“Just How Close Are We?”
Whether you are a Christian or not one question seems to be on every ones mind lately is, “Are we close to the Tribulation, or as some refer to as the end of the world?”
I mean just look around at what has taken place in the last year.
Fuel prices have caused the rise in cost of just about everything.
Illustration: Groceries & travel.
So just how close are we to the end?
First of all the world is not just going to come to an abrupt halt as some think.
They believe that someday God will get fed up with everything and send a big ball of fire to wipe it all out.
But we know from God’s Word that there are many events that will take place before this earth is destroyed.
The first event that will take place is what we call the Rapture.
Most out side of Christ either laugh it off or don’t want to talk about it out of fear of disbelief.
Even some who have accepted Christ as their Savior live with the question in their minds, “If Jesus returns in my lifetime, will I be Raptured?”
Is this a question that you aren’t positive that the answer is yes?
If I asked you if you are an American you would say absolutely, I was born in America.
Yet if I were to ask, “Are you going to Heaven?” some of you would say, “I hope so.”
This is something we should know the answer to without hesitation.
And you had better be sure before you die or the Rapture, which ever occurs first.
What is the Rapture? I have never seen that term in God’s Word.
The fact is you won’t, but the event is still true just as you will not find the word trinity in the Bible but there is the Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
The English word is derived from the Latin word rapio, which means to snatch away or carry off.
This morning I want to look at this spectacular event and what will actually take place.
There are three facts concerning the Rapture.
Fact one is that it is going to happen, fact two is we don’t know the exact time, and fact three is there is a way to avoid the tribulation.
As Christians we know that the beginning of the end will start with the Rapture, when Jesus takes His Church out of this world.
For those who are in Christ, if the Rapture occurs in their lifetime, they will experience something that only occurred two times before in history.
And that is to leave this world without dying. The King James Version describes each of these events with the word caught up.
Remember the story of Enoch who was a man of God. In Genesis we read that Enoch walked with God for 365 years and then God took him.
Hebrews 11:5, “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him.”
The other person who never experienced death was of course Elijah.
2 Kings 2:11
“Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”
There was however a similar situation that occurred with Phillip.
He didn’t leave the earth but by the power of God he was transformed.
Acts 8:39-40
“Now when they came up out of the water [from the Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch], the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, (there is that word caught)so that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found in Azotus.”
Philip is removed from the desert and materializes at the city of Azotus where he continues his preaching.
So this phenomenon that some don’t want to believe has taken place before an will again.
And I can assure you of this that it could very well happen at any moment.
I have found that when a discussion comes up concerning the Rapture and the possibility of it being soon, usually someone will say they don’t believe it will be soon.
To me they are really saying I hope it won’t be soon.
Because as Christians we hope to see that day.
There have been may people through out history who have predicted the day and none have been right.
• In the 19th Century, there was a farmer named William Miller who predicted the Rapture would occur on March 21, 1842. He revised the date to April 3, 1843, and over 3,500 followers jammed the Boston Advent Temple. The next day, he lost some followers, but he continued to set dates.
• Date-setting did not stop in the 1800’s. Colin Deal published a book titled Christ Returns by 1988 – 101 Reasons Why.
• Hal Lindsey taught that Christ would come within 40 years of the time Israel became a nation in 1948. The forty years was up in 1988.
• Recently Jack Van Impe (a TV evangelist) said he believed Christ would come back between 2008 and 2013.
I personally don’t believe it will ever take place on a specific day that man predicts.
I don’t think God is going to give anyone that satisfaction.
Now first of all let me make clarify something for those who might not know this.
The Rapture and The Second Coming are two different events entirely.
I Thessalonians 4:13-18
When Christ comes to Rapture His Church He doesn’t actually come back to earth, we will meet Him in the clouds.
We sing the song, “I’ll Fly Away” and that is literally what we are going to do.
For those who are afraid to fly, you will get over it real quick.
The Bible contains 453 prophecies about the Coming of Jesus. 196 of them were fulfilled in his First Coming.
That leaves 257 signs left to be fulfilled for his Second Coming.
When Jesus came the first time, no one had it all figured out ahead of time.
Even his closest disciples had it wrong when it came to the details.
It was only when they looked back that they finally saw how the Prophecies had been fulfilled.
I think it will be like that when He comes the Second Time.
There have been many books over the years concerning The Rapture and the end times.
One of the most popular in recent years is the Left Behind Series written by Tm Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins.
These writings, which do deal with Biblical prophesy, are informative and educational but we must remember they are still fictional.
Fictional in the fact we can read about events that will take place but exactly how and who we don’t know.
I believe novels like the Left Behind books can do a lot of good because they present the Gospel message to the readers and I am not against these books but keep in mind they are just Theories.
The problem comes when we don’t know the difference between Theories and Scripture. It’s dangerous when someone teaches that God has given them all the details.
Sometimes people get so wrapped up in a book or in an author and they get away from God’s Word altogether.
But let’s look at these words that Paul writes to the Church at Thessalonica.
Paul tells them he doesn’t want them to be ignorant, in other words he wants them to understand what will take place.
The Thessalonians we concerned about their loved ones who had died and were in the grave.
They thought that if Jesus came back to rapture His Church and take them back to Heaven that those in the grave would be left behind.
So he explains to them that those who have died in Christ will be among the ones taken, as a matter of fact, they are going first.
Now I don’t know what picture you might have in your mind concerning the Rapture but I can tell you that it will be instantaneous.
Jesus told His Disciples it would be in the twinkling of an eye.
It will not be a situation where Jesus appears in the clouds and we fall on our knees asking for forgiveness and begging Him to take us with Him.
Matthew 24: 40-41 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken away and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the left.
Illustration: Missing child.
Revelation 3:10
“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth”
The church is spoken of nineteen times in the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation.
Then John, the prophet who was given the revelation, hears the words, “Come up hither”, IN revelation 4:1.
The church is not mentioned again in the Book of Revelation until chapter nineteen when Christ returns with the armies of Heaven to put to an end man’s rebellion at Armageddon.
This is the Second Coming of Jesus.
This shows that the church is nowhere in view during chapters 4-18.
The question has always been asked, “Can those who are left behind still be saved?”
There is no place that I can find in God’s Word that specifically say yes you can or no you can’t but two points I want to point out.
When Christ takes His Church He also takes the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what we as Christians leads us and guides us to walk with Christ.
If you won’t accept Him now when it is easy, why would you when it is difficult?
There have been many things written about ways to get to Heaven; A ladder to Heaven, A stairway to Heaven, even A highway to Heaven.
But the only way according to Scriptures is by flight, a flight that needs no aircraft.
God will provide the way all we have to do is be ready to take off.
That flight is the Rapture. Whether you are dead or alive Christ is coming back for His Church and He will take us all to Heaven.
