May 20, AD 2011

Resetting the Rapture
Frank Allnutt

I’m posting this article on Friday, May 20, but I’ve written it in past tense as if it were written after May 21. Confusing? How can I be so confident that a predicted rapture of Christians on May 21 will not take place? Quite simply because the prediction is contrary to Bible prophecy and therefore will not be realized.

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May 21 has come and gone, and with it the time of the rapture of Christians, as predicted by 89-year-old preacher Harold Camping.

Did the rapture take Place?

Don’t be surprised if there are reports of missing persons—presumably raptured. Will such reports cause some of Camping’s disciples to be greatly disturbed that they missed the rapture? Or, will they simply be disappointed that his prediction did not come true?

For some Christians, no rapture on May 21 calls for resetting the time of the rapture. But, rather than doing so in accordance with the calculations of men, I pray they will consider the time of the rapture in harmony with the prophetic Word of God.

For decades perhaps a majority of Christians in American, along with others around the world, have embraced an end-time view that Christians will be raptured before the advent of the Antichrist and the last seven-years of this age (the “Tribulation period” or “Daniel’s seventieth week”). They believe that during the seven-year tribulation period God will vent His wrath against Satan’s world order and its non-Christian inhabitants. Because they hold to a theory of rapture before tribulation, they are pretribulationalists. Pretribbers, for short.

Other Christians see the end-time somewhat differently. I am one of a growing number who maintain that the timing of a secret pretrib rapture seven years in advance of Christ’s second coming is not biblical. Rather, we understand from Scripture that the rapture of the Church will happen in conjunction with Christ’s second coming near the end of Daniel’s seventieth week, and that God’s wrath will follow thereafter. While Pretribbers attribute the wrath of the tribulation period to God, we who hold to pre-wrath or posttribulation Bible prophesies see wrath during the tribulation period as that of the Antichrist and the fallen world that hates Jesus and His followers (John 17).

Paul’s timetable
Long before the advent of the pretrib rapture theory, there were believers who were disturbed by reports that the Day of the Lord—inaugurated by Christ’s return—had arrived, yet they had not been raptured.

Word of such concern reached the Apostle Paul. And below is part of his letter of response to them (with my comments in brackets). In it, he briefly mentions conditions and events that must take place before the return of Christ. Paul’s letter is extremely applicable to us today in light of world conditions and the inadequate and false teaching within the Church. Here is a portion of Paul’s letter:

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him [the rapture], that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord [inaugurated by Christ’s second coming] has come.

Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy [widespread falling away from biblical truth] comes first, and the man of lawlessness [the Antichrist] is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the [rebuilt] temple of God [in Jerusalem], displaying himself as being God.

Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?

And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

Now, let’s consider Paul’s letter in light of our times and circumstances:

The Man of Lawlessness (Antichrist)
I’m aware of no evidence that the “man of lawlessness” has appeared. Even so, lawlessness is on the increase (see 2 Timothy 3). “Lawlessness” encompasses both God’s laws and man’s laws, and it has many forms. One of those is anarchy—lawlessness among those who govern as well as rebellion against government by the governed.

In America there is a growing trend for many in governmental positions to disregard not only the laws of God and the laws of the land, but even the foundational letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution. Many of our leaders in government actually abet—encourage and assist—anarchy in other parts of the world, such as certain Islamic countries in the Middle East.

While the “man of lawlessness” refers to the future Antichrist, there are many forerunners in the world today—numerous “antichrists” (1 John 2:18), false Christs, false prophets and false teachers.

Apostasy
" Apostasy” does not mean a Christian stops being a Christian and reverts to the ontological state of non-Christian. That is an impossibility because a Christian is one whose old self has died through co-crucifixion with Christ and through co-resurrection with Christ. Every Christian has been given a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26, 27) and made a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Christian possesses a new life—Christ’s eternal life (1 John 5:11-13). Yet, as Paul wrote, many Christians will become apostate in a dispositional sense as the result of fleshliness and false teaching: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3, 4).

Antichrist in the Temple
It is assumed by many that the “temple” in which the Antichrist will seat himself and display himself as God above all other gods, will be fulfilled in conjunction with a future temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (to replace the second temple that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.). But such a temple will not be like the two previous temples in that God will not dwell there. In this Church age, as Paul has written, God does not reside in a building of bricks and stone, but rather in a new “temple”—in His children (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Given that, could the Antichrist dwell in God’s new temple—in the hearts of His children? Not in the way the Holy Spirit indwells believers. The Antichrist is or will be but a man who obviously cannot physically indwell another human being. Yet the spirit of Antichrist—manifested in lies, deceptions, and fantasies—can dwell in the vulnerable mind of a Half-Hearted Christian. Also described as “carnal,” “fleshly,” or “soulical,” this Half-Hearted Christian’s heart is functionally divided by sin, soul from spirit. A horrible result is that the Holy Spirit who resides in the spirit is estranged from the soul—“quenched” (1 Thessalonians 5:19) or locked out of participating in the functioning of the soul’s faculties of mind, emotion, and will.

The rapidly-changing times in which we live might well be the harbinger of civilization’s last and most portential season of lawlessness and apostasy that will give rise to the Antichrist and the final Babylonization of history’s greatest empire that in its earlier years was characterized by its majority of Christians.

As we look to the blessed hope of Christ’s glorious appearing at His second coming, let us be careful to observe the Greatest Commission and the Greatest Commandments. And let us also be watchful over Israel and guard against the intrusion of Satan in our sanctuaries.

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For further reading on this website:

The Whole-Hearted Christian

The World vs. God's Kingdom

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©Copyright AD2011 Frank Allnutt. All rights reserved. Content herein may be quoted, subject to the "fair use" doctrine of U.S. Copyright Law.

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