By Michael Lewis Parsons
If you’re like me – and most of you are – you grew up in a church where no one ever talked or taught or preached about the End Times. Thus, for most of my life, the only thing I believed in was a Rapture; that’s it; nothing else.
But then, for me, everything changed in May, 2013. At the time, I was still living in Oak Park; but on this particular occasion, I was visiting mom and dad in Eureka. As we usually did every night, Mom and I watched the 5:30 NBC news, and on this one night, they reported an “unprecedented” tornado, the “largest EVER in the history of man”, 2.6 miles wide, out in the cornfields of Oklahoma.
That caught my attention.
But then, two weeks later – after I read a similar “unprecedented” story, this time about the deepest earthquake EVER, off the coast of Russia – that’s when I said, 'Okay, this isn’t just a coincidence; things are happening; it’s time to check it out'.
And that's what started me on my fervent study of Christian eschatology.
Since that moment in 2013, I’ve discovered there are many things I didn’t know about the Rapture of the Church.
Here are seven of them…
(#1) I NEVER KNEW THE RAPTURE WAS ABOUT A NUMBER, NOT A DATE.
The Rapture is an imminent event, meaning it can happen at any time, for no reason at all.
And although it hasn’t happened yet, when it does, it will have nothing to do with a date on the calendar, but have everything to do with a SET number; the total number of converts that have become part of the Church over these past 2,000 years…a number that ONLY Jesus (as God) knows.
When we reach that number, everyone who has accepted the FREE gift of Salvation that ONLY Jesus Christ offers will be "snatched" away from this life.
That's the Rapture.
And it's just about to happen.
(#2) I ALWAYS BELIEVED THERE WOULD BE BIBLICAL SIGNS LEADING UP TO THE RAPTURE.
Just as there is no date involved in the timing of the Rapture, there are also no specific Biblical signs that point to that specific event.
But, you say, ‘Michael, I heard you say you believe the Rapture of the Church is only days, maybe weeks away?’
Yes, I do…but that has nothing to do with specific signs for the CHURCH.
On the contrary, the Biblical signs that I am intently watching are END TIMES prophecies that involve ISRAEL…and right now, there are several MAJOR ones that are so ripe and ready to be fulfilled that I envision them as overly-ripened fruit, just barely hanging onto a branch, ready to drop. Some of these prophecies include:
Russia’s upcoming attack on Israel (the Gog and Magog War/Ez. 38/39)
The rebuilding of the Jewish Temple (currently being planned)
Trump’s signing of a 7-year Peace Treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27)
The start of the 7-year Tribulation (Rev. 6:3)
The total destruction of Damascus (Is. 17)
Funny, how these END TIMES prophecies seem to be in a holding pattern, isn't it? Events like the signing of the 7-year Peace Accord...for some reason, they just can't seem to get it done. I wonder what’s holding them back?
We, the Church...and the Holy Spirit. As evidence of this, Paul (in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8) actually calls the Holy Spirit THE RESTRAINER, then cites how the Holy Spirit (who now seals the Church) has been RESTRAINING Satan for the past 2,000 years, not allowing him to empower an Antichrist; not allowing him to begin the Final 7-years of Tribulation.
It’s only after the Holy Spirit and the Church disappear at the Rapture that Trump is able to sign his 7-year Peace Treaty, and the remainder of the END TIMES can finally play themselves out.
That’s how close we are to all of this happening.
(#3) I NEVER KNEW THE RAPTURE WAS A COMPLETELY SEPARATE EVENT FROM CHRIST'S SECOND RETURN.
For most of my life, I thought the Rapture of the Church was synonymous with Christ’s Second Advent. Not true. In fact, now when I read about these two events in God's Word, they could not be more different from one another.
What's the difference? As we know, the Rapture is an imminent event, meaning it can take place at any time; for no reason.
However, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is a scheduled event (on the END TIMES calendar), that takes place exactly 7 years after Trump signs the Peace Treaty; exactly 3 ½ years after the desecration of the rebuilt Jewish Temple at the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION.
(#4) I THOUGHT THE RAPTURE ONLY INVOLVED THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS.
Ask your unsaved friends if they want Jesus; if they want to be Saved; if they want their lives transformed and made Holy. Most of them will vehemently say NO, NO, NO, NEVER!
Thus, the only way to possibly save them is to introduce something so radical, so horrific, so fantastical into their lives that they will be shocked into contrition; then humble themselves before Christ and seek His Salvation.
So, what is this horrific shocking event?
The Rapture.
Remember, 100% of our unsaved friends and family have already REJECTED Jesus in this life – have already told God they want absolutely nothing to do with Him – and thus, have already accrued God’s wrath and future judgment.
And yet, this same God, Jesus Christ – who the world now thinks is bigoted, racist, hateful, misogynistic and homophobic; who has every right to destroy them – instead will give a dying world one last chance at Salvation.
Wow, such amazing love!
Of course, the one caveat to all of this – the key component to the possible Salvation of your unsaved friends and family AFTER the Rapture – is that you must first share Jesus and His Gospel with them prior to our disappearance.
Unfortunately, if you did NOT explain to your unsaved family and friends HOW they can be saved, they won’t know what to do, and instead will follow the Antichrist and be lost.
You have told them, haven't you?
(#5) I NEVER KNEW PAUL TAUGHT A PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE IN HIS VERY FIRST TWO LETTERS.
About 20 years after Christ left this world, a small, young, impressionable Church in Macedonia – the church at Thessalonica, Greece – allowed a false teacher into their church, who subsequently told them, at the Rapture, their family members who’d died in the faith would NOT get their original body; meaning that they would NOT recognize their relatives and close friends in Heaven.
So, to put their minds at ease, Paul wrote and sent to the Thessalonians his first letter, explaining the truth.
Then, about a year later, Paul gets another letter from the same church, saying a false teacher (maybe the same person as before) told them the Rapture had already taken place and they’d been LEFT BEHIND.
So, Paul writes a second letter to the Church at Thessalonica, this time explaining that the final 7 years – which begin when Trump signs a 7-year Peace Treaty with Israel – cannot begin UNTIL the Rapture “snatches away” the Church (and the Holy Spirit that currently indwells us).
Paul’s conclusion; his main message to this Church? If the Tribulation hasn’t begun yet, then the Rapture hasn’t occurred yet, either.
Did you catch that?
When Paul taught in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 that the final 7 years of Tribulation cannot begin until the HOLY SPIRIT is removed at the Rapture of the Church, he was describing a PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE.
And yet, even now, good churches are being destroyed by allowing false teachers and ministers into their congregation that preach and teach heretical End Times teachings (like preterism), and other new nonsensical doctrines (like a post-Tribulation or pre-Wrath Rapture), all meant to continually PUSH, PUSH, PUSH…DELAY, DELAY, DELAY the timing of the Rapture.
And yet, we know our God is NOT a God of confusion.
Face it...there can only be ONE true explanation of the timing of the Rapture; not several.
And since Paul taught a pre-Tribulation Rapture, that’s what I believe.
And, so should you.
(#6) I NEVER UNDERSTOOD THE SIGNIFICANCE THE RAPTURE HOLDS FOR THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL.
Over the past 2,000 years, there have only been a minority of Jews who believe in Jesus Christ as Israel’s long-sought-after Messiah. They are called the REMNANT.
However, the Bible says – in the END TIMES – this will all change, as corporate Israel SUDDENLY does a complete one-eighty; and miraculously comes to the realization that Jesus Christ IS their Messiah.
Guess what major END TIMES event causes them to believe?
The RAPTURE.
Yes, Paul confirms this in Romans, when he says…
“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel (which is why there is now only a remnant of Jewish Believers) until the FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES HAS COME IN (that's the Rapture).” (Romans 11:25)
Thus, we know the sudden disappearance of millions of Christians at the Rapture is the catalyst that will drive many non-believing Jews (and gentiles) to suddenly come to the understanding that Jesus Christ IS their Messiah.
(#7) I NEVER UNDERSTOOD THAT MILLIONS WILL BE SAVED AFTER THE RAPTURE.
Maybe the greatest injustice of this apostate Church age is their refusal to warn an unsaved world that not only is Jesus about to Rapture His Bride, the Church, but when the Rapture DOES happen, there will still be an opportunity for Salvation to those who were LEFT BEHIND.
Yes, sadly, the Church is almost completely silent about this. Why? Because most ministers no longer know or care what God has to say about the END TIMES and Christian eschatology, thus they are completely in the dark on how to prepare non-Believers for the greatest revival EVER in the history of the Church; a revival that will actually take place AFTER the Church is gone.
Again, left to their own devices, most all of our unsaved friends and family will live out the remainder of their lives, then die and go immediately to hell; stay there for at least a thousand years (or until Christ’s glorious Millennial Kingdom has concluded), then be judged by Christ at the GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT, and subsequently thrown into a Lake of Fire.
However, should the Rapture occur SOON – and you’ve informed your non-saved friends and family HOW they can be saved during the Tribulation, when we’re gone – then, they too will have a chance at redemption.
Now that you know what I know about the Rapture, I’m praying you will do as I've been doing these past 15 years...and sound the alarm to everyone you know that Jesus is not only about to Rapture His Church...but that they can also be saved AFTER we're gone.
But first, you have to tell them.
If not now, when?