Left Behind

Lead Vocalist (Joel)

Welcome & Announcements (Jason)

Good morning family!

Ask guests to fill out connect card

____ announcements:

1) Announcement 1

What to do and how to respond

2) Announcement 2

What to do and how to respond

3) Announcement 3

What to do and how to respond

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Revelation 1:7-8)

Prayer of Praise (Chloe Figgers)

Behold He Comes

Is He Worthy?

Prayer of Confession (Joel Whitcomb), Apathy

Assurance of Pardon (Titus 3:4-5)

Hallelujah What a Savior

A Christian's Daily Prayer

Scripture Reading (1 Thess 4:16-17)

You can find it on page 1174 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Jason)

Prayer for PBC—Help us to long for the return of Christ

Prayer for kingdom partner—Carrollton Baptist (Lee Hess)

Prayer for US—Against racism

Prayer for the world—Uganda

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

Life was filled with guns and war

And everyone got trampled on the floor

I wish we'd all been ready

Children died, the days grew cold

A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold

I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind

The Son has come and you've been left behind

A man and wife asleep in bed

She hears a noise and turns her head, he's gone

I wish we'd all be ready

Two men walking up a hill

One disappears and one's left standing still

I wish we'd all been ready

There's no time to change your mind

The Son has come and you've been left behind [1]

That song, written by a Christian musician named Larry Norman in 1969, inspired a multimedia franchise that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

Written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, the Left Behind series included sixteen novels that together sold over 80 million copies. They inspired a series of forty novellas written for teenagers, a spin-off military series, a collection of graphic novels, five films (including one with Nicolas Cage!), four video games, and much more. [2]

Now I am NOT criticizing Tim LaHaye or Jerry Jenkins for creating a product that made a lot of money. My concerns with the Left Behind franchise are theological.

While many Christians share the views depicted in the Left Behind novels, I fear there are many who have never considered any alternative views.

I believe there are countless Christians who have simply accepted their teaching on the rapture as gospel, without testing it by the Scriptures.

With God’s help, we’re going to examine what the Bible actually says.

Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4.

We first looked at verses 13-18 two weeks ago and considered Paul’s main point here, which is how Christians should grieve differently.

But embedded in that passage are a few verses that represent the “holy grail” of rapture theology.

Before we look at the text, you need to understand that today’s sermon will be a bit different than the rest of our studies in 1-2 Thessalonians.

Today, rather than examining the passage in light of it’s main point, we’re going to look at it through the lens of a particular theological controversy.

While typically I wouldn’t do this—especially on a Sunday morning—I believe this will be helpful for three reasons.

First, many of you have never even considered there might be any other way to interpret the end times than the theology taught in the Left Behind novels. One way we grow in understanding is by considering different viewpoints, even if we don’t end up agreeing with them.

Second, I think studying this will be helpful to model how Christians can discuss open-handed doctrines.

Here’s what I mean. A close-handed doctrine is something we hold firmly with a closed hand. Like the truthfulness of Scripture or the resurrection of Jesus.

An open-handed doctrine is something we can disagree about and still love one another and go to church together.

Today I’m going to talk about the return of Christ in a way that many of you might disagree with. But I hope to do so charitably, because disagreeing with me doesn’t mean you’re a false teacher, or not a Christian, or we can’t be unified on the most important things.

Third, some of you are not ready for the return of Christ. Maybe you’re a Christian and you’re simply apathetic to the idea. Maybe you’re not a Christian and you believe the return of Christ is as fictional as the Left Behind novels. You need to hear the truth.

So with all that as introduction, here’s the ground we’re going to cover this morning.

With God’s help, we’re going to ask and answer Three Questions:

First, What is the Secret Rapture?

Second, Where Did this Teaching Come From?

Third, Why Does Any of This Matter?

1) WHAT is the Secret Rapture?

First, you need to know what we mean by rapture.

It may surprise you to know that you will not find the word “rapture” in any major English translation of the Bible.

Now that’s not necessarily a problem. Crucial theological words like Trinity aren’t found in the Bible either.

But the idea that some people call “the rapture” IS taught in our text.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17—For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Those four underlined words—“will be caught up”—translate one word in the original Greek.

The word “rapture” comes from an ancient translation of the Bible called the Latin Vulgate. That translation of the Bible used the Latin word rapturo to convey that idea of being caught up.

So what is the rapture?

The rapture is the future event when all believers—living and dead—rise to forever be with Jesus.

That’s a definition that every Christian should be able to agree with.

And it’s clearly taught in the passage: Jesus will descend from heaven, an archangel will shout, a trumpet will sound, dead believers will be resurrected, then living believers will rise to meet Jesus in the air.

All that is clear and indisputable.

So what’s the controversy then?

The controversy is that many Christians, including the authors of the Left Behind series, believe the Bible teaches a secret rapture.

In a helpful little book about the End Times called Jesus Wins, Dayton Hartman explains the secret rapture this way:

“The secret rapture is a … doctrine that proposes that the second coming takes place in two stages: First, Christ returns secretly, in the clouds, to snatch from earth all those who profess saving faith in Christ. Second, at a later date Christ will physically return, with those whom he raptured from the earth, to establish his earthly kingdom.” [3]

If I was a betting man, I would bet that at least 90% of you who grew up in church either did believe or do believe this view.

Basically it goes like this:

At some point in the future—it could happen any moment—Jesus will rapture all believers to Himself.

But this technically isn’t the second coming because Jesus doesn’t touch the earth. Believers meet Him in the air.

Those who aren’t Christians will be left on earth to figure out why millions of people disappeared out of nowhere.

And, if you believe the Left Behind films, they’ll be wondering why all the Christians took time to fold their clothes on their way up to meet Jesus.

The unbelievers on earth will go through a period of suffering on earth called The Great Tribulation, and then at the end of the Tribulation Jesus will return all the way to establish His Kingdom.

At the risk of bursting someone’s bubble, I’m going to respectfully disagree with this view.

But you need to know, this IS NOT a major disagreement.

There are scores of godly, mature, wise Christians who believe in a secret rapture.

You can be a member at PBC and disagree with me about this. You can even be an elder at PBC and disagree with me about this!

What we NEED to agree on is what we teach about the return of Jesus in the PBC Statement of Faith, which says this:

“We believe Jesus will return to earth to judge all people and to rule and reign with His people forever. At Christ’s return, all people will be resurrected to give account of their lives before God. Believers in Christ will be resurrected to everlasting blessedness and joy in God’s presence. Unbelievers will be resurrected to judgment and everlasting conscious punishment. The ultimate hope of all creation, and the final state of all that now exists, is the new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells.” [4]

That’s what you NEED to agree with to be a member at PBC! You can believe in a secret rapture and be a member at PBC. Or, like me, you can reject the secret rapture view and be a member at PBC.

Here’s why I disagree with the secret rapture view.

Look very carefully at our passage again with me.

Those who teach a secret rapture make multiple assumptions about these verses.

A) A secret rapture assumes Jesus doesn’t descend all the way.

1 Thessalonians 4:16a—For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command,…

They’ll respond, “well it doesn’t say in these verses that Jesus descends all the way to earth!” And that’s true. But it also doesn’t say that He halfway descends then returns back to heaven. That’s an assumption that isn’t clearly taught here.

I challenge you to find one passage that clearly teaches a halfway descent of Christ. I don’t think you can find one.

It’s a wild assumption to say Jesus doesn’t descend all the way when He raptures His church.

B) A secret rapture assumes Jesus isn’t seen by everybody

1 Thessalonians 4:16—For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Notice all the things happening in this verse.

There’s a loud shot from an archangel,

A loud trumpet blast,

And dead Christians are rising up from their graves.

It is a wild assumption to argue that all of this happens secretly.

Especially when there are other passages that clearly state this IS a public return of Christ.

Listen to the words of Jesus in...

Matthew 24:29–31—Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 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.

Notice that, just like 1 Thessalonians, Jesus says His return will feature angels, a loud trumpet, and the gathering of all of His people.

But notice also that Jesus says “ALL the tribes of the earth will see Him.”

The Apostle John says something similar in…

Revelation 1:7—Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and EVERY eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and ALL tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen.

It’s a wild assumption to say Jesus isn’t seen by everybody when He raptures His church.

C) A secret rapture assumes believers don’t return to earth.

1 Thessalonians 4:17—Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

The assumption is that believers meet Jesus in the air, THEN go with Jesus to heaven.

In the meantime, Jesus pours out His judgment on the earth for seven years.

Then He returns again, touches the ground and sets up His Kingdom on earth.

But does the text say that?

No!

It simply says we will always be with the Lord.

Here’s what I believe: Believers meet Jesus in the air, He judges the earth with fire, then we return with Jesus to a new heavens and a new earth.

You might respond, “well the passage doesn’t say that either!”

That’s true, BUT there are two words in the passage that give us a helpful clue.

In verse 15, Paul writes about “the coming of the Lord.”

The word for coming is the Greek word parousia.

It’s a word that was often used in the ancient world to describe the coming of a king or an emperor to a province [5].

Incidentally, just like in 1 Thessalonians, these royal visits would often be announced by a loud trumpet.

But here’s the really interesting part...

In verse 17, Paul says believers will “meet the Lord.”

The word translated “meet” is also an important word used in the ancient world.

In his book The Bible and the Future, Anthony Hoekema explains:

“Apantēsis [that’s the word translated “meet the Lord” in verse 17] is a technical term used in New Testament times to describe a public welcome given by a city to a visiting dignitary. People would ordinarily leave the city to meet the distinguished visitor and then go back with him into the city. On the basis of the analogy conveyed by this word, all Paul is saying here is that raised and transformed believers are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord as he descends from heaven, implying that after this joyful meeting they will go back with him to the earth.” [6]

In Paul’s day, when a king visited a city, the people didn’t meet the king outside the city then secretly go with the king somewhere else. They met the king outside the city then followed him triumphantly back into the city.

In the same way, when Christ returns we will meet Him in the air, and then return triumphantly to earth with Him to live forever with Him in a new heavens and a new earth.

Now again, you don’t have to agree with me on all this.

My challenge to you would be to study these things for yourself.

Some of you have never even heard some of the things I’m teaching this morning.

If that’s you, consider doing some additional study on your own. Here’s a few recommendations...

SHOW BOOKS IMAGE

“Jesus Wins” by Dayton Hartman is a short, accessible introduction to some of these ideas.

“The Bible and the Future” by Anthony Hoekema is a much more thorough, scholarly book, and it’s what convinced me of what I’m teaching you this morning.

In between those two books is a recent book called “The All-Encompassing Return of Christ” which was written by Michael Carpenter, one of the pastors in our Hampton Roads Pillar Network.

My challenge to you would be NOT to take my word for these things. Pick up one of these books and study these things for yourself.

Before we discuss why this matters, I want to spend a few minutes answering a second question...

2) WHERE Did This Teaching Come From?

This year marks the 1700 year anniversary of the Nicene Creed, which clearly teaches that Jesus will return for His people.

And 300 years before the Nicene Creed, Christians believed in the return of Christ—it’s all over the New Testament!

BUT the idea of a SECRET rapture has only been around for less than 200 years.

And you can trace this history by looking at four men, who one pastor calls “the Mount Rushmore of Rapture theology.” [7]

A) John Nelson Darby

In the 1830s a London pastor named John Nelson Darby began teaching this doctrine.

There’s a lot of debate as to how he came up with this teaching.

Some argue he first heard it at a Charismatic prayer meeting when a 15-year-old girl claimed to have a vision about a secret rapture.

Others argue that the idea of a secret rapture came from Darby’s careful study of Scripture. [8]

Either way, you won’t find any evidence of this teaching prior to the 1830s.

The second man on “Mount Rapture” is...

B) C.I. Scofield

Scofield was an American evangelical pastor who is known for publishing the very first study Bible, called The Scofield Reference Bible.

Scofield was heavily influenced by Darby, and he included the idea of the secret rapture in the notes of his Bible.

The Scofield Bible sold two million copies by the end of World War II, and has sold ten million copies since it’s publication. [9]

Millions of people were first exposed to the idea of a secret rapture through the notes in Scofield’s Bible.

The third man on “Mount Rapture” is...

C) Hal Lindsey

In 1970, an author and evangelist named Hal Lindsey took secret rapture theology and made it mainstream.

He wrote a bestselling book called The Late Great Planet Earth which sold 28 million copies, was turned into a prime time television special with an audience of 17 million people, was adapted into a film in 1978, and eventually influenced subsequent rapture films like A Thief in the Night, and countless other books. [10]

Including the fourth man on “Mount Rapture”...

D) Tim LaHaye

Tim LaHaye is, of course, one of the authors of the Left Behind series. We could say Jerry B. Jenkins, but LaHaye was more of the theologian in that duo.

LaHaye successfully took the ideas of Lindsey and repackaged them for another generation.

And while Lindsey wrote primarily non-fiction works explaining prophecy, LaHaye dramatized similar ideas through his fiction, making them accessible to an even broader audience.

Here’s what I’m NOT saying.

I’m not saying everything these men have taught is garbage.

I’m not saying they’re wrong about everything.

I’m not saying people who believe in a secret rapture are idiots or false teachers.

I’m not saying nothing good can come from these men or their writings.

But I am saying this doctrine is relatively new in church history.

For those reasons I think we should be cautious before embracing it wholeheartedly.

Alright, let’s get to the question that many of you have been asking since I began.

3) WHY Does Any of This Matter?

If what you believe about the rapture is an issue that Christians can agree to disagree about, why take 45 minutes on a Sunday morning to talk about it?

I’m so glad you asked!

Let me conclude with three reasons why I believe the idea of a secret rapture should be left behind:

A) A secret rapture trains Christians to ignore history

We’ve already touched on this briefly, but let me share one more thought here.

Listen to what Hal Lindsey said about why he believed in the secret rapture:

“I believe that the Spirit of God gave me a special insight, not only into how John described what he was actually experiencing but also into how this whole phenomenon encoded the prophecies so that they could be fully understood only when their fulfillment drew near in the future.” [11]

I don’t know about you, but I get REALLY nervous when I hear someone say the Holy Spirit gave them special insight to understand the Bible.

If you hear teaching that isn’t consistent with the last two thousand years of church history you should RUN AWAY.

This isn’t just true for what we believe about the end times. It’s true for what we believe about marriage, about sex, about what it means to be male and female, about how churches are structured, and more.

Here’s a second reason I believe it’s helpful to talk about this…

B) A secret rapture trains non-Christians to expect a second chance

In the original Left Behind novel, the world is left to grapple with the widespread confusion and chaos caused by the sudden disappearance of millions of Christians around the world.

Some of these characters learn that the disappearance was caused by the secret rapture, and they eventually put their faith in Jesus.

Perhaps there are some—maybe even someone in this room—who know just enough about rapture theology to think something like this: I’ll wait. If Jesus is real, I can always live how I want now and give my life to Him after the rapture. After all, what more proof would I need if all of a sudden millions of people went missing?

Here’s the problem, friend. What if you’re wrong about the secret rapture?

What if there won’t be another opportunity later?

If I’m right, when Jesus returns there will be no time for a second chance.

2 Corinthians 6:2—… behold, now is the day of salvation.

Would you turn from your sins and trust in Jesus today?

EXPLAIN THE GOSPEL

Years ago I was conducting a membership interview at our church in Louisville and I asked the young lady who was joining our church her testimony. “How did you come to believe the gospel?”

She shared with me that it happened while reading the Left Behind novels!

For all my disagreement with them, they do explain the gospel and encourage people to believe it.

Whether or not you agree with me about the rapture, I hope you’ll agree with me about the gospel.

Here’s a final reason I believe it’s helpful to talk about this…

C) A secret rapture trains Christians to expect a comfortable life

One of the main arguments behind the secret rapture is that Jesus will come back to rescue believers before the Great Tribulation.

The problem with this idea is that the New Testament CONSISTENTLY teaches us that Christians SHOULDN’T expect deliverance from tribulation.

Jesus tells His disciples in John 16:33—“I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

The Apostle Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:12—Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted

The Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 4:12–13—Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when [Not IF!!!] it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.

The idea that Christians should expect deliverance from persecution and tribulation is preposterous. Frankly, it’s insulting to the millions of Christians past and present who have suffered immensely for their faith!

Think for a moment about Paul’s audience in Thessalonica.

These believers are suffering immensely. The persecution was so great Paul—who was no lightweight—was forced to leave the city.

This entire section is meant to comfort the suffering Thessalonians and encourage them to stand firm through suffering.

But how would it be comforting to these believers if Paul’s message was, “Hey listen, you’re going to be persecuted, you’re going to die, but 2000+ years from now a bunch of casual Christians in North America are going to be raptured and rescued from the tribulation. But you guys, hang in there you’re all going to die.” [12]

That’s ridiculous!

Paul’s point is this: “Faithful, suffering Christian. You are not going to be forgotten. You will not be overlooked. Even if you die for Jesus’ sake, don’t worry. When He returns you’ll be first in line to see His face!”

Christian: many of you in this room are suffering.

Most of you aren’t suffering physical persecution. But you’re suffering hardship nonetheless.

Grief, depression, addictions, loneliness, chronic pain, relational conflict, financial hardships, single parenting, or let’s be honest even just regular parenting.

Your pain will be amplified if you’re expecting life to be comfortable.

You’ll start wondering, why me? What have I done wrong?

But if you understand that God’s people in every age will endure tribulation, you’re able to embrace the pain of suffering.

This passage is meant to comfort you, just as much as it comforted the men and women who first read it.

Hang in there, Christian! Don’t give up, you’re almost home!

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Almost Home

Benediction (Revelation 22:20)