To believe in the post trib rapture, if we indeed leave the earth at all until we die.
Hebrews 9:27 "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this was the judgement."
So, if we are raptured, when exactly do we die? Where do we get off not having to bear the same sentence that all mankind before us has paid? Wishful thinking I would surmise.
II Thess. 2: "Let no man decieve you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition."
That would mean to me that Christians will be here on earth when satan is cast back here from heaven, and if that is true, doesn't that wreck the timeline set forth in Revelations as far as Christians being raptured before the coming of satan?
Then in II Thess. 2:9 says, "Even him, whose coming is AFTER the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders."
Does that not show Christ will come after satan has given it a last final try?
Then, in I Thess: 4:16, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;"
If I am correct, that should read the last trump as translated in the KJV, and that would mean Christ is coming at the last sounding of the 7 trumpets, which leaves us here to deal with the seven seals, the seven vials, and the seven trumpets. We will be here.
What I would really like someone to tell me is if the endtimes roll upon us soon, exactly what has ANY of us here done to deserve the gift of riding away on the clouds to heaven, without paying the price. What works have we performed that would make us better then those Christians who have walked before us and paid dearly for their faith?
Yes, we have grace, but Paul clearly wrote, what is faith without works? When were we, in this day and age, refined in the fire? We have had it pretty good for many years now in this country, and we have paid God back by falling so far away from the truth, I'm sure His anger towards us is searing.
So, if you look inside your heart, see if you indeed deserve that grace, it will be there for you as it always was, but there is a price for it. Christ himself paid the ultimate, in a horrible manner too, and I think it will come upon us to test our faith also, whether in death or witness, in a world that will hate us as much as it hates Christ.
Jack