Rapture is not a Biblical Teaching
The Left Behind Series that is taught by Timothy La Haye has caused much excitement in the Christian World. The movies and the books although labeled as fiction are being believed as truth. Jack Van Impe and others have made an untold amount of money from this fraud that has been portrayed upon America.
It is vastly believed that there is going to be a secret rapture or snatch of the saints of God and that people will wonder what happened to them and where did they go? Most Christians have a desire to be taken in this fiction rapture.
Sound reasoning has been lost with most. We are soldiers in the army of God and realize that it should be the desire of a soldier to fight in battle. Soldiers are trained not to want to die or to be taken out of combat. Soldiers of valor want to conquer and to extend the territory that their army occupies. As this is the desire of natural armies this should be the desire of the spiritual army of Christ Jesus. We should be willing to lay down our natural lives but really should desire to live and fight more battles for the Kingdom of God.
It was not the desire of Jesus that his followers should be taken out of this world but that they should be kept from the evil of this world. We are his followers and his army and I desire to fight for the Kingdom of God and not be taken out of combat.
(John 17:15 KJV) I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
The verses that are used to teach the secret rapture theory are the following verses. In order to understand what Paul is teaching these verses must be rightly divided.
(1 Th 4:16 KJV) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
I believe there is coming an end of time. It is declared in Revelation that time shall be no more. Out of the natural creation comes the spiritual creation. Jesus Christ does not want a carnal bride but he is creating his spiritual bride through the six days of spiritual creation. At the end of the spiritual creation of his bride it will be finished. The Lord once again will see that everything is good and the saints will receive the eternal Sabbath that was intended for us from the foundations of the world. I have been in that Sabbath, I am in that Sabbath, and I will be in that Sabbath.
The pattern of God is a wheel. I keep stressing this pattern in my teachings, it was, it is, and it shall be. First came the natural creation and now comes the spiritual creation. Everyone seems to be trying to place things in chronological order. This type of thinking means men are leaning to their own understanding. The cross of Christ or his death was in the middle of the church or wheel and not according to the time line of man. The spiritual bride of Christ Jesus has not completely been developed in us although she was finished when Jesus died at the cross.
There is no man that exists in this body of flesh that has the complete Revelation of Jesus Christ. So man is still looking through a glass, darkly so it is not finished with you or me.
(Rev 10:6 KJV) And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
(Rev 10:7 KJV) But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
I believe for the early saints the last trumpet has been sounded, I believe today some saints will hear the last trumpet, but this trumpet still remains to be fully sounded.
(1 Th 4:17 KJV) Then WE, WHICH are alive and REMAIN, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
We are the clouds of God that have water. In Jude there are men or clouds without water. I now sit in heavenly places and have been taken up but I cannot deny that there are higher heights. There will be a final height that I will reach in the spiritual just as there was a final height that I obtained in the natural. There is much more to come.
(1 Cor 15:19 KJV) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Now we will address the last trumpet of Corinthians:
(1 Cor 15:52 KJV) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
We find in the book of Corinthians that at the sounding of the last trumpet we shall be raised and changed. This has happened when I was born again but my mind is still being renewed. My mind will continue to be renewed until the corruptible has totally put on incorruption. The spiritual creation or bride of Jesus Christ is being created through the renewing of our mind. The perfecting of the saints has taken place, is taking place, and will continue to take place until the end of the spiritual creation or bride.
(Rom 12:2 KJV) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
We find that there is no secret rapture but at the sounding of the last trumpet it is finished and that time will be no more.
The Left Behind Series and the great snatch theory are unbiblical. Jesus stated: (Mat 24:37 KJV) But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
It was Noah that was left behind and it was all of the wicked that were taken. We find that this pattern holds true in the word of Jesus.
(Mat 13:30 KJV) Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
Here it is plan to see that what happened in the days of Noah are obvious in Matthew. The wheat is left but the tares are burned. I do not see were that the wheat was taken and the tares were left.
In the Book of Revelation we have the same pattern. The saints are gathered into heaven or the City of God but Satan and the wicked are cast into outer darkness and burned through eternity.
(Rev 21:2 KJV) And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Notice that New Jerusalem is coming down and not going up. We are the New Jerusalem that is coming down to establish the Kingdom of God and his power in this earth. We have been given dominion over everything through Jesus Christ. If we have been given all power and all dominion then let us over take the enemy. Ones that have dominion do not want to be snatched out but want to fight for their King.
(Rev 20:10 KJV) And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
To believe in the rapture or the Left Behind Series of Timothy La Haye’s books of fiction and the preaching of the false prophets will deceive you. Let us rightly divide the word of God and see through the eyes of Christ Jesus.
