How Will the Rapture Be Explained?

By Chuck Missler

If you have a conservative Christian background you have no doubt heard of the Rapture of the Church. This is the time when Jesus Christ comes back for His church and will remove both the living and the dead in Christ from the earth up into heaven. A pre-tribulation rapture is held by most conservative scholars and has the most literal Scriptural support.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For 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. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
— 1 Thessalonians 4:15–18

It is not the intent of this article to argue between a pre-tribulation and post-tribulation rapture; however, as one looks at the last verse in the above passage, a post-tribulation rapture would not be very comforting.

The Rapture is also a familiar concept to most Christians and non–Christians alike. While they may not believe it, and they may even laugh at it, many non-Christians know that all the Christians believe they are supposed to somehow disappear before the “end of the world.”

Satan would seem to have a problem. How would he be able to explain away the fact that every person who was a Christian has suddenly disappeared? It would seem like a huge wake up call to the world that the Christians were right after all.

It is becoming more and more clear what Satan’s solution to this dilemma is. He will answer this preposterous idea with another preposterous idea. When thinking of the peculiar things of the world, the New Age Movement tends to come to mind. Psychics, mantras, astrology and crystals are some of the symbols of this diverse group of the extremely spiritually deceived. Another topic that has always interested New Agers has been UFOs and Extraterrestrials.

In the past, the idea that UFOs were real was relegated to the fringe. In recent years however, several scientists have come to the conclusion that extraterrestrials are statistically probable.

One of the leading astrophysicists, Stephen Hawking, states that aliens are real (and possibly dangerous) in an April 25th, 2010 article in NBC News.

Christians must deal with this from a Biblical worldview and not be caught up in the deception that UFOs are anything but agents of the Prince of the Power of the Air, aka Satan (Ephesians 2:2). God is very real, angels are very real and the enemy is also very real.

In an article by a former New Age participant, Jim Sayles describes a prevailing belief among New Agers. Sayles describes what Israeli psychic, Uri Geller, said

“(extra-terrestrials) would not interfere until, in a single night, at the peak of the conflict, they would remove millions of humans who resist this initiation into a higher spiritual consciousness and ‘re-educate’ them before returning them to Earth a few years later.”

Another article quotes Barbara Marciniak in her book Bringers of the Dawn as saying,

“The people who leave the planet during the time of Earth changes do not fit in here any longer, and they are stopping the harmony of Earth. When the time comes that perhaps 20 million people leave the planet at one time there will be a tremendous shift in consciousness for those who are remaining.”

The source of this information in both cases is described as being from psychic contact with extra-terrestrials. This is not something New Agers have invented; it comes straight from the mind of Satan disguised as an alien. This has been communicated to them and will be the explanation for the rapture of the church; i.e., those who do not fit into the earth anymore, those who resist the initiation into a higher spiritual consciousness, the trouble-makers.

The world will be deceived just as Paul describes:

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
— 2 Thessalonians 2:9–12