Being "Left behind" is
not going to be a laughing matter. You definitely do not
want to be "Left behind" at the Rapture. This web site will
tell you what will happen both here on earth and in heaven following the Rapture
and will tell you
how you can avoid being "Left behind".
"In my Father's house
are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again,
and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
John 14: 2, 3
First of all, what is
the Rapture? The Second Coming of Christ will occur in two stages. The First
Stage of His Return is called "The Rapture"; the Second Stage - "The
Revelation." At The Rapture He comes for His Saints, and at the Revelation He
comes with His Saints. The time between the two Stages is not less than
seven years and is occupied in the heavens by the "Judgment of Believers for
Works," and on the Earth by "The Great Tribulation."
THE RAPTURE
The Rapture is described in I. Thess. 4:15-17.
“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and
remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For
the Lord HIMSELF shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the Archangel (Michael) and with the trump of God; and
the DEAD IN CHRIST shall rise first; then we which are ALIVE AND
REMAIN (saints only) shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord IN THE AIR, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
From this we see that “The Rapture” will be twofold.
1. The Resurrection of the "DEAD IN CHRIST.”
2. The Translation of the "LIVING SAINTS.”
This two fold character of “The Rapture” Jesus revealed to Martha when He was
about to raise her brother Lazarus. He said to her, "I am the 'Resurrection and the Life,’ he that believeth in
Me, though he were dead yet shall he LIVE (First Resurrection
Saints); and whosoever LIVETH (is alive when I come back) and believeth
in Me shall NEVER DIE.” John 11:25, 26.
THE RAPTURE WILL BE
A SURPRISE
“Watch therefore; for ye know not what hour your
Lord doth come. But know this, that if the Goodman of the house had known in
what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have
suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready; for in such
an hour as ye think not the Son of Man COMETH.” Matt. 24:42-44. “Behold, I
come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he
walk naked, and they see his shame.” Rev. 16:15. “But of the 'times’ and
the 'seasons’ brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For
yourselves know perfectly that the ‘Day of the Lord’ (the day of His Return), so
cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, 'Peace
and Safety;’ then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a
woman with child, and they shall not escape.” This refers to the Second Stage of
Christ’s Coming, the “Revelation,” when He shall take vengeance upon His
enemies. II Thess. 1:7-10. But Paul adds – “But ye, brethren, are not in
darkness, that that day (the day of His Return) should overtake you
as a thief.” I Thess. 5:1-4.
We see from this that when Christ comes back it will be when we are not
expecting Him. He will come as a thief comes. A thief does not announce his
coming. He comes for a certain purpose. He does not take everything there is in
the house. He takes only the precious things, the jewels, the gold, the silver
and fine wearing apparel. He does not come to stay. As soon as he secures what
he is after he departs. So Jesus at the Rapture will come and take away the
saints only. The thief leaves much more than he takes. He leaves the house and
the furniture and the household utensils. So the Lord at the Rapture will leave
the wicked and the great mass of the heathen behind for those who will be taken
will be comparatively few.
MOST STARTLING EVENT TO EVER OCCUR
The
Rapture will happen all over the earth at the same time or as the Apostle
describes it in a "moment," or the "twinkling of an eye." "As the
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also
the coming of the Son of Man Be" (Matt.24:27) is the way Jesus puts it.
The
“Rapture” will be the most startling “event” of this Age and
Dispensation. As it is to occur in the "twinkling of an eye” and
all over the earth at the same time, that part of the world that
is not asleep will witness the event. As to the "Shout of the Lord,”
the “Voice of the Archangel,” and the "Trump of God” we do
not know whether their sound will be heard and distinguished by others
than the “dead in Christ” and the “living saints.” We know that one day
the Father spoke to Christ in a voice that He understood, but the people
who stood by mistook it for “thunder.” John 12:28, 29. When the Lord
appeared to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and spoke to him, the
men that journeyed with him stood speechless, “hearing a voice,” but
seeing no man, and not understanding what was said. Acts 9:3-7. We know
however that the “dead in Christ” will hear the sound, for it will be
“intensely penetrating.” There will be no graves so deep, no catacombs
so rock covered, no pyramids or mausoleums so thick but what the sound
shall reach their depths and the “dead in Christ” shall hear the cry –
"awake ye sleeping saints and arise from the dead, it is MORNING, the
morning of the FIRST RESURRECTION.”
On the morning of that glorious day the air will be filled with the
“spirits” of the “Dead in Christ,” come back to earth to get their
bodies, raised and glorified. Whether the cemeteries and country church
yards will look like ploughed fields, and monuments and grave slabs be
overturned and vaults and places of sepulcher be shattered by the exodus
of those who found their last resting place there, and thus testify to
the fact of the literal bodily resurrection of the dead, or
whether the sainted dead shall slip out of their sepulchers without
disturbing them, as Christ arose and left the tomb without breaking the
seal, the angel rolling away the stone simply to show that the tomb was
empty, we are not told, only the event itself will disclose the manner
of the First Resurrection.
If the dead slip out of their places of sepulcher without disturbing
them, the First Resurrection will be secret and probably unknown to the
world, but it will not be so with the “Living Saints” who are
translated. If it is night on our side of the globe when the Rapture
occurs the community will wake up in the morning to find all the real
Christians gone, disappeared in the night. Many may hear the sound
of the “Midnight cry” -
"BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH,”
but thinking it only thunder, will turn over for another nap, but in the
morning they will find the bedroom door locked, with the key on the
inside, just as they locked it before retiring, and the clothes of the
loved one who occupied the room with them lying where they were placed
when taken off the night before, but that loved one, who was a
Christian, missing. Husbands will wake up to find that Christian wives
are gone, and wives will wake up to find Christian husbands gone.
Brothers and sisters will be missed, and dear children absent, and not
an infant will be left behind. Many faithful servants and employees will
not report for duty, and the world will awake to the fact that the Bible
is true, and the much despised doctrine of the Pre-Millennial Coming of
the Lord to gather out His saints is no fanciful interpretation of
Scripture.
If it be day with us when the Rapture occurs, the "EVENT”
will be startling. As it was in the days of Noah (Matt.
24:36-39), the people will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, buying and selling, planting and building.
If it be a pleasant time of the year, the boats, and cars, and parks
will be filled with pleasure seekers. If it be in the midst of the week,
and during the business hours of the day, the shops and stores will be
filled with shoppers and the mills with toilers, and the streets of the
cities lined with men and women and children on pleasure and business
bent. Suddenly a noise from heaven will be heard like a great peal of
thunder. The people will rush to doors and windows, and those on the
streets and in the fields will look up to see what has happened. To the
vast majority it will be but a startling and alarming sound, but
to many it will be the
"VOICE OF THE LORD.”
But when the people recover from their surprised and affrighted
condition they will discover that a great many people are missing, and
that the missing were the best people in the community. The large
Department Stores, Banking Institutions, Manufacturing Plants, and other
places of business will find their working force depleted by the loss of
faithful employees. People walking on the streets will find their
companions gone, and confusion will reign everywhere. In many homes the
servants will be missing and members of the family will come home to
find loved ones gone.
At first the whole thing will be a Mystery, until some one who
had heard or read about the “Rapture of the Saints,” realizing what has
happened, will explain the situation.
But one of the surprises of that day will be that so many professing
Christians, and among them many ministers and Christian workers, will be
left behind, while some who were not known to be Christians will be
missing. The next day’s papers will be full of what happened the day
before, and many of them will be swelled to twice their ordinary size by
the pressure on their advertising columns for information as to missing
ones, and for help to fill important vacancies and positions of trust.
For a few days the excitement will be intense. Then the people will
settle down to the inevitable. With the exception of a few who will
repent and turn to God, the mass of the people will become more hardened
and wicked than before, and some who lost loved ones will be embittered.
As the Holy Spirit will have gone back with the “Raptured Ones,” and the
“Saints,” the SALT of the earth, been taken out, there will be
nothing to prevent the rapid degeneration and "Moral Putrefaction”
of those who are "left,” and sin and iniquity and all manner of
crime and worldliness will increase and pave the way for the
manifestation of Antichrist, under whose administration the world will
rapidly ripen for judgment.
WHAT
WILL BECOME OF THOSE WHO ARE
LEFT BEHIND
This is a sad question, but it is eagerly
asked by many. What saith the Lord?
“Then said one unto
Him, Lord, are there FEW that may be
saved? And He said unto them, Strive to enter in at the
strait (narrow) gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to
enter in (when He comes), and shall not be able, when once
the 'Master of the House’ is risen up, and hath SHUT
THE
DOOR, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the
door, saying, Lord, open unto us: and He shall answer and
say unto you, I know not whence ye are: then shall ye
begin
to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou
hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I
KNOW YOU NOT WHENCE YE ARE; DEPART FROM
ME, ALL YE WORKERS OF INIQUITY.” Luke 13:23-27.
The time of the closing of the door is
revealed in the Parable of the “The Virgins.” It will be when the
Bridegroom comes, and those that are ready (the “Wise Virgins”)
have gone in with Him to the “Marriage.” When the “Foolish Virgins” come
late, and say – “Lord, open to us,” He will answer - "I KNOW YOU
NOT.” That is, I never knew you. You were only mere
professors. Then follow the words – “Watch therefore (be ready), for ye
know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.” Mat.
25:1-13. Note that the persons shut out are not those who never heard
the Gospel, but those who had been professing followers of Jesus, who
had eaten and drunk in His presence and even gone out to meet Him.
It may readily be supposed that the taking away of loved ones at the
Rapture will cause many of those left behind to seek the Lord, but as
the Holy Spirit goes back with the Church, and for the time being ceases
His Office Work of Regeneration, who is to convert those who are left?
There is a passage in Hebrews that has troubled many a sincere soul who
has feared that they had committed the “Unpardonable Sin.” It is this -
“For if we sin (continue to sin)
willfully after that we
have received the knowledge (that is know about it) of the
truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a
certain
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation,
which shall devour the adversaries.” Heb. 10:26.
The preceding verse shows that this warning is
connected with the Lord’s Coming – “So much the more, as ye see 'The
Day’ approaching - the "DAY OF THE LORD.” The expression -
"there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,” implies that those who
thus sin against their knowledge are without hope.
That there will be a “Great Multitude” saved after the Church is
“caught out” in the “Time Space” between the “Rapture” and the
“Revelation,” is clearly revealed in Rev. 7:9-17, and some of them may
be of those "left behind,” but they will have to pass through
great tribulation and suffer a martyr’s death for refusing to worship
the “Image of the Beast.” Rev. 13:11-17. And we read that – When the
Lord Jesus shall be revealed (at the close of the Great Tribulation)
from Heaven with His mighty angels, in "flaming fire” He shall
take vengeance on them that "KNOW NOT GOD,” and that "OBEY NOT
THE GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.” II Thess. 1:7-10. Let us not
run the risk of being left behind.
