And Then Shall the End Come

Much attention in the religious world is being focused upon the matters involved in the end of the world situation as we know it.  To most Christian believers, the next major event of world change will be the rapture of the saints in which all the living saints will be caught up with the resurrected saints who have died in the Lord to meet the Lord in the air.

There is very little dispute about the fact of this event, because it is treated very definitely in the Scriptures, which most believers accept as valid and authoritative.  The time, and the condition of the Church at the time of the event, could stand some minute scrutiny.

There is still a great divergence of belief, too, concerning the identity and definition of the Body of Christ.  A scriptural identity and definition of this Body will also help a great deal in understanding the events in which it is involved.  Some believe that the Body of Christ consists of all born again believers without regard to their religious relationship to one another other than that.  While, on the other hand, some believe that the Body is made up of belivers who have a definite and specific relationship to one another, and whose unity and recognition as the Body depends upon a relationship beyond the new birth – a unity of doctrine, government, practice, and the baptism into one body by a covenant similar to the marriage covenant.

Knowing the nature of the work of the Church will determine how one looks at the events in which it is involved before the Rapture takes place.  That is what this book is about – some of the happenings which must transpire before Christ returns for the Church, and things which most writers on escatology (things concerning the end time) completely ignore.  These things are distinctly given to us in the Word of God, written for us by holy men of God as they were moved upon by the Spirit of God.