Will your rapture theory lead you astray?

Deception about the rapture

One of the key aspects considering the end and the first issue to be addressed by Jesus when questioned about the end of our age by His disciples was to watch that we are not deceived.¹  Today fake news and deception abounds including financial scams, romantic scams and religious scams.  The end will be no different and as Christians we are not immune to false teaching and deception.  One of those areas is teaching about the rapture of believers.  Is it possible that your rapture theory might be causing you to be completely duped and to mistakenly take the mark of the beast or to worship the wrong Messiah at the end?  I think it really is possible because if we do take the mark of the beast then the Bible is quite clear that this is an irreversible decision and is in fact an unforgivable sin.  Closely connected to this decision is worship of the beast—the two are inextricably linked.  Some Bible scholars teach that taking the mark is a forgivable sin and that you will also need to worship the beast as well because everywhere you see the mark talked about in the Scriptures you also see “worship of the beast” in the conversation.  But I believe that you wouldn’t be taking the mark unless you did have in your heart the worship of the beast.  Some others believe also that if you are forced to take it then God will forgive you and overlook this.

Forced consent

But I think today we are seeing are precursor to what will happen with the “consent” issue with regards to the Covid-19 vaccines.  Governments around the world are at pains to keep reiterating that the vaccine is voluntary and that you don’t have to take it.  They are doing everything they can through the media to convince us to get the jab.  There is a soft sell, convincing us of all the benefits of travel and freedoms if we do take it and any opposition is virtually eradicated via all social medias but really we are being subjected to propaganda.  They are at pains to tell us that it is voluntary but in effect if we don’t take it then it will be very difficult to operate in society.  I believe this really is setting us up for the final mark—it will be voluntary and they want our consent but in essence we will have no option but to take it.  Even if we feel that we have been ‘forced’ into taking the mark we are being set up and trained even now to give our so called consent to things we don’t really want to do for the good of society.  And at the end of the day even ‘forced consent’ will be seen as worship.

Pan-tribulationist?

So what will you do?  Jesus says that we need to be very careful not to be deceived into following false Messiahs or false prophets at this time.  We will be able to tell that they are false because we know that the real Jesus does not appear until the end of the seven year tribulation period and His coming will be like as lightning from the east to the west.²  Mankind is easily deceived and so the only way we can not be deceived is by reading what to look out for in His Word.  We need to become students of the Word of God and I mean serious students—none of  this pan-tribulationist rubbish—‘it will all pan out in the end’.

Pastors will say, “Remain calm and stay where you are!”

One of the biggest errors that will cause people to be led astray is their rapture theory. If you are a Christian and you hold to the pre-trib rapture theory then that means the mark of the beast will not even be a concern to you and it is just a moot point because you believe that you won’t even be present when it comes.  It will just be a philosophical discussion point involving only those who will be left behind.  But what if the pre-trib rapture theory is a false theory and not true at all?  Then this belief could very well lead you astray.   You won’t be seeing the mark of the beast system for what it truly is when it comes because you are basing everything on the fact that you will be raptured before the seven year period even starts.  Your thinking will be that because the rapture hasn’t happened yet then we are not really in the tribulation period and therefore the mark that I am being told to receive is not really the mark from a man who is not really the Antichrist.  Besides all this you haven’t seen a peace agreement to start things off which you have been taught will be at the beginning.

But perhaps you will start to doubt your long held beliefs because you will see two crazy Old Testament looking men with long beards prophesying and killing people who come near them.  You will hear them talk of escaping while you can by coming to Israel which will be the last thing you will want to do because of all the fighting and terrorism and rockets firing off in Israel.  People will advise you to stay well away but you will be hearing contradictory messages from the Bible.  Your pastor will be telling you to remain calm and stay where you are because either he is telling you that true believers will be raptured prior to the tribulation at any moment now or he is a preterist telling you the tribulation has already occurred in the 1st century or that the kingdom of God is within us and things will get better.  Instead he will tell you to remain where you are in your relative safety and pray for the peace of Jerusalem and that the mark is more of a spiritual thing.  But then you start to doubt again because you hear an angel flying in the sky saying in a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he too will drink of the wine of God’s fury.”

What you believe about the end times will indeed have a great effect on what you will really do in the end and where you will take refuge.  Deception will abound and the temptation will be to do nothing.  You will be like a deer caught in the headlights.  Your lack of action and rapture theory could lead you astray.  That’s why Jesus often said, “Watch and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen.”

The current vaccine is not the mark of the beast

In order to accurately assess where we are and that we are not being deceived then we need to line up important end time’s events with what the Bible says.

Let’s assess for instance the mark of the beast:  Firstly, it cannot occur until the beast is revealed on the earth which is at the halfway point at the 5th trumpet.  Secondly, the mark of the beast is enforced by the False Prophet and so this mark won’t be enforced until the False Prophet is also present on the earth after he comes up out of the earth³ after the first beast.  Thirdly, worship of the beast is always associated with the mark so if we see something that entails a ‘forced consent’ like we are seeing right now with the push for the Corona virus vaccines then we need to see that this is a kind of worship.  Fourthly, the mark is clearly a physical mark on the forehead or right hand and it is either the number of his name or his image according to the Bible.  Therefore when someone tells us that the current Covid vaccine is the mark of the beast we know that it isn’t because it is not a number or image of a person on the forehead or right hand.  Fifthly, the refusal of the mark leads to not being able to buy or sell.  So, sometimes some of the conditions may match and look very similar but all five biblical conditions would need to be met in order for us to know whether something is the mark of the beast.  This is just one example.  All clues need to be accurately met.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a wrong theory in one area, like a wrong rapture theory could really throw us off being able to determine other pieces of end time’s doctrine.  The only protection is to really do your homework and not to glibly just believe what people tell you and to be lazy.  Your very salvation could depend on it.

In the parable of the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins, laziness prevents the five foolish virgins from entering the kingdom of God because they did not prepare by obtaining oil for their lamps ahead of time.  They didn’t do their homework and when the crunch time came, they weren’t prepared.  Get oil in your lamps now and ‘become prepared’⁴—in other words study the Word thoroughly and watch for the signs carefully ensuring that all the clues fit and pray that you may be able to flee when the time comes.