Countdown

By Mandy Hackland

There is a day in the future when the whole world will change. Many people will disappear in an instant. The world will be reeling. What happened to their friends and family? Who will those who remain behind be able to ask? Most people who could have answered these questions are missing for Jesus Christ has come for His Church and taken them home as He promised in Scripture. . Countdown is written for those who are uncertain, prior to this event, whether they will be amongst the group Jesus calls and offers them hope and understanding. It also answers some of the questions of those who have been left behind, extending the invitation to everyone to turn to Jesus who still offers them the hope and the promises of eternity in His presence. You have time to make the choice today as to where you will spend eternity. Will you reject Jesus and experience eternal torment? Or will you accept Him and enjoy eternity in His presence. Now is the time for you to make that decision. Choose life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mandy Hackland
• Release date: Jun 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005890117

Mandy Hackland

Mandy Hackland is a Christ follower who lives in South Africa on the Cape coast. She is passionate about encouraging others to grow a deeper relationship with Jesus. She communicates this as she paints creation and God's love for His people through word-pictures in her novels, and as she challenges others to explore their faith in her books of devotions and non-fiction.

Book preview

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Countdown

Mandy Hackland

Published by Mandy Hackland

Smashwords Edition

Copyright

© Mandy Hackland 2022

The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ .Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Introduction

The End

The Rapture

What Now?

The Tribulation

The role of Satan and the antichrist

Events in Heaven

Praise and a Marriage

Satan fights On

The Day of the Lord

The Beginning

Now is not too late

Glossary

Thank you

About the Author

Other Works

Introduction

I don’t know when you will read this book. It may just be an ordinary day when life continues as it has done for centuries. Family, work, friends, parties, sport and so on. Or it may be on or after a day that has shaken the world. A single day, when a vast number of people have just disappeared. No warning. No sign of them. One second they were here, and life was as normal as it can ever be. The next second they vanished – and life will never be the same.

Who are they, these people? Why them and not you? Why did your wife or husband, your child or grandmother vanish, leaving the rest of you mourning their loss, frightened about what has happened, and uncertain of your future? These are big questions.

The world will be in chaos. About 60% of the global population will still be here, but there will be few who will not have been affected by the recent event. Some will have lost family members, friends or colleagues. Some may have been driving on the highway and been involved in the bedlam of empty cars without drivers. Key personnel will be absent from many vital services – water, power, defence, hospitals, schools, government.

There will be shock, grief, anger, riots. What else? Maybe governments will fall. Businesses will fail. Food supplies will be disrupted. What explanations will hard-pressed world leaders give? What will the UN, NATO, individual national leaders, influential bankers or CEO’s say? Will they attribute this inexplicable occurrence to a virus? To an extra-terrestrial kidnapping event? To some form of natural phenomenon?

What about the Church? What will they say? Many ministers and Church leaders will have disappeared together with the majority of their congregations, But some may remain. Will they be able to answer the questions people are asking? How will they explain their presence to those who remain when so many of their congregation has gone? Why are they still here? What is the difference between those who attend Church who have disappeared, and those who have been left behind?

What has happened? Where did they go, these people who cannot be found? Who can you ask? There will be a thousand and one theories, each one as strange as the others. I imagine the media will be having a hey-day.

You may have had a conversation about the possibility of such an event happening with friends who believed in Jesus. You may have dismissed the idea as being too extreme to believe. But these friends have now vanished. You may have had family members who were Christ-followers – but they have also gone. So you may suspect the truth of what has happened – that Christ has done what He promised and has returned for those who follow Him.

But there will be many who have never come across that promise and they will be bewildered. Some may feel that it is good riddance; that all the ‘do-gooders’, the voices of conscience, have been silenced. Others may feel they have been forgotten. Many will mourn the loss of loved ones, careers, dreams and plans.

It is, of course, possible that you are reading this book before all of this happens and there will be plenty of people to ask for further information about this future event. There is a brief chapter entitled The Rapture below, but there is a fuller description of this event in the companion book to this one, entitled Look to the Flaming Skies, which is also available on Smashwords.

You see, it is only those people who believed in and followed Jesus Christ who have vanished. And it is only those people who put off accepting Jesus or who rejected Him as their Lord and Saviour who are left.

I know this sounds unlikely to the cynical, scientifically-minded, sophisticated 21st century reader. But there is Scriptural proof it will happen. In fact, depending on when you read this book, this event may well be history.

Countdown is not a finite study of what will happen next. There will be many events, I am sure, that will not be included in these pages. And many will not have definite answers at the time of writing. The book is intended to be food for thought. It is intended to be an inducement to help you understand the importance of accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Jesus is waiting for you and longs for you to turn to Him. He has brought this book to your attention and is calling you so you may be safe in His care.

There are many books on this subject at this time. Why would that be? I believe writers have been called by God to reach as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible before the events foretold happen.

This is the seed I am throwing into the wind; God’s message that I believe He has asked me to share. I stand on the edge of the world and fling it into the winds of the Holy Spirit, the breath of God Himself, with the prayer He may take it where He wills so it may land, root and grow for His glory and His Kingdom.

Your Kingdom come, Lord, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

The End

It may seem strange to start a new book with a chapter entitled The End. But that is what this book is about - the end of time; the end of the world and life as we know it; the end of everything. And yet is it? For some it will be a new beginning: when life will change; sadness and tears will pass away; and peace – true peace – will fill the hearts of all those who choose to follow Jesus. These people will experience this new life forever.

But for some it will be the end. For those who reject Jesus it will not be a happy time and they will reach a different end. But no matter where you are in your journey through this time – this end time – I write this book to give you this message:

There is still hope!

As you read on there may be some words or phrases which will be confusing – words like Tribulation and the Bride of Christ, etc. I have listed some of these in the glossary at the end of this book to help you. Hopefully I have listed them all! Have a quick look at it now, but refer back to it when you need to.

One day, the world-wide disappearance of an immense number of people mentioned in the introduction, will happen in the twinkling of an eye. The timing of this event is unknown to anyone other than God the Father. However, sometime after the Rapture has happened, a new era will begin. This time is known as the Tribulation and its duration is precise. Scripture says it will last for seven years.

This will be a Countdown to the end of the world as we know it. (I say that because, after the Tribulation, Jesus will return again in victory with all His followers and they will reign for a thousand years during a period known as the Millennium. At the end of this time and the final battles, Scripture tells us, a new heaven and a new earth will come into existence.)

Jesus is calling ‘Come’ to you through the pages of the Book of Revelation (22:7) in the Bible and the pages of this book. He is giving you the