Friday, February 24, 2017

Is There A Secret Rapture? (LG24)

             'Last Generation'

The doctrine of secret rapture propagates that the coming of the Lord is imminent. It has been taught in many churches and is made popular by movies such as 'A thief in the night',  'Vanished', making Christians to believe it in general.
    They reasoned that since no one knows the day and hour of His Coming, then He can come at any time, even at this very moment, thus completely ignoring our Lord's endtime prophecies.

2 Thess 2:1-3 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
    These verses clearly warn us that whoever, believes that rapture can occur before the man of sin (Antichrist) is revealed has already been deceived.
    The teaching of secret rapture is deceptive and therefore, should be classified as heresy. Our Lord is righteous and He is always faithful to His words for He cannot sin nor lie. These events must be fulfilled before rapture:

1. Gospel preached to all people
Mat 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."
    At this moment, majority of mankind has not heard the gospel including those in so called Christian nations. They may have heard of the name 'Jesus', but they have not heard the gospel of the message of the cross, His love and grace.

2. Rebuilding of Temple of God
Mat 24:15 "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand),"
    The temple of God must be rebuilt (holy place) for the Antichrist to manifest himself as god.

3. Antichrist proclaims himself God
1 Thess 2:3-4 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

4. The Great Tribulation
Mat 24:29-30  Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, 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."
    Our Lord Jesus cannot come for His saints at rapture until the everlasting gospel has reached all, the temple of God rebuilt in Jerusalem, the appearance of the Antichrist, the Great tribulation, etc.

Brethren, this heresy of 'the secret rapture' was founded recently to wake and to frighten the congregations into tithing and to give generously to church programs. However, it discourages and deceives Christians from the understanding of endtime prophecies and events. Many pastors are still using this deception of secret rapture to enrich themselves regardless of the consequences. Christians without the understanding of endtime prophecies will be deceived by the Antichrist in the last days.