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1 Thessalonians 5:3
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3 For [gar] when [hotan] they shall say, [lego] Peace [eirene] and [kai] safety; [asphaleia] then [tote] sudden [aiphnidios] destruction [olethros] cometh upon [ephistemi] them, [autos] as [hosper] travail [odin] upon [en] a woman with child [gaster]; [echo] and [kai] they shall [ekpheugo] not [ou me] escape. [ekpheugo] KJV-Interlinear
3 While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. NASB
The attitude of peace and safety, come from the reliance on the attributes of security, engineered by carnal means.
This is the reliance on earthly or human systems of security. Whether it be a person relying on their individual talents to make them prosperous, or government programs promising health and employment, or any of the long list of things that people look to in this life for their sense of security, none of these are real, and none of these will even accomplish their intended purpose.
Mans plans are many, and mans plans will always fail. They will fail because they reject the one and only Maker and Planner and Sustainer of the universe, namely Jesus Christ.
Just to demonstrate the absurdity of the idea of mans sense of peace and safety, you can look no further than Revelation, or Matt. 24:36-42, or 2 Peter 3:3-4.
The times immediately before the Rapture will mirror the times immediately before the flood of Noah.
In Noah’s time, society was evil and degenerate to the core. In the time immediately before the destruction of Sodom, the people were evil and degenerate to the core. Evil and degeneracy to the maximum are accompanied by every crime, violence, and corruption, you can imagine. And yet the people are so disillusioned they see only peace in their time. They relied on the generally accepted practices of society of their day.
In our current day, people are looking more and more to government to solve their problems and provide for their livelihood. And as these programs develop, we see more and more of the corruption underneath them, which hold them up.
As governments become more and more evil, we see the picture of a spiritually dysfunctional society, which put them into power.
People will look less and less to God, and more and more to their carnal support systems. They will ignore the flaws and believe their safety is in good hands.
And then destruction, ‘olethros,’ which means the total annihilation or demolition, of something that once was identifiable, but now has become so destroyed as to make it unidentifiable. This is what awaits those who reject God, Christ, doctrine, and their spiritual lives and the responsibilities that accompany their spiritual lives.
This is not a destruction which occurs at the moment of ones death, and then they see the truth of their failure only after they leave this life. This means that while they still live, destruction will come upon them like a storm.
At the Rapture, the people of the world will be mostly unbelievers. After the Rapture, when all believers are removed, then only unbelievers will remain. Most will not recognize the significance of the event, or of the repercussions about to fall upon them.
They will be caught off guard, not realizing that the countdown clock for human history, has been set for seven years, and that will be all that they will have to get their act together.
And where can they go, where can they escape to?
Well, in times past, people, when they encountered oppression, could look to frontiers, to countries where freedom was generally practiced. In recent decades or the past couple of centuries, people from all over the world could come to the United States.
But, after the Rapture, there will be no place to which anyone can run, or even look to for rescue.
The birth pains of the pregnant woman come on her suddenly. This is the description of a first time mom. She knows of her pregnancy. She knows of her condition. She knows of the things of birth which she can expect, but not having ever experienced them, and with no drugs (they did not exist back in Pauls day), then the mother will not know the actual pains until the moment of her labor and birth, arrives.
A pregnant woman in labor, cannot escape her condition. She cannot say, ‘Stop, I’ve changed my mind.’
She is stuck with her birth and has no place to go until it is all over.
But unlike the birth, the destruction of the world will last seven years and it will seem like it will never end. And when it does finally end, with the Second Advent of Christ, then everyone will be dead and in heaven because they believed somewhere along the way, or they will be dead and in Torments, because they rejected Christ throughout the Tribulation, or they will be among the very, very few, who will remain alive, because they believed and advanced to maturity under the most horrendous conditions ever in history, and will enter into the Millennium to repopulate the earth under the Kingdom of Christ, for the next thousand years.
