Soul Harvest
Page 32
Carpathia stared at Rayford, seeming to study his eyes. Rayford believed God. He had faith that regardless of his power, regardless of his intentions, Nicolae would be impotent in the face of any of the 144,000 witnesses who carried the seal of almighty God on their foreheads.
“If you are suggesting,” Carpathia said carefully, “that it only makes sense that the Global Community Potentate bestow upon those guests a regal welcome second to none, you may have a point.”
Rayford had said nothing of the sort, but Carpathia heard what he wanted to hear. “Thank you,” Rayford said.
“Captain Steele, schedule that flight.”
EPILOGUE
Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.
And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”
And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.
Revelation 7:2-4
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JERRY B. JENKINS, former vice president for publishing at Moody Bible Institute of Chicago and currently chairman of the board of trustees, is the author of more than 175 books, including the best-selling Left Behind series. Twenty of his books have reached the New York Times Best Sellers List (seven in the number-one spot) and have also appeared on the USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal best-seller lists. Desecration, book nine in the Left Behind series, was the best-selling book in the world in 2001. His books have sold nearly 70 million copies.
Also the former editor of Moody magazine, his writing has appeared in Time, Reader’s Digest, Parade, Guideposts, and dozens of Christian periodicals. He was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine in 2004.
His nonfiction books include as-told-to biographies with Hank Aaron, Bill Gaither, Orel Hershiser, Luis Palau, Joe Gibbs, Walter Payton, and Nolan Ryan among many others. The Hershiser and Ryan books reached the New York Times Best Sellers List.
Jerry Jenkins assisted Dr. Billy Graham with his autobiography, Just As I Am, also a New York Times best seller. Jerry spent 13 months working with Dr. Graham, which he considers the privilege of a lifetime.
Jerry owns Jenkins Entertainment, a filmmaking company in Los Angeles, which produced the critically acclaimed movie Midnight Clear, based on his book of the same name. See www.Jenkins-Entertainment.com.
Jerry Jenkins also owns the Christian Writers Guild, which aims to train tomorrow’s professional Christian writers. Under Jerry’s leadership, the guild has expanded to include college-credit courses, a critique service, literary registration services, and writing contests, as well as an annual conference. See www.ChristianWritersGuild.com.
As a marriage-and-family author, Jerry has been a frequent guest on Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program and is a sought-after speaker and humorist. See www.AmbassadorSpeakers.com.
Jerry has been awarded four honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Dianna, have three grown sons and four grandchildren.
Check out Jerry’s blog at http://jerryjenkins.blogspot.com.
DR. TIM LAHAYE (www.timlahaye.com), who conceived and created the idea of fictionalizing an account of the Rapture and the Tribulation, is a noted author, minister, and nationally recognized speaker on Bible prophecy. He is the founder of both Tim LaHaye Ministries and The PreTrib Research Center. Presently Dr. LaHaye speaks at many Bible prophecy conferences in the U.S. and Canada, where his current prophecy books are very popular.
Dr. LaHaye holds a doctor of ministry degree from Western Theological Seminary and a doctor of literature degree from Liberty University. For 25 years he pastored one of the nation’s outstanding churches in San Diego, which grew to three locations. It was during that time that he founded two accredited Christian high schools, a Christian school system of ten schools, and San Diego Christian College (formerly known as Christian Heritage College).
Dr. LaHaye has written over 50 nonfiction and coauthored 25 fiction books, many of which have been translated into 34 languages. He has written books on a wide variety of subjects, such as family life, temperaments, and Bible prophecy. His most popular fiction works, the Left Behind series, written with Jerry B. Jenkins, have appeared on the best-seller lists of the Christian Booksellers Association, Publishers Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the New York Times.
Another popular series by LaHaye and Jenkins is The Jesus Chronicles. This four-book novel series gives readers rich first-century experiences as John, Mark, Luke, and Matthew recount thrilling accounts of the life of Jesus. Dr. LaHaye is coauthor of another fiction series, Babylon Rising. Each of the four titles in this series have debuted in the top 10 on the New York Times Best Sellers List. These are suspense thrillers with thought-provoking messages.
TEST YOUR PROPHECY IQ
What is the fifth Trumpet Judgment and why is it significant?
See answer at the end of this section.
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE FICTION
THE PROPHECY BEHIND THE SCENES
In their book The Truth Behind Left Behind (Multnomah, 2004) , prophecy experts Mark Hitchcock and Thomas Ice talk about people questioning the possibility of salvation after the Rapture. In their chapter on Soul Harvest, they talk about those who believe the Left Behind series spreads false hope:
One preacher recently said that it was foolish to think that someone like Bruce Barnes (a character in Left Behind) could be an unsaved pastor before the Rapture and then find salvation after the Rapture. This pastor believes that Barnes, who would have heard the gospel many times prior to the Rapture, would become hardened to the message of salvation—and would no longer be capable of responding during the Tribulation days that follow. The preacher went on to warn of the danger of the Left Behind series because of this supposed error. (pp. 76-77)
Here is how Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins address the issue in chapters 24 and 25 of their nonfiction book Are We Living in the End Times?
Evangelists by the Thousands
One of our Lord’s well-known promises about the end of the age is found in Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Most prophecy scholars assume this feat will be accomplished during the Tribulation through the ministry of the 144,000 witnesses described in Revelation 7, who reach a “multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues” (verse 9).
Revelation 7 suggests that before the world is plunged into the plagues and disasters ushered in by the sixth seal judgment at the end of the first quarter of the Tribulation, God will raise up an army of 144,000 Jewish evangelists to spread across the globe and bring in a soul harvest of unimaginable proportions. Each of these “servants” of God will receive a “seal” on his forehead. In Soul Harvest, the believer’s mark is visible to other believers but not to its owner or to unbelievers.
Whatever the seal is, it affords these 144,000 Jewish witnesses supernatural protection, at least until the great soul harvest can be accomplished:
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Revelation 7:9-10
Some interpreters have a hard time believing that the Tribulation could usher in such an enormous soul harvest, but we are convinced this text shows that more men and women will be won to Christ in this period than at any time in history.
Believers in the Time of Wrath
The Scriptures do not tell us much about believers in Christ during the time of the Tri
bulation, but what they do say both thrills and chills us. We thrill to the prophecies about millions of men and women coming to the Savior during this period of wrath—but a cold wind chills our souls when we read of the shocking persecution and martyrdom that will fill those years. Read Daniel 7 and Revelation 6:9-11; 13:7; 14:13-14; 17:6.
Several important points should be emphasized from these texts to help us understand God’s program for his people during the Tribulation.
1. The Tribulation will see a great soul harvest. The Holy Spirit will be alive and well on planet Earth during the Tribulation, convicting all who are open to the gospel. The key then will be exactly what it is today and always has been—repentance and faith.
2. God is still in control. Despite the horrific numbers of saints who will lose their lives in the Tribulation, God is still very much in control throughout the whole period. Note the careful language both Daniel and John use to describe the Antichrist’s power over the people of God: “The saints shall be given into his hand” (Daniel 7:25, emphasis added); “It was granted to him to make war with the saints” (Revelation 13:7, emphasis added). Both of these texts stress that the Antichrist does nothing without the permission of God. The Beast does not tear the saints from God’s grasp, nor does he somehow outmaneuver the Lord.
3. The death of a believer is blessed. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,” declares Revelation 14:13. The world will believe these martyrs are ignorant, foolish, idiotic. They will be thankful (if that word fits) that they are not among the ones marked for death. Some of the more tenderhearted (if there will be any) may even pity these saints who would rather die than deny their Lord.
4. God will avenge the death of his children. When the slain saints cry out in heaven, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10), the Lord does not rebuke them. Instead he tells them to wait a little while longer. In many ways throughout Scripture God says, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (see Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19; Hebrews 10:30; among others).
Victory Is Theirs
We should thank God that his Word does not leave the story of the Tribulation saints with their earthly demise, but loudly proclaims their ultimate victory through the blood of the Lamb. (See Revelation 12:11.)
Hitchcock and Ice agree, ending their chapter with this statement:
We believe that millions of unbelievers will be saved during the terrible time of the Tribulation. For that we can all be thankful. Many of those saved will include some who had heard the gospel many times before the Rapture. In the meantime, we believers should make every effort to preach the gospel of God’s grace before the Rapture so that as many as possible will believe and escape the horrors of the Tribulation. (p. 87)
IN THE MEANTIME . . . since the Left Behind series was first published.
Since the publication of Soul Harvest in 1998, God has been on the move around the world—even in the Muslim-dominated “10-40 Window,” where information is difficult to get and converting to Christianity can be extremely dangerous. Author Joel C. Rosenberg has become an expert on the region around Israel that he calls the Epicenter. On April 10, 2009, he wrote an entry on his blog (joelrosenberg.com) titled “More ex-Muslims will celebrate Easter this year than any other time in history.” Following are highlights:
Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it” (KJV). Guess what? He wasn’t kidding. You rarely hear about it on the news. You rarely even hear about it in churches in the West, in the East, or even in the Middle East. But the big, untold story is that more Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ today than at any other time in history.
After crisscrossing the Islamic world over the last several years and interviewing more than 150 pastors and ministry leaders operating deep inside the most difficult countries for Inside The Revolution [Tyndale, 2009], I can report that in Iran, more than 1 million Shia Muslims have turned to Christ since 1979. In Pakistan, there are now more than 2.5 million followers of Jesus Christ. In Sudan, there are now more than 5 million followers of Christ. Not every country has seen millions leave Islam to become adherents of the New Testament teachings of Jesus. In Syria, there are between 4,000 and 5,000 believers, but this is up from almost none in 1967. In Saudi Arabia, there are about 100,000 followers of Jesus now, up from almost none in 1967. But overall, the trend has been dramatic and largely unreported.
For many Muslims, despair and despondency at what they see as the utter failure of Islamic governments and societies to improve their lives and give them peace, security, and a sense of purpose and meaning in life are causing them to leave Islam in search of truth. Some have lost their way entirely and become agnostics and atheists. Others, as we have seen, have sadly turned to alcohol and drug abuse. But millions are finding that only Jesus Christ heals the ache in their hearts and the deep wounds in their souls.
For other Muslims, it is not depression but rage that is driving them away from the Qur’an and the mosque. They are seeing far too many Muslim leaders and governments and preachers both advocating and acting out cruelty toward women and children and violence even against fellow Muslims.
You can keep posted using online resources, but be aware that reliable information is often difficult to get and individual converts may already be in extreme danger, made worse by telling their stories to outsiders. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ who face persecution every day.
TEST YOUR PROPEHCY IQ—ANSWER
The fifth of the seven Trumpet Judgments is also the first of three woes pronounced by the angel of Revelation 8:13, which take the judgments to an even greater level of ferocity. When this trumpet sounds, an angel unlocks the “bottomless pit,” which belches smoke and “locusts” with scorpion-like power to sting and torment unbelievers for five months. They are led by Apollyon, the chief demon of the abyss. Read more about the roles of angels and demons in the next book, Apollyon.