Don’t get me wrong here… I’m prayin for a pre-trib rapture…and I think it makes sense that God would act according to how he saved Noah and Lot from his wrath… But I don’t believe we’ll face GOD’S wrath anyway!  Thus the pre-wrath title… Just the anti-christ’s wrath.

I don’t see how anyone can read Matthew 24:1-33 and think that God sweeps us up before the day of judgement… It clearly states that we will be persecuted, killed, THEN signs of his coming appear, THEN he comes and raptures us… This is concurrent with Revelations chapter 6 which tells the order of events as scrolls being opened.  Scrolls 1-4 are the four horsemen (tribulation) being released on the earth, scroll 5 is a vision of martyred saints begging for God to strike, scroll 6 is the sign that Christ is returning… THEN there is a pause for Rev. chapter 7 which tells of a great multitude of people appearing in heaven… wearing white robes and waving palm branches… singing praises to God…. (the raptured people), THEN SCROLL 7 is opened.  And there is silence in heaven for a half an hour as we are speechless at what is about to happen….. God’s vengence and wrath in 100% of it’s power is to be poured out on Satan and the world…

Why would there be a pause there between scrolls 6 and 7 if that isn’t significant?  But it IS!  It is the break between Satan’s wrath and the start of God’s wrath.  God says he’ll spare us his wrath (what pre-trib arguments are based on) and he DOES!  Scripture is not contradicted here.

A further issue I have with pre-trib is that we are to think that the extent of Satan’s power against Christians is being displayed already… That’s bull.  If you were Satan and you knew your time was up, you’d be pretty ticked off and displaying as much wrath as you could against the church.  Yes hundreds are martyred daily… but that’s a far cry from what Satan is capable of.  The anti-christ will be such a trusted figure (pope, reincarnated Hitler…?) that he will be able to tell billions, AND HAVE INFLUENCE ENOUGH FOR THEM TO OBEY, to persecute and kill Christians…. To take the mark of his reign or to die…. to worship him as God or to go hungry and hunted… Satan wouldn’t sit as idly as he is now if tomorrow he was going to lose his biggest hatred… the saved.

And to this I hear that he is only sitting as idly now as he is becuase the Holy Spirit is the great “restrainer” spoken of in the Bible… If that is true, what happened during the reign of Hitler?  Millions of Jews died.  Satan had the power.  He had SUCH POWER, that when Hitler was losing the war, he could have redesignated assets of trains and equipment from killing Jews to winning the war… but didn’t.  He was more content killing Jews than shipping supplies to win his war.  Down to the last days of the war… he was STILL kililng.

Honestly, who do you think the wrath of Satan is aimed for?  Why would he persecute those he already owns, the unsaved?  I understand that after the rapture, pre-trib proponents state that millions will turn to God and be saved and those are the people who they believe will be persecuted against… by why wouldn’t Satan snap against hundreds of millions…. maybe billions of Christ followers that are here now?!?!?!!

I think he will.  I think those first 4 scrolls are going to be it.  I think we’re in for a rough ride.  But that’s not the end of the story…. nay, it’s quite the opposite… for that 5th scroll is our pleading to God… the 6th scroll is his announcement of “Go Time” and that is our day of redemption.  Christ returns, sweeps up his followers… those who haven’t been martyred… And the 7th scroll is opened…. and we stand in awe… and silence.

You might wanna check out http://www.raptureready.com… it’s the site I spend most of my time at now.  There’s a bulletin board where all sorts of interesting info is posted.  It’s at http://www.rr-bb.com/forumdisplay.php?s=4d907e1abdb98cf45730fec48e9c1375&forumid=8 and has a LOT of good info on it.  I hesitated giving it to you for a while, because you scoffed at me for some of the things I wrote… but it appears you’re ready for it now.  ((wink!))

How is the 12 stones CD?