There is a growing hatred for anything that centers on Jesus Christ. Its like the world wants to promote a “god” idea that can fit all belief systems, but trashes the God of Christianity and the idea of the Son of God as a Savior of all men. There is an even greater hatred for the idea of a Rapture, where a large number of people are going to be caught up and supernaturally removed. More and more of the leading ministers in Biblical circles are denying the Rapture and turning to theological ideas that suggest a Christian dominion of the earth rather than escape from the earth. Much of the Evangelical world and all of the Catholic leadership are dead set against a sudden exodus of the chosen saints of God.When you understand the multitude of different ideas relating to End Times events, it is challenging to describe the many different reactions that may well follow the great escape of the saints. The Rapture may well serve to unite the religious world and force them to forge a united reaction. There are not many religious leaders left that do not have a growing distaste for Bible-believing fundamentalism. Every major religious trend has served to build a consensus against what is being called “narrow-minded fundamentalism.” Building a broad-based movement to bring the Catholic, the Evangelical, and the Pentecostals together demands that no theology is important enough to divide the church world.
We now have a religious atmosphere that drives the fundamental truths to the back room. That is the crowd that is going to be the Raptured saints. It would be a great relief to many religious personalities if we would just disappear. We will! Holiness of lifestyle is hated. Ministers that still preach and teach separation from the trashy and carnal world are considered cultic and bothersome. The music of the average church in the acceptable church growth world is unclean and repulsive. The atmosphere in the Jewish synagogues when Jesus came the first time is a fair example of today’s church atmosphere. Genuine truth has fallen in the streets. Most ministers that still continue to preach the Rapture also trash solid Biblical holiness living.
“The Passion of the Christ” did not change anything, but it did reveal some things that had already changed. Suddenly, the last holdouts of the church world could join the Catholic Church world and start uniting with them without question. The main two church denominational holdouts to wild ecumenicalism were the Baptist and the Pentecostals. They are now beginning to lead the way into the greatest unity of the “Christian” church world in all of two thousand years. How are all of them going to explain that the Rapture has taken place and they are still here?
Immediately After the Rapture
The Rapture is going to make an incredible stir throughout the world. This is one of the greatest moments in human history and the result will be an incredible crisis. The media will explore every detail. Interviews will be granted to all sides and many different explanations will be given. The paranormal world will have a field day with many bizarre stories. Somehow the majority of the world will be convinced to carry on and to join the new day of liberty and license.
The Catholic Church Will Move to the Forefront
The best way to deal with a crisis is to celebrate it and the celebration will begin. The One World Church will quickly develop a speakers’ bureau to appear on all news channels. Let’s consider what may be their explanation. I believe they will proclaim that a supernatural miracle has occurred. Religious fanatics and rebellious fundamentalists have been removed by an act of God so that the world can finally experience peace. They will say that these people were no different than the terrorists within the Muslim world. They were like the Taliban of Afghanistan and we have been spared their hindrance to our planned wonderful world by this miracle of their removal.
Forerunners of the Antichrist will see this as their golden opportunity and they will join in with the religious One World Church. They will herald the coming revelation of their “Christ” and great paranormal events will become commonplace. As the idea that this “Christ” is waiting to be manifest begins to grip the world, great excitement to His coming will develop. Great speakers with demonic appeal will conduct rallies all over the world. They will build excitement to the point of hysteria. Incredible miracles of healing (i.e., blinded eyes opened) and mass healing events will occur. This new church world of the inclusive church will explode. It will be religious mania.
This new religion will be as emotionally real as the true Pentecost of the past. The only thing missing will be the restrictions of commandments and standards. It will be the greatest day of mass religious events in history. The music is already written, the singers have already trained, and these campaigns will feature the best. The present contemporary, rap, rock, funk, and other ungodly music are all the music of the Antichrist and are ready to inoculate the world. The multitudes will line up to be baptized and marked as the worshippers of this new “Christ.” They will actually believe that he is the true appearing of the real Christ.
While the One World Church is Worshipping
As hid from public view as possible, a genuine surrender to Jesus Christ will grip the world. Millions of people that knew very little about the faith of Jesus Christ will believe that the Rapture, which has just occurred, was the real thing. This great company will find private places to pray and devour the Holy Bible. They will help each other find food and survive as long as possible. Little children will be led to a living faith as moms and dads, sometimes only mothers and sometimes only dads, help their families prepare for the worst. Every person, who makes a complete surrender to Jesus Christ, will be signing his or her own death warrant by the worst possible form of death.
The great multitude that wash their garments in the Blood of the Son of man/Son of God will be hated by the liberal media, the Antichrist and his army of savages, and the New World Religion followers. The persecution of Christians will be worldwide and brutal. Human rights will not exist. There will be no “911” phone number for those that are being brutally hunted and slaughtered.
The death of these repentant and blood-washed souls is going to be so massive and vicious that the Great Creator and His divine Son set one of the seven seals to draw attention to this fact. These people will be champions. They will bear their testimony bravely before the world, while being hated and threatened by the entire One World system. These new saints do not have any weapons and no one is available to plead their call before the powers that be, but they are brave unto death. Listen to the Lord Jesus Christ in His Revelation to John describe them. “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” (Revelation 6:9-11)
The Gospel will certainly be heard worldwide during the Seven Years of the Great Tribulation. The souls we just witnessed were condemned and killed for the Word of God and their testimonies. There will be two incredible prophets that proclaim God’s Word to the world and cannot be killed until their witness is complete. They will perform many genuine miracles and even shut the heavens so that it does not rain. Their testimony will be so effective that the Beast, the Leader of the One World Religion will make war with them. After three and one-half years of ministry, they will be killed and their death will cause a worldwide celebration by the wicked multitudes.
Look at a few descriptions of their ministry and effectiveness. “And I will give power unto my two witnesses … And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth … These have power to shut heaven … And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city … where also our Lord was crucified … And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them … and great fear fell upon them which saw them … the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.” (Revelation 11:3-13)
Even angels will fly through the Heavens proclaiming the everlasting gospel. No one that takes the Mark of the Beast or worships Satan, the Antichrist, or the Beast will have an excuse. The absolute proof that the God of Heaven is the source of these days of great judgment will be undeniable. The glory of God vs. the hideous nature of Satan and his entire deceived host will be evident for men to see.
The Wicked Will Be Wicked Still
The spirit of prophecy used Prophet Daniel to give us incredible information about the Seven Years of the Great Tribulation. The last chapter of his book speaks of the rapture and resurrection of the righteous, as well as the resurrection of the wicked. He described the first three and one-half years, placed the abomination of desolation in the middle, and then described the last three and one-half years. It’s a remarkable description. Along with placing the abomination in the middle, he also described a revival of righteousness. With that he also spoke of the company of the wicked that, in spite of judgment and the undercurrent of genuine revival, they would continue to be wicked and even grow into a level of wickedness never experienced. Look at Daniel’s anointed description of this coming hour after the Rapture. “And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days (the last three and one-half years of the seven).” (Daniel 12:9-11) The wickedness of the wicked will reach a level of vileness that we do not yet understand. A human being can become a devil in nature just like Satan and his angels became devils. This is already happening, but will reach a new level during the Great Tribulation.
At the very beginning of the seven years, the sixth seal reveals something of men’s response to the judgments of God that are evident. Look at these words, “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:14-17)
There is no evidence of repentance, just a stark reflection of their understanding that this is a judgment from the God of Heaven and His Son, Jesus Christ. By the time of the sixth trumpet, the hearts of men will have grown arrogant and obstinate. “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” (Revelation 9:20-21)
In the face of judgments that they dare not deny, the wickedness of those men left after the Rapture only grows more and more wicked. By the time the two prophets that had performed many miracles and proven themselves to be prophets from God have been killed, the multitudes of the wicked have the audacity to rejoice and send gifts celebrating the Beast’s victory over those men of God.
Now, as the Seven Years draw to a close, the time comes that Jesus Christ will appear in the Heavens on a great white stallion, along with a multitude of His saints with Him. The sight will be too awesome to describe. The wicked, who have arrogantly rejected every expression of truth or mercy, join themselves to the Antichrist as his army and gather to Armageddon to fight against the descending Christ and His army of the glorified saints. The devil, the Antichrist, the Beast, fallen angels, and the host of wicked men and women become as one to fight the Lamb of God and His host. But, the end of this rebellion has come. “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.” (Revelation 19:17-18)
The Deluded That Knew But Rejected the Truth
I cannot end this article without remembering the multitude that were “Left Behind” but could not repent. They were turned to a reprobate mind to believe a lie and be damned. That lie of a false religion, a false Christ, and miracles to deceive will conclude by actually fighting against the returning Son of God. Imagine the men and women that once heard and knew the truth, but loved the world more. There will be multitudes of them that were raised in Bible-believing churches, heard the preaching about the Rapture, and were loved by the saints of God, but are now the companion of Satan to fight the Battle of Armageddon. The worse degree of the Lake of fire is reserved for those that knew but rejected the great Savior that came down to die.
Left Behind, Seven Years of Hell
This world will soon be Satan’s last stand. He is a master at deceit. With thousands of years of experience in fighting against God, he will certainly use his acquired skills to lead this world to war. With the restraining presence of the Holy Ghost removed, there will be nothing to hinder but the limits of prophesied truth. He and his host will fight to the finish. There will be schemes of deception unknown. Only those that wash themselves in the Blood of the Lamb and choose death over the mark will survive.
It’s foolish to wait and follow the love of self and sin. Turn wholly to Jesus Christ today. Tomorrow may be the sad day of the “Left Behind.”
Joseph R. Chambers