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This is DAY FORTY THREE of the daily devotional.

I am releasing a 50 day daily devotional about the end-times as revealed in Scripture. Along with the text, I will be providing a video where I cover the text of the day, and Hive account@verbal-d will be providing an audio version of it. That way, whether you want to read, watch, or listen, you'll be able to enjoy this study as you wish.

The plan is to release this devotional over the next 50 consecutive days, but life may "get in the way." We will do our best, but please be patient with me if I fall behind.

The SoundCloud Audio from Hive account@verbal-d

The YouTube Video from Hive account@papa-pepper

The Text I Originally Shared on the Hive account@narrowminded Account

DAY 43 - REASON WHY

In the end, there needs to be a reason why these prophecies are important. Some pastors will teach prophecy because they believe that Paul thought it was so important that even new believers should know about it. That is an interesting theory, but if the “Olivet Discourse”, the book of Revelation, and so many Old and New Testament passages speak about a time during which “Church Age believers” will not be present upon the earth, why ever overwhelm new believers with such information? I believe that Paul and the others had another reason in mind.

I believe that the disciples fully believed that they would have to die for their faith. Many of them did. As far as they knew, the “Abomination of Desolation” may have only been a few years away. After that event would occur, the foretold “great tribulation”, during which believers would be persecuted like no other time, would be right around the corner. If the new believers thought that their new Christian life would be a laid back gravy train, suddenly having their head on the chopping block would have been a hard concept to wrap their minds around.

This is where most of the modern American believers apparently find themselves. They believe that life will be comfortable and good, and then they will die, and it will be even better. Since the suffering, torment, persecution, tribulation, and affliction of the early believers (and other believers around the world right now) are not being experienced in our lives, many expect such to never happen. We believe that we have become the exception to the rule. However, Scripture paints a very different picture. Consider the following:

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

This passage gives us much to think about. Was it the prison sentences and death penalties that led some to “forsake the assembling?” It certainly wasn’t the football game on television! And why “so much the more, as ye see the day approaching?” That doesn’t give the impression of a wonderful uphill climb, but rather of a dark valley. “Even when it costs you your head, come together and exhort the brethren” may be the message here. The same dark undertone is given near the end of the Bible; “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

“Even so”? Even if we have to walk through a deep dark valley where many of us have to be slaughtered “for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:” (Revelation 6:9b) and the Antichrist makes “war with the saints” (Revelation 13:7) and overcomes us? Even if this is the case, “come, Lord Jesus”.

For the record, “even so” carries a very different message than “especially since”. Of course none of us want this to be true, but that does not change reality or the Word of God. I believe that a very big deception is upon the world, in the form of the belief in a pretribulational rapture. I believe that when people trust that the pretribulational rapture is a fact of the Bible, and when it is proven to be wrong, then many will conclude that the Bible itself is wrong. However, the Bible never teaches a pretribulational rapture; it doesn’t even teach a “seven year Tribulational period of God’s end-time wrath”.

Point #1: Paul may have taught new believers about the Antichrist because he thought that they would be here during that time.

Point #2: Certain passages seem to carry a deeper, darker message than commonly believed.

CLOSER

If anyone is really interested, I did post the entire volume through an alt account over a year ago. I did so as an experiment to see how hard it would be for a new user to get noticed on steemit, so I didn't let anyone know that I was doing it. You can click here to a post that has links to the entire 50 days of this devotional if you really want to read ahead. That information has always been available there since I first posted it. It is not the purpose of this series to just copy all of my previous work, but instead to transform it into some new outlets by releasing it in an audio and video format, to broaden the reach that this work has.

Again, though I will certainly never claim to know it all, I do believe that many are being lead astray by some popular beliefs. I hope that this project will be able to help many others understand the end-times more accurately. Thanks!

Just in case you are new to this series and wanted to check out the previous audio or videos, here are links to the posts from each day of this series.

Also - A special thanks to Hive account@allforthegood for helping design my cover image!

Until next time…

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GIF provided by Hive account@orelmely

50 DAYS TO UNDERSTANDING THE END-TIMES MORE ACCURATELY - DAY 43 - REASON WHY - AUDIO & VIDEO