Kingdom Come

The version of Christianity that I grew up with was enraptured with the idea of The Last Trump heralding the Rapture of the Saved to heaven to escape The Great Tribulation.

The problem with Dispensational Christianity is the lack of willingness to fight and suffer for what is right, the conviction that heaven begins with earthly prosperity and superiority, and the cowardly conviction that believers escape the earth at the first sign of trouble rather than remaining to rescue so much as their own loved ones. There is no historical precedent of this whatsoever in the entire Bible. God’s people don’t retreat. We face the enemy, fearlessly!

Well, actually, we fear, but are exhorted to buck up and overcome our fear.

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children / followers to their fathers / godly religious leaders, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6)

Just how dreadful a future awaits mankind can be dimly perceived by the notice that the LORD of hosts will send his most experienced general into battle against a reign of terror and mass slaughter of God’s people.

In his first time on earth, Elijah he thought he was the only believer left. He was so terrified of the unimaginably cruel torture Jezebel had in store for him and so exhausted from running from it that he pleaded with the LORD to end his life.

“Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them [slaughtered]…And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life…and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life…the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

And the LORD said unto him, Go [rhymes with “No”, instead of bailing out I order you to]:

1. return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus:  
   • What! back through Israel where horde of Jezebel’s minions like the wicked witch’s evil monkeys are scouring the countryside for him, probably with a bounty on their heads if they don’t find him. 
2. and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria
   • What! Syria is the sworn enemy of both Israel and Judah! Worse yet, he is being sent to scheme a coup against the king of Syria by Hazael the top general of his army! I can just image the look on his face which the LORD ignores as he proceeds to yet a worse situation.
3. And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel
   • What! in a coup against Ahab and Jezebel! As if he wasn’t in enough trouble with them already!
4. and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.
   • Finally! Some good news! My replacement!

Elijah is the prototype for George Bailey, a fictional character in EXHeroes by Peter Clines, a novel realistically describing the lives of the few survivors of a post-apocalyptic world:

“We just save everyone we can…It’s about hope…my favorite show when I was a kid was Dr. Who…the old one…the doctor didn’t have super powers, or weapons, or anything like that…he always just tried to do the right thing, no matter what. That struck me when I was a kid. That no matter how cold and callous the world seemed, there was somebody who just wanted to make life better. Not better for worlds, or countries in some vague way, just better for people trying to live their lives…I want to give them hope.”

Christians putting their hope in escaping from death through a rapture instead of sharing their hope of eternal life with people dying all around them are put to shame by fiction writers modeling their heroes after Nietzsche’s Superman instead of Bible heroes of the faith.

“king of Assyria / Antichrist send…unto Melchizedek Hezekiah and unto all [YHVH’s people] saying…Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide in the siege / miserable deprivation of life? Doth not Melchizedek persuade you to give over yourselves to die…saying, The LORD our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria / Antichrist?…

Who was there among all the rulers of those nations…that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand?” (II Chronicles 32:9-16)

Hello! Who would trust in a king who couldn’t save himself from death?

“And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him…And the rulers…derided him, saying…let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God…If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, This Is The King Of The Jews. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.” (Luke 23:33-39)

I can’t help referring back to GOT’s excellent depiction of this fundamentally spiritual concept.

Talk is cheap! Actions speak louder than words!

True believers’ faithfulness to death is what convinces others to believe in our God Who Saves AFTER Death Through RESURRECTION.

• This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
• Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
• we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
• the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. (II Timothy 2:2)

“seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses…let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” (Hebrews 12:1-3)

“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)

Jesus Christ himself told us, and Paul’s doctrine is 100% based on what Jesus taught.

• Then shall they deliver YOU [Jesus’ disciples] up to be afflicted, and shall kill YOU: and YE shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake [after rejecting Antichrist as the Son of God]. (Matthew 24:9)
  •  And ye [Gentiles] became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction…ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…And to wait for HIS Son from heaven [not Antichrist], whom HE raised from the dead [not Antichrist with his faked deadly head wound], even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” (I Thessalonians 1)
• then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.  (Matthew 24: 21)
  • we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)
  • ye also have suffered no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; (I Thessalonians 3:3-4)

Follow the pattern.

• As in the days of Noah when only 8 people were saved from the flood,
• And in the day of Lot when only Lot and 3 members of his family were saved from fiery judgment,
• there will be pitifully few uncorrupted humans holding on to faith in God who delivers from death, either before or after death.

George R.R. Martin’s depiction of the end of the world aligns with the biblical account of the last days – nuclear winter, the walking dead, hybrid monsters, the dragon.

What a disgrace that the men of the fictional Night’s Watch are more faithful to their calling than dispensational Christianity which teaches that Christians bale out on the helpless victims of worsening horror after horror being unleashed on their world.