The saints have stood for two thousand years and they shall stand until the Lord returns. When He catches up His warriors it will be into the air so they can join the legions who already are in the air, ready to descend with Jesus and put an end to Antichrist, the False Prophet, and all the other wicked of the earth.

The Lord will speak with the voice of thunder, "Come up here!"

Michael will summon his mighty warrior angels.

The trumpet of God will sound the attack.

The legions in the air will descend and raise their bodies from their place of interment. The living warriors will be changed and caught up together with them to be seated on the war stallions.

Down from the sky will hurtle the One whose robe has been dipped in blood, followed by those who are called, chosen, and faithful.

Antichrist and his armies will attempt to resist the takeover of the earth but they will all be slaughtered.

And give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. (II Thessalonians 1:7—NIV)

Can you see in the above verse that relief will come to the Christians by the revelation of the Lord in blazing fire rather than by a "rapture" seven years previously as commonly taught?

We are more than conquerors through the Lord Jesus Christ. We fear God! He alone can determine our eternal destiny. We have no fear of Satan, Antichrist, the great tribulation, or anything or anyone else. Christ is our strength, our protection. We do not need to flee from the battle in order to be saved. The Lord is our helmet, our salvation.

So we do have a joyful, wonderful hope. It is a hope of victory, not of fleeing from the conflict.

Best of all it is a scriptural hope, the hope the saints of all ages have held. Our hope is that God will keep us from temptation and from harm.

In addition we have the knowledge that the wheat, the righteous, will come to maturity in the last days. This means we will be filled with a fullness of God we have not known before.

The Lord will roar out of Zion, Joel tells us. He will arise and shake the heavens and the earth. When He does the wicked will be removed from all positions of authority and power. But those who are abiding in Christ, who are living each day in a personal relationship with Jesus, speaking to Him and listening for His voice and His will, shall sing and dance in the heights of Zion throughout all that is to come to pass on the earth. The bodies of the remnant will remain on the earth, as God wills, but they themselves will be living in the Presence of the King.

We can begin to experience such security and joy today if we have a mind to seek the Lord with all of our might, turning aside from every idol that would in any manner detract from a single-minded, steadfast, resolute pursuit of God.

The Bible hope really is a better hope than the one people have made up.

To be continued.