Pastor's Pen for June - July 2011

For those who know me well, which should be most of you since I've been at Lebanon for nine years last Sunday, I can at times be a tad sarcastic, hopefully in a humorous way.  Please take this article in that spirit, even though it is a serious topic, which I try to address.  My flippancy comes trying to put folks at ease over what can be an apprehensive topic.  So, here goes!  I don't know how many of you ever heard of the May 21st Movement or visited the website: http://judgementday2011.com, but if you are reading this, one of two things has happened.  Either you were LEFT BEHIND on the Day of the Lord or "the Rapture," or it was just another in a long line of End of the World predictions that just didn't seem to pan out.  Now, if you noticed that a whole bunch of people in our church, in other churches, and around the world just seemed to disappear on May 21st, then apparently the RAPTURE, the time when all Christians past and present will ascend and meet Jesus in the clouds, occurred and you were not among those that Jesus Christ called to salvation.  Oops, you bad!  I would heartedly recommend that you get right with Christ IMMEDIATELY!  However, if NO ONE disappeared, then chances are that the RAPTURE is still on the horizon, and it just hasn't happened yet.  Now, before anyone starts freaking out, let me explain what is really going on.

An individual named Harold Camping, of Family Radio out in California, "figured out" that the Rapture was going to occur on May 21st, and then the Final Judgment five months later on October 21st of this year.  I didn't really bother to check his calculations because I figured from the outset that it was a lot of bunk, NOT because it concerned the RAPTURE, but because Jesus speaks very specifically about the Rapture, which I will go into a little later.  Since Harold has access to both radio and internet, he began sharing his prediction and quite a few people bought into it.  A number of people have spoken to me, and asked what I think of the May 21st Movement, and our response has always been, "Not much!"  We have sought to steady nerves, sooth anxieties, and continue to share the central truth that "Jesus Christ is Lord!  I have not mentioned it in sermons or previous Pastor Pen's because in reality it didn't matter if it was true or not.  We are either ready to go or we aren't.  As it says in Philippians 1:21, "For to me To Live Is Christ, To Die Is Gain."  We should all be ready whenever the Lord calls us home, either by natural death, accident, or Rapture.  How shouldn't matter, but all without undue delay and without undue haste, God will call us home in His time, not ours.  That is why I haven't put much stock in the May 21st Movement.

However, a whole variety of Scripture affirms the coming Rapture, which I most certainly believe will occur:

Mark 13:24–27 (ESV)

²⁴ “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, ²⁵ and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. ²⁶ And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:52–57 (ESV)

⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 (ESV)

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. 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. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 (ESV)

² For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Because of the clarity of Scripture on the certainty of the coming Rapture, I too am certain that it will someday occur, so why would I be pretty sure it WASN'T going to be this past May 21st?  The answer is the same, the certainty of Scripture.  Both the Gospel of Mark and the Book of Acts speak to the fact that NO ONE will know when God will send back His Son, only in the certainty that He will send Him back:

Mark 13:32–33 (ESV)

And Jesus said to his disciples, ³² “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.

Acts 1:6–11 (ESV)

⁶ So when the disciples had come together, they asked Jesus, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ Jesus said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ⁹ And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰ And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, ¹¹ and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

The certainty of our faith tells us that Jesus Christ will come back SOMEDAY, but that day is only known to God, therefore, by whatever calculations Harold Camping, or any other individual may or may not come up with, will by the very nature of them thinking they know the mind of God, will most certainly be wrong.  But to be sure, the Rapture could very well come anytime before or after May 21st, and may even come while you are reading this Pastor's Pen.  I don't know and I can't say, because I will seek to ever imply that I know the mind of God.              However, what I do know, I will affirm, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. ” (Job 19:25)  Therefore, in this sure and certain reality, I rest my hope, and look forward to the day when Christ does come for all those he has elected to salvation.   Therefore, just to make sure no one misunderstands; I believe that the Rapture IS COMING, but it will come like a thief in the night, and no one knows or can ever figure out when, because ONLY GOD KNOWS.  Instead, our job is to PRAISE GOD, PROCLAIM HIS SON, and REJOICE in the power of HIS HOLY SPIRIT!

Now, if on the other hand, May 21st comes, and most of you are gone, and I'm still here, than as Rickie said to Lucy, "You have some splaining to do!"  I don't believe I will have any splaining to do, but even if God in Christ has not chosen me for salvation, which will definitely be a bummer, I know one thing else: I  will still praise and glorify His Holy Name, proclaim Jesus Christ is alone Lord of all, and that Scripture reveals this Truth, and that regardless of what happens to me, NOW and ALWAYS, God in Christ is still worthy of praise!  I'll see you on the 22nd one way or another! “He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! ” (Revelation 22:20)  In the Love of the Risen and Coming Christ, Pastor Bob