Believers who live in the world as the worldly people and seek to save their soul, their soul-life, will suffer shame as did Lot’s wife, and will lose their soul at the Lord’s coming back (Luke 17:28-33). Most Christians are like this. Although they are believers, yet they live like worldly people, shopping and dressing in the same way as the worldly people do. Since they live and walk the same as the worldlings, there is no difference between them and the worldly people.
To save the soul means to refuse to suffer for the Lord’s sake. Christians who save their soul like to have their pleasure. They say, “What’s wrong with going to sporting events? It’s not sinful.” Although it may not be sinful, it is worldly. I am not saying that Christians should have no physical exercise for their health. We certainly need that. But once any form of exercise becomes a sport or entertainment, it is worldly. If you enjoy it and find it pleasurable, it means that you are saving your soul. To have any psychological and worldly enjoyment is to save the soul.
Today is not the time for us Christians to have psychological and worldly pleasure or enjoyment; it is the time for us to suffer in our soul, in our psychology. As long as we can maintain our existence, it is sufficient. We should not seek psychological and worldly pleasure. Since World War II, who has given such a sobering word? During the past thirty-one years, I have been watching and observing, but I have not heard a sober word or warning telling Christians that we are not on this earth for our psychological and worldly enjoyment, and that we must suffer the loss of every kind of amusement and entertainment. Your enjoyment of certain music at home may be a saving of your soul. Many Christians cannot overcome their television sets. Their watching television may be a saving of their soul. I am neither religious nor legal, but I do say that today is not the time for us to have psychological and worldly amusement; it is the time for us to suffer in our soul. This suffering in the soul is for the saving of the soul. If you are not willing to suffer in order to save your soul, you will suffer shame as Lot’s wife did and lose your soul at the Lord’s coming back.
It is wrong to teach that all Christians will be raptured at one time at the Lord’s coming back. That teaching befuddles the spiritual sense of the Lord’s people. In Luke 17:34 and 35 the Lord said, “I tell you, in that night there will be two on one couch; the one will be taken, and the other will be left. There will be two grinding at the same place; the one will be taken, but the other will be left.” You may argue, saying, “The one taken is a believer, and the one left is an unbeliever.” But that is your interpretation. While both are the same, doing the same thing in the same place, only the Lord knows who is genuinely for Him. If you read the context of Luke 17:22-37, you will see that this word is not given to unbelievers but to the Lord’s disciples. It was a word given to them concerning the time of His coming. The “two” in verses 34 and 35 refer to two of the Lord’s disciples, one of whom will be taken and the other of whom will be left. The one who will be taken will surely not be like Lot’s wife. The disciple who will be left will be like Lot’s wife. This is a sober word.
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