It has always been the proper hope of the church to expect the Lord to come at any moment and call His people home to be with Himself. This was presented by the Apostle Paul everywhere he preached; it was an integral part of what he calls “my gospel.” Sad to say, shortly after the apostles were called home in death, this precious truth was lost to believers, and lost for centuries. But about 180 years ago, God in His grace raised up those who revived, among many other truths, the important fact of the Lord’s coming for His church before the time of tribulation begins for this world. As a result, since that time, this truth has become rather generally known in Christendom, among believers and unbelievers alike.
Satan has done his best to try and blunt the edge of this uplifting and encouraging truth and to dull this hope among believers. For many years men have mocked at those who believe in this promise the Lord made before He left this world, and which was reinforced and expanded by the revelations made to the Apostle Paul. The Lord Jesus predicted such behavior, speaking about those who would say, “My lord delayeth his coming” (Luke 12:4545But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; (Luke 12:45)), and then begin to live in a sinful way. Peter predicted that there would be “scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4). So unbelief and mockery about the Lord’s coming for us is nothing new, and we should not be surprised at it.
Satan’s Counterattack
However, in these last days, it seems that Satan, sensing the imminence of the Lord’s return for His own, is making an all-out effort to subvert this truth, and so to fill men’s minds with doubt, that they scarcely know what they believe. The Internet, television and the video industry have all been available to aid this onslaught of the devil. My interest was piqued by a recent article in Time magazine.
Apparently, more than thirty years ago a movie called The Day After detailed the repercussions about a nuclear war and its aftermath, and it caused quite a sensation. Today, as one commentator said, “The world ends several times a day.” Many videos and TV series depict mass killings and depletion of the human race by such entities as plague and infertility, or even more imaginative and ridiculous things such as a civil war among angels or an invasion of aliens. Most recently, a TV series entitled The Leftovers has built on the truth of the Lord’s coming for us, but has corrupted the truth so seriously that the viewer is left in a moral vacuum with no answers.
The Deception
Some comments by a woman who was raised in a fundamental Christian home and who later abandoned it all are quite revealing:
“The world’s organized religions find themselves unable to satisfactorily explain the event. ... The world of ‘The Leftovers’ is defined by doubt. ... There is no certainty here; the manual no longer applies. Viewers are given no evidence that God has interfered or that science can solve the problem. ...
“The number of Americans who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated is rising at an unprecedented rate, particularly among young people. These unaffiliated Americans aren’t necessarily atheists; most report having some supernatural beliefs. But they’re also less reliant on the moral certainty that’s driven the so-called culture for the past several decades. ...
“This is an Armageddon for a generation making peace with its doubt.”
The Way to Delusion
The result of all this is to pave the way for the strong delusion Paul spoke about in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, a delusion that will affect all who now reject the gospel of God’s grace and who will indeed be left behind when the Lord comes. If Satan can cast a large measure of doubt on God’s divine revelation and fill men’s minds with fables and imaginations of every kind, he will have succeeded in laying the groundwork for a massive delusion when the Lord Jesus actually does come. The world will have become so inured to falsehood that they will not take it seriously when the rapture really happens. They will be ready to say, in the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “Peace and safety,” but then “sudden destruction cometh upon them ... and they shall not escape.”
What peace it gives the believer to be able to rest on the clarion truth of God’s Word, which tells us plainly what will take place and how it will all happen. Paul could say, “We are bound to give thanks for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13). “Therefore, brethren, stand fast” (2 Thess. 2:15).
W. J. Prost