Called to be Ready...For What?

There is one particular tradition held close to heart by the modern fundamentalist church that claims to be a blessing to the church, but is in fact a devious curse to those who believe it. This is the heresy of the "pre-tribulation rapture"; it strips the meaning from our faith, exchanging the ever-present spiritual struggle of our faith into a seemingly never-ending "waiting game". This fable teaches that in the last days, immediately before the great seven-year tribulation, all people living on Earth who genuinely follow Christ will be taken out of the earth, to make way for God to utterly annihilate the planet. Once this massive and miraculous exodus of the faithful takes place, the Antichrist will then rise up to power, and by the power of the devil, he will deceive people into believing that he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

Of course, according to this rapture theory, it would make sense that the people "left behind" wouldn't know the difference between a wicked war-mongering emperor and Jesus Christ. But why everyone in the world would want to follow any Jesus after the rapture, while suffering the judgment of God, and without piecing together the connection between a sudden disappearance of millions of people and the rise of the best deceiver the world would ever know...well that is another question entirely.

According to the fundamentalist fable of the end-times, the Antichrist will get shot or wounded in his head, but survive. He will have an incredible hypnotic effect on the people, submitting their free will under his influence. He will have 666 written across his forehead. While the scripture says that he will do terrible, hateful, despicable things; fundamentalists believe that people will love him, and that he will have a wonderfully wise way with words. He will also have a sort of side-kick called the "false prophet" that does his dirty work for him, performs all sorts of signs and lying wonders, while he constantly directs the worship of the world to "the beast" (or Antichrist), and not himself (the false prophet). Considering that pride was the sin of Satan, and directing worship from yourself to another is a universal sign of humility, (best represented by John the Baptist, who -when speaking of Jesus- said, "I must decrease, and he must increase") this story doesn't seem to add up. Could it be that the devil has also misdirected our understanding of the Beast, in this most crucial point of history?

The devil takes where the Lord gives. The devil lies where the Lord tells the truth. The devil boasts before all while the Lord speaks to whom he choses in a "still small voice". If Jesus taught that "You can tell a tree by it's fruit, for a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, and a good tree cannot produce bad fruit", and "Out of the mouth comes the abundance of the heart", he probably meant something by it. The devil's appearance at a glance may seem harmless, or even attractive, but his poisonous nature is quickly revealed beneath the disguise of "an angel of light". The devil is no more than a very good illusionist. And his Antichrist is nothing more than a wolf disguised as a sheep.

It is foolishness to suggest that the Antichrist will be wise. For the Bible is very emphatically clear that wisdom comes from God, and while Lucifer was "perfect in wisdom" before his fall, from the point that sin entered him, all light and wisdom that he possessed was transformed to true darkness and mere craftiness.

Satan is the ultimate con-artist; he is the master of loop-holes, foolish enough to think that he is really staying one step ahead of God, or his children. Satan knows that his time is short here on Earth, and that God has promised him judgment, but he is racing against time, furiously poisoning the well of truth with his fables and fantasies. The devil's plan is to cause all believers to fall short of the mark of God, thereby keeping God away from the Earth. His biggest threat on earth is the Bride of Christ, and so the object of his greatest campaign of deception would be the church. If the devil manages to successfully deceive the church into supporting his chosen vessel of death and destruction (The Antichrist), then God would be forced to either delay his return, or to destroy his beloved because God is just, and the fallen church would have become wicked.

How could such a campaign of deception be carried out? By planting the seed of a lie years before its fruit would be needed, then repeating that lie over and over again to give it nourishment and a sense of authenticity. The seed of "pre-trib" teaching originated in 1825, and it has grown to be one of the most divisive issues of the modern church. The best way to get a good person (or people) to do or believe something that is false, is to tell them that it is in their best interest. This was the devil's tactic when tempting Eve, it is the poisonous reasoning that has fueled this wicked War on Terrorism, and it is the heart of the "Pre-tribulation rapture" theory.

Time and time again, by the word of Christ, and throughout the letters of the New Testament, there are warnings to be ready for the return of Christ. There are numerous warnings that Christ will return "as a thief in the night". These warnings are issued to believers, both asleep and awake. Those who are awake and vigilant will see the signs of his coming, and they will be prepared for his arrival. The master will receive these servants with joy, and he will express this joy by pampering his servants (which is a concept that would make any good servant blush). Other servants will be asleep, and unprepared for his return. These servants will be rebuked, but forgiven. Still others will be wicked: they will drink the Master's liquor, beat their fellow servants, put their feet up on his furniture, and believe in their heart that the Master won't be returning in their lifetime, so they might as well live it up. These servants will be punished severely.

So the question is, when will Christ return, and what will be his motivation for coming "as a thief in the night"? According to the Pre-trib rapture version, Christ will return before any signs of judgment manifest themselves, and before the Antichrist rises to power. His motivation, then, would be to catch Christians with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar. This version of Jesus is looking for the perfect time to bust into Earth and yell "Gotcha!", laughing at the unprepared humans who have chosen to serve and follow him. Once he has scooped up his good, caring, and loving followers from the Earth, this Jesus will go back to heaven, seal the door shut behind him, and stay the heck out of the way as God pours fire and plagues on the Earth (while the Antichrist woos the people left with his wisdom, seducing their love for seven years). There will be 144,000 Jews who will see the light of God in this period, according to the rapture, but they alone will escape. The vast majority of people, Jew and Gentile alike, will be utterly consumed by the furious wrath of God, and only the saints will be safe in heaven to watch the world burn. This would be better than any block-buster action flick EVER...and it doesn't matter that any true saint would not be captivated by the spectacle, but would be sick to their stomach and in pain at the mostly meaningless suffering on Earth that is promised by this theory. To preserve the integrity of the pre-trib rapture theory, we shouldn't take note that the 12 tribes of Revelation 7 include Joseph, and exclude Dan and Ephraim (which would mean that they are not of the literal "tribes" of Israel, but a spiritual type). We should also disregard all prophetic references to the The Master returning to his house, or coming in to his wedding. Because according to the Pre-trib view, The Master will return to his house, make note of the faithful and watchful servants, take them out of the house, and then immediately set fire to his own house and watch it burn to the ground, with sleeping and wicked servants left to die in the inferno. This is not the Gospel, and not the real Jesus Christ.

If the Pre-trib view of the end times isn't true, then what are we supposed to "be ready" for?

I wonder. Could it be that the Devil is already well-advanced in his plans to deceive the Church; that he has duped the people into thinking that they don't need to put on the Armor of God, that they don't need to worry about stepping into battle? Might Jesus have been warning all those who call him "Lord Lord" that saying the right words won't be enough to save them? Could it be that our actions define our spiritual state? Is it possible that the Antichrist not only walks among us, but was strongly endorsed by the mainstream church, and has lit the fuse that will ignite the powder-keg of the 3rd World War? Have many Christians since 1825 have been lulled into a spiritual sleep because they are waiting for a pre-tribulation rapture that will never happen? Is the devil's power to deceive that extensive, that it would fool so may people, but never God?

If the "pre-trib rapture" is a lie, could God have offered us any help or assistance in waking up from a deception so massive as this? Can the events that have happened in recent years have any deep prophetic significance? Is the death of tens of thousands of people in east Asia just in this month so far a sign of the day we are now living in, or is it meaningless; without merit; certainly not a sign from God? Does God want us to be caught with our hands in the cookie jar, or does he want all to come to repentance? I wonder...

C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christians of the 20th Century, wrote this in Mere Christianity:

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. We have all seen this when doing arithmetic. When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start over again, the faster I shall get on. There is nothing progressive about being pig-headed and refusing to admit a mistake.

I haven't left references to scriptures in this post, because scriptures have been used on both sides of the argument. I hope, however, that this shows the spiritual fruit of the "pre-trib" doctrine. And I can assure you, that if you believe in the rapture now, and this causes even the most remote doubt to enter your mind in it's authenticity, and you begin to study the scriptures to confirm if it is a lie, you will be amazed by how many scriptures all throughout the Bible clarify the matter.