Tribulation is coming, and we have their playbook

Winter Christian #5

What we’ve covered so far…

1. You need to stop feeling guilty and defeated, and start serving God’s Kingdom.

2. You can serve every day without being a hero.

3. The war is starting, and we must prepare for anything.

4. We have weaknesses our Enemy will exploit.

What we’re discussing today…

5. We already know how the tribulation will go.

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Jesus told us exactly what will happen before the end

A time of tribulation is coming. During this time there will be a great Falling Away, like never before in history. Christians will abandon their faith, betray each other, and be too cowardly to stand up for the truth. It will be a time of wickedness, chaos, and a breakdown of legal justice. Yes, much of the Falling Away will be due to the blindness of our generation, because we fear Man rather than God, and part of it will be because we will be subject to a global assault of deception that will only get worse. But I believe a large part of it will come down to old-fashioned persecution. Christians today are not prepared to face genocide, but we need to brace ourselves for exactly that.

We seem to be rapidly nearing the banning of the Bible in certain countries.

How will it begin? That’s an important question. I’ll be writing about possible scenarios in the future, but for now let’s skip to the part where Christians become socially isolated, demonized, and legally unprotected.

Jesus describes systematic oppression, not a random slaughter. It seems we will face a rigged tribunal system. But surprisingly, this level of intolerance needs to happen BEFORE all of the other crazy end time events:

Then he said to them, “Nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and famines and plagues in various places, and there will be terrifying sights and great signs from heaven. BUT BEFORE ALL THIS, they will seize you and persecute you, handing you over to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will be a time for you to serve as witnesses.”

—Luke 21:10-13

In other words, Christian persecution will signal the breakdown of world order, and it could happen any time. Now let’s pay close attention to what Our Lord said would happen, in the correct order…

1. They will violently detain Christians;

2. They will persecute us;

3. They will drag us into synagogues;

4. They will sentence us to prison;

5. They will bring us in front of government officials to explain ourselves.

Remember, this is not a generic warning meant for all generations (although plenty of Christians have been martyred in false trials before us). It’s not a “maybe”, or something that was fulfilled long ago. This is a prophetic guarantee from the Son of God about what will happen before his return.

Jesus specifically tells us not to rehearse what we’ll say in these trials, but then adds key details to how it will go. We need to start picturing this in our prayers and minds:

Therefore be resolved not to rehearse ahead of time how to make your defense. For I will give you the words along with the wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will have some of you put to death. You will be hated by everyone because of my name.

—Luke 21:14-17

Fascinating. Where does this leave us?

Training for tribulation

Before the world descends into total chaos and the “Apocalypse” happens, Christians are going to be betrayed by those closest to us. But why? Why would people close to us betray us, and how would that play out exactly? Why are we going to be brought to synagogues of all places? What will the governors want to question us about, if they’re already planning to kill us? Why not just eliminate us through biological warfare, poisoning, starvation, radiation, or another indiscriminate method? Why not just round us up and ship us off to death camps? There’s something deeper going on here that requires us to prepare ourselves spiritually.