“Final: the Rapture” is not the Final Story
A
“scary Christian movie” sounds like an oxymoron, but I’m afraid that is the
best way to describe the movie, “Final: the Rapture”. It isn’t scary because it
presents scary scenes, although I suspect that it aims to do just that. Rather,
it is scary because it leads people to believe that the Bible teaches that
there is a secret rapture of the church some years prior to Jesus’ return, and
this gives non-believers an opportunity to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.
While
there are many churches and Bible teachers that promote this idea, it is based
on personal interpretations of Scriptures rather than the direct teaching of
God’s word. At the very least, I ask you to consider whether you would base
your faith about these things on what an interpreter thinks the Bible means, or
on something the Bible actually says?
Jesus told us in very clear words that the
gathering of the church happens at the moment of his coming, and leaves no time
for non-believers to change their minds, so to speak. Now is the only time we
have to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and live. Jesus said,
"Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son
of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the
Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he
will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."[1]
Jesus
even put the gathering of the elect (what is often called the rapture) after
his appearing, and after the nations mourning at the sight of his appearing, to
make sure we would not believe stories about him already coming, or the church
being gathered ahead of time.
As
popular as the pre-trib-rapture of the church belief is among Christians, we
must search the Scriptures themselves to see what it really says about Jesus'
coming, the gathering of the church, and the judgment of the lost. This is far
too serious for any mistakes in our understanding of God's word.
We
also must be extremely careful that we do not replace a clear teaching of God’s
word with something someone interprets out of the symbols used in the book of
Revelation. The fact is that we can hold to the words Jesus spoke about his
coming, and interpret the symbols of Revelation so they do not contradict
Jesus’ words. This makes sense if we believe that “All Scripture is breathed out by God”.[2] What God says explicitly will always match what he says
symbolically.
My
contention is that the plain words of our Savior have greater authority than
any fanciful interpretations of even our favorite Bible teachers. Paul told us
not to go beyond what is written because it puffs up one man against another.[3] So,
I encourage all believers to stick with what is written, with Jesus' words as
the foundation of whatever else we believe.
From
my heart,
Monte
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
No comments:
Post a Comment