In the coming world-wide persecution of us Christians (Matthew 24:9-10), I believe the love for our families, especially our children, will be used in an attempt to turn us away from Jesus. Our persecutors could say something like "Renounce Jesus now or we will torture your child in front of you! Renounce Jesus now!" When our child looks up at us and begins to cry, how will we react?
We must be willing to forsake everything before forsaking Christ, or we are lost:
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it" (Matthew 10:35-39).
Even if we remain faithful to Jesus under persecution, our families may not:
"Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death" (Luke 21:16).
"Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house" (Micah 7:5-6).
Even if we and our families manage to escape persecution altogether, we still must be prepared to see our loved ones suffer and starve to death without getting angry with God.
"He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matthew 10:37).
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26-27).
"The children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom" (Lamentations 2:11-12).
"Woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!" (Mark 13:17)
"Behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck" (Luke 23:29).
I expect Satan will use the failure of a pre-trib rapture to happen as a great weapon against Christians who believed with all their heart that Jesus had promised them a pre-trib rapture. He could say something like: "Jesus promised you that he would whisk you away before the tribulation started, but did he keep his word? No. He just wants you and your poor baby to suffer and starve to death for his amusement! You don't believe me? Read it for yourself in Job 9:22-23 and Proverbs 1:26. But look here, I'm not laughing at you, I'm offering you and your baby food to eat. Why? Because, unlike him, I care about what happens to you. All you need to do is take this little mark on your hand and worship me and my man here for a little bit and we'll take perfect care of you."
I believe it's possible that some Christians, desperate in their suffering and the suffering of their little ones, could fall for this deception, for haven't many already fallen for a false gospel which says Jesus saved them from the tribulation?
"They shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward. And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness" (Isaiah 8:21-22).
"Take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things" (Mark 13:23).