you were initially cured - but chose to be reinfected. Some deny this possibility - but please consider these very uncomfortable verses:
[To the church in Thyatira - not unbelievers]
...I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
Revelation 2:20,22
[To the church in Laodicea - not unbelievers]
I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Revelation 3:15,16,19
But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [therefore] that Day come on you unexpectedly. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Luke 21:34,36
This is not a case where at the time of the Rapture one has been walking in His path, but they have fallen momentarily into sin, and before they can repent and get up again, He takes His bride and leaves them. No, this is when someone continuously rejects the Holy Spirit's conviction and refuses to admit their error.
I cannot tell you when and where God will draw this line but there is a point at which He will cease to strive with you while you are in continuous rebellion. It is then that you are in serious danger of being left.
Make sure that you do not stay in the mire after falling. Keep your life in a condition you know He will be pleased with.
Here are the basics of God's will for you.
He wants you to repent and be saved:
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:3-4
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
He wants you to be filled with His Spirit:
Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:17-18
He wants you to be sanctified (set apart from the world):
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-7
He wants you to understand that you will sometimes suffer because the dark hates the light and that the consequences of sin in the world falls even on the innocent:
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
2 Timothy 3:12
For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
Philippians 1:29
Once we understand who God is, what His standards are, and what it is that He asks of us, then we can be emotional. God created emotions for a reason. Guys, if you're uncomfortable with this then suck it up and take your medicine like a man. God will not be unhappy with you if you express a little emotion - it may actually be the opposite.
God is ultimate love and He wants you to come to Him as a child, not trying to hide anything from Him. If you are feeling God's conviction, if you are realizing that you are incomplete and 'missing something', then it is time to turn around, face your creator, and get right with Him. He is calling you!
This is so simple that a child can grasp it. It is only hard because as adults we have pride getting in the way.
I will not provide a 'formula prayer' here. The words are not important. If you are sincere He will hear you.
Pray these concepts in your own words:
If you prayed sincerely, you are now a child of God. You need to find a Bible and start reading it. You also need to find a group of believers who take the Bible literally and get some assistance. Following Jesus has never been easy and it's going to get tougher.
You probably noticed that there are seven paths - but they lead to only two eternal ends. You get to choose Jesus in heaven or Satan in hell. No choice is the second choice. The longer you wait to choose, the worse your chances are to be able to make a positive choice.
The good news of the Gospel is what you have just read. The bad news is that you have now heard it and will be held accountable if you reject it!
...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 25:15
If you delay it could become a permanent decision - no one has a guarantee they will be alive tomorrow.
...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Romans 10:9-13
If you arrived here from a link, click here for the chapter index.