“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.
This article has nothing to do with the rapture itself, though it touches upon it, this will be a short examination of the period between the rapture (removal) of the church from the earth and the beginning of the tribulation of seven years prophesied in Scripture.
There are four posts that may help you understand what will be said here; History’s Dead End, Part 1 published 9-3-18, and part 2 on 9-6-18. On the Rapture, Part 1 published 9-9-18 and part 2 on 9-13-18. If you are interested in a study on the book of Revelation, that started on 9-10-16.
There is a story of a farm community that had a problem with the birds eating their crops. So starting early one morning they put a plan in motion.
All of the farmers formed a line on one side of their lands and walked in a straight line across the fields and shot every bird in sight. Immediately thereafter the insects wiped their crops out completely. The birds, it would seem, were merely charging a small fee from the farmers for keeping the insect population down.
God set up checks and balances governing this world, all subject to the physical and spiritual laws He created. One of these checks has the familiar name, balance of nature, which is the one the farmers violated.
For the most part there is a healing system built into this eco-system and if left alone the balance will right itself. This balance exists within the world’s ocean currents, weather systems, vegetation and animal life, the moon and the tides, to name a few.
Even the monetary system would right itself if left alone by governments and greedy bankers.
Venezuela has a socialist government which tries to control everything including cash flow, their annual inflation rate is 1,370,001.05 % as of 2019. It is difficult to get an accurate stat on this; however it is at minimum 10,000,000 %.
Recently it has been revealed that 40% of their shops had to close because in an effort to help their people keep up with the inflation the government raised the minimum wage, something the shops could not afford.
Male and female births balance, yet China’s one child policy has created a shortage of females because everyone wants to have a boy, causing them to abort females. This happens in the U.S. too by the way.
God, as mentioned earlier, also set up another balance, the balance of nature between plants and animals. And barring a catastrophe due to famine, storms, or hunting to extinction (as between the birds and insects seen earlier) things tend to balance, and even right themselves after catastrophes.
Morality has a balance which we have seen crumble before our own eyes. And this is the point; after the rapture there will no longer be any resistance to evil, and it will come in like a flood.
“When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” Isaiah 59:19b.
It is the Holy Spirit that maintains the balance that stems the overflow of evil, if He were to leave things entirely alone the suffocating darkness of evil which we are now experiencing would soon envelope the entire earth.
Speaking of the appearance of the Antichrist, the coming world dictator, the Apostle Paul said the following.
“And now you know what is restraining, that he [Antichrist] may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders…” 2 Thessalonians 2:6-9.
“…He who now restrains” is the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that will be taken out of the way, and the world will be left with no one to, “…lift up a standard” to resist the flood.
Some claim that the restraining is being done by the church or government, but this verse speaks of “He”, a person. The only person powerful enough or intelligent enough is the Creator God who is overseeing history.
And when will the Holy Spirit be taken away? It can only be at the time of the rapture of the church because each true Christian within Christ’s church is sealed with the Holy Spirit and indwelt by Him.
You cannot take the Spirit of God out of the world without taking His children with Him.
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:38-39.
“Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.” 2 Timothy 1:13-14.
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in who also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14.
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30.
The Holy Spirit could not leave the earth without breaking that seal; as a result He would have to take all believers with Him, all of them on, “…the day of redemption”.
So then, the Holy Spirit is gone after the rapture; actually, not gone for He is present everywhere (omnipresent), but He ceases to work against evil.
The reason for this is simple; man has to see that he is capable of nothing without God. In fact he is destructive due to the hardness of his heart and the sin nature, and this becomes glaringly apparent during the evils of the tribulation when he is left to run things on his own. The outpourings of this sin nature are listed in the following passage.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21.
The Apostle Paul told us in the verse quoted earlier that, “…the mystery of lawlessness is already at work”; meaning that Satan is already at work trying to enthrone the Antichrist and to bring the whole world under demonic domination, Satan’s domination.
The evils of mankind and the perils of unrestrained government are becoming glaringly obvious during these current murderous and destructive riots of June 2020. Yet the Spirit of God still restrains until in God’s timing He is taken out of the world.
Granted all Christians are guilty of some of the works of the flesh shown above, and before accepting Christ as savior many of us were guilty of nearly all of them, however, in Christ we are seen as sinless.
But notice that in the last phrase it says, “…those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The Christian may commit fornication, but they do not practice it, they may have hatred, contentions, or jealousy, but it is not a constant part of their life.
However, if these things are a part of their lifestyle and constantly being brought up, they have either not faced them as sin in their lives or they are not true Christians.
The following words are for the Christian who finds that they have sinned or are caught in the web of sin.
“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.
The moment a Christian recognizes a sin they are to confess it to God in prayer. Not only will He forgive us for that sin, He will help us overcome it, since it may be repeated many times before we are able to forsake it.
This is the easy way, or we may choose the hard way and ignore the Holy Spirit’s promptings and go on sinning. But bear in mind there are consequences, yes, even for Christians.
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2.
Many Christians live in a bubble where they think that just because the blood of Christ covers all of their sin they can dance through life and no matter what they do God loves them like some senile Santa.
No, that is not quite how it works. The new, immature Christian, may in God’s grace, get away with this for a while, but not for long.
God never stops loving us and He is longsuffering, not senile, so, like a good Father, He will begin to train us up to the full measure of a man in Christ Jesus.
“My son [and daughter], do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” Hebrews 12:5b-8.
It is God’s intention to look into the eyes of His children and see Jesus. This does not mean that we are to be little Jesus clones, rather it means that we should exhibit the same qualities that Jesus had, such as love, kindness, longsuffering, peace, joy, faithfulness, to name a few.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Romans 8:28-29.
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.” Proverbs 3:11-12.
“And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” 1 John 2:28.
After the Rapture, Part 1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-13-15, updated on 6-13-20.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission all rights reserved.