Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (2 page)

The purpose of this book is to answer a simple question: “Is it possible that at any moment a secret rapture could occur that will take believing Christians to Heaven, while plunging the rest of the world into an inescapable Great Tribulation for seven horrendous years?” The answer is important, because if this rapture is about to happen, you might be among those left behind!

This is a simple question, but it requires a thorough answer. We must touch all the relevant bases. We must look under every rock and behind every door. For the answer should affect how you and I live our lives.

This book is unapologetically apologetic. I intend unequivocally to defend the historical teaching of the Church as it relates to the last things. Yet it is also a “no holds barred” search for the truth. I will admit any and all evidence that bears on the subject; the stakes are too high to do any less.

I have endeavored to be fair in my discussions of others’ beliefs. If I am able to disagree with a group’s propositional teachings without disparaging the personal faith of its members, I will have succeeded. You be my judge.

Although the groups that believe in a future rapture distinct from the second coming are diverse in almost every other conceivable way, for the sake of convenience I have chosen to name all those who hold to that particular belief “rapturists.” This is a useful, descriptive term that avoids problems some other labels might have caused. For example, about half of these people would accept the designation “dispensationalist,” but the other half would vehemently repudiate it. Another adequate term, Darbyites, is rejected as pejorative by all rapturist theologians.

For efficiency of language, I have also grouped Fundamentalists with other Protestants. Strictly speaking, many of them do not consider themselves to be Protestants. Protestantism began with Luther and Calvin in the sixteenth century, whereas Fundamentalists trace their lineage to the original Apostles. They believe that they had to “go underground” in the fourth century, only to emerge in modern times. Although Fundamentalists may dislike being called Protestants, I have been careful not to allow my use of this term to distort my descriptions.

Sections of this book deal with an extremely difficult and unique period of history. In the first century we will encounter Romans who were evil, and Jews who were scoundrels. We will encounter Roman Caesars who were not patriotic, and Jewish priests who were not devout. But it would be ludicrous to let the events that happened hundreds of years ago affect our relationships with groups of people alive today. Particularly in relation to Israel, we will do well to remember the words of G. K. Chesterton: “It is true … humanly speaking, that the world owes God to the Jews”
(TEM)
. Nothing in this book should be taken as an indictment, however minuscule, of any modern person, nation, or race.

This manuscript is an outgrowth of a series of talks I gave in 1998 in Libertyville, Illinois. Like many Christians, I was sure that there would be an upswing in interest in the second coming of Christ as the previous millennium ended and the new began. Unlike some of my friends, however, I did not believe that this interest would disappear just because Christ did not return to rapture away believers when the clock chimed midnight on January 1, 2000.

No, there are powerful religious groups that will continue persuading people that the rapture is only a heartbeat away. They will continue to teach their interpretive view of Scripture well into the next century. Even though many Catholics have unwittingly been influenced by this teaching, its perspective on the second coming is not a Catholic one. In this book, I will attempt to show why, using the Bible as our authority. I will also reference the beliefs of the early Christians.

My own experience cannot help but influence this book. I was raised in a devout Protestant home, the only son of a Fundamentalist pastor. Many of the leaders of the “pre-mill, pre-trib” movement were close family friends. I attended Trinity College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. While still a believer in a pretribulation rapture, I team-taught a college class on prophecy and preached it from many pulpits. Although I had no natural inclination toward Catholicism, I finally reconciled with the Church in my forties. The rationale behind that life-changing decision can be found in my book
Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic
.

Before we get too far, I should let you know what this book is
not
about. We will not be examining in depth any of the prophecies not contained in the Bible—for example, any of the Marian apparitions or the prophecies of Nostradamus. These fall outside the focus of this book, and also outside the limits of my expertise. Others more qualified than I have already done excellent work in this area.

No, I want primarily to examine the Bible’s teachings regarding the last things. I firmly believe Scripture remains a completely reliable authority for faith and practice.

I have written specifically for the lay reader acquainted with the Bible and its overall message, whether Catholic or Protestant. My goal is to help the average interested Christian understand the issues as presented in Scripture and make a reasonable, informed decision. Rather than being the last word on this topic, I hope to be for some readers the first word.

Where appropriate and practical, I have noted my sources in parentheses. In a few cases, because my research was done for personal reasons decades ago, I might have forgotten where the seed of my thinking originated. If I have failed to give credit where due, it is certainly unintentional.

I would be seriously remiss, however, if I did not mention two Masters’ theses that were very helpful to me when I was rethinking these issues a decade ago as a mid-life Protestant. They are unfortunately unpublished, but are well worth a trip to the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School library for reading. They were individually researched and written by Richard White and David Palm. Both of these committed Protestant men later reconciled with the Church.

All quotations from the Bible use the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, unless otherwise noted. I will refer to the last book of the Bible as The Apocalypse instead of as Revelation, so as to avoid confusion with the general concept of God’s revelation of Himself to His people.

Please allow me to add one last word of caution: fight the temptation to skip ahead to the end for quick answers. Each chapter of this book, indeed each section, builds on the understanding forged in the sections that preceded it. The Apocalypse will make much better sense after we have understood the message of Daniel and Christ’s Olivet Discourse.

Something was amiss. David was used to his mother greeting him from the kitchen when he arrived home from school. Being ten years old, he knew his responsibility: find Mom and let her know he got home okay. Then he was free to play outside. After checking for her downstairs, he checked the bedrooms upstairs, poking his head into every room and calling, “Mom?”

“Where is she?” he wondered aloud. He rushed down the winding stairs to the laundry and storage rooms in the basement. But Mom never answered his calls. He charged outside to check the yard, but she was nowhere to be seen.

All of a sudden, a horrible thought popped into his mind. “I’ve been left behind!” Panic was right on the heels of that thought. He knew what
that
meant.

He had been taught in church that there would come a moment in the near future when the true believers in Christ would silently, mysteriously, and unexpectedly disappear in an instant. This was called the “rapture,” and it would be followed immediately by seven years of “great tribulation.” As David raced back into the house, he tried to reassure himself that he was, in fact, a true believer. But his ten-year-old mind found reasons to doubt his salvation.

Suddenly it struck him that even his sisters were nowhere to be found. They should have been home from school as well! He was truly alone in the house. The entire family had disappeared without a trace!

“I can call Dad at work,” he reasoned in the midst of his panic. But he knew that would be pointless. Dad was a true believer just like his mother and sisters. Dad would have been raptured along with the rest of the family.

No, he was left behind in the rapture, and it was his own fault. He had come to his senses
too late
.

The elderly missionary spent many a night weeping on her pillow. It had come as such a shock when the Chinese communists overran China. She had spent most of her life in China attempting to explain the gospel of Christ to the Chinese people. She had helped start a small Protestant church for fellowship. But she was weeping not just because of the abruptness of her departure from her Chinese friends. She was mourning her message. Because she had been taught in Bible school that Christ would return at any moment and rapture His true believers away from the Great Tribulation, she had never prepared her new converts for substantial persecution. No need to prepare for trouble; Christ had suffered on the Cross to save us from both earthly suffering and God’s wrath.

With agonizing clarity, she saw how wrong she had been. Although her Chinese converts may not have been living through the Great Tribulation, it made little difference to their daily experience. They were being systematically hunted down and persecuted by a godless government intent on breaking their faith. For many of them, this tribulation was their own personal great and final one.

Now she could do nothing for her friends to correct the errors she had so meticulously taught them earlier. She regularly wept in her pillow because she knew that it was
too late
.

Mitch and his wife, Linda, converted to Evangelical Christianity when they were in college. She had been raised a Catholic, and he had been raised a Lutheran. But neither of them had taken their faith seriously as a child. Of course, neither did anyone else in their families. When they got “saved” in college, spiritual things became fascinating to them. Like so many other converts, they were taught about the “end times.” After they were married, Linda stayed home with the children, and Mitch did very well in his profession.

When the opportunity to move presented itself, they decided not to buy a house. After all, they had been taught in church that Christ could come back at any moment, probably within the next few years at the very latest. They knew that it had been almost a generation since Israel had been established in 1948. They had been taught that, according to the prophecy of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, the rapture must occur within a generation of that event. They were the “generation of the fig tree.” Their rapture would surprise the world at any moment. The Great Tribulation would immediately follow the rapture for the next seven years, but they would be safely taken up out of the carnage by Jesus Himself.

If the end was imminent, why invest in a house? So they moved in with Linda’s mother. It might put a strain on their family, but better to give more to their church, in the hope that more people would hear the gospel before it was
too late
.