The Prophets Who Cried Rapture
Some of you may remember the late Carter years. In the late 70s, there was a movie based on Hal Lindsey's book The Late Great Planet Earth. It caused a zeal in me to understand prophecy as a kid. My young soul fully absorbed all the well-meaning claims, right or wrong, of Christian adults around me. I was open, unskeptical, and vulnerable to falsehoods.
Being an adolescent was stressful enough. But I was also convinced by these well-meaning adults that Christ's return was just around the corner in those dark days. My soul was churning after Vietnam's humiliation, the Energy Crisis, Nixon's lies, and hyperinflation that was driving the cost of everything into the stratosphere and seeing my parents struggle to pay the bills and feed us, my little brother and sister.
I was convinced and I wanted Jesus to appear in the sky any moment and rapture us. I was so convinced of it that I woke from an afternoon nap one day and everyone in the house was gone. I thought I had been left behind.
Well, Jesus didn’t come back and the song the King is Coming faded away and other predictions were wrong. In 1988 there was another failed prediction of His return. I was calloused by then. I never seriously studied prophecy again. Whether I felt betrayed or stupid, I don't know. The time of the eschaton was unknowable in my opinion and Jesus himself said it.
After the last few years, and especially after living through the COVID scamdemic, prophecy has again piqued my interest. Doomsayers are everywhere. And because of my past, I have a healthy skepticism when I hear any proclamations from mere humans.
There have been many predictions. Lots of these folks know the bible and they know the warning God gives about false prophets so many of them preface everything with, "I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I had this dream about [enter the vision here]." But because it's mysterious many claim special knowledge, almost like an ego trip. "It's from God, so it's mysterious. I'll just lay it out here for you and if you don't understand that's not my problem." And they let it go as Pilate did, "What is truth?"
One recent prediction was Jesus was going to rapture us on Halloween 2020. I seemed to detect the Holy Spirit prompting me. And so now the time has come again. I've read and listened to 4 books on my commute the work about the End Times and the Rapture. And if there is anything I have to say right now it's this:
…many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. - Matthew 24:11
Before you believe a syllable proceeding from the mouth of anyone telling you visions of the end times, you better seek out the Word of God.
Jesus commanded us,
"Take heed that no man deceives you". - Matthew 24:4
It was the first thing he said to his disciples when they asked him about the end times. False prophets are par for the course of life and history. Predictions have become mundane to me. There is nothing new in it.
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 1:9
Don’t let the prophets who cry wolf harden your heart to the reality of Christ’s return. Jesus said he would return. The prophets who cry wolf are a part of the Dark one’s game to deceive obfuscate and confuse. Go to your Bible. Go to your prayer closet and remember:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. - 2 Peter 3:9