The concept of the rapture is an interesting one. It is Biblically based, but the popularised concept in the “Left Behind” series, isn’t really Biblically correct at all. If anything, it’s backwards.

I’ve been studying this a bit, and the key things to the rapture concept seem to me to be, the saved will be taken with no warning and the sinners left behind on earth.

That doesn’t seem to line up with what the Bible says though.

To start with, the Bible doesn’t indicate that there will be no warning. Only that no one knows the time.

Have a look at Matthew 24:42-44

⁴²“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

Also Luke 12:39-40

³⁹But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

2 Peter 3:10

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Revelation 3:3

³Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Note that the references to coming like a thief are always the reference to time, no more. Lets look at how the Bible shows the second coming of Christ.

1 Thessalonians 4:16

¹⁶For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Luke 17:24

²⁴For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.

Matthew 24:30-31

³⁰ Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Revelation 1:7

⁷ Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

Got all those? Ok, lets also look at Acts 1:7-11, when Christ ascended to heaven.

⁷ And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. ⁸ But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

⁹ Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. ¹⁰ And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, ¹¹ who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

So, from all of these verses, its pretty clear that when Christ returns, it will be very visual, very audible, and impossible to miss. Acts 1:11 in particular should be noted, that the SAME Jesus that left the earth will return in like manner. He didn’t just vanish, he was taken up through the clouds out of their sight as they watched. In Revelation 1:7, even those that pierced him, those that aren’t saved will see him. That doesn’t line up at all with people just vanishing.

I haven’t really said anything about the rapture concept itself yet Biblically though, so lets look at that.

Matthew 24:36-41

³⁶ “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. ³⁷ But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ³⁸ For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ⁴⁰ Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

Also see Luke 17:26-28

²⁶“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. ²⁷People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

Luke 17:34-36

³⁴I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. ³⁵Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”
³⁶Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.

Okay, it sounds like there could be maybe something to it? Note the references to Noah and the days of Noah, also to Lot. Lets look at Noah and the flood shall we? Genesis 7:21-23

²¹ Every living thing that moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. ²² Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. ²³ Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

Particularly note the last part, only Noah was left. Does that sound like the language used in the other verses above? Similar, when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, as Lot and his family fled, it was only Lot and his daughters who were left. Note that in none of these verses does it say left behind, as though it is a bad thing, they simply say some people were left. In Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus told the parable of the weeds which explains it exactly.

²⁴Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

²⁸” ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

²⁹” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.

³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.‘ “

We don’t need to try and explain this parable, in Matthew 13:36-43, Jesus explains it to the disciples and it is recorded for us.

³⁶Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

⁴⁰“As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴²They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

So, when Christ returns, it’s not the saved that will be taken. Like the weeds, the evil will be gathered up and destroyed, leaving behind those that are saved. With the knowledge of this parable and it’s explanation, it is pretty clear that in the above verses about some people being taken and some left, that it isn’t the righteous being taken, but rather, like during the flood, it is the evil that are taken and destroyed, and the righteous that remain, or that are left, like Noah and his family. I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer to be left!

Just came across this video on The Renegade Writer, and had to share it with you!

On a side note, the vast majority of clients (my clients anyway), aren’t like this, but the sad truth is that there are still so many clients that are!

Recently I’ve been listening to a series of prophecy seminars presented by Pr David Asscherick. They’re quite interesting studies, I just thought I would share a few verses with you though that he pointed out which compare the characters of Christ and Satan, so clearly.

Have a look at Isaiah 14:12-14:

¹²How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

¹³For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

In verse 12, it is established that it is referring to Lucifer, Satan. Then starting in verse 13 and through to verse 14, Isaiah talks about his character, the thoughts of his heart, it’s all about “I” and self exaltation.

Each of these things, all 5, are about going up, pushing himself further up etc:

1. I will ascend into heaven
2. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God
3. I will sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north
4. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds
5. I will be like the most High.

The thoughts in his heart are entirely of ascending above everyone, even direction wise he refers to the North which, looking from outside the earth (or on a map), North is up, South is down, East and West are right and left. Satan wants to be above everyone and everything else, he wants to sit on the mount, on a high place, in the North, above the stars and clouds, and be like the most High, like God.

Now, as a comparison, let’s look at Philippians 2:5-8:

⁵Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

⁷But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

⁸And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Here, Paul is saying we should behave like Christ (verse 5), and he goes on to describe Christ from verse 6 through to verse 8. This is quite the opposite of Satan, where Satan is constantly reaching up and trying to push himself higher, Christ was going down, humbling himself, bringing himself down to our level and serving mankind.

1. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God
2. But made himself of no reputation
3. And took upon him the form of a servant
4. And was made in the likeness of men
5. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Point one (verse 6), means that equality with God is not something that needed to be grasped, after all, as it says to start off with, Christ is in the form of God, and as we should be aiming to reflect Christ, we shouldn’t be reaching for God-like status either.

Christ made himself as nothing, as a servant made like men, bringing himself down lower and lower, he humbled himself and became completely obedient, even to death on the cross.

That is the complete opposite of how Isaiah described Satan. Satan constantly pushing himself up, where Christ was constantly bringing himself down.

The next part is even more interesting!

Jump back to Isaiah 14 and look at verse 15:

¹⁵Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Lucifer is pushing himself up, but in the end, all his self exaltation will only result in him being brought down to hell. I’m using the King James Version here, but in my NIV Bible, instead of hell, it says that he is brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit. So for all his attempts, all he will gain is death.

Jump back to Philippians 2, reading on through verses 9 to 11:

⁹Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

¹⁰That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

¹¹And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So unlike Satan, as he humbled himself and brought himself down, Christ was exalted by God. In the NIV, it says exalted to the highest place. He received a name that is above all others, every knee will bow before him, both in heaven and earth, and every tongue will know and confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord.

The comparison is so simple and clear. The difference in character makes such a huge difference in the end.

I noticed an article on IT News Australia this morning about talk of the “Australia Card” identification card/system coming up again.

This got me to thinking a bit today, and also trends I’ve noticed previously and things that people have pointed out to me and that sort of thing. Who really is watching?

Think about it? How much information is there that gets recorded about you and what you do on a daily basis?

I live in Brisbane, Australia, where Translink and the Queensland Government have introduced what is called the “Go Card” system for public transport users. This is a smart card that you swipe whenever you enter and exit a train station, get on or off the bus, the ferries or city cats. It uses a credit system, where you pre-purchase credit which is applied to your card. You can do this at participating retailers or online.

Now, in order to know what to charge you, the system records where you get on and where you get off and charges you accordingly. This doesn’t just go away though after you get off. If you use the online payment system, you will notice in your account that you can view your history as far back as 60 days.

If you can see this, it is guaranteed that there is a possibility it could end up being visible to people you don’t want to see it.

The public transport system still allows you to pay anonymously with cash, but they are strongly pushing the Go Cards.

A system in QLD that is at the end of June moving completely away from an anonymous system is the toll road payment system. E toll has been around for quite a while now, but it has always been optional and you could pay anonymously with cash as you went through the toll plazas.

From July this year though, the plazas in Brisbane are being removed after the new “Free Flow” system is enabled.

This system knows who you are, you cannot use it anonymously. You have two options, either an account with an E toll tag, or a video matched account based on your vehicle registration plates. There are multiple payment options but I won’t go into that.

Again, if you use E toll and have used the online system to manage your account, you know that your history is accessible there. As above, there is a record of where you are, granted it doesn’t say where you are going, but you are there, or at least your car is.

My university ID is a smart card as well. I don’t know whether or not your room access history is recorded or not, but I expect it would be.

Those are just a few things though around Brisbane. Consider other things, credit and debit cards, they all have a history. Look at your statement sometime, if you are like me, you can probably trace a huge number of the places you were in a month from your statements.

GPS devices, mobile phones, all can be used to locate you, not necessarily accurately but they can give an approximation, and they are improving.

Consider these things, and consider that there are people exempt from the privacy laws that are allowed to access these sorts of things. Consider that there are companies like Acxiom that collect enormous amounts of this sort of data and sell it on to anyone willing to buy it, be it a private company, the government, or anyone else. Consider that all these sorts of things, even your phone call records, your SMS records, your internet usage are all being recorded somewhere, and think about it, chances are that the vast majority of things you do are recorded by people you don’t know.

Surveillance cameras are another one, especially in larger centres and commercial locations, there are thousands upon thousands of camera’s just in Brisbane alone. Most of these will belong to small store owners that record a 2 weeks or so worth of footage and record over it again without it ever leaving the store. Others though, will keep this video for notably longer and it could go via multiple people, or companies. In Brisbane city, the Goodwill pedestrian/bike bridge has a surveillance camera every 10-20 metres along the length of it. Granted this is necessary to try and prevent and to follow up on vandalism. However, there seems to be a bit of a push on improving facial recognition software at the moment as well.

Think about it. If a system existed that could take data from all these sorts of places, and recognise you in video from the thousands of streams in say just one city, then whoever has access to this sort of system could know your location and where you have been. They could determine patterns in your routine, and literally figure out everything you do.

Things like this may start out as marketing exercises, determining where your customers come from and what appeals to them. Thinking about it that way it seems harmless. I don’t know about you, but I regularly look at my website statistics, I can see what pages people have come from, what they have looked at, what search term they used, how long they were on the page for, what browser they were using, what operating system they were using and their IP address. I find these things quite interesting to look at and analyse so I know what things I need to be targetting.

What happens though when it goes beyond a marketing exercise? Have a look through the Acxiom website, especially the Products and Services > Government Solutions section. There are some services and tools in there provided to governments that have potential to utilise the above in a rather scarily big brother kind of way. Did you see under “Investigation and Identity Solutions”?

“Comprehensive and up-to-date data resources that allow investigators to search for current and historic information on people, property and connections.”

It doesn’t sound so bad when you read more, but at the same time, there is serious potential for this sort of data aggregation to be misused.

Maybe I sound a little paranoid, but considering how freely many of us now tell the world what we are doing, thinking, eating, saying, watching, reading, where we are going and more on the internet using tools like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Brightkite, Delicious, Digg, Reddit, personal blogs and many, many others, there really is a huge amount of data out there on everyone. Granted, things like Free Flowing E toll, Go cards and other smart cards as well as credit and debit cards make life much easier (not to mention the ease of mobile phones for communications almost anywhere), I’m not denying that at all, I use all of the above! It’s just a scary thing to consider that there is so much data about you that you probably don’t even know people have.

What do you think?

I came across these videos of Matthew Gamble’s sermons at the 2008 Brisbane Big Camp, they are well worth watching, I suggest in order. I’ve put them into play lists for each sermon to make it a bit easier.

Enjoy!

Friday Night

Saturday Morning

Sunday Night

Monday Night