LEFT BEHIND

“And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of Their wrath has come!  And who is able to stand?’” (Revelation 6:16-17 HCSB)

In 1997, the book, “Left Behind: A Novel of Earth’s Final Days,” exploded into the Christian market, launching a series of novels which have sold over 63 million copies.  The books, written by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, were written as fictional accounts of Biblical events set to occur in the future according to prophecy.  Movies and video games followed that success.  There is reportedly a new movie remake of “Left Behind” which may star Nicolas Cage in the works now.

I found the books very good, the movies not so well done, never played one of the games, and think the possibility of a better acted and produced movie with enhanced special effects, intriguing.  But, I also want to add a word of caution—we are talking about fiction.

Though I would agree with the overall viewpoint of the authors concerning end-times events, I wouldn’t subscribe to every detail.  You should never base theology on a paperback novel—a fictitious one, at that—but, always ground your doctrine on the bedrock of Scripture.

I grew up hearing about being left behind—some of the first sermons I can recall from my childhood dealt with that theme—decades before Jenkins and LaHaye popularized the term.  It was a terrifying thought to me as a youngster.

The scenario was presented by my pastors this way:  at any moment Jesus could come to rapture His church and take true believers to heaven, and following that would be seven years of tribulation—horrible judgments to come upon the world.  This would climax with the Lord returning with His church to overthrow the kingdom of the Antichrist and establish His reign of a thousand years on earth.  To be left behind at the rapture was a real possibility according to these sermons and even during the period of my spiritual wandering, lost in sin, the thought would rise in the back of my mind to haunt me.  How terrible it would be to be left behind—and I was sure at the time I would be.  I had not been born again—and Jesus said you can’t get to heaven unless you are.

Thankfully, there came a time when I received Christ, and I need no longer fear being left behind.  This gives me wonderful peace, because as bad as those preachers from long ago described it, and as dramatically as the novels portray it—I doubt we have grasped the indescribable horror of that reality for one who will be left behind.

We don’t know everything.  We can know some things.  The Bible tells us enough of what God wants us to know. What does it mean to those who are left behind when the rapture occurs?  John saw this grim reality in a vision God gave him—a vision that harmonizes with other prophecies in God’s Word.

John’s vision, written down according to the command of the Lord, is what we call, “The Book of Revelation.”  It can be divided into three major portions which I believe are helpful in grasping its message.  Jesus commanded John, “Therefore write what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this.” (Rev.1:19)

The old Apostle wrote what he had witnessed—“what you have seen”—concerning the dramatic appearance of the glorified Jesus on the Isle of Patmos.  That is what we read in chapter one.  Then, he was to write of “what is” which describes the church age John was in, as represented by the seven churches of Asia Minor (what we call modern day Turkey).  This is recorded in chapters two and three—an age that began in John’s day and in which, two thousand years later, we still find ourselves in, as the church still waits and watches for the rapture.  With chapter four, John presents, “what will take place after this,” when the church age is complete and the Bride of Christ is caught up to be with Him as God’s wrath is poured out on a Christ-rejecting world. 

John uses the very wording Jesus directed him to write previously as he begins chapter four, “After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’” (Rev.4:1)  In chapters four and five, the church is in heaven and worshipping the Lamb.  She is not mentioned again until we come to the end of the tribulation period described here—and we see the church at the marriage supper of the Lamb, in chapter nineteen, as well as returning back to earth with Christ to reign with Him.

So, with chapter six, we leave the scene in heaven—one of worship of the Lamb—and focus on the earth—and the wrath of the Lamb.  Those who refuse to hide themselves in the Rock of Ages now, will be left behind and call on the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the Lamb’s fury.  As delightful a thought we have in heaven worshipping a Lamb slain for us, being among the saints of God singing joyfully to Him, it is so disturbing a thought of those left behind screaming loudly for someone or something to shield them from the judgment that falls.

The Lamb has taken the seven-sealed scroll and now begins to peel away each seal—and with each one there is a terrible judgment that breaks out on the world.  For seven brief years, which will seem like an eternity to those left behind, the wrath of the Lamb will be outpoured.

Under the first seal is the Antichrist (6:1-2).  With the church gone, the spirit of Antichrist which has been at work in the world across the centuries has nothing to restrain it and that demonic spirit is incarnated in a person—one who presents himself as the Messiah—and the world will swoon and welcome this, “Savior.”  He is himself a judgment of God.  To a people who did not want the kind of Messiah Jesus was, they will be given the kind they want.  Following the Beast—as he will be disclosed to be—will not lead them to paradise but perdition.

The second seal is opened and beneath it is war (6:3-4).  Global conflict marks the end of the age.  There have been two world wars, each so dreadful.  With the kinds of weapons available now, how destructive will the next one be?

The third seal is opened by the Lamb and beneath it is economic collapse (6:5-6).  All this will be part of what leads to the establishment of a one-world economy with the Antichrist demanding people take the mark of the Beast to buy and sell. 

Next, come the fourth seal’s opening (6:7-8) and there will be food shortages and famine.  Pandemics will plague the planet’s populace.  Even the animals will become wilder, ravenous and mad in searching for flesh to sustain them during this time when famine stalks the world.

Then, we have the fifth seal that the Lamb opens, and this is the martyr seal (6:9-11).  God always has a remnant of believers—and He will have some willing to follow the Lamb unto death—even in the tribulation period.  There will be a harvest of souls from among the Gentiles as described in chapter seven.  With the church gone and her missionaries removed from the field, God will mark out 144,000 Messianic Jews who will have His special protection as they proclaim the Word of God to every tribe and tongue.  Jesus said the Gospel must be proclaimed to every people group before His return to earth.  While we ought to be working toward that now, and are making significant progress, the Great Commission will be fulfilled by these Jewish converts who are not only of the race of Abraham, but the faith of Abraham as well.

Is this then, a second chance for those left behind?  While I won’t be dogmatic about it, I do not think that those who can so readily and easily follow Christ in America today, yet choose to spurn Him, would suddenly be willing to become martyrs for Him.  Besides this, I understand Scripture to say that if we willfully shut our eyes to truth, God will at some point judicially blind us to it (read 2 Thess.2:9-12).  This blood-washed throng that is saved out of great tribulation, I believe, are those who have never heard the Gospel.

The sixth seal is one of cosmic cataclysm—the very forces of nature in upheaval to vomit out the inhabitants of the earth that have polluted the planet with their depraved acts.  The wrath of the Lamb intensifies throughout these seven years.

After John describes the remnant of believing Jews and converted Gentiles in chapter seven, we are brought back to the opening of the seals, and the seventh seal is peeled back by the Lamb (8:1-6).  There is a holy hush in heaven—an interlude that allows the events that have occurred to sink in and prepares us for the worst that is to come to those left behind.  For underneath the seventh seal are seven trumpet judgments.  With each one, an angel will blow a trumpet announce another dimension of destruction on those yet defiant against Christ.  After the first four of these, the final three are especially horrific and are called the three, “woes.”  Just as we think that the judgments could not be any worse, they are disclosed as being so.  Demonic forces are unleashed from the pit and earth becomes a living hell.  The sounding of the seventh judgment will announce seven more judgments, as with Revelation 15, seven angels will pour out seven final plagues—bowls of wrath emptied upon the earth.

One would assume that after the sixth seal, sinners would cry out for salvation, confessing their sin and seek the Lord.  They do not!  Some of the most shocking words in a book that is filled with startling scenes are now recorded,

“The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which are not able to see, hear, or walk.  And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.” (9:20-21)

Hearts are so hard that they are filled with hate toward God and will not repent.  Minds are so warped by sin that they choose to worship demons rather than worship God.  Their natural bent toward sin is so fixed that in the face of judgment, they flaunt their evil ways and pursue them with renewed vigor.  You think the world is full of violence now, with its savagery displayed on cable news?  This is but a harbinger of worse that is to come when the church’s light is withdrawn and her salty witness no longer arrests the spread of corruption.  This will be the environment of sheer evil those who are left behind will experience.

No wonder, as John is told to consume the Word of God, he finds the sweetness of Its message of salvation in his mouth becoming bitter to his stomach as he digests the message of condemnation to those who reject the Gospel.  Old John has tasted the honey of God’s truth, but then can find no joy in proclaiming a message of judgment.  He will share the prophecy because he has been commanded to do so, not because he finds any pleasure in it.

As much as I delighted in our last devotional, sharing about the Lamb of God who is adored in heaven by the saints, I now dread to describe the wrath of the Lamb for those who are left behind.  It is a bitter truth.  We should never speak of judgment without a tear in our eye for those who embrace it in their folly.  I think of Peter’s words, “The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.” (2 Pet.3:9)

There is still time.  You are not yet left behind.