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“Comfort one another with these Words” - Author and Writer Ronald Nelson

Writer's picture: Ronald NelsonRonald Nelson

Updated: Apr 7, 2024

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:18


ENCOURAGING WORDS:

These days in which we live, it seems as if you cannot turn on any news channel or any kind of social media without hearing all bad news. There is an agenda behind all this, so you need to search for a reliable news source that tells you the truth. If you only hear the side that spreads fear and lies, you will most likely being running around in constant terror, and you will not have any idea of what is really going on around us. The Bible clearly states that in end days, the biggest sign of the end times will be deception and we are seeing that on grand scale like never before.


But know this, all is not lost like we are hearing on the mainstream media. Without going deep into the evil that lurks behind the mainstream media, I would like to bring comfort to those that need comforting. The Bible has a lot to say about being comforted during these times in which we live. One of the first verses that God had shown me when I became a born-again believer was in:


John 16:33; where it reads, “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”


In this verse Jesus was letting His disciples know that they would one day be sent out into the world to share the gospel, but He was also warning them they would face much tribulation along the way. But then in the same breath, He told them to be of good cheer through it all, because He would be with them. It turned out that every disciple, except for John, did go through extreme tribulation, even unto death. They did, however, try to execute John by boiling him in a pot of an extremely hot substance, whether it was water or oil I don’t know. But John wouldn’t die so they exiled him to the island of Patmos where he later wrote the book of revelation. God had a purpose for him, so nothing could take his life at that time. Let that settle in your mind for a while. We too, will go through trials and tribulations in our life, but the born-again Christians will not go through the great tribulation, which was foretold to come upon the whole world in the end times.


One of the most comforting messages for those that have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is found in:


1 Thessalonians, 4:13-18; “But I do not want you to be ignorant brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep (These are the believers in Christ that have pass away, their bodies are asleep in the grave, but their souls are with Jesus Christ), lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 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. (Their bodies will be reunited with their souls in heaven) 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.”


If the Christian Body were to go through the tribulation, Paul would not have told them to comfort one another with these words. Personally, if I knew that I was going to go through the great tribulation, I would not find comfort knowing that I would be put through the most horrific time imaginable, especially knowing what it is all about and who it is for.

The next couple of verses that bring me comfort are found in:


1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. (It is verses 2-3 which give me a clue to what might be coming in the near future to America.) “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”


In the verses that I just read, Paul is speaking to the Gentile believers from Thessalonica, not the Jews. Therefore, I believe Paul is referring to the rapture of the born-again believers. This is where I will share two thoughts on what might be coming! First, the Bible says, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction” I wonder if this is describing how well America was doing before the COVID-19 pandemic or is this just a warning of what is coming soon. If this is just a warning, then we could possibly be looking at a Christian revival in America where we may feel a sense of peace and safety, and then, the trumpet blows, and the rapture of the church happens in a twinkle of an eye? That would certainly cause sudden destruction.

There are also those that believe that we are in the beginning stages of the soon to come tribulation where the church will be taken out and then, total chaos would come about the whole earth. I have to be honest, I’m not sure which way I swing right now because there are strong arguments on both sides of this theory. I will have a much better idea of what I feel is coming to America as we continue to see our country fall deeper and deeper into self-annihilation.

2 Corinthians, 1: 3-4; tells us, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”


Those that have truly accepted Jesus Christ as there Lord and Savior and have been born-again are comforted by the promises from God that are placed throughout the scriptures. He has not given us the Spirit of Fear, therefore, we are being called to bring good news to those that turn to Jesus Christ for salvation.


We read in Romans, 8:37-39; “The one who loves us gives us an overwhelming victory in all these difficulties. I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love which Jesus Christ, our Lord shows us. We cannot be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces or powers in the world above, or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.”


If you have given your life over to Jesus Christ, this verse is written to you. In other words, you are sealed with His love and are covered by Gods full hedge of protection!


Everything that happens in your life is Father filtered. Nothing can happen to a true born-again believer, unless God allows it and when things do happen that we do not quite understand, we need to refer to:


Romans 8:28; “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.”


We also read in 1 Thessalonians 5:9; “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,”


The tribulation is all about Gods wrath being poured out on an unbelieving world. True believers in Christ will not be present during this time. If Christians are to suffer the wrath of God, who is God referring to in the verses that I just read? He is not talking about the Jews because they are going to suffer great persecution during this time. In the book of Daniel, it referred to it as the “Seventieth Week of Daniel” or the “Time of Jacobs’s trouble” which is written in Jeremiah 30:7. Both of these are in reference to the Jews, not Gentiles and it is referring to the Great Tribulation.


We read this in Zechariah, 13:8-9; where he is speaking of the tribulation period, “And it shall come to pass,” says the Lord, that “two-thirds (Speaking of the Jews) will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. This third I will put into the fire; (The Tribulation) I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. (Just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were thrown into the fiery furnace back in the book of Daniel, 3:19-35) they will call on my nameand I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”


These will be the ones that enter into the thousand-year millennial Kingdon where Jesus Christ will rule and reign from Israel for one thousand years! I have been in so many discussions with people who believe in a post-trib rapture. They say that the rapture and the second coming are the same event. After doing an intense study of this doctrine under some of the greatest Bible scholars in the world and praying about it more often than you can imagine, I have come to the understanding that in order to accept the post trib view, you have to allegorize most of the scriptures in order to make them make any sense. It is impossible to believe in a post-trib rapture if you take the Word of God to mean what it says and says what it means.


I’ll share with you one point that makes it obvious that they are not the same event. In the rapture of the church, Jesus comes as a thief in the night, which means he could come at any moment. If you believe Jesus can’t come until the end of the tribulation, you take away the imminent return. For those that don’t know what that means, Imminent means (likely to happen at any moment.) In other words, nothing has to precede the rapture of the church. It could happen right now.


The second coming of Jesus to the earth clearly teaches of many events that have to take place before that event can happen. Even more obvious is the fact that if you know the scriptures and you are here during the tribulation, you will know the exact day of His second coming, in the same way that the Jews should have known the exact day when Jesus came the first time. This will be when Jesus comes to earth to set up His earthly kingdom. This teaching is found in the book of Daniel when the Angel Gabriel gave a prophecy of the exact day that Jesus would come the first time. With the exception of a few people that knew their scriptures in those days, most of them were not prepared to receive Jesus, just as the people of today are not ready to meet Jesus in the rapture, because they are being taught that Jesus can’t come back today, so very few people are actually ready.


This is a very dangerous teaching. A very deceptive and convincing agenda of Satan. Satan is winning the souls of billions, because they are being drawn into the deception that was prophesied to happen in the end days thousands of years ago. As a matter of fact, those that deny prophesy are the same ones that are literally fulfilling it. How ironic is that!


There are so many more examples of why the second coming and the rapture can’t be one event, but for sake of time, I’ll move on and bring this message to an end.


So, with all this being said, if you understand all that is coming from a true Biblical perspective, it is all good news. The bad news only applies to those who reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is why, if you are a born-again believer, you should not fear what is taking place in our world and if you are an unbeliever, know this, there is still time for you to give your life over to Jesus Christ and be saved from this horrible event that is on the near horizon.


This teaching is what true Bible believing scholars have been teaching about for quite some time, and now that it seems to be very close, we need to be even more aggressive in reaching the lost, but also, we need to continue to look up, for our redemption does draw near!


May God Bless you in all you do and take care!


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