Wallace G. Smith

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Three Hard Questions About Scripture

We live in an amazing time where the Bible, God’s word, is one of the most widely available books on the planet. Whether on a bookshelf in your home or on an app on your phone, most of us have a Bible easily within reach.

But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to understand. The truths of the Bible are simple, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still have questions.

The good news is that God has answers! Join us on this episode of Tomorrow’s World for another installment of “Your Questions, the Bible’s Answers!” as we tackle three common and challenging questions and answer them directly from the pages of your Bible!

Who Was Cain’s Wife?

Greetings! Welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

You know, the Bible isn’t just a book—it’s the inspired word of God. The night before He was crucified, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, told His Father in prayer, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

However, that doesn’t mean it is always easy to understand. And—when you think about it—why should the Bible always be easy to understand? Its words are intended to convey to us the mind of God! And as our Creator tells us in Isaiah 55:8, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.”

Yet the Bible can be understood with God’s help and a little effort. And comprehending God’s word is worth that effort!

But today, we’re going to focus on three specific Bible questions and, in each case, not only explain the Bible’s answer, but also highlight the broader principles you can use in the future to answer Bible questions for yourself.

Our three questions today are:

1. Where did Cain get his wife?
2. Which are the right “Ten Commandments”?
3. (And) Are Enoch and Elijah in heaven?

So, let’s get started!

Our first question is a favorite of atheists who seek to discredit the Bible, but also a legitimate question sometimes asked by sincere people simply trying to understand.

Genesis 1 and 2 are plain that the first human beings God created were Adam and Eve. And Genesis 4 speaks of their sons, Cain and Abel: “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the LORD.’ Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground” (Genesis 4:1–2).

You may know the story of Cain and Abel. Both brothers made offerings to God, but Cain’s offering was not as worthy as Abel’s. Instead of seeking to learn and improve, Cain became filled with anger, and, eventually, he killed his brother, Abel. Murder started early for the human race!

After God curses Cain for his sin, we read in Genesis 416–17, “Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch” (Genesis 4:16–17).

And THIS brings us to our first question! Many ask, “Where did Cain get his wife?” After all, Adam and Eve were the first humans, and the only two children mentioned here are Cain and Abel—two boys, one of which is dead. So, just whom did Cain eventually marry? Surely not a giraffe, or an oak tree! People marry people! And who was there for Cain to marry?

To answer this question, we need to consider the first principle we will apply for answering Bible questions: Examine the context around the verse or passage.

So, let’s examine additional verses near this tale in Genesis 4 to see if we can get more details. And, indeed, we can—right next door in Genesis 5! Beginning in verse one of Genesis 5, we read,

“This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:1–4).

Now note that: Adam lived another eight hundred years and continued conceiving sons and daughters. Yes, Adam and Eve’s family did not just consist of Cain, Abel, and Seth. Instead, when God commanded them in Genesis 1:28 to “be fruitful and multiply,” they did exactly that! And for how long? Notice that Genesis 5:5 says that “all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years”—that is a long life! Given that the events of Genesis 1, 2, and 3 were about 6,000 years ago, Adam lived almost one-sixth of that time! And that is plenty of time to have many children.

So, the answer to “Where did Cain get his wife?” is plain: Cain married one of his sisters.

Now, of course, today no one should marry his sister! But remember, we’re talking about the very beginning of humanity! God directly created Adam and Eve, personally designing every feature of their bodies and biology. The genetic problems that plague children of close kin today would not have been a problem in the beginning. And while God later forbids such relationships in His law, as seen, for example, in Leviticus 18:9, it simply wasn’t necessary at the beginning. In fact, after Adam and Eve, but before the laws of Leviticus, the patriarch Abraham was married to his half-sister (Genesis 20:12).

The point is that there need be no difficulty at all in understanding the Bible’s statement. Yes, Cain had a wife, and that wife was his sister—another descendant of Adam and Eve. Simply reading a little more of the context around the passage immediately clears up the question.

Which Ten Commandments are the Right Ones?

Our next question has not only been used by some in attempts to discredit the Bible, but has also been a source of confusion in different denominations claiming to be Christian. It might be called “The Case of the Battling Commandments.”

If you’re a longtime viewer of Tomorrow’s World, you’ve heard us teach about the vital importance of the Ten Commandments numerous times in the program. Jesus Christ loved the commandments, and Christians everywhere are commanded to live by them.

Yet, just what are the Ten Commandments?

Well, the answer you get will vary depending on whom you ask! The list of ten commandments given in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 is parsed differently by different groups. Here are the two main approaches:

For example, many would give the following summarized list of the Ten Commandments:

1. You shall have no other gods.
2. You shall make no graven images.
3. You shall not take God’s name in vain.
4. You shall remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
5. You shall honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness.
10. [And] You shall not covet.

Yet, if you ask a Roman Catholic, you might get this list of summarized commandments:

1. You shall have no other gods.
2. You shall not take God’s name in vain.
3. You shall remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
4. You shall honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not murder.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. [And] You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

You’ll surely notice that those two lists are not the same. The first one has a commandment against the use of idols, the Second Commandment. But that commandment doesn’t show up at all in the second list, the Roman Catholic one. And, in the first list, the last commandment is against coveting. But in the second list, the Roman Catholic one, that command is split into two commands: not coveting your neighbor’s wife and not coveting your neighbor’s goods.

So, that brings us to today’s second Bible question: “Which are the right ‘Ten Commandments’?”

We know that there are ten because the Bible says so, itself. We see this in Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13, and Deuteronomy 10:4.

But which are the Ten?

To find the answer, you might look at Deuteronomy 5, which lists all ten commandments. There we see the final passage stated this way in verse 21: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

But should “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” be broken out as a separate commandment from “you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, etc.”? The verse numbering was added by scholars later, so that doesn’t help.

Looking at the verse, it seems that there is no way to tell—so is the answer to the question, “Which are the right ‘Ten Commandments’?,” “It depends on whom you ask”?

Nonsense! Because the truth is not determined by Roman Catholic councils or Lutheran synods or Evangelical conferences. The truth is determined by the word of God, and when it comes to His commandments, He makes the answer plain.

To discover it, we just need to use another helpful principle for understanding the Bible: Examine other scriptures that cover the same topic.

Jesus Christ said in John 10:35 that “the Scripture cannot be broken”—meaning God’s word does not contradict itself. So, if two passages of the Bible speak about the same subject, including the Ten Commandments, they must both be true.

In this case, we should ask ourselves: Is there any other passage that also lists the Ten Commandments, other than Deuteronomy 5?

And, yes, there is! The Ten Commandments are also listed in Exodus 20. In fact, that chapter comes before Deuteronomy 5, and is the chapter most would turn to first to read the Ten Commandments in the Bible. There, we can read the end of the commandments in verse 17: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Notice one very important difference from the way Moses worded the ending in Deuteronomy 5: When God spoke these words in Exodus 20, the part about not covering your neighbor’s wife is placed inside the rest—after the part about your neighbor’s house!

So, when God spoke the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, did He accidentally mix them up? Did He start by going from the eighth commandment and skipping the ninth to give part of the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house,” then jump back to the ninth commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,” only to suddenly jump forward again to finish the tenth? That’s ridiculous! If anyone understands the Ten Commandments, it’s the divine One who spoke them aloud at Mount Sinai!

And these two passages, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, cannot both be right if the commandment against coveting is split into two pieces—coveting your neighbor’s wife and then coveting everything else. They only work if there is only one commandment—the tenth commandment—against coveting anything that is your neighbor’s!

So, which Ten Commandments is the real Ten Commandments? The one that includes an explicit second commandment against making and worshiping idols and that has one unified tenth commandment against coveting.

And you don’t have to take my word for it. Take the Apostle Paul’s, who summarized the single tenth commandment himself as, simply, “You shall not covet.”

So, if you are wondering who gets the Ten Commandments right—your local clergyman or the Creator of the Universe who thundered them to His people at Mount Sinai—I’d stick with your Creator!

What Happened to Enoch and Elijah?

Our third question involves two famous individuals in the Bible: Enoch and Elijah the prophet.

Now in the case of Enoch, Genesis 5 gives us an interesting tale concerning this ancient patriarch. Amidst many who were sinning and living unrighteously, we read of him beginning in verse 21: “Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:21–24).

The phrases “he was not” and “God took him” have led many to believe that Enoch was removed from earth and taken into heaven. In fact, when I was a child, I had a popular children’s Bible that told its version of the story of Enoch and titled it “The Man Who Walked into Heaven”! This understanding is bolstered in the eyes of many by the fact that the passage does not mention his death explicitly, and the Apostle Paul, writing in Hebrews, said that Enoch was “taken away so that he did not see death.”

Like Enoch, another biblical figure is thought by many to be in heaven: The prophet Elijah. In chapter 2 of the book of 2 Kings, we read how the time came for the mantle of prophetic leadership to be passed from Elijah to his protégé Elisha: “Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11).

Part of the challenge in these passages is that the language is ambiguous and open to interpretation. Nowhere in the story of Enoch are we told where he was taken, and nothing explicitly and clearly says that he did not die. And in the case of Elijah, the Bible speaks of three heavens: the air above us where birds fly and clouds move, the space above that in which the stars shine, and then what Paul calls “the third heaven” in which God dwells. Whenever “heaven” is mentioned in the pages of your Bible, it’s vital to keep in mind these three different possibilities and determine from the context which one applies to the passage. Which one applies here to Elijah’s chariot ride is not immediately clear.

All of this brings us to the common question: “Are Enoch and Elijah in heaven?”

That is, are Enoch and Elijah still living up in heaven, in the presence of God and the angels?

The details of what happened to Enoch and Elijah after their disappearance is a larger topic than we have time for, but the answer to the question itself is actually very easy—and it involves a third fundamental principle that is eminently helpful for anyone trying to understand the Bible: Use plain scriptures to help explain those that are more ambiguous.

In this case, the tales of Enoch and Elijah have ambiguities that we need to resolve. Yet, there are very plain passages that are far easier to understand. And these passages leave us no doubt as to whether or not Enoch and Elijah are alive in heaven.

Let’s look at one—spoken by none other than the Son of God, Himself: Jesus Christ! Speaking to a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who himself may have believed Enoch or Elijah were in heaven, Jesus is very plain, saying in John 3:13, “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”

There you have it from Jesus’ own mouth: no one has ascended into heaven. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of God, is the only man to have traversed both heaven and earth. He didn’t say “No one but two…” or “No one but Enoch and Elijah….” He said “No one.” And that leaves no room for our two Old Testament friends.

In fact, we can go further. We mentioned earlier that Enoch is mentioned in Hebrews. That passage, Hebrews 11, is called by some the “Heroes of Faith” chapter, and Enoch is mentioned in verse 5. But later, in verse 13, we are told very plainly what has happened to all of these “heroes of faith”: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises….”

“These all” would include Enoch, eight verses earlier. In fact, of course Enoch and Elijah have died. Romans 3:23 promises us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.”

More could be said, but no matter what tale we might speculate about concerning Enoch and Elijah, these plain verses limit us to what must be true: That Enoch and Elijah are now dead, awaiting their reward, and are not in heaven. To claim otherwise would be to disagree with the declaration of Jesus Christ Himself. In this case, the plain verses of the Bible add clarity to those that are more open to misinterpretation and misunderstanding.

How to Study the Bible

Concerning where Cain could have gotten his wife, we’ve seen that Adam and Eve had many children, including daughters, easily providing a wife for Cain.

Concerning which collection are the right “Ten Commandments,” we’ve seen that skipping the second commandment about idols and splitting the tenth commandment about coveting into two different commandments violates the word of God.

And as for Enoch and Elijah, we have determined that, no, they are not in heaven—trusting Jesus Christ when He says that He is the only man to have trod both heaven and earth at this time.

But more than simply answering three questions, we’ve also illustrated three solid principles that you can use in your own Bible study:

• Examine the context around the verse or passage.
• Examine other scriptures that cover the same topic.
• [And] Use plain scriptures to help explain those that are more ambiguous.

And studying your Bible is worth the time you invest. As the Apostle Peter told Jesus Christ after His Master had just delivered a challenging message that was difficult to understand, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

And the inspired words of the Bible are just that: the words of eternal life. Your effort to understand them will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams!

Thanks so much for watching. If you’re interested in the first four lessons of our free 24-lesson Bible Study Course, I hope you’ll go out to TWTV.org/study and request those four lessons yourself. Or, of course, you can click on the link that we’ve provided in the description below.

And we hope that you enjoy what we make here at Tomorrow’s World, we really do want to help you understand your world through the pages of your Bible.

If you did enjoy it, we hope you’ll consider clicking on subscribe, and if you want to be notified when something comes out, just click that bell!

Thanks so much.

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

Mission to Mars?

Elon Musk wants to put human beings on the planet Mars. He’s not alone. NASA aims to send astronauts to Mars as well. But what if we make it? What sort of world would we turn Mars into? Actually, we already know the answer—and there’s a lot we can learn by exploring just how we know.

Join us for this episode of Tomorrow’s World where we explain “How to Build a New World.”

What Would Life on Mars REALLY Be Like?

Greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

And “your world”—for right now, at least—consists of only ONE world: the one we enjoy right here on good ol’ planet Earth. But many are looking to expand that list of possible worlds to include the planet Mars.

Would you like to travel to another world? Well, some very wealthy, very powerful individuals and organizations are very invested in trying to make such a possibility a reality—and possibly within your lifetime.

Multibillionaire Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, suggested in 2022 that he would land a manned mission to Mars as early as 2029 and released a video in 2023 depicting one of his planned Starship spacecraft landing on the planet and joining a thriving and growing human colony (“Elon Musk hints at a crewed mission to Mars in 2029,” NPR.org, March 17, 2022).

But Mr. Musk isn’t alone. America’s NASA is working on its own efforts to put a manned mission on the Red Planet. Through their Artemis program, NASA plans to establish humanity’s first long-term base on the Moon. And there, they plan to learn what it takes to establish a base on Mars (“How NASA is planning to get humans to Mars,” TheWeek.com, April 17, 2023).

I’ll be honest—I find these missions fascinating. From the earliest days I can remember, the idea of mankind placing colonies on another world has gripped my imagination. Yet even for a relatively close planet like Mars, the technological challenges are formidable. For one, the trip to Mars could take six to seven months, during which the European Space Agency estimates astronauts would be potentially exposed to 700 times the amount of radiation we’re normally exposed to on earth (“The radiation showstopper for Mars exploration,” The European Space Agency, ESA.int, May 31, 2019).

And surviving the long, lonely, and dangerous trip there isn’t the hardest part. Mars may be the most earth-like planet in the solar system, but it is not even close to hospitable. Even at the relatively “temperate” equator, the temperatures drop to negative 100 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 73 degrees Celsius, for our metric friends). The air on Mars is as thin as you’d find 21 miles above the surface of the earth, and 96% of it is carbon dioxide, with oxygen making up less than two-tenths of a percent.

But, for the moment, let’s set all of that aside. Let’s suppose that we made it. Let’s imagine that humanity—whether the United States, or Elon Musk followers, or anyone else—has been able land craft on Mars and build a permanent settlement. In fact, imagine that settlement 100 years in the future. Even 500 years. All technological challenges met and surpassed—a large, thriving, new outpost for humankind. That is, imagine we’ve achieved our wildest dreams, conquered the final frontier, and successfully transplanted humanity and human civilization from planet Earth to the planet Mars.

In such futuristic outposts, what should we expect to see?

And let me be clear: I don’t mean what technology should we expect to see. That could be anything—domed cities, environmental reengineering machinery, new forms of transportation. No, I mean in terms of the civilization, itself—the people—the citizens of our new interplanetary metropolises, their lives, their relationships. What should we expect to see concerning human life on this new world?

Or maybe I should ask the question differently. Is there any reason we should expect life on Mars to be fundamentally different from life here? Troubled relationships? Broken families? Government corruption? Educational confusion and nonsense? Political rancor? Crime? Theft? Murders? Rapes?

Because no matter what new and fantastic technology we might invent and deploy there, the one common element in our imagined civilization on Mars and our very real civilization here on Earth is us. Human beings.

And thousands of years of experience teach us an important lesson: We don’t know how to live together on our own world—how would we expect to know how to build a new one?

If we one day begin building new worlds on other planets, the key import we will bring with us is ourselves. And with us, we bring all the same spiritual problems we have allowed to corrupt and corrode our civilization here: Lust. Greed. Hate. Envy. Covetousness. Deceit. Pride. Malice. Arrogance. Bigotry. Cruelty. Hedonism. Selfish ambition.

No matter where we take ourselves in this universe, those terrible facets of human nature will ride alongside us as unwelcome, but inevitable, stowaways.

Why is that? Why are such self-destructive vices so inevitable in our world? Is there a way to build a truly better, new world?

Yes, there is. But understanding how to do that will first require us to answer a different question: why is our current world the way it is?

Believe it or not, the answer to that question is a simple one. And understanding that answer points us to the only way to create a new and better world.

Human Nature in Rebellion to God

Experience teaches us that wherever we go, we take our problems with us.

The key to solving that problem is to understand why our world is the way it is. And the reason why has to do with the foundation on which our world is built.

In Psalm 11:3, King David asks, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

The answer is assumed to be obvious: “Nothing.” If the foundations are broken, then nothing of lasting value can be built upon them. And as we will see, the foundations on which we continue to try to build our world are utterly broken.

To understand why, we have to go back to the beginning of our civilization—the very beginning.

We see that beginning in the book of Genesis, when God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve.

In Genesis 1 and verse 26, we read, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:26).

Man was to be given full control over the whole world and everything in it.

That was because humanity had a very special purpose to fulfill. Continue in verse 27: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Unlike all the animals, each created according to their kind, man was created after the God kind—designed to reflect his Creator and, ultimately, to become fully like his Creator. But becoming like the Creator requires more than being in His likeness and image. It requires building His own character. And building character requires choice.

So, God planted two trees in the Garden of Eden that would present man with a choice: to obey or to disobey: “And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. … And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:9, 16–17).

And, if you know the story, then you know Adam chose to eat of the wrong tree. His wife, Eve, was deceived by the devil to do so, but when she gave fruit from the forbidden tree to Adam, the Apostle Paul tells us that “Adam was not deceived” (1 Timothy 2:14). He knew what he was doing, and he willingly chose to disobey God.

That single act laid the foundation for all of human history and civilization. God had given Adam and Eve, the first humans, all they could ever want—a safe, beautiful paradise, honest labor, fellowship with their Creator, and a future family to grow and nurture. They had only to obey their Creator’s loving will.

But Adam chose otherwise. In choosing to purposefully eat from the forbidden tree, Adam told God, in effect, “Not Your will, God, but mine.” Adam rejected God’s will in favor of his own. And, really, if you and I are honest about it, we’ve made the same choice ourselves from time to time. Choosing our own will over God’s express will is sin. And the Bible assures us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

And that statement—“Not Your will, God, but mine”—is the fundamental basis of virtually every human institution we see around us today.

In government, we see lip service paid to God—in America, for instance, politicians like to say things like “God bless America,” but they don’t want to seek His blessings in their laws and policies. In the ivory towers of academia, credentialled elites tend to believe they’ve outgrown God and constantly come up with humanly devised codes of ethics and morality that result in little more than continued moral rot. Calling the entertainment industry a cesspool is an insult to cesspools. And—as shocking as this may seem—our religions, even the vast majority of so-called “Christianity,” is filled with ideas and philosophies of mere human beings and pagan superstitions—not a devotion to the word of God over human tradition.

The foundation of our collapsing society can be summed up in that single phrase: “Not Your will, God, but mine.”

Building on the Foundations of God’s Will

For millennia, man has sought to build its own world his own way—never committing to do it God’s way—not fully!

Since we can’t build a new world on a broken foundation, we have only one choice: Remove that foundation and replace it with a good one. And Jesus Christ provides that foundation!

We see it revealed in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night Jesus was to be betrayed and ultimately delivered up to crucifixion.

As His disciples slept that night, Jesus pleaded before His Father in prayer. Knowing the pain and agony to come, He knelt there in the garden and asked His Father if there was any other way that Their great plan could be accomplished. Like any of us would, He did not want to be tortured to death for hours! He did not want to go through the agonizing trial and cruel, lonely, excruciating death that lay ahead!

Yet, in all His passionate pleading His focus and resolve never wavered. Even in the face of one of the cruelest executions mankind has devised, He told God in prayer, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

That is the foundation on which new worlds can be built!

Surrounded by paradise and comfort, Adam told God, “Not Your will, but mine.” Yet, facing agony, suffering, and a torturous death, Jesus told God, “Not My will, Father, but Yours.”

That, my friends, is the only foundation on which a new world of true, unending peace, joy, hope, and love can ever be built! It is the very opposite of the foundation today’s world is built on—but it will be the rock-solid foundation of tomorrow’s world!

Suffice it to say that what God intended the world to be, illustrated in the abundant and beautiful Garden of Eden, will be restored! It will be, in a very real sense, a new world—built by the returned Son of God and His glorified followers, guiding, directing, and teaching mankind for 1,000 years.

Instead of the broken, plagued world we’ve always known, mankind will experience a world of peace, joy, health, and abundance all because the new world ahead will have been built on a NEW foundation: “Not my will, God, but Yours.”

How we long for Christ to return and that day to come, as Jesus Christ taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9–10).

Repentance and New Life—In This World and Beyond

The only foundation on which a truly new world can ever be built is an utter and complete submission to the will of God in obedience and love. As Jesus Christ said, “Not My will, but Yours.”

And unless Elon Musk or NASA plan on building on that foundation, expect any civilizations we build on Mars to be mere reruns of the horrors we’ve created here on earth. Different planet, same humanity, and same devastating problems.

But the world Jesus Christ will establish after His return will be built on that new foundation—transforming the world and then, afterwards, the entire cosmos.

As Paul tells us in Romans 8,

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:18–21).

Indeed, eventually all of creation—the entire universe—will get to experience the liberation that comes with being ruled by the divine Family of God, which will include the glorified followers of Jesus Christ, who are eager to build on the new foundation that their Savior had laid. So, yes, even Mars may finally get its shot!

But we do not have to wait until Christ returns to begin knowing the joy of building a new world. None of us may control a whole planet right now, but we each have our own world—our own families, our own spheres of influence, our own lives—in which we can begin to build anew. We can experience, in our own worlds, now, a taste of the joy, hope, peace, and happiness that awaits the rest of the world at the Savior’s return.

All that is required is to begin building that new world in our lives now is the choice to begin building on that new foundation: “Not my will, God, but Yours.” We need only to repent. Give up our sins. Ask God for forgiveness. Give up our devotion to doing things our way, and ask God to help us begin doing things His way—the way Jesus Christ would do them. And with every step we take in doing so, we will find the blossoms of that new world growing beneath our feet, and bringing with them the aroma of the world tomorrow that Christ is bringing with Him.

Thanks so much for watching!

All of us here at Tomorrow’s World work hard to help you understand your world through the pages of your Bible.

If you’re interested in what we offer today, our free resource The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like?, you can just click on the link in the description, or you can go to TWTV.org/Ahead.

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Thanks so much!

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

What Causes the Death of Nations?

The world has seen many powerful nations whose wealth, influence, and reach would understandably cause any who dwelt within them to believe they would last forever—yet the path of history is strewn with their ruins. Today, two of the past century’s greatest powers—the United States and Great Britain—are on the verge of joining the failed states of the past. But, the true reason why goes generally unacknowledged.

Join us today on Tomorrow’s World as we explain how great nations die.

Economies in Turmoil

While many would, perhaps, rather not admit it, much of the modern world has been crafted over the past century by the economic, military, and cultural success the United States, Britain, and British-descended nations of the world have experienced.

As U.S. foreign-policy expert Walter Russell Mead said in his insightful 2007 book God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World,

It is unpardonably vulgar to say so, but in three hundred years of warfare, the English-speaking powers keep winning. To put this another way, either the British or the Americans or both have been on the winning side of every major war in which they have participated since the late seventeenth century. That history of victory shapes the world we live in…. The Anglo-Saxon powers did not just win wars. They changed the way the world lives, thinks, and organizes itself as much as any of the great civilizations of the past… (pp. 13–14).

It’s true. The United States, Great Britain, and the other English-speaking nations of the world have had an incredible impact on world culture and way of life, completely out of proportion to their size. The United States, in particular, has been the sole remaining “superpower” of the Cold War era—a financial juggernaut and a military power the likes of which the world has rarely seen before, if ever.

But things change. The higher the climb, the farther the fall.

Let’s briefly take a look at only one indicator of the current strength of these Great Nations: Their economic status.

The wealth of the United Kingdom was once considered the envy of the world. And today, the United States is still considered by many to be the chief financial engine powering the world’s economies. But just how trustworthy is that engine?

Looking under the hood to examine more closely—or, under the bonnet, for our friends in the UK—doesn’t give cause for hope.

It’s hard to report on American national debt because it is growing so quickly that numbers quickly become outdated!

But as of right now, as I am recording this program, that debt is more than 30 trillion dollars—that’s more than 97 thousand dollars for every single living, breathing citizen of the U.S.—from the newborn to the elderly!

That means that the U.S. public debt is currently about 120 percent of its gross domestic product—the financial output of the nation (“Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product,” FRED Economic Data, FRED.stlouisfed.org, July 26, 2023).

And as noted by the non-partisan Peter G. Peterson foundation, “[w]ithin 10 years, net interest costs [Note: INTEREST COSTS] will exceed federal spending on crucial programs like Medicaid and [national] defense” (“Interest Costs on the National Debt are On Track to Reach a Record High,” Peter G. Peterson Foundation, pgpf.org, February 16, 2023).

Across the Atlantic, the UK is hardly doing better.

As reported by The Guardian in June 2023,

The UK’s total government debt pile in May reached more than 100% of annual national income for the first time since 1961 as state borrowing more than doubled, according to official figures.

In a blow to [Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak’s plans to cut taxes before the general election, which is expected next year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said net debt reached £2.6tn as of the end of May, estimated at 100.1% of gross domestic product (GDP)

(“UK government debt rises above 100% of GDP for first time since 1961,” TheGuardian.com, June 21, 2023).

And the citizens, personally, are hardly doing any better than their overspending governments.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data recently reported,

Total household debt [in the U.S.] rose by $148 billion, or 0.9 percent, to $17.05 trillion in the first quarter of 2023…. Mortgage balances climbed by $121 billion and stood at $12.04 trillion at the end of March. Auto loan and student loan balances also increased to $1.56 trillion and $1.60 trillion, respectively, but credit card balances were flat at $986 billion (“Household Debt and Credit Report,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York—Center for Microeconomic Data, NewYorkFed.org, 2023).

Of course, economic troubles are only one sign of a nation’s declining health and power. We could spend the rest of our program today looking at others.

For instance, the U.S. military continues facing humiliation after humiliation after the scarring images of the nation’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and recruitment programs that seem more devoted to recruiting social justice warriors and drag queens than maintaining the top fighting force in the world.

As for the UK, The Times reported in May 2023 that Germany was preparing to spend more on national defense than Britain for the first time in modern history—the same Germany whose Gross Domestic Product is around 30 percent larger than the UK’s (“German defence spending ‘to overtake UK within years’,” TheTimes.co.uk, May 17, 2023; “Country comparison Germany vs United Kingdom,” CountryEconomy.com, 2023).

Where the Anglo powers once seemed to govern the course of the world, when the U.S. was seeking Saudi support for its actions intended to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, news agencies around the world reported that the Saudi leaders would not even take U.S. President Joe Biden’s phone call.

History is clear: No great nation—no great empire—lasts forever.

Yet the real reason they die tends to be ignored.

Moral Decline

For truly great, globe-girdling nations, one source of downfall and demise rises above them all: MORAL DECAY.

In this area, we can learn a lot from ancient Rome. The Republic of Rome and the Empire that grew out of it ruled a large portion of the world for a millennium. Its might was unparalleled in its day.

But what is left of it today?

Ruins, ruins, and more ruins.

And while many point to overexpansion, economic policy, military spending and other causes of Rome’s fall, the truth of the matter is that before the borders of Rome could be breached by the forces that would destroy it, it was already rotting within due to decadence and moral degradation.

Many historians testify to the problem, including Roman historians, themselves.

Writing only a handful of years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the ancient Roman historian Livy was well aware even then that Rome had fallen from its greatest heights, and expresses in Book I, chapter 1, of his History of Rome, his hope that each reader will consider gravely what he has recorded of his own people:

I would have every man apply his mind seriously to consider these points… what their life and what their manners were… as discipline gradually declined, let him follow in his thoughts their morals, at first as slightly giving way, anon how they sunk more and more, then began to fall headlong, until he reaches the present times, when we can neither endure our vices, nor their remedies.

The renowned Roman historian Tacitus pulled few punches in addressing the moral state of his people. Writing around 115 AD, in his famous passage mentioning the crucifixion of Christ, Tacitus was no fan of Christianity, calling it a “deadly superstition,” but his description of his nation’s capital city is noteworthy.

Observing how Christianity was only temporarily slowed down when Christ was crucified, but then mysteriously sprang back to life, more dynamic than before, he writes that it “erupt[ed] again not only in Judaea, the home of this evil, but even in Rome, to which all that is dreadful or shameful in the world flows and here is celebrated”

(Annals, Tacitus Cornelius, 2012).

(Of course, one day Tacitus will learn it wasn’t just the faith of Christians that sprung to life again suddenly, but their Savior, as well!)

Finally, consider Seneca, one of the most celebrated Roman philosophers and writers in Roman history, born in 4 BC and living as a contemporary of the first Christian disciples.

His criticisms of Roman morals and culture in his day were stinging, noting that simple honesty and integrity were vanishing, such that mere agreements between men were no longer sufficient, requiring lawyers and legal papers to be drawn up to require individuals to live up to their ends of the deal.

“O, what a shameful admission of the dishonesty and wickedness of the human race! More trust is placed in our sealrings than in our consciences” (Essays, Book 3).

As for the state of marriage and family in Rome at the time, Seneca writes,

“Is there any woman that blushes at divorce now that certain illustrious and noble ladies reckon their years, not by the number of consuls, but by the number of their husbands, and leave home in order to marry, and marry in order to be divorced?… Is there any shame at all for adultery, now that matters have come to pass that no woman has any use for a husband except to inflame her paramour?” (ibid.).

Seneca noted that marital fidelity had become extinct, and the lack of shame in adultery and fornication only meant that the rot of promiscuity spread further and faster. His observations match those of a near contemporary, the Roman poet Martial [MAR-shəl], who implied marriage in Rome had essentially become legalized adultery.

Such ancient accounts fit well with the observation of famed English historian Edward Gibbon, whose classic work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire paints a picture of an nation whose leaders became degenerate in character, and whose military legions brought back corrupting vices and immoral practices from the lands they conquered.

Before Rome became a ruin on the outside, it had become a ruin within. And the death of that great nation became assured.

Family Destruction

A morally corrupt nation cannot suppose that it will last! And moral corruption causes great nations to die.

And my friends, this is vital to understand because America and Britain, and those nations which have descended from her, are in a MORAL FREEFALL!

As explained in detail in today’s free resource, The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, they have turned their backs on the God who blessed them and are actively—even aggressively—turning their backs on His laws!

Let’s examine just a handful of biblical guidelines and compare them to current American and British culture to see how we measure up.

God stresses in His word the importance of family and the marriage bond between husband and wife. In Exodus 20, the fifth commandment reads,

“Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”

Elsewhere in Leviticus 19:32, we read,

“You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD.”

The seventh of the Ten Commandments teaches the same principle expounded by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 13:4,

“Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”

And in passages such as Matthew 19:4–6, Jesus Christ reaffirms the definition of marriage as designed in Genesis 2: A union between one man and one woman for life.

God cares PASSIONATELY about respectful relationships between generations, and between children and parents, and about the sacred union of man and woman in marriage.

Yet in the U.S. and Britain, younger generations are casting aside the guidance and wisdom of previous generations, and the nations’ supposedly enlightened academics, leaders, and social engineers are destroying any traditional or biblical notions of sex, gender, or family structure and replacing them with novel designations and configurations of their own design.

One effect of neglecting God’s design of and laws regarding the family is, believe it or not, economic.

In a 2008 study, the Institute for American Values concluded,

“[W]e estimate that family fragmentation costs U.S. taxpayers at least $112 billion each and every year, or more than $1 trillion each decade” (The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing, 2008).

And that was their conservative estimate.

To put this in perspective, by some estimates that amount is the same as the total cost of the United States’ war in Afghanistan.

In the UK, the cost of family breakdown is estimated at more than 50 billion pounds per year, or more than 60 billion U.S. dollars.

But, of course, the real cost of broken families is not measured in dollars, but in the damage it wreaks on the people of a nation.

At the end of 2021, researcher and author Melanie Phillips wrote of this in a commentary for The Times in the UK. What she insightfully calls “the willed disintegration of the traditional nuclear family” has been devastating:

“It is the greatest cause of social inequalities, through educational underachievement, crime and juvenile psychological disorders. At its most extreme, it leads to neglected, abused and dead children. Yet this has become unsayable in the upper reaches of government and cultural life. So what we have instead are unspeakable acts of cruelty and degradation — and nauseating crocodile tears” (“Family fragmentation comes at a tragic cost,” December 20, 2021).

Let’s look another: the tenth commandment, “You shall not covet.” What would be the state of our national and private debt if so many of our citizens were not consumed with desire for the newest cars, technology, entertainment, all beyond our means—but within our credit limits. Jesus Christ teaches us in Luke 12:15, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

Yet our consumer-based national economies are virtually FOUNDED on the hope that people will IGNORE this advice, resulting in the culture of permanent debt we now enjoy.

Ultimately, our debt is enslaving our nations. In fact, Bible prophecy says that the U.S. and British-descended nations will eventually be crushed by debt, as explained in today’s free offer.

We read in Deuteronomy 28, verses 43 and 44:

“The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.”

Yet the solution isn’t more creative economic policy or more government handouts. The solution is to stop sinning, turn to Jesus Christ, and start obeying God.

There are too many examples like these for us to cover all of them in one program, but in summary let me refer to a statement by educator Vincent Ruggiero, made in his book Warning: Nonsense is Destroying America:

“If we are ever to solve this country’s social problems, we must acknowledge the moral bankruptcy of our time and the culpability, not only of the parents and teachers, but most of all the media. We must take responsibility for creating an environment that nurtures morality in children and adults…. To pretend the Ten Commandments are somehow irrelevant to moral living is a violation of common sense…” (p. 152).

Will Society Turn to God? Will You?

What is really at the heart of the problem?

There’s a verse in the Psalms that haunts me on this matter. Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

While our politicians discuss what color to paint the nation’s walls, they seem to ignore the fact that the foundation, itself, is destroyed—and, unless repaired, the house is doomed to collapse. Concerning the Constitution of the United States, established shortly after the birth of the nation, Founding Father John Adams once said,

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other” (“From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798,” Founders.Archive.gov).

Indeed, the freedoms inherent in any great nation rely on the moral self-restraint of its citizens.

The leaders of the U.S. and Britain SHOULD be seeking to turn their peoples to the God who created and blessed their nations—as discussed in today’s free booklet. Instead, they encourage and enable the people’s sin.

Of them, God declares in Isaiah 9:16,

“For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and those who are led by them are destroyed.”

But you, personally, don’t have to wait for a senator, congressman, prime minister, or president to tell you to turn to the laws of God!

You don’t have to wait to begin experiencing the blessings that come from living life the way it was DESIGNED to be lived.

If you’re practicing sexual sin, indulging in lust in your body or mind, you can repent! You can ask God to forgive you, and to help you begin obeying His law! If you are letting yourself be carried away with covetousness and greed, in a real sense worshiping things and centering your life on your next purchase on Amazon, you can repent and turn away from that! You can begin obeying the tenth, first, and second commandments.

If you want a family that is strong and stable—a source of joy and comfort—God has given us laws that we can act on to help craft the sort of family we’ve always wanted to have!

And you can choose to follow those laws and build that family.

The only way to prevent great nations from dying is for the people of great nations to seek their God and Jesus Christ and turn from sin.

It isn’t too late. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God says to King Solomon words that are just as true today:

“[I]f My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

If we want to make a difference, turning in a heartfelt manner to the God of heaven and seeking His way with passion, zeal, and humility, that will accomplish more than 1,000 phone calls to your senator or congressman ever will.

Thanks so much for watching! All of us here at Tomorrow’s World work very hard to help you understand your world through the pages of the Bible.

If you’re interested in what we offer today, the free study guide The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, you can go to our website at TWTV.org/Prophecy. You can get it there or you can click on the link in the description.

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Thanks so much!

[The text below represents an edited transcript of this Tomorrow’s World program.]

A Widely-Held Falsehood

A vast portion of professing “Christianity” is obsessed with a myth—a myth that clouds their understanding of the end-times, that obscures other doctrinal truths of the Bible, and that provides a false hope concerning the Great Tribulation and the days before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And yet, it is widely believed! When I travel to various cities giving public presentations concerning the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and what to expect before Christ’s return, some of the most common questions I receive are centered around this myth.

So, it’s about time we put that myth to rest.

Join me for this episode of Tomorrow’s World, where we’ll debunk the Rapture myth.

What IS the Rapture Myth?

Warm greetings, and welcome to Tomorrow’s World, where we work to help you make sense of your world through the pages of the Bible.

You know, if I had a dime for every time I’ve been asked about the Rapture, I’d be a wealthy person. When is it coming? Is it before the Great Tribulation, during the Tribulation, or after?

At the heart of most of these questions is a more fundamental one: Is the common belief in the Rapture actually true?

Today, we’re going to tackle that question, and we’re going to do it with irrefutable evidence from your Bible.

Now let’s begin by being as clear as we can. Before we can address what the Bible does or does not say about the “Rapture,” we first need to define what we mean by the word “Rapture”—because people use it to say many different things.

Most use the word to indicate their belief that before Jesus Christ returns to rule the world, and before the time of trouble and suffering known as the Great Tribulation, Christians all over the world will be “raptured” into thin air—taken to heaven. Those who are NOT Christians will simply see that many people have suddenly vanished without explanation. Planes will plummet as their Christian pilots disappear, non-Christian husbands or wives will despair as they wonder where their Christian spouse has disappeared to. And as the world sorts through the mass disappearance, the Great Tribulation will be unleashed on those who are “left behind”—as the book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins worded it. Then, 3 or 7 years later—depending on who’s explaining—Jesus begins His reign on earth.

This idea of the Rapture as being mysteriously and mystically whisked away from the earth is often associated with the words of the Apostle Paul, who says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17,

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

This is an important passage for those who believe in the “Rapture” because in the Latin Vulgate translation of verse 17, the word for “we shall be caught up” is rapiemur /ra-pee-Ā-moor/, from rapere / rah-PEHR-ay/. Thus, the “Rapture.”

But is Paul describing what many think of as “the Rapture” or is he talking about something else entirely?

God wants us to read His word CAREFULLY, putting the details together to get the most complete picture we can, and that takes diligence. As Paul told the evangelist Timothy,

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Similarly, the prophet Isaiah wrote the following:

“Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:9–10).

Let’s do that. Let’s “rightly divide the word of truth” and put the WHOLE of God’s word together to help us see the truth about the Rapture theory and to understand what to truly expect of the end times.

And since ideas differ so widely in their details concerning the Rapture and what it really means, we are going to focus on Bible passages that will help us clarify the most common elements that are central in most people’s beliefs about the Rapture. So, as the program progresses, keep in mind these three crucial questions:

Will Christians vanish around the world without explanation?

Will Christians be caught up into the air years before Jesus returns?

[And] Will Christians spend the Great Tribulation in heaven?

Remember those questions! And as we look into what the Bible says will ACTUALLY happen with true Christians at the return of Jesus Christ, you will see each of these questions answered plainly and simply in God’s word. And when you do, you will see that the popular idea of the Rapture is little more than a popular myth.

Resurrection, NOT “Rapture”

So, does the Bible teach that YEARS BEFORE Jesus returns in visible glory to rule the world, Christians around the world will VANISH and secretly be caught up into heaven right before the time of global horrors known as the Great Tribulation?

No, it doesn’t. We can begin to see this if we go back to 1 Thessalonians 4. But this time, let’s begin in verse 13.

“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:13–17).

Too many are so “enraptured” (pun intended) with seeing the “Rapture” in this passage that they skip right over those elements that prove Paul is NOT talking about their idea of a “Rapture.”

For instance, Paul says that this is the time of the RESURRECTION of those who died in Christ—those he describes as “asleep”—saying, “the dead in Christ will rise first.” He also says that “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.”

This doesn’t seem like a quiet, mysterious vanishing to me—more like a triumphant event announced to the world by the returning Christ.

But my personal opinion doesn’t matter—and neither does yours. Instead of settling for opinion, let’s look into additional Bible passages that describe this event—as we read earlier, “precept upon precept… line upon line… here a little, there a little….”

For example, the Apostle describes this EXACT SAME event in another passage 1 Corinthians 15. Let’s read there starting in verse 50:

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMPET. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 

Now notice: The dead are raised in incorruptible glory and the living will be transformed at that time, as well, just as we read in 1 Thessalonians. Now, is this done quietly? No! AGAIN just as we saw earlier, this happens with the sound of a mighty TRUMPET:

“…in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST TRUMPET. For the TRUMPET WILL SOUND, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50–53).

In fact, read that again CAREFULLY: It happens not just at ANY trumpet, but at the LAST trumpet. This implies that there is a SEQUENCE of trumpets, and the resurrection and glorification of the saints occurs at the LAST of these trumpets.

So, ask yourself: Is there any passage of Scripture that describes a series of trumpets in the end times? Because if there is, then we have located the time of this resurrection and transformation of faithful Christians!

And, in fact, YES, the Bible DOES describe a sequence of trumpets! We don’t need to guess, or theorize, or debate about it. The Bible makes it plain! And as it does, we will see the answers to our three questions beginning to take shape as well.

The Real Sequence of Events Before Christ’s Return

The book of Revelation gives us a specific sequence leading up to Jesus’ return and the commencement of the Kingdom of God. Revelation chapter 6 reveals the Seven Prophetic Seals of Revelation, which the Apostle John sees in vision, opened in sequence by Jesus Christ to reveal the end-time events ahead. The FIRST FOUR SEALS represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, symbolizing global Religious Deception, Warfare, Famine, and Disease. Verse 8 says, that “power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.”

The prophetic pathway continues with the FIFTH SEAL, describing a martyrdom of many true Christians. In Matthew 24:21, Jesus describes this time, saying, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.” This is a time so terrible that no time before nor after will ever compare.

After two and one-half years of this Tribulation, the SIXTH SEAL is opened, and the Heavenly Signs take place: a great earthquake, the sun darkened, the moon red as blood, the stars falling from the sky, and every mountain and island on earth shaken! These announce that GOD AND JESUS CHRIST are about to PERSONALLY INTERVENE in world affairs! That time is described by the prophet Isaiah as “the day of the Lord’s vengeance, the YEAR of recompense for the cause of Zion” (Isaiah 34:8).

This year-long Day of the Lord begins when the SEVENTH SEAL of Revelation is opened. We read of this in Revelation 8:1–2: “When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given SEVEN TRUMPETS.”

Finally, we see where a SEQUENCE OF TRUMPETS appears in end-time events—exactly what Paul’s description told us to expect! AFTER the end-time rides of the Four Horsemen, the Great Tribulation, and the Heavenly Signs, we come to the series of Trumpets indicated by the Apostle Paul!

And those first six trumpet blasts are devastating. One-third of earth’s vegetation is burned up; one-third of the seas become blood; one-third of ships and marine life are destroyed; one-third of the planet’s waters become bitter; and one-third of the sun, moon, and stars cease to shine. Then, in the most destructive military exchange in history, one-third of mankind is obliterated.

Joel 2 calls the Day of the Lord “great and very terrible” (v. 2) for a reason! It represents God’s wrath unleashed on unrepentant mankind! Yet, these terrors are only the first SIX of Seven Trumpets! The Seventh, Last Trumpet is described in Revelation 11:15: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”

Paul says that at THIS TRUMPET—the SEVENTH, declaring the authority of the Kingdom of God over the world—the Resurrection occurs, when faithful Christians, past and present, are gathered, glorified with immortality, and brought to meet Christ to become His Bride and to participate in the vanquishing of His enemies and the inauguration of the reign of God’s Kingdom!

All of this PROVES that this no secret “vanishing!” In fact, Jesus Christ personally described this moment to His disciples to make the PUBLIC nature of this event very clear. Read it yourself, starting in Matthew 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then ALL THE TRIBES OF THE EARTH will mourn, and THEY WILL SEE the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29–31).

My friends, these passages are inseparable. Their descriptions of the end-time events are consistent and in perfect sequence: The Great Tribulation, the Heavenly Signs, the Seven Trumpets, the revealing of Christ to the world at the Last Trumpet, and the resurrection, gathering, and glorifying of true Christians as the Kingdom of God commences its glorious reign.

And where will that reign begin? Not in heaven! Rather, as Revelation 5 [v. 10] says, those glorified Christians will have been made kings and priests to [their] God; and [they] shall reign on the earth.

No one will vanish into thin air as unsaved loved ones wonder where they went. All eyes will see, and all ears will hear. The Rapture is simply a misunderstanding that conceals the magnificent truth of Scripture.

Still, that might leave some worried. Does this mean that every Christian must go through the Tribulation?

No, it doesn’t, though some will, while others are protected—though NOT by a “Rapture.”

God’s Saints Protected on Earth During the Great Tribulation

We asked:

1. Will Christians vanish around the world mysteriously and without explanation?

We saw in the pages of the Bible that, no, they will not. Christians will join Christ at the first resurrection at the same time when ALL the tribes of the earth will see Jesus returning.

2. Will Christians be caught up into the air years before Jesus returns to rule?

Again, no they won’t. The resurrection of true Christians occurs at the very Last Trumpet when Christ is inaugurated as Ruler of the world, only days before Satan is bound for 1,000 years, as described in Revelation 20.

Finally,

3. Will Christians spend the years of the Great Tribulation in heaven?

Again, no! They rise to meet Christ at the commencement of His reign, AFTER the Tribulation. Indeed, from that moment on, they will reign alongside Him, ruling ON THIS EARTH, with Him, for 1,000 years.

At the same time, some Christians WILL be protected during the Tribulation—but they will be protected HERE ON EARTH. While God reserves many details to Himself, He does make this plain in a number of passages. For instance, in Revelation 12, we read of the Church in the end times, symbolized by a woman, persecuted by Satan the Devil, symbolized by a dragon-like serpent. Starting in verse 14, we read, “But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.” The “time, times, and half a time” here is the two-and-one-half years of the Great Tribulation before the Heavenly Signs, followed by the year-long Day of the Lord we read about earlier.

This passage makes plain, too, that while a portion of the Church is protected, she is NOT protected in heaven. Note that the passage says she is protected in “the wilderness”—a word which is never used by God to describe heaven in the Bible, but which He does use to describe locations here on earth.

If we’re going to let God interpret His own word, then we have to agree that Christians are going to be protected during the Great Tribulation, but that protection is NOT going to be in Heaven as many Rapture fans would have us believe. It will be right here, somewhere on planet earth.

But notice, too, not all Christians are protected. As we read in verse 17, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Yes, some Christians, “the rest of her offspring,” must endure the trials of the Great Tribulation and the anger of Satan.

The distinction—one group protected and one sent into the Tribulation—is reflected in Christ’s comments to the two prophetic End-Time Churches of Revelation 3. The zealous Christians of Philadelphia are told by Jesus that He will “keep [them]from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world” [v. 10], while the lukewarm Christians of Laodicea are told that they must “buy… gold [from God] refined in the fire [of persecution]” [v. 18] and that they need His “chasten[ing]” [v. 19].

Those Laodicean Christians who must go through the Tribulation are described as those unable to see their need to repent and to change—too self-satisfied in what they already believe they know, and too willing to compromise in their actions.

There is a reason that Jesus Christ says to all of us concerning the times to come, “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted WORTHY TO ESCAPE all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Yes, there will be protection during the climactic, earth-shattering events of the end times—not in a Rapture off to heaven, but right here, somewhere on earth—for zealous, faithful Christians who are unwilling to compromise on the truth God has shown them.

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