The Beginning Of The End

Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at various different issues surrounding the beginning of the world and humanity, up until the time of the Flood of Noah described in Genesis. That was the "Alpha" part...the beginning...of our teaching series we are calling "Alpha & Omega" at The Mix on Tuesday nights. Well this week we hit the fast-foward button...

We began talking about the "Omega" part of the series...the end of the world and humanity as we know it. And it starts with this event we call the Rapture. But before we understand the rapture and all the events that follow it, it's important for us to realize the importance of talking about the end times. Why even worry about it if we aren't going to be here? Well here are 3 good reasons:

1. It's important to God. More than 20 books of the Bible refer to or teach about the end times. Jesus talked about it a lot as well. If its important to God it should be important to us.
   
2. God promises anyone who reads the book of Revelation (where we find out a lot about the end times) a special blessing (See Rev 1:3). I'm all about God's blessings!
   
3. It helps us understand that God has had a plan all along for us as individuals and for humankind in general. We aren't just randomly bouncing off of one another on this big playground called planet Earth and life is not a big recipe of chance and happenstance and meaninglessness (is that a word?). Instead, God's plan involves a beginning (which we've talked about over the past few weeks) and it will involve an ending...its a complete package designed by a very intentional God who created you on purpose for a reason with an amazing plan for your life. Studying the end times helps us realize the purposeful-ness of God's plan for humanity! He has a destiny for you!
   

(Let me also take this time to make a quick disclaimer...there are many different ideas and theories, even within Christianity and Bible research, as to how the series of events that we refer to as "the end times" will play out. Most people agree on the ingredients, it's the order of those ingredients within the recipe that we sometimes disagree with. I'm teaching this series based on what I believe the Bible teaches concerning the end times...if you disagree, no problem. Let's at least agree that God's desire is to get all His kids back home to Him somehow...)

The beginning of what we might call the end times, I believe, will be the rapture (which literally means "caught up"). And the main purpose of the event called the rapture can be summed up in one word..."harvest". God is a farmer and He has been in a process of planting seeds for a very, very long time. But like any farmer, the excitement isn't just in planting seeds...you eventually want to harvest the fruit of those seeds and get a return on what you've sown! The rapture is God's return on what He has sown...His people. These verses give us an idea of what the rapture is (click on the links...)

• John 14:1-3
  
• Matthew 24:36-42
  
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
  

We know from these verses that the rapture is the event that will occur when Jesus comes to gather all Christians who are still alive at that time, and take them to be with God. It will occur without warning and no one knows when it will happen...not even Jesus! We also know that not every person will be taken to Heaven...only those who have committed their lives to Christ. Some will be taken and some will be left. It's our responsibility to make sure we are ready for the rapture when it happens. The good thing is, we also know that God wants all of us to be with Him (see 2 Peter 3:9). But we have to make that decision and invite Christ into our lives. Click here to watch one of the most realistic videos I have seen concerning the rapture...

The rapture will start the time clock ticking for the rest of the end times...it is literally 'the beginning of the end'. What might life be like immediately after the rapture? That's tough to comprehend. We can imagine some of what it might be like. First, there will be no Christians which means that the "salt" of the earth will be gone. The rotting of society will happen very quickly. There will be no children...at least children who haven't reached a maturity level of realizing their sinfulness. There will be massive holes in society where Christians once were. There will be wide-spread depression, fear, hysteria and eventually anarchy...at least until the rise of the anti-christ (more on the anti-christ in coming weeks...). The earth will not be a fun place to be. Once the rapture occurs, a series of events will begin that will eventually destroy the earth and its inhabitants so that God can re-establish what He initially desired for all of us...perfection in every sense of the word and being in the constant presence of God Himself! More on all of this in the weeks ahead. Hope you check back weekly and jump into the discussion with us. See you next time...

-Bob