The Gospel and the Rapture; 2 Important Messages That Both Must Be Right

1) Jesus Is Coming; You'll Want To Go With Him 2) Know That You Are Ready

One girl not ready and staying, one girl ready and going.

There are many diligent and scholarly end-times prophecy teachers/preachers posting a lot of videos, speaking at conferences and seminars, etc. This is good. I am glad to see people being willing to address these topics in a thoughtful and careful manner. It is sad that so many preachers/pastors seem to be afraid of the topic as a whole, as well as any passage that may speak about this time period that is talked about more than any other time period in the Bible. The Apostle Paul admonishes us:

2 Timothy 3:16:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Bible prophecy is included in "all Scripture." About 25% to 30% of the Bible is prophetic text, depending on whom you ask on any given day. :-) Also, about 14% of the Bible is end-time prophetic text; that is approximately one-seventh. Based on these numbers and on what the Apostle Paul says, I think that this is pretty significant. Granted, it may be harder to preach on, it may require more time for research, thought, and sermon preparation. It also may prompt some debate and even stir up some controversy, as there are a whole host of varying views, and then sub-views within those views on this topic even within individual church assemblies, possibly generating more unwanted emails from congregants. I do not see this as a viable excuse, however, considering just how much of His Word God devoted to these topics.

One guy not ready and staying, one guy ready and going.

Once again, I commend the people who research and talk rightly about end times prophecy for doing so. We as believers are to be looking for our blessed hope (Titus 2:13). This blessed hope does not include the 7-year Tribulation; the Time of Jacob's Trouble, which includes Great Tribulation, and the wrath contained therein, along with the beast or antichrist, plagues, etc. associated with all of this. The Bible is clear that we, the Church, which are all believers of the Gospel after Jesus' resurrection and prior to the Rapture, are not appointed to wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Again, we are to be looking for our blessed hope of being resurrected/changed, snatched away, and meeting the Lord in the air and forever being with Him; going to the place that He has prepared for us (John 14:1-3, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). * This means that we have something to be very excited and enthusiastic about, and because of this, we need to be encouraging others and telling them about this blessed hope and living in a way that will please Jesus when He snatches us away and we meet Him in the air. I believe that shortly after the Rapture, probably immediately after, He will be judging our works and bestowing our rewards upon us, based on how we lived our lives for Him. These are eternal rewards that we don't want to forever miss out on (1 Corinthians 3:11-15). Please, however, be reminded and assured that salvation is an irrevocable free gift (Romans 5:15, 6:23, 11:29); gifts are not earned. We receive this gift when we make the decision (yes, it is about a decision, not a feeling) to take Jesus at His word and trust Him as Savior; to believe the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), thus being born again; born of the [Holy] Spirit. The believer, him or herself, will not be judged at this judgment; Jesus already dealt with judgment for sin on the cross. Once again, our works are what will be getting judged and potentially rewarded at this judgment; those who die as unbelievers will face a different and unspeakably dreadful eternal judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). Salvation is a gift; rewards are earned. After making the irrevocable decision to trust Jesus as Savior, to be born of the Spirit, make the daily decision to follow Him as your Master and Lord; to grow and mature in the Spirit. You won't be sorry!

What just happened? :-)

All that said, I am afraid that some of these well-meaning and very careful end-times scholars/teachers/preachers may be in for a rude awakening when the Rapture occurs. When they address the topic of salvation, they sometimes may indeed preach grace out of one proverbial side of their mouth; however, there are "strings" attached, "addendums," "fine print," "asterisks," etc., so to speak, associated with this "grace" that they speak of; there are NO addendums, fine print, strings attached, asterisks (although please be sure to see the material denoted by the asterisks at the bottom of this post), etc. to the real grace of Jesus and the real Gospel. I hear many of these often well-meaning folks who I assume to really believe what they are saying, telling people that in order to really trust Christ as Savior and truly receive and keep His grace and salvation and be ready for the Rapture (and death) and not go to Hell, that they need to repent (meaning to turn from and forsake in this case) of ALL of their sins and submit to the Lordship of Christ with total, absolute, and unwavering commitment. They insist that one must make Jesus Lord of all or He's not Lord at all in terms of your relationship to Him or possession of His grace and forgiveness. [This is silly, even if for no other reason than the fact that He is Lord of all no matter what anyone may do or believe.] Many of these folks will also assert that if one is not seeing any works or significant change in their life, that they are probably not saved and may need to examine their heart to see if they have really adequately committed to Christ. It is also often asserted by some of these folks that one must somehow muster up deep feelings of sorrow and remorse for all of the wrong they have done and for how badly they have hurt God, and that their repentance and salvation won't be genuine if they don't feel sorry enough and cry out for mercy sincerely enough, with enough desperation and sorrow in their heart. All of this sounds very noble, disciplined, lofty, intellectual, pious, deep, stoic, selfless, and spiritual. The problem with it is that it is not biblical, and it is a lie; a deceitful counterfeit gospel straight from the pit of Hell. [Can I make that any clearer?] I get very sad and angry when I think about how many people never trust Christ as Savior because they believe that these sorts of overwhelming and impossible things are the reality of the gospel and are what they need to do in order to be saved. Anyone being even remotely honest with him or herself knows that they can never meet these standards, much less ever really know if they have changed or done enough to make the cut, and no one makes the cut; God's standard is perfection; no sin, whatsoever (Habakkuk 1:13, Romans 3:23, 6:23, James 2:10). The only human being that ever met that standard is Jesus, which is why His death could pay for, and did pay for our sins; He had none of His own to pay for. Many never hear and understand a clear explanation of the simplicity of the Gospel. As a result of this, they never understand the real Gospel and are discouraged and led away from faith in Christ by these lofty and noble-sounding but deceptive (evil) falsehoods that seem so far out of their reach, and they give up on any hope of ever having assurance of salvation. So sad, because the simple truth is that He just wants us to trust Him; take Him at His word and believe that He took our full punishment upon Himself for us.

Our sin being paid for, once and for all.

The Lord Jesus, of course, wants us to grow in the Spirit; to become more like Him; to serve, commit, and submit to Him, to become more holy, but this is growth! Just as physical growth must come after physical birth; birth of your earthly father whose sinful nature you inherit, spiritual growth must come after birth of the Holy Spirit, whose sinless nature you inherit! Only the spiritual birth is capable of spiritual growth. Once again, spiritual birth; being born again happens when we believe the Gospel and are sealed and indwelled by the Holy Spirit (John 3:1-16, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 15:1-4, Ephesians 1:13). Spiritual growth is holy; holy things have no sin. The spiritual birth is completely without sin and because of that, it can never earn the wage of sin, which is death; it can never be unborn or die (1 John 3:9, Romans 6:23) and therefore must go to Heaven (Romans 11:29). It has the power to undergo real spiritual growth. This is, of course, a daily decision that the believer/born-again person must make (Galatians 5:16-26), and is highly recommended, as I already stated above.

Bird's eye view? Rapture view?

Christ plus nothing is everything; Christ plus something is nothing. Trusting Christ alone as Savior, as discussed above, is how to; it is the only way to be ready to go in the Rapture, or go to be with the Lord if you physically die first. Anyone who thinks that they are ready for death or the Rapture based on the deceitful and damnable false gospel that I discussed above is badly deceived. ** The wages of sin is death; something that Jesus completely and fully handled and took care of for the believer, not feeling sorry for and repenting of all of your sins and supposedly cleaning up your act; something that you could never adequately do regardless (James 2:10). Anyone who supposedly feels confident that they are secure from Hell and destined for Heaven for any reason other than by the finished work of Christ ALONE, is very badly deceived and is living pridefully in a very dangerous and false sense of security. My works contribute absolutely nothing to my salvation. Any supposed "good" that anyone does in the flesh (either as an unsaved person, or as a saved person for selfish motives) is seen by God as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6); the term actually is better rendered in the English language as used menstrual cloth (that is a very nasty image). As stated, the Spiritual birth has no sin; it is not capable of it (1 John 3:9), and the flesh birth (your physical birth) is riddled with sin; it was born in sin (Psalm 51:5); sin is its nature; sin is interwoven into its every fabric. We are sinful right from the start; does anyone have to teach a child how to be naughty? The only human works done on the earth in this current fallen state that will ever be rewarded by God are those rewarded at the Bema Seat Judgment (the one I referred to above that I believe will happen right after the Rapture), because of their purity and integrity; they have this purity and integrity because they are done in the sinless Spiritual birth who's motives are pure to God's standard; the only standard that ultimately matters. They are gold, silver, and precious stones talked about in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. They will withstand the fire of judgment because they are done in the new, pure and sinless birth. The Spiritual birth is eternal, God is eternal, thus these rewards are eternal and not to be squandered in exchange for the very temporary pleasures of this earth that are often not even really pleasurable.

She's not helping. **

So how are we best prepared for the Rapture? We have assurance that we are prepared to be taken to be with the Lord by trusting Him and Him alone as Savior; taking Him at His word; by believing the Gospel, the good news, that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried (because He really died!), and that He rose again according to the Scriptures, conquering death once and for all. Remember that your assurance of salvation comes from the Scripture, which clearly states what Jesus did for you and how you receive salvation, not from the wavering and unreliable feelings of your confused heart on any given day (Jeremiah 17:9). We are prepared to be well rewarded at the Bema Seat by faithfully and continually following and serving Jesus as irrevocably saved children of God Romans 11:29!

Well done, good and faithful servant.

So let's be clear about both messages that need to be gotten out, as stated in the title:

1) Believe the Gospel; salvation is by grace (undeserved favor) alone, through faith (believing/trusting/relying fully upon) alone, through Christ (God the Son; the Savior) alone.

2) Believe this Gospel because the Rapture is happening, perhaps VERY soon, and you want to go with Jesus and not be left here to endure God's wrath.

If you are a Bible scholar who is earnestly studying, teaching, and preaching on these end-time prophecies, thank you and keep up the good work in that regard. If you are, however, preaching any variation of the false gospel that I discussed here, I implore you to stop doing so immediately and be sure that you know and believe the real one and know how to present it to your audience effectively. Please also be diligent to recant the false teaching you have inadvertently dispensed, and immediately start aggressively dispensing the proper Gospel along with solid teaching on Bible prophecy. I encourage you to look closely at end-times prophecy teacher David Floyd's Dogeared Disciple channel and end-times prophecy teacher Greg Rooney's Connect the Dots channel and site with their regular and clear presentations of the Gospel; please pay close attention. I also have many resources on this site that can be of great help as well.

I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I would hate to see you find yourself left behind, missing out on the blessed hope that you are so eagerly looking forward to, having to endure the wrath that you are so diligently and rightly warning so many others about, because of believing a false gospel. I would hate to see those whom you are teaching about this awful period of time having to wind up going through it as well because of their confusion/lack of understanding of the real Gospel and failure to believe it; being unprepared to meet the Lord, because they never actually trusted Him as Savior.*** I would also very much hate to see you having to give an account for believing and teaching a false gospel at the White Throne Judgment, the one for unbelievers (James 3:1, Revelation 20:11-15).

I'm not going to be here for this.

I'm praying that I see you all on the other side with a rich, eternal reward... He could come for us very soon. God bless.

Jerrold Reams

* Please note that in no way am I suggesting that Christians do not and will not endure persecution; they have been doing so ever since the beginnings of Christianity and will be until the end of the Tribulation Period. Also, we here in the USA have thus far gotten off relatively easy in this regard; this may, however, change. Nonetheless, this is persecution from people, some of it even very severe, even lethal. It is not, however, God's wrath being poured out upon the earth, as it will be during the 7-year Tribulation Period (also known as the Time of Jacob's Trouble). Persecution from people and wrath from God are not the same thing. Again, the Church is not appointed unto wrath; the 7-year tribulation is wrath. The Church, individuals saved after Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, and before the Rapture, will therefore not be here to endure the 7-year Tribulation Period. [There will, however, be people saved after the rapture who will have to endure the Tribulation Period; please see Revelation 6-19 and the P.S. below.]

Also, this Blessed Hope I speak of here, the Rapture of the Church, which could happen at any moment (the Apostle Paul was even looking for it), is not the same event as the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the 7-year Tribulation Period, which cannot occur until an extensive list of prophecies has been fulfilled, many of which the stage is being set for quite extensively right now. I will provide a link here with a list of distinct differences between the 2.

** Another way to think about this is to think of an operating room; one in which you are about to be operated on. Let us equate Jesus to the person in charge of cleaning that operating room and making it sterile. We see Jesus using all of the right chemicals, all of the right tools, and applying all of the proper techniques necessary to get the operating room clean and sterile so you can safely get the operation that you need. You, however, decide that you need to do your part and help Jesus get that room clean, in order be sure that it's really clean. So you then take your filthy rag (once again, what God equates any attempt at "righteousness" by humans that is outside of the second birth) and start wiping the scalpel blades, the table, as well as the rest of the surgical instruments with it, very thoroughly and meticulously, perhaps. How helpful are you being to the cleaning and sterilizing process? How well is this going to go for you? These actions, rooted in your pride, arrogance, and ignorance, are going to foul everything that Jesus, in His perfect cleanliness, does, and lead to your death. This is exactly what happens in terms of Jesus cleansing you of your sin when you try to "help" Him or "do your part" in terms of salvation; by "necessitating" your works, you foul it, and it becomes useless.

You and I in our flesh are filthy; we cannot add to our cleanliness any more than the filthy rag can add to it's own cleanliness or to the cleanliness of the operating room. We can only be cleaned up by something clean; we, being unclean in our flesh, cannot help even a little bit. When we try to do so, we foul the whole effort. Jesus purged us of our sins by Himself (Hebrews 1:3); the only way that He could have. Our help fouls and pollutes the effort, rendering it to be completely useless and unable to save us from the eternal condemnation that we deserve. We must trust in Him with His finished work alone for the whole of our salvation in order to be born again and receive the free gift of everlasting life, and be ready for the Rapture (or our physical death). Again, Christ plus nothing is everything, Christ plus something is nothing. Good works done for Christ that He has appointed us to and blesses for, and with, that are done out of love and gratitude come only AFTER salvation (Ephesians 2:10). The ones done out of fear and obligation in order to supposedly "help" earn and/or keep salvation are dead and of absolutely no use (Romans 11:6, Hebrews 6:1, 9:14, etc.).

***Satan does not care if we follow Jesus, he does not care if we serve Jesus, or even care if we worship Him, just as long as we don't trust Him; i.e., Judas Iscariot. Please also see Matthew 7:21-23 and this teaching on it.

P.S.

If you are reading this after the Rapture, please see Addendum 3 in Aspects of Salvation; a free PDF e-book, as well as the post "Unsaved Disciples." It is not too late to be saved, but as you are probably already quite well aware, you are in for a wild ride. It will be wild with or without Jesus. The difference is, with Jesus you have genuine hope; eternal life. Without Him, you have no hope; eternal damnation. I pray that you choose wisely. God bless.

Aspects of Salvation is also available at Amazon on paperback or kindle, if you prefer.

Questions or comments? Please reach out at jjr4jesus@gmail.com