A teaching that all Christians will be raptured out of the world prior to a seven-year period of tribulation is very popular. The Holy Spirit will be taken out with the Christians. This will give Satan a free hand to do what he likes on earth. Therefore the tribulation period will be a period of great evil.

I have found this teaching in the Christian novels, but I have not been able to find it in the Scriptures. The scriptures teach that Satan will be released for a short time, but they do not say that all opposition to him will be taken away. Rather, they are emphatic that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus.

A little thought shows how ridiculous this teaching is. God loved the world so much that he sent his only son to die for it. Why would he withdraw his church and Spirit and let the devil have a free go at destroying it?

Imagine a father who owned a beautiful mansion. It had been in his family for hundreds of year. The entire mansion had been personally built and designed by members of his family. All the contents had been collected by various family members. Would the father, who was going to leave this house to his son as inheritance, move out and let the Hells Angels gang move into it until he came back. No sensible father would do this with his children's inheritance, because he would not want the precious things that his family had built up over the centuries to be wrecked. Yet we seem to think God will do this with the world. The creation of the world is a manifestation of his creative power. He does not want to see it handed over to evil.

Scripture Teaching

Final Note

If Christians understood Gods concern and care for the world, they would be more concerned about the pollution of the world. We are so focused on heaven that we have not cared for the world. If we understood that this earth would be the inheritance and home for the church for the next two or three thousand years, we would be more serious about caring for it.

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