In Case of The Rapture

By Paul Kasch

"Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." Luke 21:36 (NKJV)
 
It's going to be eerie here on earth when millions of Christ-loving believers are suddenly gone. And they aren't the only ones who will be missing. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit as the helper for the church will also be removed, lifting the restraint which keeps that man of perdition from arising to take power. With his deceptive help, everyone who is left will soon get over the eeriness. In fact, there will likely be some good times in store – for a short while, anyway. They will be followed by the worst times to ever occur, which most of the remaining population will not survive.
 
Whether you are a believer hoping in the rapture, a skeptic, someone who is scared by today's headlines, or are merely interested in understanding the scriptures supporting the doctrine, Paul Kasch's latest book will take you on a wild and eye-opening ride through the end of the world. You will soon have a firm grasp on why Christians who look forward to the rapture believe what we believe. You will also be given the set schedule – along with sound Bible exposition – for all the looming end-times events. Perhaps most importantly, you will be shown the path of escape.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andy Kasch
• Release date: Jan 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224692453

Book preview

Preface

If you aren’t feeling the effects of heightened spiritual warfare these days, you aren’t doing Christianity right.  I can say that with a high degree of confidence.

I am also convinced that this book is the result of one such attack. To be certain, it was a verified attack here on the physical plain – but I feel strongly that it originated in the spiritual realm. I have run a blog since 2011 with the same title as this book. That blog recently vanished. I was informed that it had been hacked, regardless of the security measures in place. The hacker was very thorough. He or she made sure all the content was completely destroyed, the web page URLs redirected somewhere evil, and that the blog was irrecoverable.

A backup cache of all the content was still accessible on the web server, though no longer in displayable format. I decided to sift through it all, select the most relevant articles, update them, give the material a fresh edit, and use it as the basis for a book. What the heck. Maybe this was all meant to be, for some reason only God knows.

Something peculiar happens when the term spiritual warfare is brought up. Some believers enthusiastically agree, while others roll their eyes. Those who are doing Christianity right are not the ones rolling their eyes.

During a recent radio interview, a well-known Christian speaker put it like this: I don’t think Satan minds you going to church. I don’t even think he really minds you reading your Bible. But start bearing fruit, and you are going to run into Satan’s buzz-saw.

Many of us can testify to that truth. A natural question then, which a Sunday Christian might pose, is, So why bother bearing fruit? After all, I have received Christ as Savior, so I’m going to heaven. Why would I do anything beyond just going to church if it’s going to result in demons causing problems for me?

Jesus gave the answer: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

That verse can certainly be convicting at times. Conviction, friends, is a good thing. It means one’s heart is not hardened beyond repair.

CS Lewis would agree. One of his best-known writings is The Screwtape Letters, which was made into a popular play some years back. The premise of this uniquely-presented story is that a demon is assigned to every person. I have become a believer in this notion. I am convinced at least one lives at my house, and is quite active. Therefore I am tremendously thankful that the Bible shows how demons can do nothing to believers without first obtaining permission from God. I further thank God that most of what they get permission to do falls under the category of small stuff. But man – some days all the small stuff can really add up and take a toll. Perhaps one day we will come to understand the reasons for it all.

Am I reading too much into things? I mean, we all have good days and bad days, right? Not according to some nonbelieving friends of ours. On a recent phone call with my wife the woman was surprised to hear about good days and bad days and replied in a tone of shock, You have bad days? She went on to assure my wife that she never has a bad day, being retired. Of course not. The demons in their house have an easy gig, and probably spend most of their time playing cards.

This is not a book about spiritual warfare. I am only telling you how it came to be. But to those who roll their eyes and brush the subject off as superstition, might I suggest that you could possibly be making things too easy for the demons assigned to your address.

Introduction

The subject of the rapture may well be the single most divisive Christian doctrine. It’s right up there with predestination and eternal security. My last book, Two Dimensional Thinking, was about reconciling divisive doctrines by removing ourselves from the constraints of linear time and attempting to look at things from God’s perspective. And now here I am getting right back on the controversy horse.

I have no choice. As I began to explain in the Preface, the timing is demanding it. And I’m guessing most readers are here because of timing as well. To put it plainly: you’ve been watching the news, haven’t you?

Recent polls reveal that more Christians than ever before believe the rapture is near. The headlines can definitely have that effect. The hope of the rapture is one of our most blessed hopes. Living in scary times tends to make us focus more on blessed hopes.

I want to state right now that I do not hold the rapture to be an essential doctrine. It is interesting, to say the least, and an extremely wonderful revelation taught in scripture. But not essential. The only essential doctrine is salvation, which is obtained by accepting something so simple a child can grasp: Jesus, the Son of God, died for our sins so that we can go to heaven by simply asking for the forgiveness he paid for on the cross. You do have to sincerely ask for it. If you can sincerely ask for it, you are acknowledging that you are a sinner who needs forgiveness, and you are recognizing Jesus’s authority as the Son of God to forgive you. While a child can grasp it, somehow it evades many a theologian.

Will those who do not believe in the rapture go up in it? This does not depend on whether one believes in the doctrine. Let me ask you this: If a trumpet sounded across the sky right this moment, and the sky opened to reveal Jesus calling all his faithful believers, what would your initial gut reaction be? If fear or shame, you’ve been letting your household demons play cards too long. If joy and enthusiasm, if you would run up to the clouds as fast as you can, passing other believers the way John passed Peter on the way to the empty tomb, you have your priorities right. If there is some weight holding you back, something (or someone) you are concerned about here in this world which you hesitate to leave, perhaps your priorities will be honored and you will be left behind to become one of the tribulation saints. You will live to regret such wavering, though.

The purpose of this book is not to convince the reader of the doctrine of a pre-tribulation rapture. I would rather it spark something in your heart to bring you closer to our Lord. I would rather it bring you a stronger sense of hope and increased trust in God.

That said, I don’t see how an honest reader could finish digesting this text and continue to doubt the rapture while claiming to be a Bible believer. This is, of course, because the Bible reveals a pre-tribulation rapture. I imagine the typical critic already knows the 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians passages in which Paul directly teaches of the rapture, and has determined a way in his mind to maintain that these passages do not mean what they say. Those who read the Bible with a firmly entrenched doctrine in place tend to bend, twist, and even rewrite passages to support that doctrine, rather than humbly open themselves to God’s teaching.

By far, the most common objection I hear to the concept of a pre-tribulation rapture is that of avoiding suffering. Jesus assured all his followers that we will have trouble in this world, suffer persecution, and that we must pick up our cross and follow him. The idea of a pre-tribulation rapture, then, sounds like a copout; a vain hope of skipping out on hard times which the Lord directly told us we must be willing to go through. I must admit it is a noble and admirable attitude. But there is a concrete difference between escaping the great tribulation, which only happens to a specific generation, and the general persecution and trouble promised to all Christians of all generations. Jesus even told us to pray at all times to be counted worthy to escape the coming tribulation. Why would he command that if it were useless? Moreover, if you are a Christian who is not currently experiencing any trouble as the result of your faith, perhaps you are letting your household demons play cards too much.

In the following pages you will hopefully come to see that the rapture is not solely derived from the aforementioned two short references in Paul’s epistles. It is, in reality, all over scripture, illustrated in various examples, typology, unveilings, and yes, additional direct teachings as well. It starts early in Genesis. Enoch was raptured prior to the flood, who becomes a type of the church. Noah, being kept safe through the flood, becomes a type of the protected remnant of Israel during the tribulation. Only a few pages later we encounter the rapture again with Lot being raptured from Sodom because, as Abraham put it, "God will not judge the righteous with