![]() During this time, he will blaspheme God, His temple, and holy ones. The Holy Spirit will be restrained, and the Antichrist, once held in check, will have unimaginable power and control over the world. There is much to fear in the aftermath of the rapture. Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Digital Vision. Those who rejected these essential beliefs, who thumbed their noses at God’s free gift of grace, will find themselves wandering in a world being torn apart by war, famine, chaos, strife, and unspeakable evil spawned by the Antichrist and False Prophet. Yes, sadly, these and others (atheists and agnostics, Satan-worshippers and cultists) are the people whom Jesus will-and must-leave behind, for only those who truly believed in His substitutionary death on the cross and subsequent resurrection from the dead will be saved. They all were more insurance than genuine saving assurance. Come to find out, though, that neither their religiosity or goodness, nor their half-hearted attempts at spiritual disciplines, nor their “professions” count. They even might have, at some point, made a profession of faith. ![]() They performed good works (donated money or items to charities, volunteered at homeless shelters, etc.). They read their Bibles and prayed sometimes, maybe even went to church at Christmas and Easter. These leftovers are those who do not have a saving faith in Jesus Christ, who are not sealed with the Holy Spirit, the guarantor of eternal inheritance ( 2 Corinthians 1:22).Īfter the rapture, these unregenerated, Spiritless souls will be thrust into immediate and enormous emotional confusion, wondering where did all the believers go (some of whom may have been family members, friends, co-workers, etc.), wondering why they are still here, and what’s going to happen to them now? Some may even grapple with the fact that they thought they were “safe” because they were either “religious” or “good” people. But what about those left behind? Why did Jesus leave them, and what will become of them? This is the glorious hope believers have, of anticipating that day when Jesus will bodily return and take us, His Bride, back with Him. It is believed by most evangelicals that those “taken” during the rapture (both the living and the dead) are members of the Church, indicated by “in Christ”-those who previously appropriated the free gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. While the word rapture was never used by Jesus or anyone else in the Bible, the term in the Latin Vulgate ( rapiõ, “to seize, snatch away”) is close enough in meaning to the Greek word harpazõ, used in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (“caught up”). Two women will be grinding with a hand mill one will be taken and the other left.” This visible, unsuspecting “catching up”-commonly referred to as the rapture in evangelical circles-was initially foretold by Jesus in Matthew 24:40-41: “Two men will be in the field one will be taken and the other left. Their bodies (being transformed into glorified bodies) will be resurrected on that day and will join the living on this ascent into heaven. ![]() We understand from this passage that it is not only the living who will be caught up but those who “have fallen asleep.” Fallen asleep is a spiritual euphemism for those who have previously died. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this, we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. We have the assurance that both events (His return and our earthly departure) will happen based on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. There is coming a time-although we don’t know when-when Jesus Christ will return, and when He does, those in Christ will be taken away. ![]()
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