Originally posted by Andrew:
If a doctrine you are reading or hearing puts fear in you, and does not comfort...
Note that tribulation and comfort aren't opposed to each other:
"I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation" (2 Corinthians 7:4).
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation" (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).
"To comfort you concerning your faith: That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation" (1 Thessalonians 3:2-4).
Originally posted by Andrew:
telling Christians that they have to go thru God's wrath ...
Could all of us Christians who will be in the tribulation (Revelation 6:11, 7:14, 9:4, 12:17, 13:7-10, 14:12-13, 15:2, 16:15, 18:4, 20:4) still not be appointed to God's wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9) because during the tribulation nobody in heaven says God's wrath "is come" until near the end of the tribulation, after the 7th trumpet (Revelation 11:15, 18), in the 7 vials of God's wrath (Revelation 15:1; Revelation 16), and none of the 7 vials are poured out on those of us who have obtained salvation? I believe we are even blessed at the 6th vial (Revelation 16:15), that we might endure to the 1,335th day after the abomination of desolation (Daniel 12:11-12), which is the day I believe Jesus will come back (Revelation 19).
Originally posted by Jephunneh:
rightly divide the word of truth...
Doesn't 2 Timothy 2:15 refer only to rightly dividing between the words of the original scriptures, which were written all together without any spaces between them, and without any capitals or punctuation marks, so that if we wrote out our Bible today in the style of the original scriptures it would look like this: "andgodsaidlettherebeafirmamentinthemidstofthewatersandletitdividethewatersfromthewaters" (Genesis 1:6)? If we don't divide this up right couldn't we wrongly get the idea that "sand" was what divided the water: "a firmament in the midst of the water: sand, let it divide the waters," and go on to wrongly teach that Genesis 1:6 is referring to sand bars?
Would any dividing up of the words of the scriptures ever cause us to arrive at the idea that there is any division between believers in Christ? Doesn't it say "there should be no schism in the body" (1 Corinthians 12:25), "for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13); "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Ephesians 4:4-6)?
Doesn't true, Biblical dispensationalism not divide, but unite? "In the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ" (Ephesians 1:10); "Ye have heard of the dispensation... That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body" (Ephesians 3:2, 6). Fellowheirs with who? Of the same body as who?
Who are the two parties Paul refers to when he says: "Hath made both one... to make in himself of twain one new man" (Ephesians 2:14-15)?
"Ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel... ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints" (Ephesians 2:12, 19).
"Some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree" (Romans 11:17).
Originally posted by SBfaithful:
the Blessed Hope...
No one should lose the blessed hope (Titus 2:13) when the rapture doesn't happen before the tribulation. No one should lose the hope even if they are at the point of death in the great tribulation, for our hope for eternal life in Jesus Christ (Titus 1:2, 2:13, 3:7) goes beyond any suffering in this life and any dread of death (Philippians 1:21-23, 1 Corinthians 15:19, John 12:25, Revelation 2:10, Hebrews 2:15).
"In hope of eternal life"
"That blessed hope"
"The hope of eternal life"
(Titus 1:2, 2:13, 3:7).