| Part 8: Tribulation Salvation |
Can People be Saved During the Tribulation?
Yes. God is loving and merciful (Psalms 86:5), he hasn’t forsaken those who remain on earth after the rapture. During this seven year period He has appointed three specific entities to perform public ministries declaring His truth and the deception of the Antichrist to all mankind. Ministering to all people so that they may acknowledge the error of their ways and accept Jesus Christ before it’s too late. These three entities are:
[Evidence] The 144,000 Saints (Revelation 7:1-8)
God appoints 144,000 Jewish men as servants of God and seals them with His name on their foreheads, protecting them from the Antichrist and his minions. These men are tasked to proclaim the Word of God to all the nations and will begin their ministry during the first half of the tribulation.
[Evidence] The Two Witnesses (Revelation 11:3-13)
These two people, having been selected and sealed by God, will be easily identifiable to the whole world merely by their garments because “they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” (Revelation 11:3). Due to the specific timeframe that the two witnesses prophesy, being 3 ½ years, it’s anticipated that their ministry will predominantly span the second half of the tribulation.
As you can imagine these two witnesses will also be prime targets of the Antichrist, however so that all people may know that they speak the truth as prophets of God, He has provided them with some specific supernatural abilities being:
- Fire Breathing:
“And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.” (Revelation 11:5)
- Power over Rain, Waters & Plagues:
“These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.” (Revelation 11:6)
At the conclusion of their 3 ½ year ministry, God allows them to be killed by the Antichrist and their bodies will lie in the streets of Jerusalem 3 ½ days for the entire world to see (Revelation 11:7-9).
The sinful and unrepentant people of the earth will be very pleased with this outcome:
“And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.” (Revelation 11:10)
But the joy of the unrighteous will be short lived:
“Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.
In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city [Jerusalem] fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.” (Revelation 11:11-13)
[Evidence] Angels Proclaim the Word of God (Revelation 14:6-11)
The Bible details several different angels making proclamations to the nations during the Tribulation, one of which is described as:
“Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth — to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people — saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”” (Revelation 14:6-7)
What about the people who didn’t know all this about God?
People who have never had the opportunity to know God’s Word, such as remote jungle tribes, still have a moral compass that they are accountable to - the conscience - which is God’s internal revelation to man, and He will judge them accordingly (Romans 2:12-16).
Even so, God has not left mankind without natural evidence of His existence. Do you really believe that the intelligent balance and incomprehensible complexity of everything you see on earth and in our universe evolved by natural selection and random occurrence?
[Evidence] The fingerprints of God are all around you.
Consider the humble butterfly, she begins life as a caterpillar then sheds her skin to become a chrysalis, self-dissolves into a soup like liquid, and then emerges just 10 days later as a beautifully adorned butterfly. Complete with respiratory, circulatory, digestive, reproductive, sensory, musculoskeletal and nervous systems; they have a brain, heart, eyes and can even taste. Furthermore, their many colours are not merely simple pigment, but actually light-interacting structures on their wing scales, meaning they diffract the incoming light waves to interfere with each other to form the patterns of colour we see.
Now ask yourself, how did this process evolve? Evolution posits it takes millions of years for a species to evolve, yet the humble caterpillar has got just 2-4 weeks (as a caterpillar) to work out how to pull off this complex 10-day caterpillar/soup/butterfly transformation process or she’s going to be extinct on her first attempt. Why? Because caterpillars don’t have reproductive systems, only butterflies do.
The evolutionists themselves are perplexed by this. Scientific American states: “The evolution of insect metamorphosis remains a genuine biological mystery even today”.
This is just one of the countless examples in the natural world that can’t be explained by evolution, because evolution is a concept created by man to explain the origins of our world with the absence of God. This is why anyone who objectively investigates evolution will ultimately conclude that it’s simply not possible. Why? Because God is most certainly not absent from our world.
“Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand up together.” (Isaiah 48:13)
[Evidence] Science Disproves Evolution and Validates Creation
If you still think evolution is possible, let’s get a little more technical. Take DNA, the same genetic information in every living organism on the planet. DNA is an exquisite ‘language’ composed of some 3 billion genetic letters storing information - the detailed instructions for assembling proteins - in the form of a four character digital code.
The amount of DNA information stored in a single human cell is roughly equivalent to 384 volumes of The Encyclopaedia Britannica. Humans have approximately 10 trillion cells, so if you were to line up all of the DNA double helix strands found in every cell in the human body it would stretch from the earth to the sun 100 times.
So what does this concept of cellular information storage have to do with evolution? Everything. In fact there’s an entire field of scientific study dedicated to this. It’s known as Information Science and is concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval, movement, dissemination and protection of information - and one of the foundational Scientific Laws of Information (SLI) is:
“Universal information can only be produced by an intelligent sender” (SLI-4)
An intelligent sender is defined as:
- is conscious
- has a will of its own
- is creative
- thinks autonomously
- acts purposefully
The theory of atheistic evolution posits that matter and energy alone have given rise to all things, including biological systems. To hold true, this theory must attribute the existence of all information ultimately to the interaction of matter and energy without reference to an intelligent or conscious source.
The simple fact that every living organism on the planet contains masses of information in their DNA disproves the very foundational basis of evolution via acutely indisputable scientific evidence. Not surprisingly, the proponents of evolution have no answer for the origins of information in DNA either.
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” (1 Corinthians 3:19)
When you take the time to objectively evaluate the evidence for yourself, the only rational answer is creation; any other conclusion one could reach lacks objectivity and is therefore self-deception. In fact God declares that He has made us and our environment like this, so extraordinary in so many ways, in order that mankind would be “without excuse” in ignoring His works and therefore Himself.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they [mankind] are without excuse…” (Romans 1:20)
So in light of the above obvious evidence: Why do evolutionists - some of whom are very intellectually gifted - continue to adhere to their flawed theory? God continues:
“…because, although they knew [of] God [acknowledging His unexplainable creation], they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21)
Intelligence does not automatically translate into wisdom, because intelligence is only the mental capacity to understand, whereas wisdom is the knowledge of the truth. Anyone who chooses to ignore God has misdirected the focus of their intellectual gift; therefore God honours their decision by allowing their hearts to be “darkened” to the truth, resulting in a depraved mind and facilitating their trust in such feeble and fanciful theories. God’s next statement describes the outcome of such people:
“Professing to be wise, they became fools…” (Romans 1:22)
In the next part we’ll explain the Battle of Armageddon, the Great White Throne Judgement of all mankind and what God has prepared for the believers in eternity.
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