After the Rapture
What do you do if you are reading this after the rapture?
The rapture is the event where all the Christians alive on the earth at that time are removed from the earth prior to the great tribulation where God's wrath against unsaved people who have rejected his Son is poured out on earth. The rapture is described in 1 Thessalonians.
1 Thessalonians 4:14-17: For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
You will know that the rapture has occurred and you are left behind because millions of people will have disappeared and it will be in the news and probably people you know will have been among those that disappeared.
If you are reading this at that time and have not accepted the Lord but want to, go back to the Foundational Truths webpage and then the Ultimate Truth webpage. If you are now saved, you are wondering what to do now that you missed the rapture.
You are in for a bad time and will probably die during the 7 years of tribulation but when you die you will still go to heaven and receive your celestial body like those that were raptured. There is an additional requirement, though. You must NOT accept the "mark of the beast."
Rev 13:16-17 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
If you accept the mark you will go to hell. During the tribulation, you must do two things to be saved, accept Jesus Christ as your savior and NOT accept the mark of the beast. Accepting the mark means that you are accepting Satan and you can't accept both.
If you refuse the mark, then you will not be able to buy anything including food and if you are able to live, you will have to get food some other way. If you get caught you will get your head chopped off.
Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
That will actually be merciful because the plagues that will be unleashed upon the earth during the tribulation will be horrible to endure and in the end just over half of the earth's population will die during the tribulation period.
At the rapture, the time of easily converting from a lost person who will spend eternity in hell to a saved person who will spend eternity with a perfect body ends and the price to pay for that conversion goes up enormously. So if you are hesitating, the rapture has not yet occurred, you need to consider all this and accept Christ now while it is still easy.