A fake news Story...

Sp the Bible makes no mention of a secret snatching up of believers. It was Margaret McDonald in Scotland who dreamt it up in 1830. Her dream then ended up in America thanks to J.N. Derby, who led a lawyer called Schofield to the Lord. Schofield created what he called ‘Schofield’s Bible’, (not very humble!), which used Derby’s teaching in the notes telling readers what to believe. Then Hal Lindsey picked that up and used it to write his novel ‘The late Great Planet Earth’, which made him a lot of money. As an old man, Hal Lindsey later said it was just a novel. Meantime, the so-called ‘Left Behind’ books came out, eventually resulting in a movie. (They don’t let the truth get in the way of making money.) If you keep repeating urban myths long enough, somebody will think they are factual, in the same way that propaganda works, but in this instance, they originated from Margaret McDonald’s dream, which some elders very inappropriately let her share in church.

I have heard some who have a back up argument, by quoting the verse which talks about two workers in a field where one is snatched away… have you heard that verse misused in that way? Listen, that is just another reference of what is said in v. 17, where the disciples who are still alive on earth will meet the Lord in the air, at His Second Coming. What I found in a Christian radio station was that professionally made novels from America were used for broadcasting as they were free and filled up airtime. That convenience was repeated worldwide in Christian radio stations, without regard to the truth. The problem was that because people heard the novel on a Christian radio station, and they took it as being factual. It can be compared to the listeners who believed an Orson Wells radio drama, of the HG Wells novel called “The War of the worlds”, broadcast on Oct. 30 1938. Many believed that the drama was real and panicked, resulting in many Americans evacuating cities! 

Epilogue

A Christian radio station I once worked in had show hosts whose egos got in the way of listening to others, so when an important point challenged them, the truth wasn’t as important as winning an argument. That resulted in half a verse being quoted out of context. (But if you do that, you can change anything - like the verse that says ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God’, to ‘...there is no God…’, so that Scripture is disrespected.)

So the 1 Thess. 4:17 mention of a ‘rapture’ is about a very noisy event to bring disciples who are still alive on the earth to meet Jesus, at His Second Coming. That mention of being ‘caught up’, (or ‘rapture’), is all about meeting the Lord in the air, as no earthly venue is big enough. Only accept the Bible as the final authority in all disagreements - not urban myths being shouted out by loud people who will not listen! Only false teachers change the meaning of the written word - in this case, the word ‘rapture’. Be like the Bereans who were actually commended for checking out what the Bible said, after Paul spoke, and found it to be true. Never mind movies and novels, check out the Bible itself. 

The blog is available on www.inspirational.org.nz, with the video and picture, and if you can’t wait for the next episode, you can always watch it on the ‘Trust’ website listed above, but in the meantime, I’m John Dunning and that’s “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.