Did you happen to notice that the internet and social media were abuzz with predictions that the rapture was happening on September 23? I even saw one guy say he was “a million percent positive” that it was happening on that date because God had told him this in a dream.
Of course, what do we know about unfulfilled prophesies?
We know that false prophesies are told by false prophets (Deut. 18:22). That would be the case with all men and women who label themselves prophets these days. They are rarely (if ever) right. And, yet, somehow people keep trusting them as “prophets”. What are they thinking?? But I digress…
What took place with these unfulfilled predictions has been a new wave of hatred against the biblical doctrine of the rapture. And, yes, it is biblical.
First, and foremost, we must turn to scripture to find out if it’s true. We can see this doctrine clearly expressed in I Corinthians 15:51-52, as well as in I Thessalonians 4:16-18. The doctrine is found other places throughout the New Testament, in other verses and passages. I really encourage you to dig into scripture and to believe it for what it says. Rather than believing what someone else tells you it says.
And, by the way, this was not a doctrine that started with some guy named Darby in the 1800s but it can be traced back through church history. Did you even know this? Because I had to do some digging to understand this. It is not a well-known fact of church history.
It is so important that we don’t just believe what we read or hear on the internet.
The other day a one-minute video popped up about the rapture by someone who had been recommended to me. And so I thought I’d watch it to see what he had to say. In this video, the guy “exposited” a chapter of the Bible that wasn’t even about the rapture, using it to prove there is no rapture!
This is the stuff that is going on. We need to be aware.
There is a reason the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine is so maligned, ridiculed, and hated. And that is because it is TRUE.
I don’t know how they will explain the disappearance of the Christians but I have come to realize that it will be a much smaller group than I had first thought. The way is narrow, after all.
This unwelcome and unpleasant truth becomes clearer as we watch so many fall into the deception of the false and self-centered religion of “American Christianity”. Some of those are true believers who are just deceived but, looking at the fruit of lives, I am so grieved to wonder if many are not saved at all. Only God knows.
But there is a beautiful remnant of souls saved by the blood of Jesus. We know full well we have no merit of our own and that our salvation is based on Jesus Christ alone.
We are so deeply grateful to our loving and merciful God. We are the ones who must not be deceived but, rather, to keep looking up!
We have been told that we have not been appointed to God’s wrath which is going to be poured out upon this earth (I Thessalonians 5:9) God will come to get us one of these days, just as His Word says, and we are closer now than ever!
AMEN!