Rapture Interest: A Contrarian Indicator
There’s no shortage of financial advice “out there” that is either freely accessible or available through a subscription service. One of the sources that I’ve found useful in this economic realm is Stansberry Research. They have a number of different newsletters covering the gamut of investments by many different writers, but the hallmark of Stansberry is the contrarian stance they take regardless of the type of financial instrument.
One of the founding partners in the firm is Steve Sjuggerud. Steve is well known within the financial community, and the advice he’s famous for is a particular indicator. He wants to find an investment – regardless of whether it’s a stock or anything else – that is hated, out-of-favor, but in an uptrend. When that company or country or anything else has been abandoned by the market, that piques his interest. This will usually mean that nobody is talking about it, except in negative terms; significant funds have been taken from that area, yet its value is recovering because it’s gone down as far as it can go. Essentially, the investment has been deserted because nobody thinks he can make any money in it; it has no future as far as the market is concerned.
The key for Sjuggerud and other Stansberry analysts is that the investment must be solid. Just because it’s been dumped by everyone doesn’t mean there’s no value. It’s just that no one in the general market sees any future in it. They’ve taken their money and plowed it into the favored stock of the day. But just because something is favored by numerous investment firms, along with the mom and pop investors, doesn’t mean money can be made at this point and that there’s no downside. In fact, when the market is heavily invested in one area and a stock has soared, that means that there’s plenty of room for it to fall. In that environment, if a financial instrument can be located that everyone despises, yet is a solid company or area of investment, that’s what Sjuggerud seeks. Obviously, there are many factors that go into this, but that’s the general theme.
An associate of Stansberry is Rick Rule, described as a legendary natural resources investing expert. He concentrates on gold, silver, and other natural resources investments. He has famously said, “You’re either a contrarian or a victim,” meaning that when the market decides to favor something, you’re generally better off going in the opposite direction.
I wanted to provide this introduction because I believe there’s a great similarity today in how the concept of the Rapture of the Church is viewed by most of the religious community. There’s no sense in discussing how those outside this body consider the Rapture; just getting them to think about God is a challenge, let alone that He will remove His people at some point from the earth. No, it’s those who consider themselves Christians that we want to examine.
There was a period when the Rapture was in favor, when the balance of Christendom discussed and anticipated it, including in the early church. That time is long past. Most of the mainline Protestant churches have fallen far from even adhering to Scripture as the inspired Word of God. They maintain a very low view of the Bible. Bible prophecy has been condemned to symbolism and allegory. The concept of the Rapture, if it even crosses their minds, has been relegated to the dustbin of forgotten beliefs.
The Catholic Church is very much in this camp. It doesn’t encourage its people to even read the Bible, so anything its congregants know comes from what the priests tell them. Since Catholics believe they’re the one true church and every other church is apostate because of the Reformation, any Biblical notion that contradicts their beliefs is shoved away.
In the Evangelical community, once the lone defender of the Rapture, the idea that Jesus will come to remove His people before a time of great wrath has become laughable. Everyone is saved because God is love. Or the church has to Christianize the world before Jesus can return. Or this world is our best life now. Take your pick among these and other popular themes. Anything but the recognition that God will judge a sinful, unbelieving world. Anything but Israel being integral to God’s plans and purposes for this world. No, Israel is a pariah, a usurper, a nation that is to be despised because she rebelled against God and will be punished forever.
Of course, the problem with these various viewpoints in these different religious camps is that they have abandoned the inerrant Word of God. They don’t look upon the Bible as an authority where Scripture confirms Scripture and the Word is to be taken literally unless it tells us something is symbolic.
In other words, the very idea of the Rapture is scorned and extremely out-of-favor. No one believes that it will happen. Nobody even talks about it unless certain foolish people bring it up, then it’s to be laughed at, even despised.
This is why the analogy to contrarian investing is so appropriate. The idea of the Rapture is literally hated. For some reason, people think it’s chic to batten down the hatches, get all prepped up, and get ready to go underground during the Tribulation. Besides, they reason, who will tell the world about Jesus if believers aren’t around? Forgetting, of course, that God has that covered with 144,000 Jewish evangelists, two previously Raptured witnesses, and an angel that goes through the world at the end to assure that everyone has the chance to hear the Gospel.
Or, since the Rapture only happens at some distant future time and the Tribulation has already happened, we’d better get busy doing what the new apostles tell us and adhere to what the new prophets declare as additional Scripture. We’ve got a lot of work to do until Jesus comes back in a couple thousand years so we can hand him a world that has converted to Christ because of our diligent efforts.
The Rapture is definitely out-of-favor. How often do you hear it spoken of from the pulpit, other than in derisive terms? Pastors are too busy affirming social justice, their LGBT congregants, or counting noses in the seats from those who have come to feel good about themselves.
So, yes, the Rapture is not a hot topic in most of the church today. I think, because of that, all these who willfully or ignorantly discount it may be blinded to the signs of the times and their meaning. If you don’t think Jesus is coming soon to remove His church from this sin-drenched world, then the chaos, violence, and confusion all around us have no meaning and no answer. In fact, I think many who don’t look for Jesus’ return may be totally unaware of the madness of the age.
But, it is exactly this folly that confronts those of us every day who are watching that is the contrarian indicator. These signs are the uptrend. Jesus and Paul said to be on the lookout for physical upheaval in the earth and degradation in the soul of man.
Given what we see, I think it’s a good time to invest in Rapture futures. There’s a great payoff coming.
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Gary W. Ritter is a lay pastor, Bible teacher, and serves as Missions Director at his church. He is also a prolific author. His Whirlwind Series is comprised of three books: Sow the Wind, Reap the Whirlwind, and There Is A Time. All these books are also contained in the collected volume of the just-released Whirlwind Omnibus. Gary has a standalone novel of supernatural suspense, The Tattooed Cat. He released Alien Revelation – The Unveiling, the first novel in a new series The Sons of God Chronicles on September 4, 2019. You can reach him via his website at www.GaryRitter.com or at his Facebook Author page at https://www.facebook.com/gritter3390. You can also see his video Bible teachings on his Gary Ritter YouTube page – look for the fish symbol.