More fall-out from Thursday morning ...

Picking apart Isaiah 13, assigning verses to the historical overthrow of Babylon¹ by the Medes (Persians) or the coming "day of the LORD," we agreed that verse 9 introduces a segment of future events.

I pointed out and read aloud verse 16, "Their little ones also will be dashed to pieces" and asked, "Aren't children of a certain age raptured?"

The study leader would only say that my question was provocative. In a good way or in a bad way? She said nothing more. I was left to work it out on my own.

It's a hard image, a very hard reality to contemplate, the brutal effect of war on infants and children. If verse 16 speaks of present or past, it's empirically true. But does not rule out the innocents being eternally saved.

If verse 16 speaks of the eschaton, then these little ones are clearly denied salvation: they weren't raptured, no matter where one places the rapture in the tribulation.

¹ or Assyria, depending on how you read it.