All:

 

Are you aware of what happened on December 7, 1941? 

 

I was just four years old, however, I understood because I had an uncle that was trained to be a tail-gunner on a B-17 bomber.  When he was dispatched to Hawaii, his plane had been destroyed on the tarmac. He was issued a M1A rifle and shipped to the Philippines, where he later died in the death march of Bataan where ten thousand US troops and civilians died.  I remember the day my grandmother received a visit from the War Department.  She had a "gold star" plaque in her parlor window that served to remind people of the highest level of sacrifice made by the family.  I lost four members of my family in World War II.

 

December 7, 1941 was as president Franklin D. Roosevelt called it, "a day that will live in infamy"  The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor inflicting heavy casualties upon the US Navy and Army Air Corps and crippled the Pacific Fleet. 

 

Most people also know what happened on December 8, 1941.  The President called upon Congress to make a formal declaration of war against Japan and the Axis powers of Germany and Italy.  Most people don't know what happened on December 9, 1941.  President Roosevelt issued an order calling all of the US diplomatic ambassadors home from Japan, Germany, and Italy.  Before he unleashed the full wrath of the American war machine on those nations, he wanted to make sure that no American civilians were in harm's way.  The wrath of America was for her enemies, not her own people. 

 

In the same way, before God declares war on this godless world at the beginning of the Tribulation, unleashing his unmitigated wrath, He will call His Ambassadors home.  "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."  -(2 Corinthians 5:20).

 

God's wrath is not for the citizens of his heavenly kingdom.  It's not for His own people. 

 

During the Berlin crisis during the 1950's, I was serving a three-year deployment in West Germany with a nuclear artillery battalion. Our task as part of the 7th Army command was to hold the West German  border for 72-hours, mainly to facilitate a safe withdrawal of a quarter million dependents, civilians, and children.  That experience was unnerving to say the least.

 

The analogy is a reminder that while tribulation in the world is everywhere, as Hilton Sutton once said, "when the bombs are descending, the saints will be ascending."  I have no doubt things will get progressively worse, but we are going home, Pre-Tribulation Rapture style!  That is our "Blessed Hope".  Don't give up on the Pre-Tribulation Rapture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Pastor Bob