Are Earthquakes A Part of The Great Tribulation? How Should Christians Respond To Natural Disasters?

            The Bible foretells a seven year tribulation period prior to Christ’s second coming. This will be a time of unparalleled suffering for mankind.

            Earthquakes are a sure means to inflict this gory suffering, and the Bible includes earthquakes as a part of the tribulation period. Hence some Christians were quick to associate the recent earthquake in Nepal with the tribulation, thus implying the rapid proximity of Christ’s second coming.

            To be fair, one cannot blatantly ignore these voices, for ‘Earthquaketrack.com’¹ reported 109 earthquakes today (4^th April 2015), 680 during the past week, 2987 in the past month and 37, 655 in the past year. These large numbers could easily validate these voices (this report includes earthquakes of magnitude 1.5 or greater).

            Two pertinent questions could be raised in the wake of natural disasters such as the recent earthquake in Nepal:

            1. If these voices are valid, are we living in the tribulation period - are we experiencing unparalleled suffering now? If not, when do we expect the great tribulation?

            2. When earthquakes (read suffering) destroy many lives irreparably, should Christians shout loud to the world about the earthquake being a part of the tribulation period or God’s judgment upon mankind etc.?

            Are we living inside the tribulation period? Matthew 24 outlines consecutive tribulational events:

            1. Deceptive Messiahs: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many” (verses 4-5).

            2. Wars: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (verses 6-7).

            3. Famines & Earthquakes: “There will be famines and earthquakes in various places” (verse 7b).

            4. Persecution & Martyrdom: “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold…” (verses 9-12).

            5. Cosmic Disturbances: “…the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken” (verses 29).

            6. Christ’s Second Coming: “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other” (verses 30-31).

            Various other passages speak about the tribulation period (Daniel 9: 24-27; Jeremiah 30: 3-14; Revelation 6-18; Zechariah 12: 2-3, 8-9, 14: 1-5, 7-9; 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-10). However, the first event of the tribulation period, as elucidated by premillenial scholars, is the arrival of antichrist.

            Until now there is no concrete sighting of the antichrist. Many rumors do circulate, but they are unconvincing. Similarly, there are wars, famines, earthquakes and cosmic disturbances, but is the unparalleled suffering of the tribulation period?

            Let us think this through by considering the factor of peace through the global peace index. In other words, is the world at peace now?

            Institute for Economics and Peace’s (IEP) study² reveals that only 11 countries in the world were not involved in conflict of one kind or another. Another significant revelation of this study is that the world is becoming less peaceful every year since 2008.

            Having said this, the world is not being traumatized by peacelessness. For instance, India ranks 143/162 in the global peace index (#1 ranked country is most peaceful and the 162^nd ranked country is the least peaceful). According to this statistic, India is not considered a peaceful country. However in reality, barring instances of conflicts and violence, life is quite normal in most parts of India.

            If this is the situation in India, 142 other countries do seem to enjoy a relatively greater degree of peace. Hence a conclusion that we are not living in the tribulation period, since suffering is not at its zenith in this world, is reasonable.  

            When do we expect the tribulation period to commence? Tribulation will surely occur in the future, but since the Bible does not provide us with a specific date, it would be unwise to propose a specific time frame.

            When natural disasters augment our suffering, should Christians make damaging statements through social media forums equating natural disasters with God’s judgment or as indicative of tribulation period? What purpose does this serve?

            One blogger had this to say, “Yet we know in the Tribulation, all the mountains will be thrown down…. O, Nepal, your dead idols cannot help you now! Turn from them and repent to the True and Living God!”³

            A Christian preacher tweeted, “Praying 4 the lost souls in Nepal. Praying not a single destroyed pagan temple will b rebuilt & the people will repent/receive Christ.”⁴ As one would expect, there were a number of angry responses. This preacher then responded with greater hostility.

            Is this the need of the hour? I do not think so.

            Did the earthquake in Nepal kill only the non-christians? No, many Christians died and church buildings may have also been destroyed. ⁵

            When this act of God did not spare Christians, why make statements as if this was God’s judgment upon non-christians?

            How could we be certain that God has allowed a natural disaster as a means of his judgment? If we are not sure, then why make those statements? Wouldn’t we be better off without such demeaning statements?  

            Since we do not know the mind of God in the context of natural disasters, it is merely probable that natural disasters could be God’s judgment upon mankind. Natural disasters could include believers and unbelievers of Christ. Since believers of Christ who die during natural disasters would be heaven bound, natural disasters are not a mechanism of God’s judgment upon Christians. However, Christians cannot use natural disasters as a means to pronounce judgment upon non-christians. 

            Pronouncing judgment upon non-christians would not bring them to Christ. It is the love of Christ, made perfect by HIS perfect sacrifice that draws people closer to HIM.

Endnotes:

¹ http://earthquaketrack.com/recent, last accessed on 4^th April 2015, 10:20 AM, IST.   

²http://www.visionofhumanity.org/sites/default/files/2014%20Global%20Peace%20Index%20REPORT.pdf

&

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/indexes/global-peace-index

³ http://the-end-time.blogspot.in/2015/04/nepals-large-quake-tragedy-and.html

⁴  http://spiritualsoundingboard.com/2015/04/26/open-air-preacher-tony-mianos-insensitive-tweets-after-nepal-earthquake-disaster/

⁵ http://www.charismanews.com/world/49454-a-nepal-pastor-s-spirit-inspired-last-words-before-dying-in-the-rubble

Rapture Revolutionized; What If Christians Are Not Raptured?

            If you believe that Christ will return invisibly to snatch away the church (the living and the dead, who will be resurrected), you believe in the doctrine of rapture. You would also believe that God will give glorified bodies to all raptured believers of Christ so to live with HIM unto eternity.

            Your belief would include the great tribulation - a future seven year period of extraordinary suffering for mankind (need not be a literal seven year period). With reference to the timing of rapture and the great tribulation, you could believe that rapture would be: (we shall only consider the three major views)

            Pre Tribulational (rapture before the tribulation period)

            or

            Post Tribulational (rapture at the end of tribulation)

            or

            Mid Tribulational (rapture during the midpoint of the tribulation)

            Rapture is a rather recent view. Rapture was initially propagated by John Darby in 1827. A majority of Christians believe in Pre-tribulational rapture.

            Miraculous is always exciting. Rapture is miraculous, for it alludes to believers being supernaturally snatched away from this world.

            Apart from the church’s teaching, the doctrine of rapture has been popularized through movies, such as “Left Behind.” Those who have been greatly impacted by these movies as well as the teachings consider rapture to be an essential doctrine of Historic Christianity.  But is it so?

            Dr. William Lane Craig, an acclaimed and an accomplished Christian philosopher, expressed his public disagreement with the rapture theology.¹ His disagreement was based on his hermeneutical consideration of the following verses that apparently espouse rapture: Mark 13:19-20, 24-27; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; 1 Corinthians 15: 22-26, 51-55, and 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8. ²

            When such a sharp theological disagreement occurs at the highest academic realm, how would lay Christians respond?

            An average Christian mind would respond through a few pertinent questions:

            1. Should I [continue to] believe in rapture?

            2. What would happen to me if there will be no rapture?

            3. If I would not be raptured, then am I doomed to suffer during the terrible period of tribulation?

            Primarily, there are essential and non-essential doctrines in Historic Christianity. How do we identify an essential doctrine?

            Dr. Norman Geisler defines essential doctrine as, “First, the doctrine must concern and be connected to our salvation; that is, it must be salvific. Second, its connection to our salvation must be crucial; that is, it must be so tied to our salvation that if it were not true, our salvation as God revealed it would not be possible.” ³

            For instance, Christ’s divinity or faith in Christ is an essential doctrine. But baptism by water is not an essential doctrine.

            In other words, water baptism is not a means to our salvation. However, we cannot agree to disagree about Christ’s divinity. As Christians, if we believe that Christ is not God, then we are not Christians. We may as well consider ourselves as people of other religion or atheists or agnostics, since they do not believe that Christ is God.

            Therefore, while certain doctrines are considered essential to Historic Christianity, there are other doctrines that are non-essential. Rapture falls under the non-essential category because it is not connected to our salvation.

            Rapture does not hinder man’s relationship with God or salvation in any possible manner. Rapture merely espouses the snatching away of the believer from this world and into God’s presence. The crucial aspect of rapture is not the act of being raptured (snatched away), but the fact that the person is a believer of Christ.

            Faith in Christ gains salvation (it is not the faith that Christ is one among the many gods, but the faith that saves man is the faith that Christ is the only [way to] God whose redemptive sacrifice saves man of his sins). If man rejects Christ, then he rejects himself from God’s presence. So faith in Christ is an essential doctrine.

            Therefore, even if the doctrine of rapture is incorrect, Dr. Craig affirmed that it would not affect believers’ relationship with Christ or their salvation, “I think that the rapture doctrine is wrong, but that’s not going to inhibit anyone’s relationship with God.”⁴ Dr. Craig’s statement reflects the notion that rapture is a non-essential doctrine in Historic Christianity.

            What if there is no such thing as rapture? Would a believer of Christ be with God nevertheless? Of course!

            Pre-tribulational rapture espouses the snatching away of the believers of Christ from the impending gory of the great tribulation. But the mid-tribulational and post-tribulational rapture includes the believers of Christ in the gory of the great tribulation. Whatever the case may be, believers of Christ will either go through the great tribulation or not.

            Since rapture is a subset of Christ’s second coming, let us observe rapture from the vantage point of the Lord’s second coming. There are then two stages of Christ’s second coming.

            The first possible stage is the rapture, which is the “coming for” the saints. The second stage of the Lord’s second coming is the “coming with” the saints. The great tribulation separates these two stages.

            Even if rapture does not occur, it is certain that the Lord will come again!

            Effectively, if rapture does not occur, then the Lord’s second coming will occur in one stage or as a single event.

            However which way you look at it, when the Lord returns again in all HIS glory, the believers of Christ will be with the Lord forever in their glorified bodies. So rapture really does not matter!    

            If rapture does not occur, then the believers would be included in the great tribulation. In this scenario, Christians should just be ready for this inclusion (cf. 2 Corinthians 12: 9).

            Would those who disagree with rapture be termed heretics or would those who profess to rapture be considered heretics? In the words of Dr. Craig, “A heretic is someone who has a doctrinal error so serious that it separates him from salvation” ⁵

                Whether you believe in rapture or not, there is no doctrinal error that separates you from salvation. As said earlier, faith in Christ is mandatory to one’s salvation. Rapture is not essential to man’s salvation. So ‘heresy’ is not something that we should be concerned about in this context.

            However, it is rather unfortunate that Christian denominations have warred over non-essential doctrines, such as rapture and water baptism. Spiritual pride is one major reason for this sad reality. So we continue to pray that God would enable us to follow this maxim, “In essentials unity, nonessentials liberty, and in all things charity.” Amen.

Endnotes:

¹ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/10/09/theologian-claims-rapture-proponents-might-be-reading-the-bible-all-wrong-and-reveals-an-alternative-end-times-interpretation/

² For an extensive rebuttal of the doctrine of rapture, please visit these links:

Link 1: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/defenders-2-podcast/transcript/s13-2

Link 2: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/defenders-2-podcast/transcript/s13-3

³ http://www.equip.org/article/the-essential-doctrines-of-the-christian-faith-part-two/#christian-books-1

⁴ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/10/09/theologian-claims-rapture-proponents-might-be-reading-the-bible-all-wrong-and-reveals-an-alternative-end-times-interpretation/

⁵ http://www.reasonablefaith.org/defenders-2-podcast/transcript/s13-2