Show Notes
Jesus is walking through Jerusalem from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples early Friday morning as He says, “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish [thlipsis: tribulation], for joy that a human being has been born into the world... Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own [idios], and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation [thlipsis]. But be of good cheer, be courageous, I have conquered the world” (John 16:20-21, 32-33).
Then, He did NOT say, “I hope you can conquer the world, too.” Or, “I have conquered the world except those parts that don’t freely choose to be conquered.” Or, “I hope to conquer the world.” Or even, “I will conquer the world” BUT “I have conquered the world.” In The Revelation, John refers to Jesus as “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8 NKJV).
“I have conquered the world... It’s like when a woman gives birth... sorrow turns into joy, and tribulation becomes rapture.” Tribulation... then rapture, because Jesus has conquered the world.
So, how weird is it that so many of us seem to think that if we conquer (choose correctly), we will be raptured and avoid tribulation, as if the prize for being a great Christian is that you won’t look like Jesus because you never had to pick up your cross and follow?
Except for a few debatable references in ancient history, no one even knew what “a pretribulation rapture” was until 1827 when an Englishman named John Nelson Darby formulated the idea, which was later popularized in America through The Scofield Reference Bible.
The Pretribulation Rapture is this modern idea that before “a seven-year tribulation” that leads to “the Millenium” (a greatly debated idea), people who agree to “the plan of salvation” will get raptured to heaven and avoid tribulation. And this “plan of salvation” is this other debatable and fairly modern idea — the idea that God spent his wrath on Jesus so that he wouldn’t have to inflict his wrath on us. So, if you have this knowledge that God the Son saves you from God the Father as a “penal substitute,” and you agree with this plan by saying “the sinners prayer,” then you will avoid suffering as Jesus suffered. And you will get to return to earth with Jesus and help Him lead a civil government based in the nation state of Israel.
This is the basis of all the Left Behind books and movies.
I once prayed with the sweetest young woman who had unwittingly befriended a demonic spirit that told her that when Jesus came back, He would leave her behind.” Of course, that lie filled her with despair, and her life began to unravel until she brought the deception out into the light; we prayed together; and God the Father gave her a vision of Jesus. Jesus had her sit on His lap as they swung on a swing, and He told her, “I would rather be left behind than leave one little girl behind.”
Movies like “A Thief in the Night” may be good for getting frightened teenagers to raise their hand at the end of the movie and agree to “The Plan of Salvation.” But they may be even better at getting those teenagers to distrust Jesus. We’re not saved by “knowledge of good and evil” even if we call that knowledge “The Plan of Salvation.” We’re saved by a Savior, whom we trust, for He is the Good and He gives us Life — His own Life, the Life — and so, we know because we’ve been known. He does come as “a thief in the night,” but He’s not a thief in the night; He’s our Bridegroom, and so we keep our lamps burning. Salvation is “loving His appearing,” for you know that He is the Good and so, don’t run from Him when you see His face shining like the sun.
“We rejoice in our tribulation [
More from The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love
Here in Denver, at our local amusement park, we used to have a “Haunted House.” It was fully mechanized. One would ride through in a cart on rails. No monsters, just darkness, swirling things, and automated mannequins. It was really spooky as a child, but pretty boring for adults who had gained the knowledge of mechanical automation.
“The mere idea of you, the longing here for you. You'll never know how slow the moments go till I'm near to you. I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above. It's just the thought of you, the very thought of you, my love.” My wife and I have spent a lot of time on romantic vacations listening to those words sung by Billie Holiday or Nat King Cole.
Sometime around 1968, I learned about germs in school. They can be found in dirt and most of all, in the very pinnacle of depravity: poop. So, I began to wash my hands... a lot. I washed and washed, but I am a producer of human excreta, and so is everyone I know. So, it felt as if I was never finished. I was driven to cleanliness and then to the doctor, for my hands were red, raw, cracked and bleeding — open wounds susceptible to germs! I had been better off with no knowledge of “germs” and “not germs.” The doctor looked at my hands and said, “Stop (Shabat in Hebrew)! Stop washing your hands.” They hurt like hell, but it was hard as hell to stop.
John 18:38-40: “Pilate said to [Jesus], ‘What is truth?’ After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’ They cried out again, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a robber [lestes: a taker].”