The Rapture

I have been thinking a lot in recent months about The Rapture. Many years ago there was a man who wrote a lot of books about end times prophecies; his name was Arthur Bloomfield. You can read a quick biography of him here. My Mom and I have been talking about end times and when we do Mom often refers to something out of one of Mr. Bloomfield's books because we trust his teaching. Mom has been re-reading the books lately and she recommended I pull out my copy of Mr. Bloomfield's book Signs of His Coming and read about it for myself. I did and I was really excited by something which I will attempt to share here.

Over the past 6 months I have experienced and read about disillusionment with the church. Christians are not happy with the church and so are leaving or contemplating leaving. There are books about it, people are blogging about it and talking about it. I have wondered where it would lead - this exodus of people from church bodies. And in what seemed to be unrelated thoughts I have wondered how Christians could be deceived in the end times. Here is the answer, all wrapped up and tied with a bow for me! I will quote Mr. Bloomfield:

"He (Jesus) had to warn Christians who would take heed not to be deceived by
the many new teachers that would come preaching the truths that were designed
for the church. The churches are not ready for what is coming on the world. They know a little area of truth which they repeat over and over again. There is a little circle of knowledge containing a few basic truths and a few Bible stories which are monotonously repeated year after year to the exclusion of all the rest of the Bible. It is the part of the Bible that has been left out of our thinking that is important today.

Possibly one-third of the Bible is prophecy. This is a large amount to leave out of our consideration, but when this part becomes vital because of world conditions, its omission creates a vacuum and false teachers rush in."

"The strength of false religions is the failure of the church to teach the whole Bible. Church people are not ready for the events of the end of this age. Yet when these events come suddenly upon us, we will not have time to instruct our own people. False teachers will have a field day and will deceive many."

What I see is that many Christians have left/are leaving/will leave the church. As the world gets crazier and crazier everyone will look for answers to the many problems they are faced with. I can see new churches cropping up - churches that will assuage all of the complaints Christians have with the current churches. The new churches probably will seem wonderful AND they preach about end times - explaining what is going on and lulling us into a false sense of security. I again quote Mr. Bloomfield:

"Preaching the second coming of Christ will be very common because of the things that are happening. A great number of sensational prophecies will be fulfilled. But the end is not yet.

Then the world will settle back into its former indifference and even skepticism with the taunt, "Where is the promise of His coming?" He did not come when they all thought He would, when everybody was thinking about it. Now it seems that all things are continuing as they always have, and the greater part of the church will dismiss the subject from its mind and teaching, and set about its supposed task of making the world a better place in which to live. It is when they think not, that the Son of man cometh."

Hebrews 10:25 says "not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Stay in the church Christians! It is not perfect, but if you leave you will set yourself up to believe the lies that will come. Be a light within the church! And study the scriptures so that you will be able to distinguish truth from lie. I believe the time of the Rapture is close - be ready!

In Christ's Love,
Laura