Earthquake Fallout

This morning, after I eventually wandered my way over to the computer and got it up and running and the internet working, I started checking news and blogs. I was glad to see that overnight, our time, there had been no 6.0's and above. There have been since, though, in the Japan area. I then turned my attention to a specific blog I now read.

I found this blog while searching the internet a few weeks ago for Christian blogs on End Time. I like the way the woman writes. Even though we are obviously from different denominations, we see the same thing happening in the world around us.

This morning (evening for her), though, I was deeply offended by one sentence that she wrote. That sentence, and the offence it produced, has stuck with me all day and influenced everything I've been reading and doing. Here is her paragraph:
I've often wondered about how bad things will get before we are called to meet Him in the air. (1 Thess 4:16-18). How bad will the birth pangs get and what will that look like? The church is not destined to be on earth for the Tribulation, that is a fact. The angel told Daniel in Daniel 9:24 the 6 reasons God will make a Tribulation, and one of them is to punish, and end the iniquity on earth. Church age believers are not destined for punishment, our sins are pardoned and we are free from accusation. (Col 1:22). But for the Christians in Japan, if there are any, it must certainly feel like punishment. So this is how I decided to think about it. And she goes on from there.

I don't agree with her eschatology completely, but that is neither here nor there (sometimes I do wish I still believed in a pre-trib rapture....) Can you guess what sentence so offended me?
But for the Christians in Japan, if there are any, it must certainly feel like punishment.
Oh.
My.
Gosh.

I'm not sure where to start with this one! So, I'll start with the bolded part first (that was my emphasis added, by the way). "If there are any" I'm still kind of reeling over that one. How arrogant is that? It speaks volumes to me on her view of world missions, on her view of Gods' promise that there will be people from EVERY tribe and tongue and nation in heaven, on her general view of the Japanese people who live there. Yes, Japan is the 2nd most unevangelized country in the world, so I recently learned. Yes, there are millions of heathen there. But YES, God has HIS people in Japan, right now, a Church made up of several different denominations, people He has chosen and called as His own. Some of those Believers in Japan are Americans, some are British, for all I know some may be Chinese or Australian or whatever nationality you can think of. Some are businessmen, some are missionaries. Some are Japanese people who have heard the Word of God and responded because GOD CHOSE THEM, CALLED THEM, and REDEEMED THEM. There is a Church in Japan, small as it may be, but it IS there. (I often - OFTEN - wonder just how small the true Chruch is in the US. So many say they are Christians, but there is no fruit of the Spirit in their lives, and so many of the 'churches' are heretical now...)

I remember when we first came to Ukraine. No power 5 times a day. A water schedule (which we still have) - water only 3 times a day. Buildings in great disrepair. People living hand to mouth, getting food out of the dumpsters, dogs and cats starving on the streets because people couldn't feed them. And we got here when things were starting to get better! Did we think God was punishing us for sending us here?!!? Did the people we met - both Believers and non-Believers - think God was punishing them through what had happened to their country, the old USSR? No, in fact, many people saw it as God was liberating them, giving them a blessing. People here just have a different way of looking at things because they have suffered so much, for so long.

Maybe that has influenced my own thinking. Maybe that is part of why I was so offended. When "bad" things happen, it does not mean that God is punishing people. Ok, I am well aware that this can get sticky very quickly. God does punish sin - but He is very long suffering. Sometimes what we think or assume is punishment (on us or on others around us) is actually God's blessing. And what is happening in Japan right now may very well be a prime example of that.

It can be a blessing - by shaking people out of their dependence on their own abilities and forcing them to acknowledge that they are sinners and need a Savior. That is the main way. This - no matter how painful it may be, is a BLESSING. So, Christians living there in Japan, I pray, are not looking at this as a punishment on them from God, but rather as God splitting open a very hard shell around the society so that many will be open to actually hearing and understanding the Word of God, the Gospel preached or spoken to them.

Oh, I am very well aware that many more will actually harden their hearts against God instead! I know that many will acknowledge that this came from God and shake their fists at Him instead of repent.

I guess it all depends on how we chose to look at what is happening around us.

For me, believing now that we Christians, we Believers in Christ Jesus as Savior, we will go through the Tribulation just as all other humans alive on earth, this gives me great joy. What a priviledge to suffer as our Savior did, not because we are being punished by God while the world is being punished, but because we have been given the great honor of witnessing for Him during this time. What great honor it will be for those who are martyred for the sake of Jesus Christ!! Not punishment! Honor! God will protect His children during that time, and if we die, we die - just like we do every single day of the year, every hour of the day. Some right now as I write - Christians dying because of their faith in Christ, Christians dying because they live in an area prone to earthquakes, floods, volcanoes or whatever it may be. Christians dying because man built nuclear reactors, or planes and cars that crash.

I'm not even sure this all makes sense this afternoon. I'm going to post it and then I may revise it. But for now - I'm praying for my brothers and sisters in Christ in Japan, that God will open many hearts to hear their witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!