An "Old" Lesson...with a "New" Perspective...

I love listening to talk radio and to preaching on the radio as I am driving and, needless to say, I had the opportunity to do a lot of both during our exodus across America. I was listening to a preacher who was discussing the tribulation and the pre- v. post-trib rapture debate.

He believed in a pre-tribulation rapture (which I do as well), but he provided a very interesting illustration from the Bible on why he thought so. He used Sodom and Gomorrah as an example. As you recall, once Abraham learned the Angel of the Lords errand, the destruction of the city, he asked if God would spare the city if 50 righteous were found. The Lord and Abraham went back and forth until the Lord stated that if 10 righteous be found he would spare the city.

As we all know, there were not 10 found. Only Lot and his family. Although his sons-in-law would not leave with him, the Lord took Lot and his family from Sodom and Gomorrah before destroying it. That God, in his love and mercy, could not destroy his own, but removed them. This is a picture of the rapture, where God will remove his children from the Earth before releasing the full force of his wrath.

This is a beautiful picture of God's love and mercy. For only 10, he would have spared the city. Don't you think our countdown has begun? I'm sure we are approaching the Lord's limit. But when he could not find even 10, he removed the few that remained.

I also find hope in this in defining Lot as a "righteous" person. We know his story and that of his wife's. They were not people that I would have thought of as "righteous"; yet, they were God's, and he spared them....warts and all.

What a kind and loving Father He is...