|
"As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. Then he asked them, 'You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down. When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, 'Tell us, when will this be, and what will the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?' Jesus answered them, 'Beware that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Messiah!' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places....' " - Matthew 24: 1 - 7 " 'As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them. And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations. When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. " 'But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (referring to the upcoming Roman violation of the Temple in Jerusalem with the installation of a statue of Caesar), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; the one on the housetop must not go down or enter the house to take anything away; the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that it may not be in winter. For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be.' " - Mark 13: 9 - 19 " 'There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.' " - Luke 21: 25 - 28 " 'And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days. And if anyone says to you at that time, 'Look! Here is the Messiah!' or 'Look! There he is! — do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But be alert; I have already told you everything. But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. " 'Then they will see
'the Son of man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory. Then
he will send out the angels, and gather
his elect
(aka
the Rapture) from the four winds, from
the ends of the We now draw close to the flame. It's a most precarious position to be in for a disciple of Christ - the end time... the Rapture, a word that is not in the Bible. It can be seen from the Scripture cites above, and numerous others, that there was a prevailing feeling among the believers that the end of the world was near, and that it would come about during the lifetimes of those living believers and disciples. Also, was the prevalent belief that the 'faithful' would be gathered from the world, flown to the safety of heaven by God's angels and then all hell would break loose against everyone remaining throughout the world. The reasoning being that people left behind were all sinners, that they deserved what miseries they suffered, and that would be that. Addressing this belief, as disciples of Christ, we have a problem. It's a major, nay, profound problem. The coming of the Son of Man, the darkening of the sun, the dimmed moon, the falling stars, even the shaking of the powers in the heavens... all of these happenings, including the gathering of the elect, were expected to happen at any moment. Especially heightening the feeling of immanency were Jesus' words in Mark 13: 30 - "Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not. But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.' " What is the Christian disciple to make of this? It has been nearly 2,000 years since these words were recorded; surely the present generation Jesus was speaking of has long ago died. Has a mistake been made? Further compounding the problem for today's disciple is the fact that there are many Christian groups - mostly Evangelicals, Pentecostalists, Charismatics and Seventh Day Adventists - who believe in their hearts that Jesus is going to quickly return to the world by descending from heaven, escorted by an army of angels. They not only believe this, but earnestly hope for it. They want out of this world and up to heaven; many as fast as possible. Much of what Jesus proclaimed did actually happen. There was recorded in the Gospels many dramatic events having taken place at the time of Jesus' death on the Cross: darkened skies, heavy rains, thunder and lightening, an earthquake, the opening of graves. But after his death, the rain, thunder and lightening stopped, the sky cleared of its clouds and the state of nature in Jerusalem returned to normal. It has to be noted, though, that at the moment of Jesus' death, the veil in the Holy of Holies inside the Temple was torn and, as Jesus alluded, in 70 AD Herod's magnificent Temple was virtually destroyed by the Romans, with only the Wailing Wall presently standing to this day. There was, however, no reported band of angels descending from heaven coming and gathering the elect. Life on earth continued as normal. I asked the question, 'Has a mistake been made?' Yes, a mistake has been made; not on Jesus' part but on the part of many believers. Note the last words of the Scripture cite from Matthew 24: 1 - 7 above. I purposely left off the final words which say: " '... all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.' " That 'beginning' tells me that what Jesus was predicting to his disciples was not the end of the world, but the entering of the Kingdom of God into the world — an event that could not take place until Jesus' death, annihilation of sin, and his Resurrection. The victory over death ushered into the world God's Will. The 'birth pangs' presaged the advent of the Kingdom of God. But it would not be an easy birth in such a hostile world. Many disciples were put to terrible death proclaiming the Kingdom of God in Jesus' name. So, why weren't the elect collected? The simple and most logical answer is that if all of the elect were removed from the world, who would be left to preach the Gospel? Surely the remaining sinners wouldn't be expected to do the job. As we can see, there was a misunderstanding of Jesus' proclamation. And just as assuredly to anyone who actually does use his or her mind, as Jesus instructed us to do, God is not yet through doing His work in the world. To vouch for this conclusion, I cite Revelation 22: 10 - 11 — "And he said to me, 'Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.' " Therefore, friends, it is safe to assume the struggle is not yet over. Christ's disciples still have their work to do in proclaiming the Gospel to the world and it behooves us not to sit around on our hands waiting for the end times to come. Frankly, a Christian disciple shouldn't be concerned with predictions of end times, for our business is in the here and now and we are not to be worried about tomorrow. This is Jesus' command to us. God will do what He wants to do in His own good time, and if Christians believe in His Son, they will not have much to worry about. We disciples of Christ, however, will have something very serious to worry about if we lay down on the job and cease preaching the Word of God. Keep in mind the parable of the talents and the servant who buried his master's money (Matthew 25: 14 - 30). That lesson did not turn out well for the servant. The problem I have with the end times and the Rapture, as they are spoken of in modern times, is that there are those unscrupulous people calling themselves Christians who prey on the fears and paranoia of faith-believing Christians. These are the people who author books and produce movies about the end times and the Rapture - warning one and all that the Rapture will be immediately coming and the destruction of the world will commence shortly thereafter. 'You'd better repent now! Or you'll be doomed to the fires of hell! Or worse, you'll be left behind in a world of evildoers.' Those who write and peddle such misleading tripe are what I call spiritual vampires. Spiritual because that is the realm in which they ply their trade of fear mongering; vampires because they suck money from gullible, naive readers. Unlearned Christians, along with non-Christians, are frightened by the message in these books and quickly adopt a frame of mind that in order to escape God's wrath: 'I had better believe in Jesus!' The authors portray a hysterical, fictional picture of their conception of the Rapture and end times that compels readers of their books to come away with the urge to acquire some 'Jesus insurance'. Instead of bringing souls to God with the telling of Jesus' true message of God's love and forgiveness, what these authors do is to to put the fear of hell in them with tales of horror. These kinds of books generate tremendous profits for both authors and publishers, and therein lies the great sin: profiting from the fears of others in the name of God. There is only one book Christians and non-Christians need in order to discern the Will of God, and that is the Bible. All through the Scriptures the message is vividly clear: It is God's Will that mankind is to be loved, cared for, and spiritually bettered. That, friend, is why God created us in the first place. He wanted to love us; and He still does. If a person genuinely believes that message - especially when it comes to us in the words of Jesus - then really there is no need for further assurances, whether they come from extracurricular books, movies, radio or television programs. Disciples, do not concern yourselves about the 'end times'. That is none of your worry. Your attention and energy, instead, must be directed to what is taking place right now. Who needs to hear the Word of God right now? Who needs loving compassion right now? Who needs to be fed, clothed and sheltered right now? Who is in their sick bed, dying even, and needs you now? Who needs to look to you as an example of how they should live right now? Who needs a guide through the Bible right now? It is the 'right now', Christian disciple, that you need to be focused on. That's your job... right now! |
|
|