Two Ways to be Saved

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: I Thessalonians 4:17

Does it shock you that the guy who says he is a Fundamentalist claims there is more than one way to be saved? If we were talking about eternal salvation it would be a shocking thing to say and you would be entirely right to be shocked.

We know that faith in Jesus is the only way for a person to be saved in that way. Although many who are Christians still try to be good enough to merit salvation on their own.

But I want to talk about a different kind of salvation, a salvation from distress even death in this world. You find examples throughout the Bible. One way is to be helped through a terrible time though suffering in it. The other is to be removed from the situation entirely.

Imagine a man waiting for a bus when a rainstorm is about to let go. It has just begun to rain when a kindly soul in his car sees the man standing there. "My goodness," he thinks, "this man is about to be drenched!" He pulls over to the curb and offers the man his umbrella. He has just saved the man from a terrible wetting. He knows the bus will soon be there and though he will get a little wet, the man will make it.

As he drives on he sees another man in the same situation. The storm will hit very shortly. He pulls to the side again, but this time he does not offer the man an umbrella. He says rather, "Get in, I'll take you to your house so you won't be rained on."

Two men have been saved--one from the full effects of the storm, though he will have to go through it. The other has been saved by being taken out of danger entirely.

I speak of God's provision for Israel and for the Church. Both Israel and the Church will be saved in the Day of Trouble which is coming. Israel will be saved though it, and the church will be saved from it entirely. Of course I speak of the Great Tribulation and the Rapture of the Church from the earth.

Oh, how the Rapture is hated, and I mean by some people in the church. There are people that I admire and really like, who deride it. They say the word "rapture" is not even in the Bible. Neither is the Presbyterian church mentioned in the Bible, but it is a true church.

Would these skeptics prefer the term "caught up"? That is in the Bible and its message is very clear. Some are waiting to be taken away from the storm and to their homes. Others will be given an umbrella to protect them until the storm is over.

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. Jeremiah 30:7