Falling Away

“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 unveiled, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is honored, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, declaring of himself that he is God.”  2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4

 

Recently I spent some time researching churches found in Rapid City, South Dakota, in many instances, if they had a head organization, ending up on their website to see what it is they have in their Statements of Faith.

 

There are several things that I look for when looking into Churches that preach the truth of God, which ones are closest to following what the Bible says.  Here is a short list:

 

1.) Do they preach repentance towards God and faith in Christ (Acts 20:21) or simply neglect repentance?  Do they have a basic ‘sinner’s prayer’ that is found nowhere in the Bible telling the person if they just prayed that to contact them and let them know?

 

2.) What is their type of music?  Is it traditional or not?  Do they have flashy lights and a stage?  Is it a rock concert?  Is it honoring to our Creator or not?

 

3.) Do they believe in a literal six day Creation as the Bible teaches in Genesis chapter 1?

 

4.) Do they believe in a literal Flood that only Noah, his three sons and their wives (8 in all) were Saved through (Gen. 6-8; 1 Pet. 3:20)?  — Note: Most church website never mention the Flood at all, so this is something that one would have to talk directly to the pastor about.

 

5.) What type of Bible do they use?  Many will not say, but are they using something like ‘The Message’ or another per-version of God’s Word or a faithful translation (Jude 1:3)?

 

6.) What is their take on end times events?  Do they believe pre-trib, post-trib or something else?  Here a lot of doctrinal statements are sketchy, some more than others.

 

To me, if they can’t preach the Gospel correctly, repenting towards God and faith in Christ (Acts 20:21) then there is a –real- problem.  So when I search through churches, I know a lot of the organized ones are not doctrinally correct, so I steer away from such and most of the time I had spent is simply looking at Baptist, ‘community’, recently Evangelical Free or other unorganized, individual Churches. 

 

From time to time I have done such things, but recently I was quite upset by what I had seen.  Certainly there is the Church that I attend here in Rapid City that meets the above requirements and there –may- be one, possibly two that are close (both Baptist), by and large what was once considered conservative is FAR from where they were 30 or so years ago.

 

At the age of 9, I was Saved in a Nazarene church in Alanson, Michigan.  While I am not saying that the church was perfect, many are not, there were fundamentals of God’s truth that was certainly taught.  The hymn singing was traditional, the pastor seemed to preach appropriately, with the exception of the ‘digging a bit deeper for extra money’ that allows irked me, even at a very young age.

 

At least there I had a great Sunday School teacher, Betty, who cared about us kids, had us learn Bible verses, talked to us about God and when there was an altar call, after having failed to get off of my seat the couple of times prior, I gave up my ways and turned to God, forsaking this world and my sin, turning to Christ for Salvation. 

 

The words repent might or might not have been used back then, I don’t remember, but I do know that I chose that night to make a 180 degree turn from my sin and accept Christ. 

 

Soon thereafter, as I went to church where I was directed by my mother, I attended an Assembly of God church.  Even though I was always weirded out when someone spoke in tongues and noted that some of the music was more ‘rocky’ than it had been, though traditional hymns were also sung, once again there were some basic truths taught in Sunday School.

 

Afterwards I attended a missionary church, where I was friends with the pastor’s son, who was the same grade in high school as me, as well as the youth pastor’s son, also the same grade as me.  Here I continued to go all the way through graduation, also sometimes attending a southern Baptist Church with another friend, who was the son of the deacon at that Church.  So I had quite an experience growing up, though the whole time I continued reading and studying the Bible to learn from it.

 

Looking back, I could now and have been for quite some time been able to point out the things that are scripturally wrong with these churches of the past.  It wouldn’t be hard to write an article why tongues is not for today, what type of music is appropriate, why repentance must be preached, why to actually live by the standards of the Bible, etc., but that is not the purpose of this article.

 

I could easily point to sound articles that are already written (including a bunch about repentance on this website) from a couple of other ministries.  After what I saw with my research, I was deeply saddened.  Things certainly aren’t the same anymore, not what they used to be.

 

While there were perhaps a couple, I say perhaps, of churches in this area that one could attend, those that were as close to being faithful to preaching the Bible (2 Tim. 2:5), truly, hopefully so, loving Christ (2 Tim. 4:8) and doing His work (Matt. 28:18-20), by and large things are so far off the mark that I just wanted to break down in tears over the ordeal. 

 

I am well aware that the falling away comes first, as stated in the opening verse and more in a bit, the apostasy, but what I never imagined is living in a world where it is –so- very lonely.  Certainly the Church that my family and I attend here is not a large crowd.  Even there, with much closer to God’s truth being preached, a pastor who is stern about trying very hard to rightfully divide God’s Word (2 Tim. 2:5), there isn’t much of anyone willing to talk about the things of God or even the numbers of people to do such things. 

 

There are no men’s Bible studies (or ladies), there is no Sunday School, hardly any children, yet the pastor is being faithful to God (1 Cor. 4:2), as he should be, and all I can say is to ‘hold onto what you have’ until Christ comes (Rev. 2:25), for that is what He expects.

 

Now I assume that most people probably will not even get this far into the article and that is fine, for they probably would never agree with such things written anyway.  I would be labeled –too- judgmental for wishing to be separate, as God says (2 Cor. 6:17), for desiring to be holy, as the Bible teaches (1 Pet. 1:16), for not wanting the carnal things of this world to be the reason people attend church (2 Cor. 6:14-16).  However, for that person who may have made it this far, let’s continue as the article needed a backdrop in order to get into the ‘meat’ of it.

 

So already saddened by the state of the churches in this country, after looking into them some more in the morning, I was wondering what their stance was on the Rapture and end times events.  What I found was quite shocking. 

 

Apparently, and perhaps I am wrong about this, but the Evangelical Free Churches –used- to accept the pretrib Rapture, but because there are so many different opinions they simply don’t take a stance one way or the other, the same was shockingly for organized Baptist groups.  What was found on many Baptist church websites regarding the end times and on their organized church website was the following statement regarding end times events:

 

“Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. …Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly…the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. …The righteous… will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.”

 

So what I am led to believe, that you do not know or can’t be dogmatic one way or the other, there is no way of searching the Holy Scriptures (Acts 17:11) to find out what the Bible actually teaches and come to a CONCLUSION of the matter?!  Which is it?

 

Instead of either being dogmatic regarding what events will take place and when, like the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Second Coming, the Millennial  Reign, etc., there is simply speaking of God ‘in His own time (agreed) and in His own way’, did He not make His ways known to us?

 

Certainly there are many mysteries regarding certain end times events and not everything has been declared to us, but everything we need to know has and we can certainly come to a conclusion about these major matters listed above, the smaller details of how this works or how that is going to play out, we simply can’t declare what the Bible says when the Bible is silent or doesn’t give enough information to know those things for sure.

 

Do we have all of the details of Heaven?  Can we declare with intricate detail what Heaven will be like or do we simply have ‘glimpses’ that God has given us?  Glimpses, but we can with certainly declare that it is the eternal Home for those who are known by Christ, for those who have repented towards God and by faith believed into Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior (Acts 20:21), this we can say for certain.  We do not even know where Heaven is.

 

So I decided to do a deeper internet search on these things, simply typing in Baptist and pretrib Rapture, to see where we had ended up, knowing that the apostasy is still in full swing, going to unfortunately get worse.  However, what I found even surprised myself.

 

You must remember, originally 30, 40 or 50 years ago, there was preaching that was largely correct, there were –many- Churches that would have met the small list (though not conclusive) of things that I look for in a Church. 

 

Seventy years ago, especially amongst Baptist and other conservative Churches, it would have been –hard- to find a Church that didn’t preach repentance towards God, now it is –hard- to find a Church that does truly preach what the Bible states clearly!

 

Even 25 or so years ago there would have been talk about the pretrib Rapture, the Antichrist, the Tribulation, the mark of the beast, all of these things from time to time, now there is ALMOST NONE!!!  In many churches there is none or they simply are going the road of ‘we don’t know’ or it is posttrib.

 

So I started to find some articles talking about these debate on Baptist news sites.  Essentially the gist of what I got overall was that there were well-respected leaders on both sides of the aisles regarding the Rapture, that some were pretrib and some were posttrib.  Since they were well respected and apparently no conclusion could come from those who now seem to let way too much unholy things in the doors nowadays anyways, to no surprise they decided to no longer take a side in the issue one way or another.  In fact one mentioned a movie A Thief in the Night, a 4-part series.

 

So I decided to watch the first 2 of the 4 series of the movies.  While I will state that the Gospel message is a little weak, when compared to nowadays, wow!  You can’t even have basic conversations with most people like are depicted in the movie.

 

Before you jet off and say ‘it is just a movie’ please note that there were –many- such conversations that I have had with people at church, at jobs or even at random throughout the years.  People were interested, truly interested, in the things of God, whether or not they came to saving faith or not. 

 

The article I had read was from a Baptist news website and was knocking the movie as silly and out of place, listing it as one of the reasons for such beliefs as the pretrib Rapture, but stipulating that the Bible doesn’t necessarily back up those claims as depicted in the movie.  Knowing a lot about that time period, having written a book on it, having studied it, I would say that it was overall good, certainly it –under estimates- the seriousness of the time, it is dated, though probably couldn’t have someone make one as good as that now, and there are things were I simply disagree with, assuming that the maker of the movie made certain things that I see as ‘unknown’ and more of a mystery and took the liberty to show them in a way that I do not believe that one can be dogmatic about.  Perhaps they could be correct, but I would tend not to think so.

 

However what must be noted here is the ‘falling away’ that was mentioned in the opening verse HAD to come first.  This is the same as the apostasy mentioned elsewhere, of which the fruit is rotten to the core:

 

“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.  And many will follow their destructive ways, through whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.  By covetousness they will exploit you with well-turned words; whose judgment of old is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”  2nd Peter 2:1-3

 

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, being devoted to corrupting spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be partaken with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”  1st Timothy 4:1-3

 

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unyielding, slanderers, without self-control, savage, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away. For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning, but never able to come to the full true knowledge of the truth.  But as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so do these also oppose the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”  2nd Timothy 3:1-9

 

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own lusts, desiring to hear pleasant things, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to myths.”  2nd Timothy 4:3-4

 

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:  I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I would that you were cold or hot.  So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.  Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing; and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked;  I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.  To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”  Revelation 3:14-21

 

So 50 years ago, yes FIFTY years!, when the beginning of the full blown apostasy was already going strong, yet the foundations of many truths had not yet been cracked and there was still real preaching readily found all across the United States, from small town to large cities. 

 

If you were to take that ‘list’ that I have of things that I look for, in churches, back then it would not have been one here and one there or often in many small cities across America, none that even come close to matching that list, as it is now.  Certainly the apostasy is full blown.

 

The problem and this is a real problem, is we are –much- closer to the end times now, in terms of where the world sits, then we were back in 1972 when such teachings as the pretrib Rapture were beginning to go very strong across America, laying the foundation for a generation or two of Amercian’s.  This is turn caused great resistance to the world’s movement towards these things, Saved or not, from many people…more in a bit.

 

While the Rapture could be 200 years from now or today, the truth of the matter is, when that movie was released in 1972, Israel, in my opinion the last prophecy that –had- to be fulfilled before the Rapture could happen, hadn’t even yet been a recognized nation for 25 years.  Certainly when that happened in 1948, there must have been many sermons on the great truths of the Bible taught regarding a country that had ceased for nearly 2,000 years and returned, just as the Bible prophesied that it would (Ezk. 37)!  How great of a God we have!  How true His Word is!

 

Indeed His Word is true and the fact that we have so many scoffers nowadays simply aligns with the falling away.  In fact, could we not surmise that now the falling away has happened?!  I would tend to readily think so.  Given that, I’ve mentioned this before, but will mention it here again, consider that when these sorts of things, the pretrib Rapture, the Tribulation, the mark of the beast, the Antichrist, the Second Coming, etc., were being talked about readily amongst many Christians or even non-believers alike, right there the falling away hadn’t quite taken place, so would that not suggest that the time wouldn’t have been ‘quite yet’, at least in hindsight?

 

For these discussions, whether people repented and believed the Gospel (Mark 1:15) or not, set off a good measure of resistance with particularly the American public regarding being anti-bar code, anti tracking/tracing, you-name-it for decades!  In fact it wasn’t until the past decade or so that finally the resistance to these things calmed down, oddly enough just as pastors quit talking about these things in their churches which would only have me suspect of how much closer we must be then we were back then! 

 

Shouldn’t we be watching and ready, as Jesus warned us?!

 

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will by no means pass away.  But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and did not realize until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two will be in the field: one is taken and the other is left.  Two will be grinding at the mill: one is taken and the other is left.  Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord comes.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief comes, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be dug through.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man comes at an hour you do not expect.”  Matthew 24:35-44

 

Truly it is a sad situation with the apostate churches, the situation with the falling away, that we see from coast to coast.  As far as I read and see, there are still Church after Church that are toppling at a disappointing speed.  Churches that were once closely aligned to what the Word of God states now on a slippery slope to being fully apostate, it doesn’t take long.

 

While tears should be shed form every pastor who is still wholeheartedly following the Lord Jesus Christ and preaching the truth of God to their faithful congregants and to Believers who recognize the condition of the Churches nowadays.  It should be as the old men who came back from Babylonian captivity and saw the old Temple in ruins and wept, knowing what it once was.

 

“But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes. And many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off.”  Ezra 3:12-13

 

Well certainly my life and the life of every other Believer is truly in God’s hands.  I don’t know the future of what doors God will open or close or where precisely God will lead, but I do believe that these basic truths, looking at the list above regarding Churches, need to be presented to the masses, as these are the Bible standards, not mine.

 

While I know of at least one good ministry that goes over the music issue in ways that I could not even fully understand (wayoflife.org), as well as many other pertinent issues and I also am readily in agreement with.  Another is The Institute for Creation Research (icr.org) that presents scientific evidence to the issues of proving God’s Word regarding Creation and the Flood, I know of none that still ‘harp’ on people regarding being watching and ready, as the Bible also teaches.

 

While All Will Stand heavily promotes the issue of repentance towards God, for if a pastor closes the door to God’s truth (Matt. 23:13), are they not interfering with God’s great work with the hearts of mankind?  There are others who do the same. 

 

Yet the Bible is quite clear there is a pretrib Rapture (1 Thes. 4:16-17), there will be an upcoming 7 year time period, known by most as the Tribulation (time of Jacob’s trouble, Jer. 30:7), the individuals would be thankful to accept Christ now, when it is much easier for most, than in that time period, where it will still be just as pertinent to do so. 

 

The falling away has happened and now a door has been opened to All Will Stand’s ministry.  According to how the Lord desires for that to work out, is how it will work out, yet one must be faithful with what God gives an individual to do for Him.  It is His work, not ours.  This is not about ‘Tim’, this is about God.  All Will Stand points to Jesus Christ, not to any individual, for I am nothing and not even worthy to do the great work of God.  Yet through His grace and mercy, it is my duty, as every Believers’, to be faithful with whatever God lays on our hearts to do for Him. 

 

I miss the days when these things were still readily discussed, even with the unsaved at large.  I miss the days when you could have a conversation with people about Christ and they, whether they believed or not, would argue or ask questions, causing one to go back and study the Bible and then respond to them appropriately, according to what the Bible teaches. 

 

Those were the days and the last time I had such opportunities, with people asking sincere questions, on a regular basis was back in 2005.  While it still happens, it is not nearly as frequent and since 2016, most people do not even care to get that in depth at all, from my experience.  In fact, I will just be honest here, the last three Churches that I have went to, in three different areas we have lived in, all Baptist churches, never once have I been able to find a like-minded individual, aside from occasionally the pastor and I would have more in-depth conversations, but these Churches are nearly dead, though still holding onto what they have.

 

There is life in them, but there are usually few in people.  The biggest turn out that I ever saw between the three of these Churches was when there was a chili-cookoff announced on the Church social media page and suddenly that Sunday service was full and more pews, that were roped off, had to be ‘opened’ to allow for the crowds.  The next Sunday, it was back to the normal group.

 

Whereas it used to be that you could see the heart of the Church by attending a Wednesday evening service, I have noted that the amount of people between Sunday morning and Wednesday evening is only slightly slimmer, reflecting that those who are likely truly Saved are the only individuals left and the others are off to their ‘free chili’ and activities, fun and games, watered down preaching that will lead most on the broad path to destruction (Matt. 7:13), though the Word of God does not return void (Isa. 55:11).

 

In regards for those who like to openly promote the posttrib Rapture:

 

Are they going to be honest?

 

These same people who mislead the masses about there being no Rapture at all or a posttrib Rapture will continue being deceived or purposely dishonest throughout the entire Tribulation.

 

The fact that the Bible lays out that the mark of the beast will occur during that time (Rev. 13:16-18), one must consider, as mentioned before, that there will be some logical reason, based upon lies, that will be given.  Likewise, the Rapture that will have occurred will be excused with some sort of lies and the deception will be great.

 

If one considers that they will “believe the lie” (2 Thes. 2:9-12), then it should be obvious.  Consider some recent things that occurred in our history of the world progressing towards the end, most people without Salvation.

 

Some of our top leaders in the United States were quick to point out, in the early days of the pandemic beginning, that COVID was no worse than a bad flu.  (Which I am not going to argue that point one way or another.)  However, after a long, seemingly purposeful delay, of nearly a month to get ‘proper’ PCR tests into the hands of state governments to test people for COVID, our country had been shut down and this virus had spread, forever changing our landscape of not just this country, but the world. 

 

This is not written here to debate COVID or talk about the origins or it, let others do that work.  This is simply stated as facts that happened.  We went from a –very mild sentiment- to a very dramatic sentiment, one where there was even a mayor of a major city who proclaimed that bodies where piling up and being stored in refrigerated temporary morgues, when indeed at that time, it was simply a lie.  However, COVID was then over exaggerated, after having been played down by those in power.

 

The same thing seems to be going on with the economy nowadays, there is endless news being printed and talking heads telling us that there is no recession, that things will be fine, well hopefully so, but as far me and my family, we simply look at –our- budget and what is happening to us and decide wise decisions based upon that, not what others tell us about the reasons we should continue spending.  We see there has been change, so perhaps it doesn’t affect others?  No matter, it does affect us, so we simply reflect upon those realities, rather than theories or simply lies being put out there.  If others have more money and can keep trucking along as normal or even as if it is better than normal, than so be it. 

 

I had heard several reports of food prices in the grocery stores going up this fall, so last night I sent a text to a friend who is in the grocery industry.  I simply asked him if prices are going to go up again this fall, he replied back ‘waaay’ up.  He should know, he ensures orders are placed far ahead. 

 

So too, I was thinking about the masses of lies already being stated and the positions being taken by MANY churches that once preached a pretrib Rapture and now largely are silent on the issue or preach a posttrib Rapture verses simple common sense, please bear with me a moment.

 

Let’s look at the argument of those who proclaim that the Rapture is going to be posttrib, already there has been an article written LINK that proves the Rapture is pretrib, but for the sake of argument, let’s look at the posttrib mentality, not from the Bible, as would be erroneous to try and argue such a thing, but from a logical standpoint, standing at the pulpit.

 

Now as this argument is made, I understand that there might be some who will say they agree or that their pastor or such-n-such a pastor do say these things.  Well okay, at least that would make some sense if one really believes in the posttrib Rapture, but from my research most –do not- say these things, that person would be in the minority from what is published out there.

 

There are two basic common senses arguments that came into my mind regarding the ordeal of those who are preaching a posttrib Rapture fallacy.

 

The first is simply this: where are people going to be Raptured to?

 

After all, as far as I know, most of those also still talk about the Second Coming of Christ (Acts 1:11).  So if Christ is returning, which will be with His saints (Zec. 14:5) who have already been Raptured, where then are those going to be Raptured to, when Christ is coming back?!

 

This makes no sense.  For it seems that most, if not all, who talk about such things agree that Christ is going to reign on earth during the Millennium (Rev. 20:4).

 

The second argument is this: if you believe that the Rapture is posttrib, then why are you not preparing your congregation for it?

 

Do those who preach such things from their broken pulpits then neglect what the Bible says about the mark of the beast, the image of the beast, the great wrath of God poured out upon mankind with all sorts of cataclysmic events, judgments, etc? 

 

Do they ignore the great global famine, the wars, the deaths, the forests burning, the scorching heat, the wild and vicious animals, the great earthquake?  Do they ignore the Antichrist, the satanic one world government, the guillotines, the deception?

 

Should they not promote having sunscreen on hand for when the sun scorches the inhabitants of the earth?  (Rev. 16:8)  Would that not be a good idea to have sunscreen?

 

Should they wait until the mark of the beast is implemented and they can no longer buy or sell without it, before stockpiling up on food right now that can readily be had without the mark of the beast right now?

 

Should they not promote having a second place in the woods (despite the trees of the forest burning (Rev. 8:7), far away from what will be chaotic city streets?

 

Shouldn’t they warn against having homes that are more than one story, so one can easily escape when the great earthquake happens (Rev. 16:18)?

 

Wouldn’t their congregants also want to know that eventually a political leader, empowered by Satan, will control the entire world (2 Thes. 2:8; Rev. 13:1-9)?  Shouldn’t they be on the look out for that? 

 

After all, without the ‘starting gun’ of the Rapture, would they even believe that a ‘peace deal’ (Dan. 9:27) would be the ‘real deal’, why not another?

 

If those who truly believe that there is no pretrib Rapture, but a posttrib Rapture contemplate the implications of their beliefs, would that not be some sort of divine warning to the congregants of the church, giving them a ‘heads up’ and time to prepare?

 

After all, if those who say such things are what the Bible teach, though it doesn’t, then if that were the case, certainly our Creator, Christ who is head of the Church (Eph. 5:23) would have placed such warnings available to those who would listen, in order to be useful (2 Tim. 3:16), right?

 

Rather they are either in gross error or wolves in sheep’s clothing (Acts 20:29; Matt. 7:15) of which they will either be accountable at the ‘judgment seat of Christ’ (2 Cor. 5:10) or at the Great White Throne judgment (Rev. 20:11-15). 

 

Rather there actions expose their hearts.  Their teachings do not align with common sense and a logical outcome to such supposed knowledge.  They are rather the blind leading the blind.

 

“Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch.”  Matthew 15:14

 

There is a local independent fundamental Baptist preacher here in Rapid City, South Dakota that I conversed with regarding his beliefs of a posttrib Rapture.  Him, like most, take the Olivet discourse out of context, not understanding what he reads, twisting it to his own destruction (2 Pet. 3:16) and the destruction of his hearers, but he makes no mention, that I am aware of, of any sort of prepping for the judgment that is coming upon the inhabitants of the earth. 

 

Let common sense prevail.  The duties of every true Believer, one who has repented towards God and by faith believed into Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior (Acts 20:21) is simply to be watching and ready, not prepping with material possessions and goods.

 

Our hearts are to be ‘prepped’ for the appearing (1 Tim. 4:1) of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not our cupboards and garages.  Yet if one believed otherwise the logic would be reversed and the focus would be turned from Christ to survival, a very dangerous idea that would change our focus from God to the things of this world.

 

“If then you are raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth; for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”  Colossians 3:1-4

 

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and its lust; but he who does the will of God abides forever.  Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, by which we know that it is the last hour.  They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that not all of them are of us.  But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.  I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that not any lie is of the truth.  Who is a liar but he who denies, saying that Jesus is not the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.  Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father.  Therefore let abide in you that which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.  And this is the promise that He has promised us: Eternal Life.  These things I have written to you concerning those who try to lead you astray.  But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will remain in Him.  And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He is revealed, we may have confidence and not be distanced from Him in shame at His coming.  If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who produces righteousness is born of Him.”  1st John 2:15-29

 

Amen!