Spiritual Israelite
Well-Known Member
Agree.Luke 21:33-36, where Christ declares: “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares [Gr. aifnídios meaning suddenly]. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Please noite the color coding.
The phrase "all these things" (that Pretribbers keep getting tripped up on every time this is discussed) is not everything the Left Behind novels have taught them (including some imaginary future 7-year trib), it is talking about the total destruction and removal of the current corrupted creation. Read what the text is actually saying.
The words of Christ in Luke 21:33-36 agree with 1 Thessalonians 4:15-5:7 and prove the coming of Christ is final and climactic. It sees the rescue of all the elect and the destruction of all the wicked. It ushers in the end of the world. The escape is indeed the catching away that occurs before the wrath of God is poured out when Jesus comes, when heaven and earth pass away, when creation is regenerated and all the wicked are destroyed.
Our faithfulness will ensure we escape the sudden “snare” that comes upon the world at the end – namely “Heaven and earth shall pass away.” God's people will be rescued before the total destruction.
Jesus said we should pray to be accounted worthy to escape what God's enemies will not escape, which Paul references here:
1 Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
And then, of course, Peter provided details in 2 Peter 3:10-12 about what would cause the "sudden" destruction from which "they shall not escape" by saying it would be by fire coming down on the entire earth.
Jesus, Paul and Peter all indicated that the destruction from which we should pray to escape will happen on the day Jesus returns and it will happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Jesus said no one knows the day or hour and He compared it to coming unexpectedly like a thief in the night (Matt 24:42-44, Luke 12:37-40, Rev 16:15) just as both Paul and Peter did. There is nothing sudden nor unexpected about the destruction that will come upon the arrival of the day of the Lord from the pretrib point of view. One pretrib probably realized that and instead of just acknowledging the truth we have been showing, he resorted to calling it emotional destruction instead of physical destruction. The willingness of many pretribs to manipulate scripture to say what they want it to say is sad and disturbing.