Some of this blog may be repetitious, but I will tell you why. I was looking on different sites on the Internet to see where I could make money writing articles. I came across one site that mentioned that it was possible to make up to $750 a week. That sounded really good to me so I decided to write an essay about the Rapture. However, my son told me that the site I was looking at was in the business of writing essays for students. All the student has to do is pay for the essay and turn it in to the professor. That is CHEATING no matter how you slice the pie! I want NO part of it so I just kissed my money goodbye and praised the Lord for letting my son open my eyes. Below is the essay I wrote:
Will There Really be a Rapture?
The Book of Revelation is considered to be a story of each Christian who follows Jesus along the way of the cross even if it is necessary to give your life for the Lord. You cannot do this alone! You must ask Jesus EVERY day to give you the grace to accept what the future holds even if it means giving your life for the Master.
This is the popular opinion of what the meaning of Rapture is for many people. Rapture means “to raise up.” Many Protestant in the United States have the belief that God will Rapture, or take up into Heaven, the Christians who have been faithful to Him and remove them from the last tribulation that you hear described in the Book of Revelation. There are some people who also teach that the Rapture is a time that will give people a second chance for their repentance of sins before Jesus until He returns for a second time.
Many faiths believe in the Rapture because it states in the Gospel of St. Luke 17: 37-42
“37. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38. For as in the days that came before the deluge, they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, till the day when Noah entered into the ark, 39.
And knew not until the deluge came, [160] and took them all away: so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be. 40. Two men shall then be in the field; one is
taken, and the other is left. 41. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is
taken, and the other is left. 42. Watch therefore, for you know not at what hour your
Lord will come.”
Here is the true teaching concerning the Rapture. The Book of Revelation does not really teach that there will be a Rapture of Christians. God is not going to remove Christians from this earth just so they may avoid the suffering that is to come. Rather, the Book of Revelation teaches that God is going to preserve His faithful people no matter if they meet with persecution and suffering. You can find this in the Book of Revelation 3:10; 14:12. Since Jesus will return to earth to resurrect all believers as well as unbelievers on Judgment Day, there will not be a second chance for people to repent. This passage can be found in the Book of Revelation 11:18; 20: 11-15. Take a look at pages 24-25.
Just think about it. Jesus, true God and true Man, came down to earth to take on our likeness in order to save our weak and sinful flesh. The Father in Heaven did not spare His Son from the Agony in the Garden where He was so afraid of what was to come that He actually sweats blood at the thought of His suffering. In the end, though, Jesus obediently told His Father, “…not My will but Thy will be done.” Yet, again, God did not deliver His Only Son from the terrible scourging at the pillar where the Roman soldiers used cords with pieces of bones at the end to tear into our Savior’s flesh. Anyone else would have died at the scourging, but Jesus willed to suffer for every one of His children upon this earth. Did the Father come down and intervene and decide that enough was enough and snatch Jesus back up to Heaven in order to avoid the excruciating pain of the crucifixion? No, God would not even spare His Son; so why should we think we should be so privileged as to be raptured up into Heaven to avoid the Armageddon that is to take place upon this earth – the final battle between good and evil. Jesus had to push onward to face the fact that He was going to be nailed upon the cross like a common criminal yet He had done nothing wrong. However, Jesus had a mission to accomplish. He was to save His people from their sins by shedding every last drop of His Precious Blood! Think of the overwhelming torment Jesus suffered as His Hands and Feet were nailed to the wood of the cross. Our finite minds cannot comprehend such suffering. One of the soldiers offered Him some hyssop on a sponge to drink in order to deaden the pain, but Our Lord would not even taste it. He wanted to feel the full extent of the pain because Jesus was suffering to take away the sins of the entire world…those that were and were yet to come. Just think that Jesus, in order to catch one breath, had to raise His Feet upon that nail that was embedded there. He could only utter His last words by repeating this process over and over again. Then Jesus looked at the crowd and said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” You may ask yourself, “What in the world does this entire explanation have to do with the Rapture?” If God did not spare Jesus, the sinless One, the Lamb of God, from all of this violent suffering, do you actually think that you are good enough to avoid the devastation that is to come upon this earth? If you do, then you are being tricked by Satan himself!
Here are the differences that the Rapture will make for you. The Word of God does not teach about the Rapture. Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us that He will take anyone away from the tribulation that is spoken about in Revelation. However, when the End Times begin to take place, your Beloved Heavenly Father promises that He will give you the grace and the strength you need to face the most grueling suffering. “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He now also with Him freely give us all things?” You can find this passage in Romans 8: 31-32.
It is indeed true that Jesus will come again upon this earth in the Second Coming and will come to separate the sheep from the goats. Remember that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and the sheep know and heed His voice. The sheep will attain their everlasting reward while those who have denied the very existence of Jesus as true God and true Man will go into everlasting punishment.
Perhaps if you believed in the Rapture for almost all of your life, this may be a blog entry that may be difficult to accept. We have to rely strictly on God’s Word and not what the interpretation of the Word of God means to man. That is how a lot of us tend to get off the beaten path. Will this be such a hard saying to you that you will walk away and not follow Our Lord and Savior anymore? Remember when Jesus said to His Apostles when He spoke about eating His Body and drinking His Blood asking if they, too, would walk away from Him. I now ask you the same question. Will you stay or will you also leave?
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