By Paul Tatham
tatham47@hotmail.com
Evangelical Christians talk a lot about “getting saved, as in being “born again.” And they always tack on a sense of urgency when they do.
“You need to accept Christ as
your Savior,” they often warn, “before it’s eternally too late.” And they are
exactly right. One day, Christ will suddenly return to take all believers to
Heaven, so we’d better be ready. We call that momentous day the Rapture (I
Thessalonians 4:15-18).
But some who are not saved
have been exposed to enough preaching that they know that many people left
behind on Earth will be able to get saved after
the Rapture, during a period we call the Tribulation. Seemingly, everyone will
have a second chance then to accept Christ as their personal Savior. So relax,
they reason, I can always take care of that later.
But be careful! It’s easy to
relax your way right into Hell. Here are three reasons why procrastinating is a
bad idea.
#1 You might die before the Rapture
If you convince yourself that
you’ll take care of that “born again” thing after
the Rapture, you might not make it to
the Rapture.
#2 If you do get saved after the Rapture, life will be rough
Many of those who get saved
during the Tribulation will be severely persecuted, hunted down, and martyred
for their faith. You can read about their sufferings in Revelation, the last
book in the Bible.
#3
Chances are good you will have no interest in getting saved
II Thessalonians 2:8-11 sheds
light on what things will be like during the Tribulation, including its key
player the Antichrist:
And then shall that wicked one be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall
destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Even him, whose coming is after the
working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the
truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them
strong delusion, that they should believe the lie:
That they all might be damned who believed
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Among other things, this
passage tells us that a second chance to get saved will be available only to
those who had never heard the gospel before
the Rapture. Those who had been exposed to the gospel before the Rapture, but “received not the love of the
truth,” won’t have a second chance. Instead, they will deluded and
embrace “the lie” of “the wicked one,” likely the Antichrist’s claim to be God
(John 5:43).
The lost need to know that
they won’t have a second chance to acknowledge their sinful condition and seek
forgiveness from God. “Behold, now is
the accepted time; behold, today is
the day of salvation” (II Corinthians 6:2).
