Three possible responses to end times tribulation

Three possible responses in the end

Upon studying the persecution, trouble, plagues, and disaster that is going to come upon the whole earth in the final 3 ½ years in particular I have come to see that there are only three possible responses from believers entering into the tribulation period at that time…

We can either fight it, forsake it or flee from it.  In this blog, I am going to unpack these three possible responses by Christians…

Fight the system and become a martyr

One response is that we can fight what’s going on around us — the evil, the persecution, and the troubles.  These are what the Bible describes in Rev. 6:9 and Rev. 20:4 as martyrs or witnesses because of their testimony for Jesus.  They are the ones who are beheaded because they refuse to take the devil’s mark.  They are slain because of the word of God and their refusal to back down when forced to recant on their belief.  The persecution and pressure will be enormous on Christians in the very final days to relent and back down so that they can conform to societal pressures.  It will be impossible to tell just how great that pressure will be when faced with execution or taking a seemingly simple mark.  In fact, the Bible tells us that most Christians will back down and take the devil’s mark and that is because they haven’t already enacted their escape plan to flee to the wilderness.  They didn’t really believe that it would come to this or they were asleep because they were waiting for a pre-tribulation rapture that never eventuated.  The thinking will go “I haven’t been raptured therefore this isn’t really the mark of the beast so it’s okay to take it.”  Maybe even your local pastor will reinforce this erroneous doctrine and will feel safe.  I think that the pressure to take the mark will only be a “nudge” at first just like we are being nudged to take the Corona vaccine.  The cry goes out, “it’s not mandatory” but in fact, you can’t really do anything unless you do take it.  You won’t be able to buy or sell!¹  We are being nudged to take the vaccine and many financial “prophets” are saying that we will be nudged to use an upcoming CBDC (central bank digital currency) when it comes.  We will be nudged by being offered free money if we download their app but in the process, you have given up some of your freedoms and privacy.  In China already social controls are being implemented via Chinese digital currencies.  Coming soon to a theatre near you!  This is surely a harbinger of what is to come to the whole world, not just China.  We know that the mark of the beast system will be a financial control system.  Those who fight the system and who haven’t escaped by the mid-point of the tribulation will have no choice but to refuse and fight it.  You will have no choice if you want to be saved.  But by fighting it you will lose the physical fight but win the eternal fight.² 

Forsake what you have believed and take the mark

The second option is to forsake it.  We can forsake or abandon what we have previously held onto–the Gospel.  This choice effectively comes because everything is just too hard and the Bible says that the love of most will grow cold because they see so much wickedness.³  They will question whether God is even in control anymore because of the wickedness and evil that will be prevalent in society at that time.  Many Christians will just forsake their first love or give up on their faith just like the Ephesians did in Rev. 2:4.  Jesus warned this church that He would remove their lampstand or light if they gave up and forsook their first love which is Jesus.  And that He did.  Ephesus all but disappeared from existence for hundreds of years until its rediscovery in 1863 by modern archaeologists.  Ephesus was a warning to what will happen to us if we forsake our Lord and Saviour.  If we don’t flee from it or fight it then the only other option is to forsake or abandon what we know.  This is called apostasy and the concept is alive and well in the New Testament.⁴  This is not a pretty option but will have eternal consequences.  It will be like being twice dead.⁵  Being twice dead means that we have died again after rejecting our faith.  The process is that firstly we are born into this world in sin, dead to Christ, but then we are born again upon believing in what Christ has done for us on the cross.  But then sin gets in the way or we are faced with persecution or maybe temptation and then we lose our way becoming once more dead–twice dead!  There is no way back from this position–we have forsaken our first love and our light will be removed just like Ephesus.  The Christians who make this choice take the mark of the beast.

Flee to southern Jordan

I have left the best choice for Christians in the last days till last but really this is the first and only choice that we should make if we are still alive at this point and that is to flee it.  And personally, I don’t think we will have long to wait for the end to come because Jesus says that this generation will surely see all these things come to pass.⁶  This generation is the generation that saw the start of the signs specifically Israel becoming a nation and the fig tree starting to bloom which took place in 1948.  One generation can be anywhere from 70, 80 or 100 years so I don’t think we will have long to wait at all.  What are we fleeing from if we make this choice?  We are fleeing from that final 3 ½ years of trouble and turmoil, plagues and disasters.  We are told to flee before disaster strikes.  It will be better to be years too early than 1 minute too late just like in Noah’s time.  Noah preached for 100 years telling of impending judgment via a flood.  Once the door was shut you could be only 1 minute late and be shut out.  The same will happen at the end too.  Once safely shut in the safe place in the southern part of Jordan you will be safe.  The devil and the beast will not be able to affect us even though they will try.  In Rev. 3:10 the Philadelphia church will be saved from this terrible hour of trial and they will be kept safe because they have patiently endured and kept the faith.  This is the model church for us and I believe that they will be the church, the believers, who will flee and escape all that is about to happen.  Emulate this church and be ready to go when you are called to go.  When that is, I don’t know but I do know that escape will be possible and that we will be given the two wings of a great eagle just like the Israelites escaped Pharaoh in Egypt.⁷  The escape has to happen just before the mid-point of the 7 year tribulation period before the Antichrist is revealed.