“For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord
will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus
we shall always be with the Lord.” 1Thes.4:15-17
So Let’s get this down from the get-go in case it’s not already understood. This website is to restore biblical truth, make it understandable and therefore believable and not just add to the cacophony of voices promoting their viewpoints. The current Christian environment is so convoluted with so many ideas of how the Lord will return ( and a whole lot of other areas of biblical truth ) it’s going to be difficult for me to be taken serious- the boy who cried wolf too many times comes to mind here, only the wolf I am crying about just happens to be real. This wolf is lurking behind so much of what is being passed off today as biblical but obviously, or it should be obvious, it is not. There is literally a “glut” of viewpoints on our current subject, complete with a somewhat compelling assortment of justifications; THAT by their very nature and number make the whole subject even more illusive than it already is. Rather than understanding the confusion we have created and are creating, multiplying the viewpoints on this subject, the race is on for more and more of the same. The question comes to my mind, “who are we serving here as more and more people come to bat on this?” We’re defeating the goal and no one seems to understand why or care. This observation and a few more just like it is where we will and must start. Prepare yourself, this will be a long introduction but is far overdue in introducing what has unfortunately become one of the most complicated subjects facing the church today and will, I repeat will, determine our future.
Note! This subject is not confusing on its own but has been made so by a church devoted to disagreement!! –
You can’t be confused on a subject like this and expect to escape serious consequences. Much more to say about that later. While I should be able to do some light excavation to get into this matter, I’m having to bring in a bulldozer to clear out all the debris that’s in the way. So clear out the debris we will-!
Ok, firstly we’ll deal with a few things that should be extremely obvious but unfortunately have been buried under all the church’s dirty laundry.
!!~Don’t open that door the laundry is stacked to the ceiling and it’s waiting to bust out!~!!
I’m going to be quite frank here because frankness is called for on this particular subject especially at this late date. It’s going to do no good to get into this until we deal with these opening issues, otherwise I’m just adding to the spin and we don’t need more of that
As the children’s adage goes,
“There’s an inky stinky finky underneath the Binky!”
Warning, I will be removing the Binky!!
Frank Point #1
If the scriptures address a subject it is important, PERIOD! What a revelation, right? So many pulpits today have sidelined this subject, as well as so many others, calling them unimportant. Pulpits, please humor me a bit! If the Almighty God of heaven and earth took the time out to communicate a subject to us through holy writ, where do we “get off” branding it as unimportant?? What an incredible affront to our God. Are we mad!? Who are we serving here?? The enemy! The devil himself couldn’t do any better or should I say worse!! And where do we stop with this kind of thinking? Who makes the decision what is “important” and what isn’t? Is it up for popular vote or do we all just decide for ourselves?? How do we possibly think that we have the right to consider anything in God’s holy writ as unimportant? Hello church, it’s thinking like this that has made the Christian church one of the most hostile environments to biblical truth there is. Now that’s quite a statement isn’t it? Imagine that! We, the Christian church, the place you would never expect to find hostility on matters biblical, have become a hotbed of confusion and resistance. C’mon church let’s give this a little more thought, OR PERHAPS A LOT MORE THOUGHT!! Who needs an enemy with a situation like this? How it flies under the churches radar should raise a lot of eyebrows, but as it is we hardly shrug a shoulder as we go on singing, “Oh how I love Jesus” AMEN! Scripture is replete with an assortment of “slap in the face” corrections, or rebukes for this kind of thinking. Allow me to state a few:
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
The words of the Lord are pure words; like silver refined in a
furnace..” Ps.119:105“More to be desired are they than gold, Yea than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by
them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is
great reward.” Ps.19:10-11
“You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take
from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord
your God which I am commanding you.” Dt.4:2
“But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and contrite of
Spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Isa.66:2
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable..”
2Tim.3:16
Need I go on! Remember pulpit rhetoric is not the authority of our faith, no matter how persuasive it sounds or how many degrees are lined up behind it. The scriptures always come up as the obvious winner without even getting into the ring. Let’s highlight the point here with one more very necessary observation. Please stay with me on this. It has a very important bearing on our subject.
So many times I have heard the statement, “Scripture is composed of majors and minors, essentials and non-essentials, let’s major in the majors and minor in the minors.” Yes and while we’re into this imaginary land where rain falls up, the earth is actually flat and sits on a great big turtle and God is yellow and loves to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; let’s come back about million miles to reality here. Statements such as the above quote are cheap dime a dozen nonsense, so far from the truth it’s amazing how many people bow the knee to them. PARDON ME, BUT WHERE DID SUCH REASONING COME FROM?? UP FROM HELL MAYBE? I’m very serious about this and anyone who expects to keep even a dimes worth of biblical faith ALIVE needs to understand this. The bible doesn’t teach any such thing!! The scriptures are not broken up into majors and minors they are divided up into what is biblically defined as “meat”,”milk” and issues of conscience such as vegetarianism.
So how does this play into the discussion we are on? Better said, how does it not play into it? It plays into it because subjects of biblical eschatology, as in this case the return of Christ for the church, end up being considered unimportant, minor, or nonessential: They just aren’t convenient. So many write them off as unnecessary and thus create an incredible amount of apathy and indifference toward the issue. So lightly and easily we promote damnable lies like this that puts millions of souls into jeopardy, because frankly they just don’t know any better! Oh yes, and again the sloppy agape’ thinking on this matter and the ignorance that follows with it is putting millions in jeopardy of not being alert and ready for our Lord’s coming. A person has to care about this matter if they are going to understand it AND NOT BE DECEIVED.
Frank Point #2- “You may believe that but I don’t”
The current Christian environment is so convoluted with so many different ideas of how the Lord will return ( & on a whole lot of other subjects as well ) it’s going to be difficult for your author to be taken seriously. Saying the word “rapture” today is like saying fire in a crowded building and even if there is no fire the temperature rises anyway. Sentiment is all over the map and we love to have it that way- why? Because we have replaced the authority of scripture with the authority of our interpretations of scripture ( Scripture interprets itself!! ) and we have been catering to this fiasco for so long we think of the two as synonymous; but synonymous they are not. This is extremely akin to the “traditions of the elders” situation that Jesus dealt with.
“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far
from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines
the commandments of men….making the word of God of no
effect through your tradition which you have handed down.”
Mk.7:1-8
Only we are worse off than they because we don’t even share accountability across church lines for what we believe and practice- our “traditions”- and without accountability there are absolutely no checks and balances outside our particular group. Truth is no longer absolute; it is relative, subjective, personal and private. Scripture can mean anything you may want it to mean as long as you are comfortable with it; as long as you are personally convinced you’re right, at least for you. No one thinks it’s right to question it because as the saying goes “I’ll answer to God for what I believe and you’ll answer for what you believe” or “Let’s just agree to disagree.” And there’s the problem right there. Truth has been sacrificed at the alter of personal preference. “You may believe that but I don’t”, “that’s your interpretation not mine” and on the mayhem goes. We might as well say, “I’ll be damned my way and you can be damned your way!” Seriously!! Truth can’t exist in that environment, thus I said so much of the Christian church has become one of the most hostile environments against biblical truth. The call of the Christian church is not to disagree. It is to agree. I said it is to AGREE!! Such a basic, practical concept and yet it is so far from our thinking. If we approached biblical truth with a desire to agree rather than follow our ages old propensity to disagree, it would be served rather than trampled on. The truth isn’t respected and honored in our current environment. It’s looked at as just one of the many opinions.
Disagreement is everywhere throughout Protestantism. It is a spirit from hell that hides behind all our walls. We thrive on it. We honor it as a freedom. Confusion has become our friend because we are intoxicated with the results. We don’t really want a voice of clarity and unity. It jeopardizes our love affair with “differences”; sectarian wall building disagreements and all the money and power that goes with it. LC
Your author is not here to give you an opinion, a preference. Scripture is not a book of suggestions. It is not an op-ed piece to provoke some thought. It is TRUTH from heaven to save our souls from hell. To take exception to it, no matter how it is masked, risks eternal damnation. Please, please shake yourself from fogginess on this. We are treading on sacred ground and explaining biblical truth is a sacred trust. It is holy. To teach it wrong invites judgment and this writer understands that. Need I quote a few scriptures that have somehow been forgotten in the churches frenzy to build bigger and better.
“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing
that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” Ja.3:1
“Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these
commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the
kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt.5:19
Frank point #3- One call doesn’t do it all.
If you’ve come to this article for some quick fix theology on the topic of the second coming of Christ and His return for the church (commonly called the rapture), then you’ve come to the wrong place. This website is not a drive-thru, quick-fix, one click does it all site. We can’t wave a wand and pull a rabbit out of a hat on this issue nor would we if we could. There’s far to much involved and way to much at stake to go about this subject lightly. We are almost 2000 years removed from our Lord’s first coming and His teachings on this subject. We have had all the writings of the New Testament for about 1800 years and in their most accurate form over the last hundred years. We are the inheritors of all the revelations of the visitations of God over the centuries. Need I go on? We of all people should be the most lucid not only on this subject but all the teachings of the New Covenant. And yet here we are all over the map on our Lord’s return. So why oh why are we so confused on this at this late date? And, I said, AND why isn’t anyone asking that question?? Hello out there church! How is it possible for a generation like ours with all the advantages of centuries of opportunities to get it right, to be in such abysmal confusion on this AND TO HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH IT!?? I know were not with Alice in Wonderland but I have to wonder. What happened to reality? What happened to common sense? While I should be preaching to the choir it appears they haven’t shown up yet! I am having to deal with confusion and a church system that feels right at home with it. Dear reader, did you hear what I just said? We have no problem with all the confusion on this subject. As if being all over the map on the return of Christ for the church, or any other biblical subject, is something to be admired! I ask myself, why am I having to write about such an obvious evasion of truth and what it means to believe in truth?? We are dancing ourselves into the fire! Biblical truth isn’t supposed to leave you confused and contradicting. It’s supposed to leave you understanding, convinced, enlightened and in agreement. We the church (primarily Protestantism) have sanctified confusion. We have made it orthodox. We have fallen in love it! Why? Because it makes sense? No! But because it justifies our walls and all the divisive thinking that keeps them up. And that’s the problem right there isn’t it? As was mentioned above, our current Christian church systems thrive on disagreement. Please think about that statement if you have too but don’t pass it off to quickly. Disagreement is everywhere throughout Protestantism. It is a spirit from hell that hides behind all our walls. We thrive on it. We honor it as a freedom. Confusion has become our friend because we are intoxicated with the results. We don’t really want a voice of clarity and unity. It jeopardizes our love affair with “differences”; sectarian wall building disagreements and all the money and power that goes with it. The current craze across so much of Western Christianity to give people slick “this is what you’ve got to do formula’s” or “The mystery of this or that, now fully explained in my book” is akan to the Wild West buy my cure all elixir medicine man going from town to town ripping off the fools! It’s cheap, it’s quick and it sounds great but it doesn’t work and never will. And those who settle for such poppycock will find their quick thrill exactly that, a quick thrill. ~You’ll find no “snake oil” theology here!~
Let me develop this a little more please. Scripture isn’t and never has been a kind of biblical buffet, a smorgasbord assortment catering to everyone’s taste. A sort of “we’ll lay out all the viewpoints on this subject and you choose which one you like the most” scenario- That is not and never has been the way truth works and especially Biblical truth! If this topic is ever going to be understood, as it is meant too, then it has to be approached the right way- on “sacred ground.” We can not afford to go into the time of the return of Christ in such confused condition, unless we want to repeat the first century!! The “who do men say that I am” question to the first century jews left them crucifying their Messiah!! We’ve got to understand the same scenario is building all over again. There will be no crucifixion this time around but there will be widespread rejection. Count on it! Confusion has consequences, especially when it comes to the Word of God.
Do we understand what I am getting at and why I am approaching this subject with such frankness? Hopefully I haven’t lost you. We are not talking about some earthy secular subject here. We are talking about biblical truth. The highest form of truth there is. And we are talking about one of the most important topics this generation can face. That by itself sets this subject apart as needing to be handled with extreme care. We are considering a subject of “THE BOOK”, which the apostle Paul refers to as “HOLY SCRIPTURE” (2Tim.3:15). To examine this subject with anything other than a reverent “holy” mindset is begging for confusion and judgement.
The apostle James wrote one of the most insightful statements on the damnable character of our current divisive Christian church systems and our all over the map thinking. He said,
“For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every
evil thing are there. Ja.3:16 NKJV
There you are ladies and gentlemen, fella’s and feller’s. Our Christian church systems today are consumed with this very thing; self seeking, playing the numbers game, building bigger and better, “measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2Cor.10:12). Confusion thrives in an environment like this.
Frank point #4- Entitlement Theology; the Art of feeling good about feeling good.
So with all that said here you are at my site perhaps wondering what I just said or why I said it; or perhaps looking for another angle, another twist, another version of the subject. So here’s the problem I face as your writer and you face as the reader or criticizer of this blog. I don’t believe in another angle or version of biblical truth. The two stand in contradiction to one another. Truth in general and especially biblical truth doesn’t have different angles or versions. It only has one version- its own! All other “versions” are wrong whatever people want to call them. Truth is absolute. It isn’t relative. It isn’t subject to cultural change or the whims and fancies of today’s churchy dynamics. It yells “here is the way walk ye in it.” It is monstrously ludicrous for all the various positions on this subject to exist together and be taken seriously. By their very existence they are screaming “there’s a problem here”! Only one can be true or perhaps none of them are. Do we know how to figure that out? Do we understand the importance of figuring it out or do we look at it as a nice variety? Being wrong does matter and in this case it can have eternal implications. It doesn’t matter how sincere a person is. Wrong is wrong.
Let’s be honest here. How is it possible for different churches to teach opposing things about this subject or any biblical subject and yet maintain they just believe the Bible?? Let’s have some head scratching here please! I could see the lost making a joke about such a thing, but to see such reasoning embraced by the “faithful” is shocking, or it should be. It is such an abysmal witness of biblical truth and yet it has gone on seemingly unchallenged for centuries??
Our walls don’t just define a church. They define belief systems that are contradictory to one another and scripture. How can all of them maintain that they “just believe the Bible?” If that’s true then the Bible must contradict itself and if it contradicts itself then what value is it? Hello everyone, let’s look below the water line here; look through all the creepy crawleys and understand this. How can anyone take the Bible seriously if it contradicts itself? How can we expect them to take it seriously when we promote such foolishness ourselves? How do we take it seriously if we believe that? And what does that say about its author- God? He must either be extremely confused or doesn’t care about the book, and if He doesn’t care about it why should we? There are very evil hands all over this matter and they’re not made of flesh and blood! We need to quit playing the sap to this debacle.
We have been called into Covenant not into an Entitlement. Let me repeat that- We have been called into a Covenant not an Entitlement. Jesus said,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed
for you.” Lk.22:20
A covenant has conditions, an entitlement is a free handout. Far to much of the church today believes and teaches that the blessings of the cross and the hope of heaven are automatic for those who accept Jesus- that’s entitlement thinking! Whatever happened to the issues of obedience to the conditions of the covenant laid out in scripture? What ever happened to the big “IF” that appears throughout scripture?? Where did that go? How is it possible for people to believe whatever they want to believe in a covenant environment? It’s not possible but it is happening everywhere because entitlement thinking has replaced covenant thinking and it is promoted by far to many Protestant pulpits (no I’m not a Catholic)! Let’s hone this down and get on topic here. Entitlement thinking is enabling people to believe whatever they want to believe about the return of Christ because as they say, “I know Jesus, whatever happens I’ll be safe, so why worry about it.” Well I suppose if it weren’t for the fact that such thinking is completely contrary to the “covenant” we are in, there wouldn’t be much to worry about. But as it is such thinking is not only incredibly ignorant but extremely dangerous. Let me be very blunt here. Do we really expect to carry all this contradictory baggage before the throne of God and be vindicated? And if we’re not vindicated, what then? You can’t come back and try all over again. Do we understand this? Life is not a game and our God is not a game player. Taking chances is fine for a computer game but there is no default setting here. When it’s over it’s over. How can we expect to carry such relative, subjective, contradicting thinking before God someday and expect to be vindicated?
So this is where we must start with this subject, and so we have! The climate of the current church system and its thinking has to be taken into account and how it impacts our understanding of the truths of scripture and especially the subject we are on. To move on without considering what we have looked at is vain. So all that said, here’s the big question: Is it possible for you the reader to approach this subject with an open mind? What are you bringing to the table here? How important is this to you? Are you carrying an agenda? The current Christian environment is so convoluted with so many ideas of how the Lord will return, it’s going to be difficult for your author to be taken serious. The boy who cried wolf to many times comes to mind here, only the wolf I am crying about just happens to be real. This wolf is lurking behind so much of what is being passed off today as biblical but obviously is not. If it looks like a wolf, sounds like a wolf and acts like a wolf, we can safely say it is a wolf! “Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing” especially the ones with big teeth. They are everywhere on this subject.
~Oh church how did we get this way? Why do I have to talk like this?
It’s so hard to shake hands with one hand! We have become opponents
rather than associates and we seem to enjoy it. God will soon change this~ LC
Keep your fork and your spoon in hand, we’re just getting started.
Luther Canon
Sola Scriptura. 