Tribulation

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

February 21, 2012


 *2012-02-21 - “TRIBULATION” - FOREWARD - H. A. Baker*

*(Author of “Visions Beyond the Veil - written in the 1920's*

*See our Archives - 2010-07-07 to 2010-09-09 for a copy*

*Also see end of Chapter IB 2010-07-07 - Adullam Beginnings - for
information *

*how to receive an updated copy by H. A. Baker's grandson Rolland)*


 This is a companion volume to *Tribulation to Glory* (sent out 1931) which
has been surprisingly well received the few months it has been in
circulation. After reading the message of that book many readers say that
it brought out clearly truths they had before seen in more or less
obscurity. This reaction toward the former book encourages the bringing of
the present volume into circulation, for it gives the fuller scriptural
support for this theme relating to the time of the return of the Lord Jesus
Christ.


 As in the case of my other books, in sending this one out I have
especially in mind our friends who have been faithful prayer supporters of
our work for many years and have been interested in all we have done or
written.


 I wish here to assure you that if you will carefully read and meditate
upon what is contained in this book and come to believe in the truths
herein set forth, you will find yourself brought more fully into the
meaning of the cross as we should expect to experience it. You will feel
that you are more perfectly in line with the experience of Jesus and the
saints who have gone before us. You will see that the cross-bearing way,
the tribulation way, is the most glorious way.


 What we want is truth. All truth must check out with scripture. But we
all, as Paul says, see through a glass darkly as compared with seeing all
truth as it is in its right setting and proportions. We must ever remember
that in our searching for the truth as revealed in the scriptures it is
important to maintain a spirit of love and right consideration towards
other seekers for truth. Difference in doctrinal beliefs is not ground for
unchrist-like attitude of mind. Many of our best friends at present believe
differently for what they will find in this present book. We love them none
the less for believing what that have been taught - erroneously taught, as
we now see it. While I believe what they will read will give such a more
consistent and satisfying Christian life, a supreme love for Christ and His
children should be paramount.


 We are naturally inclined to grab at any straw that will help defend us in
our position, while rejecting truth that would be most clearly evident were
we willing to accept it. It is hard to honestly and fairly consider and
weigh every interpretation of scripture on its own merits. More than that,
we are naturally cowards. We are afraid to act on the truth we see because
of the physical, mental, or spiritual pain honest acceptance and execution
of truth will involve. Let's be honest in facing truth and facts. Let's be
brave and accept without excuse the truth we see and make our actions check
in its execution. Otherwise we will surely miss God's best. My hope is that
readers of this book will honestly consider what is written and compare it
all with scripture. If what you find is scriptural, as I believe it is, I
will rightly expect you to accept it and act upon it regardless of what it
may involve in the way of pleasure or pain.


 It seems to me that the reader will not fail to see that the so-called
“pre-tribulation theory” that the Church will be caught away from the earth
before the time of the reign of the man of sin, or anti-Christ, is false
doctrine, not supported by scripture. I believe this present discussion
will show, on the other hand, that the coming of the Lord will not be until
after the so-called great tribulation.


 Like myself, so far as I know, or anyone who knows, every believer of the
popular any-moment-secret-rapture-doctrine came to believe in it by first
hearing it from a preacher, or a teacher, or a friend, or from reading it
in the religious literature of the day. I know of no one at present who
came to this belief at first by his own personal Bible study, do you?


 Books on this then and much other literature that came to my hand in my
first contacts with this subject, with but little exception, taught the
commonly accepted erroneous doctrine. I secured a Schofield Bible and
practically devoured its contents. I studied every chapter, verse, note,
line. At last I came to a “dead end.” I saw no through road in its
teaching. My first contacts with this doctrine and my first study of it
through other men's eyes, as well as natural inclination towards so
pleasing a way out of the present confusing and evil world, led me to half
believe the doctrine and to half-heartedly preach it. In spite of all my
reading in its favor there had, from the first, been underneath it all the
thought that this very important, much-embracing doctrine was founded on
“inference” rather than definite statements of scripture. I feel certain
that it was the Holy Spirit who, one morning, when I was studying this
question, brought clearly to my mind nearly all the main considerations
found from Chapter I to the end of this present discussion.


 Later when the Lord poured out the Holy Spirit upon our orphanage of
Chinese children in a most remarkable way, as recorded in my book, *Visions
Beyond the Veil*, and as shown there, many children, even small children,
had repeated visions and other revelations of the reign of the anti-Christ
and the persecution of saints as well as revelations of the preaching of
the gospel in unusual power at that time. This corroborated what I had seen
in the scripture and at the same time made the coming of
anti-Christ-tribulation so imminent that it had a very practicable and
far-reaching effect on my subsequent missionary work. I will now indicate
how this belief affected my work.


 Shortly after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit just mentioned, the Lord
miraculously opened the doors for the remarkable work of the Spirit that
took place among the tribal people in the mountains of Yunnan province,
China, as recorded in my other book, *God in Ka Do Land.* Thoroughly
convinced now that the Church would be on earth till the end of the reign
of the anti-Christ and that the anti-Christ persecution was very near, from
the time I made my first itinerary among the tribes I always felt the urge
to work with, that it might be my last chance to freely preach. No
itinerary was ever free from this thought. Knowing that anti-Christ
persecutions were ahead and that my people must be prepared for the
tribulation that would come upon them, I never wanted to plan any self
ease, or prepare myself for less that I expected was to be our lot in the
future. I felt no time was to be taken out for furlough or for months or
weeks or even days of vacation. I even watched the very hours lest time be
lost. I allowed nothing to divert me from the work in hand, so that I might
prepare as many people as possible and as well as possible for the day the
door would slam in my face and tribulation would settle down on my sheep in
the mountains.


 I expected that I and my Christians of various tribes would be caught
together in the persecutions of the anti-Christ, whose spirit we often felt
about us. From the first I taught my people that they were not to count
their lives dear unto themselves, but I taught them what the Bible said,
that the anit-Christ would come first and then Jesus would return. This
they plainly saw in reading the Bible for themselves. My many co-workers
and I everywhere preached that some, or all, of us might have to be martyrs
for Jesus. We talked and preached so much about the cross and how Jesus
loved us and died for us, while the Holy Spirit made these things so real
that the thought of suffering even unto death for Him who had suffered all
for us became a joyful thought and an inspiration to lives of deeper
devotion to our Lord. I have seen young men and young women and old men and
old women weeping outright many a time because they regretted they had been
unable to suffer more for Jesus. Since we would all have to die some time,
unless the Lord came in our day, many came to think that of all the forms
of death imaginable, there could be no death so satisfactory and glorious
as to be a martyr for Jesus.



 I am relating this because it shows the right outcome of the teaching of
right doctrine. My people were always taught that the anti-Christ would
come first and then Jesus would come. They were always taught that the more
we suffer for Christ, the more Christ-like we become. They knew that the
nail-pierced hands are a challenge for us to enter resurrection glory by
way of the cross.


 Is not this the Christian way? Is not this the way the Old Testament
prophets and the Old Testament saints went? Is not this the way the Church
has come down through the centuries? How about the saints behind the iron
and the bamboo curtains today? For whom is there an easy rocking-chair or a
soft hammock way to heaven today? Is there to be an exception to the whole
principle of Christianity and the experience of the saints ever since the
days of Abel? Why any exception? Are saints today better than Daniel and
all of his train? Or, are present day saints too weak and cowardly to
suffer tribulation and hence desire to be taken away lest they fail the
Lord in time of trial? Surely not. If too weak and cowardly, what would
they do in heaven if they got there? Would they not be so ashamed when they
looked upon the nail-pierced hands and looked into the beaming faces of the
martyrs that they would plead night and day for the Lord to allow them to
return to earth to really suffer a little for Jesus?


 In China I faced grave danger many times. I have faced death more than
once. Then at last the Lord spoke to my people in the words: (Chinese) “Bei
Muh si dy gong dzo wai, liao. O yao ling ta dao ih go hao di fange.” Which
means: “Pastor Baker's work is finished. I am going to take him to a good
place.” I wondered if what I had expected and tried to be prepared for had
come. Was I going to die in the midst of my people, or was I going to be
killed and go to that “good place, - heaven? Here I am, out of it all, in
the “good place” - America.


 How about my people? When I was anxious about what would happen to them,
did the Lord not speak directly to me in words, telling me who would not
care for them, “He who cares for the sparrow!” Not one of them will fall
without my Father's notice. Not a hair of their heads will perish. If
killed for Jesus' sake, not a hair will perish. They are already on the
resurrection side. If the Lord wants to keep them alive He will still do
what He did while I was there: turn enemies into friends and make the
communists, who are supposed to destroy the churches, say that the
Christians were the best of the people and even tell the ungodly that had
better be Christians. It is my opinion that my sheep, right in the midst of
the ungodly mess, are not suffering. On the contrary, they may be suffering
great tribulation, as have saints in all ages. To be ready to suffer all
things for Christ and to count all loss for Him and to leave it with Him
when to suffer in prison or when to be delivered by the angels is the right
attitude of mind. Should not every follower of the crucified Christ be
prepared to go through great tribulation to glory and then leave it to
Jesus to work it all out?


 Since many readers of this present volume may not have had opportunity to
read Volume I, (It costs $100 at Amazon and Alabris!) in the
*Introduction*to the present volume, I summarize much that was in the
former volume,
showing the errors of the any-moment rapture, or the escape-tribulation
theory. If you have read the first book you may, if you desire, skip the *
Introduction* and begin with Chapter I.



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