THE RAPTURE SERIES: Part 4

THE EFFECT OF THE RAPTURE ON NOMINAL CHRISTIANS

We don’t talk about this aspect of the rapture any more. But I will mention it even if it scares some into a heightened readiness of consecration.

In the days of Elijah, the sons of the prophets had a premonition that Elijah would be translated.

“Now the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?” (2 Kings 2:5)

Yet when the event occurred they were not ready to believe that Elijah had gone all the way to heaven. Like Obadiah, they thought perhaps the prophet had been translated to another place.

“And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the Lord will carry you to a place I do not know; so when I go and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will kill me. But I your servant has feared the Lord from my youth.” (1 Kings 18:12)

Thus they insisted on a 3-day search.

“Then they said to him, “Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” (2 Kings 2:16)

Do those three days foreshadow the three years of the great tribulation? Certainly there will be many who will rationalize the sudden disappearance of God’s people and spin it in a way that will be in harmony with what they want to believe.

With others, however, this event will result in a heart-breaking confession. They will realize their neglect of the repeated warnings of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will have fallen short of being ready.

“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

(Matt. 25:13)

This warning was given at the conclusion of the parable of the 10 virgins, where Jesus plainly showed that a substantial part of professing Christians who are aware of His coming, will not be ready when He comes.

“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may [a]be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)

With many, there will come after the rapture, the bitter realization that they have failed to be among the wise virgins that were ready, and there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. Although they now resolve to resist the Antichrist and his system at all costs, they must live with the realization that they have missed the prize.

Let’s heed the repeated admonitions and warnings of the Lord to be ready so that the door of rapture will be open to us.

Be blessed.

Note: Please prayerfully consider sowing a holy seed into the work we do as a ministry — the greatest of them perhaps being a “voice crying in the wilderness”.