Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! I want to extend my deepest apologies for not writing any messages in a long time! I personally have been in a time of where I was growing spiritually and had to be knocked down a little bit in order to do that. I'm hoping to get back into the habit and service of writing regularly again for you all!

Anyways, I want to address a very serious concern today. This is a very important matter which all of us will have to deal with, but please don't be worried or frightened and please read all of this! There is a few groups of “christians” going around claiming that the Rapture, the Second Coming of Christ, is going to happen on May 21st of this year. This is not true! And I want to address this issue with all of you so that you can follow Christ and not what others say and help each of your brothers and sisters out!

I want to point out a few of the things that these groups are saying and then show you with scripture why it is false. We don't have the time or space to talk about every little detail of their argument, so that's why we'll just point out a few things that are the larger issues.

The first thing his group says of course is that the Second Coming is going to happen on May 21st. Mark 13:32 says “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.” Verse 32 is just one verse that says that no one except Christ the Father knows when the rapture will happen. This group is going on to say that it is true to a point, but that there comes a time when all of a sudden the time frame will be revealed to those who believe their facts and interpretations of the Word. They call this group of people who understand and believe these the “true believers”.

They use the King James Version of Ecclesiastes 8:5 to show this. “Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.” They focus on the end of that verse for their reasoning. They claim that if you keep Christ's commands you'll be wise (which is true) and that because of your wisdom you will know both the time and judgment (which is not true in talking about the rapture). This verse is taken out of context from the whole passage, which I'm going to share with you. I'm also going to switch translations back to the New International Version in order to help us read it a little bit easier.

“5. Whoever obeys His command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. 6. For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery. 7. Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come?” -Ecclesiastes 8:5-7

This passage is saying that in any situation you're going through that whoever obeys and follows Christ will not be harmed, but will know when to act about the situation and what to do. For example, I lost my job a week ago and even though my heart may be weighed down by misery (as like verse 6 says), there will be a proper time and procedure of what I should do to follow Christ out of this situation. Like what the right job is for me to apply for and interview for and things like that. However, I don't know the future of my own work situation, but only God does. No one can come up to me and say that “on next Thursday you'll apply for a job that you'll get interviewed for on next...” and so on. That's also what verse 7 is saying. “Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come?” -Ecc. 8:7.

In the same way this goes back to the first verse from Mark I shared with you, in that only Christ the Father knows the future of the rapture and when it will happen and NO ONE else does, so therefore this group also can't know when it will happen.

One other main issue with this group that I would like to address is an accusation they are making about followers of Christ. Here's a quote of what they are saying: [All of the condemned people are “all of those in the world who on May 21, 2011 are still following any church. Because churches teach many things that are not true to the Bible, including a plan of salvation that is contrary to the Bible, and the Holy Spirit has abandoned all churches, those still following any church on May 21, 2011 are not saved.”

That's an incredibly false and offensive statement! Basically they're saying that if any of us are still following ANY church on May 21st, we are not saved. This is completely not true! In fact we are all followers of Christ, we all have a personal relationship with Christ, and we all walk with Christ. Therefore we are the Body of Christ, and the church is the Body. The church is not a building, or a group, or anything like that, the church is made up of the Body of Christ and in other words it's made up of us! So keep on following Christ with your heart and don't worry about a building or group or denomination.

1 Corinthians 12:27 says “All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.”

Romans 12:3 says “so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.”

So you can see from these two verses that we are all parts of one body, Christ's body, regardless of church or denomination. The group is making it sound like we are not a part of the Body of Christ and we are all separate when they say 'anyone who still follows any church'. But we know that's not true.

There's also the largest part of that statement they made which says “the Holy Spirit has abandoned all churches, those still following any church on May 21, 2011 are not saved.”

Let's address the two things in this statement, one: “the Holy Spirit has abandoned all churches”, and two: “those still following any church on May 21, 2011 are not saved.” Of course both of those are false and wrong and they might make you question your salvation. But let's look at a couple verses quick to help put your heart at ease.

Matthew 18:20 says “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”

When we gather together, either in church or out of church, Christ is with us! Think about Sunday morning when you're at church singing worship songs and one of the songs speaks to your heart, or when the message speaks to your heart, that's God moving in your heart! And on Sunday mornings at church there are more than two followers of Christ gathered. If Christ has abandoned all churches, you would not be growing and felling Him stir in your heart through different things like prayer, worship, and the the message on Sundays. And we know that He meets with us when we are not at church too! That goes back to this verse.

As far as our salvation goes, here are two verses concerning that:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

John 5:24 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

Both of these say that when we believe that Jesus was sent to die for our sins and rise again will have eternal life! We are saved and we have our assurance of salvation in those two verses! Both verses say that we will not perish or be condemned to Hell, but we will have eternal life in Heaven with Christ Jesus! So for someone to say that we are not saved is not true because we are following and believing what Christ has done for us and for our sins!

So with all that said, and a rather lengthy message, I hope that you can know what's going on but be better able to stand firm against false teachings that arise. If you're scared, or worried, or anxious, or anything other than at peace about Christ's second coming then please turn to the best help you can get which is the Bible! It holds all the answers and let Christ show you what he has! He loves us all very deeply and wants us to all follow Him and not be worried when false teachings come up!

Please feel free to send me your prayer requests too! Have a wonderful week! Remember to seek out Christ daily!

With love in Christ,
Joe


by Joe Russell