Expert: Messianic Rabbi Yochanan Levine - 5/8/2008

Question
hi john,during the rapture,when all the believers are taken up to heaven.what kind of stories would people tell to explain this to the people who are left on earth?just say i was left behind,and know what i know now about the bible,can satan still trick me into worship him?would i able to figure him out?
p.s. i am learning a great amount of things from you. thank you
greg

Answer
Hi Greg,

Glad to help.
In my opinion the Rapture is an anti-biblical doctrine.

Those who accept it believe that all "Born Again Christians" will be taken, all others will be left behind. Those who are left behind will stand or fall according to their determination to stand. Lucifer is very effective at deceiving people, Christian or not.

I have a rather long and detailed study of the Rapture here:
http://www.allfaith.com/Religions/Noahide/rapture.html

In Summary

"Just the Facts Please!"

   * This is a new doctrine, not historically held by any segment of the Church.
   * Christians can't agree on the question of timing: Pre, Mid or Post Tribulation, so it's obviously not that clear at best. If this earth shaking event were truly a biblical prophecy it would be made clear.
   * The Pre-Tribulation Rapture (the most commonly held view) is directly and repeatedly contridicted by the clear teachings about who will be opposing the Rex Mundi and when. According to the prophets, Believers will be present throughout the Seven Years.
   * At certain points in the Tribulation, including during the second half, the Great Tribulation, Believers will receive certain protections from certain of the coming plagues and so will obviously still be on the earth.
   * A reason often given for why the Rapture must occur is that Holy Spirit must be removed during the reign of the Beast. Were this so, no one post Rapture could be "saved" or have report with God yet the Prophets show Divine intervention and inspiration will occur throughout the period and the oft stated presence of Believers on earth.
   * Master Y'shua (Jesus) does not discuss or even reference the Rapture in his important Matthew 24 list of signs for, "When will these things be."
   * Master Y'shua's Matthew 24 reference to 'those in the field' being "taken" is clearly speaking of the Jews of Jerusalem who will flee the City once the Rex Mundi declares his divinity and the "abomination of desolation spoken of by Prophet Daniel" occurs, and not to a Rapture when read in context.
   * Master Y'shua does not discuss or even reference a Rapture in his prophetic presentation to John in the Book Revelations
   * Modern Christians do not honor the Sabbath (as commanded in the Bible) and so the Master's concern that this fleeing not take place on the Sabbath has no meaning for modern Christians. Master Y'shua would surely have known the Church would abandon the Sabbath three hundred years after his death.
   * 'Those in the field,' 'on the roof tops' etc. are encouraged to run rather than return home for their belongings. Such options would not exist in the Rapture as taught and so the reference can not be to it.
   * Believers are advised to stand firm against the Antichrist. To do so they must be present on the earth during his reign.
   * The "Last Trump" is blown to announce the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth. The reference therefore to Paul in I Cor 15 specifically refers to the time that trumpet is blown. The Rapture, as conceived, would have taken place years before this horn is sounded. It is sounded when the Jews are ALL gathered back to Jerusalem for the inauguration of the coming global theocracy.
   * God never granted this type of protection to the Jews, His Elect, even during the Russian Pograms and Nazi Shoah and there is no biblical evidence that He will do so for the Christians.
   * Revelations 6:9 makes it clear that during the entire seven year period those martyred by the Antichrist and his New World Order must patiently wait, "until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." This clearly shows there will be no Rapture to rescue their fellow Believers from martyrdom.
   * The prophetic word about the future of the Church: Through the Seven Church Ages the Church draws progressively farther and farther away from the God of Israel until, in the End Times, it will embrace the Antichrist and God will "vomit it from His mouth" and 'sever the Church from the 'Tree of Israel' and cast it into the 'fire'. If the Church deserves to be vomited out how and why would God rapture it away to safety and bliss?
   * The foretold Church of the Last Days is a lukewarm, hypocritical body that has abandoned the teachings of Master Y'shua and become largely irrelevant in the world (surrendering its position to Secular Humanism and eventually to the Rex Mundi as "Babylon the Great" and her denominational "daughters"). Portions of the Church are even now being "vomited out of God's Mouth" as is obvious in the various sex and money scandals, the lack of Christian opposition to the New World Order, the practice of abortion, etc. The fallen Church of today will not be raptured away for its protection.

Again, this study can be read here: http://www.allfaith.com/Religions/Noahide/rapture.html

Hope this helps,
~John of AllFaith