Today's Monday Mention is a bit different that normal. I'm not going to touch on the next lesson in the series Escaping the House of Blues: Stormy Weather, but rather a series that was taught back before I started attending regularly. The series was reminiscent of the Miami Heat going to the championship and was entitled The Finals: How to Beat the Heat. I'm sorry I can't link to it, but it appears to be before they started saving the lessons. The four part series spoke on the Rapture, the Tribulation and finally the Judgement. As scary as all of this is, I've always been fascinated with it.
Growing up at a Christian school, that was based on the Church of Christ, which is the church I attended, we were taught that there would be one big judgement day, the big finale, and then the end. At the judgement, people were either sent to Heaven or Hell. I had vaguely heard the phrase, The Thousand Year Reign, but it was never discussed, and conveniently, I graduated before we could study Revelations. It wasn't until I was 20 or so and the Left Behind series came out that the words Rapture and Tribulation were brought to my attention. I never put much stock in them though, because it wasn't my core belief.
When I started attending Church by the Glades, I happened to be picking up the CD's for another series to send to my mom, when I saw The Finals CD's. I was curious to see what Pastor David had to say on the subject. Abbreviated version of his teachings: The Rapture occurs, which is when all of the Christ followers will be raised to Heaven in the blink of an eye. Chaos will ensue on earth because all these people will have just disappeared. The Rapture marks the beginning of the Tribulations, which is 7 years of literally hell on earth. The evil trinity will rise up, including the Anti-christ. Those who repent will be persecuted, and a satanic world religion will rise. There's also the Mark of the Beast. After the 7 years, there will be the 1000 year Reign of Jesus on earth, then the final judgement.
I know this is heavy, but I am curious to hear you guys beliefs and thoughts. Especially if anyone out there knows a good book that speaks on the differing ideas. I understand that this is not a point of salvation, but rather my curiosity on the subject. So come on guys, comment up!
1 comment:
I noticed ya didn't have any comments yet, and wanted to just stop by and say HI! Also, I was in a class recently that talked about how Christians have differing views on end times, and how it should never be divisive.
What if...just what if...the tribulation had already passed (many think that during Caesar's reign all prophecies were fulfilled about end times)...now this brings LOTS of questions...but it was interesting to consider something other than the Church of Christ teachings I had grown up with.
Would love to talk more. I'm a blogger too, www.tsm.serveblog.net or tracymort@hotmail.com for email.
-Tracy
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