Left Behind
It seems every month a new crisis generates new interpretations or speculations, about Jesus’ return. But have some believers left behind the clear teaching of Jesus and Paul for the plotline of a novel? Have some left behind settled hermeneutics like: New Testament apostles, interpret Old Testament prophets; and that, clear verses interpret obscure verses?
One clear New Testament verse: “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (1Th 4:16-17). Christ appears and the living saints are caught up after the resurrection. It seems the church responded, “What about the unbelievers?” Paul is clear in his follow-up letter, “When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints” (2 Thessalonians:4). Clearly believers are saved and the ungodly punished on the same last day.
Paul follows Jesus who said, “All who believe in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6.40). Not three and half or seven years before the last day. And when Jesus said, “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Luk 17:26-30), He wasn’t teaching anything about Nephilim but that the very day Noah was saved in the ark, judgment came on the whole world and on the very day Lot was saved from Sodom, fire fell on the unbelieving - not years later.
Friends, don’t leave behind the Bible for a novel, or a novel teaching. When we interpret Daniel and Revelation, make sure it is anchored in the clear words of Jesus and Paul. Today is the day of salvation. Thinking that the unsaved, whether Jew or Gentile, can be saved after Jesus returns is a deceptive and false hope. My POV: No believer is left behind, and no unbeliever is left alive but regardless of our POV, let’s leave behind hours of YouTube and spend it with Jesus and His Word.