Left Behind by Jesus?

We’ve heard it taught for years. Jesus is coming like a thief in the night, so be ready. He could come at any moment, without any warning, so stay alert. You don’t want to be left behind!

The signs were all there. The prophecies were being fulfilled in front of our eyes. You could feel it in the air. Jesus was about to rapture His church — to catch us away — at any moment.

Hal Lindsey’s mega-bestseller The Late Great Planet Earth laid it all out, and the countdown had clearly begun. We’ll be out of here any second now. But that was a long time ago, almost 50 years now. And still, Jesus hasn’t returned.

Have our expectations been wrong?
Of course, from 1995-2007, there was the mega-bestselling series of Left Behind novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, and they fascinated and inspired a new generation of readers.

Have our expectations been wrong? Are we following a popular, relatively modern teaching rather than the Scriptures?

But still, with all the talk of Jesus coming any day now, with all the excitement about the prophecies being fulfilled, the Lord has not yet returned. Have our expectations been wrong? Are we following a popular, relatively modern teaching rather than the Scriptures?

Without a doubt, the New Testament proclaims that Jesus will return to earth and establish His kingdom. And without a doubt, the New Testament calls us to live with readiness and expectation. We can all agree on that. But does the New Testament teach that, for true believers, Jesus will come suddenly, like a thief in the night, without any signs? Or, to the contrary, does it teach that His coming will not be like a thief in the night for godly believers, since we are awake and alert, fully aware of the signs of the times?

Prophetic Times
To be clear, I don’t doubt for a moment that we’re living in prophetic times. The Gospel is spreading all over the world in unprecedented fashion, just as the Scriptures predicted. Out of the ashes of the Holocaust, Israel has been rebirthed and Jerusalem remains at the centre of world attention, again, in accordance with the prophets’ words.

And around the globe, Christians are being brutally persecuted for their faith, mowed down by the hundreds and thousands. This too is in harmony with Scripture, which speaks of the last days as times of great blessing and great upheaval, of great light and great darkness, or great victory and great conflict.

But what if the teaching of an any-minute rapture, followed by the Second Coming of Jesus 7 years later is not biblical? What then? And what if, rather than being rescued from a time of Great Tribulation, God will enable us to endure and overcome while in the midst of it?

My Own Journey
When I came to the Lord in 1970, I learned about this pre-tribulation rapture just as I learned about all the other fundamentals of the faith. This was basic. This was Bible. This was truth. But the more I read the Bible, day and night, for hours, and the more I memorized the Bible (for a period of time, memorizing 20 verses a day), the more I realized I didn’t learn this doctrine from the Scriptures. I learned it from other books and the movie that was shown at the Salvation Army hall in Zillmere.

Once I went back to reading the Scriptures alone, without these other commentaries, delving into the Hebrew and Greek as best as I could, I concluded that the pre-tribulation rapture was questionable even not scriptural. I was not that surprised, then, to learn that the doctrine was virtually unknown throughout Church history until the 1830s.

That being said, some of my best friends believe in a pre-tribulation rapture even my own movement ACC in Australia. But then again you can drive a bus through our ACC doctrine and we are all still happy.

Some of the finest Christians on the planet believe in it, as do some of the best Bible teachers. I don’t divide over this issue, and I don’t fight over it.


Why do some Christians take this so personally?

Throughout Church history, right until this moment, our fellow-believers are suffering atrocities for the Gospel — being burned alive, buried alive, beheaded, tortured, imprisoned, and exiled.

Within the Church, there have been competing views about the end-times for centuries, and we can agree to disagree with love and respect. But why is it that, for some, just questioning whether the Bible really teaches a pre-tribulation rapture is like poking them in the eye or insulting their own mother?

Why is this such a sacred cow?

You will also be reminded that throughout Church history, right until this moment, our fellow-believers are suffering atrocities for the Gospel — being burned alive, buried alive, beheaded, tortured, imprisoned, and exiled. Yet, in Paul’s words, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

So, examine the Scriptures afresh, whatever your conclusions might be, in earnestly desiring our blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah (Titus 2:13).

Maranatha!