Nuggets from "Whatever Happened to Heaven?" by Dave Hunt

Nuggets from "Whatever Happened to Heaven?" by Dave Hunt

In a chapter titled “Peace and Power in the End Times’’ [in his book "The Rapture Book: Victory in the End Times"], James McKeever suggests that even during the Great Tribulation the Christian will be able to defeat all enemies and escape suffering and death through exercising God’s power as Elijah did in calling fire from heaven to destroy those who would have killed him. In the midst of his talk about victory, he quotes Romans:8:35-37 [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [36] As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. [37] Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
See All..., commenting only upon the last verse that reads: “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.’’

In his enthusiasm to be optimistic, McKeever forgets that “all these things’’ refers to suffering and death, not to calling fire from heaven upon our enemies. He writes: “We are not just barely victors and conquerors in Jesus Christ . . . we are far ‘more than conquerors’. . . .” These verses, however, are not referring to the kind of victory he promises, but to the reality of true victory in Christ—a victory that shines brightest on a martyr’s brow. Consider the context, which McKeever quotes but promptly ignores:

"Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, 'For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'’’