The Rapture is not Truth

Phillipians 1:23-25a

I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better indeed. 24But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

25Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith,

For context, Paul is in prison and is debating whether or not if dying and going to be with Jesus is better than staying here and continuing his ministry. He says plainly, I'd love to leave, that would be his preference but for those he'd leave behind it would stunt their growth in the faith. So Paul says he would remain. Now, I have heard Christian say they cannot wait till Christ comes and raptures His church so they can be with Him while these sinners are tortured on Earth. To me that sounds vengeful, selfish and mean to say the least. What arrogance does it take to believe that those who are good get a ticket to heaven while they watch the rest of the world burn. Can we say and agree on one thing, that is not love!

To sit in our climate controlled padded pews and say screw those that don't believe, I'm outta here as soon as He comes back, is demonic to say the least.

Have I ruffled a feather or two, good! Someone needs to rebuke this travesty. In our sinful nature, where only one country, Israel, believed in God, He sent His Son as a sacrificial lamb to redeem us back to Himself. Even the Gentiles around the globe were included in this redemption. The native peoples around the globe that hadn't a clue about that part of the world were included. People who weren't born yet were included. I say all this for one point, if Jesus came to redeem the world back to the Father, past, present and future people, why on Earth would He abandon some and take the only hope they had away.

We look into this subject as God being vengeful and wrathful as He was in the Old Testament days. Yet we forget that Christ hadn't died for their sins and their sins were ever before the Lord. Disobedience caused God to be angry because there was no permanant sacrifice in place. If we take God's wrath out of context then we are wrong. After Christ, God cannot be wrathful towards us because He sees only His Son's love. Again, the churches teach God hates the sinner and loves the Christian. It's not true, if He hates the sinner so much then no one would be a Christian because we all are born into sin. Let that sink in. 

Paul continues to write, Phillipians 2:3,4

 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit says consider others more important than yourselves. Jesus himself taught many times that the first shall be last and the last first. Which means exactly what Paul writes. If we put ourselves first, over others then darkness covers our eyes to where we cannot see the truth anymore. We will become spiritually blind. If however we sacrifice our flesh nature, that always wants to be first, and put others first instead, then we will be doing the will of God.

It also has to be done out of love and not duty. We must come to love others instead of doing it out of a sense of duty. If you try to do anything out of a sense of duty then you'll fail. Relationship with God is key. Read yesterday's blog, it goes well with this message too. 

So if we are to consider ourselves as last and the world first then shouldn't the church even consider themselves as being raptured. Why would we celebrate our departure. If we truly loved the lost as Christ does, then shouldn't we be in tears daily over their situation. 

Instead, we beat them over the head with Bible quotes in an attitude of supremacy over them and when they don't respond we chalk them up as lost and move on. If they don't believe like me then they aren't worthy of heaven. If they don't look like me, dress like me, talk like and the list goes on and on. When did the church loose the love of Christ? We hide behind good works and deeds yet our hearts aren't changing. We give tithe yet we don't look twice at our neighbours struggling to pay their bills. We lack love because we feel like we're first.

If anything, the idea of a Rapture has done nothing but ruin our perspective spiritually. It's caused us to place ourselves higher up in our minds than others. It's caused us to abandon the world, hide out in our homes and shut the world out. It's caused us to stockpile guns, ammo, food, water, solar and everything it takes to outlast everyone else till He comes to get us. 

I don't know about you but Christ will not be pleased when He does return. Will he find anyone left on the Earth walking in the faith, in Him, in humility, in love and selflessness? I hope so.

Here's something to chew on. If Jesus could gather thousands upon thousands of people to Him and cause governments to tremble how much more could we accomplish with the current 2.2 billion Christians worldwide. If all Christians dropped their denominational lines, dropped selfish behaviour and truly walked in Christ's love, the remaining 6 billion people wouldn't be able to have an excuse not to come to Christ. 

To God be the Glory.