Boiling Water

I have written on the topic of the Rapture several times in the past, but there is one aspect of this doctrine that seems to be affecting an increasing number of Christians these days, especially those who, like me, hold to a pre-tribulational view of its timing. A fairly trivial event sparked something in my spirit not long ago, and it finally compelled me to address this issue.

A few months ago I was reading a Christian blog that I visit occasionally, and the author had posted a short piece about something of prophetic significance that had occurred a few days prior. I don't remember what the event was, but I do recall that it wasn't something terribly earth shattering. Noteworthy, yes. Earth shattering, no. I mean, it wasn't as if the Israelis had just bulldozed the Dome of the Rock or something. It was just some prophetic trend that had advanced a step, and so it was just another in a seemingly endless torrent of events that serve to remind prophetically knowledgeable believers that we are indeed getting close to the Rapture. Frankly, however, it's getting to the point where such things happen on a weekly—if not daily—basis.

In the comment section below the article, several people chimed in with various remarks, and one woman enthusiastically gushed:

"Any day now!!!"

This woman was absolutely giddy because she was convinced that this was something that signaled that the Rapture would occur within a matter of days! Now, I've been studying Bible prophecy and following prophetic trends and events with keen interest for a number of years, and the simple fact that as I sit here now I can't remember for the life of me what the event in question was speaks volumes about its level of significance. And like I said, I realized as much at the time.

I had read a few of this woman's comments before, and she had always impressed me as an intelligent, mature, well-spoken woman who genuinely loved the Lord. So I was struck by her sudden effusion of wild, unbridled excitement and dizzy anticipation. This intelligent, mature, well-spoken woman who genuinely loved the Lord simply couldn't contain herself. She was suddenly so convinced that we were literally only days from the Rapture that she was swooning like a teenybopper at a Justin Bieber concert. This woman's brief, bubbly comment has been simmering in my spirit ever since, and I finally had to sit down and get this out of my system.

It always fascinates me to observe the widely varying attitudes toward the Rapture that exist within the Church today, which range from stone-cold denial to slap-happy delirium. What I'd like to do in this article is discuss three of these attitudes: (a) the "Hardcore Denial" view, (b) the contrasting "Any Day Now" view (as exemplified by our giddy commenter), and last but not least, (c) the view I believe Scripture actually teaches.

And finally, as a special treat, I'm going to discuss an exciting topic that I hope you will find as thrilling as I do: how to boil water!

Rapture? What Rapture?

The first thing I want to do is deal with the "Hardcore Denial" folks (the HDs), if for no other reason than to establish a baseline against which to contrast the other views. I tend to lump a couple of different groups in this category, since there are a couple of differing views which converge into a de facto denial of the doctrine of the Rapture.

The primary group among HDs, of course, are those who insist there is no Rapture. Period. No such thing. They see the Rapture as an utterly unbiblical deception—a delusional tale dreamed up by someone (and the usual suspects are either sinister sixteenth-century Jesuit priests or a ditzy 15-year-old Scottish girl named Margaret MacDonald in 1830). They shake their heads in amazement that any Christian could fall for such a loopy idea.

Many such people smugly cling to the myopic mantra...

"The word 'Rapture' isn't in the Bible!"

So there. And then they act as if that settled the issue. You know, I don't mean to sound hyperbolic or hypercritical (moi?), but this is easily the most moronic reason in existence for rejecting the doctrine of the Rapture—and I have a confession to make. The moment someone uses this as a way to "refute" the Rapture, I just smile and politely change the subject because I know I'm dealing with someone who can't tie their scriptural shoelaces.

There are a number of theological concepts most Christians accept without question in which the English term that has come to be commonly used to refer to the idea may not be in the Bible, but the teaching certainly is. There are veiled references to the Rapture in many places in the Old and New Testaments, and Paul comes right out and describes it with unanswerable clarity in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51–53.

The phrase "Millennial Kingdom" isn't in the Bible. Does that mean it's fiction? Nope. Scripture clearly teaches that Jesus will return to establish a literal, physical kingdom on earth that will last for one thousand years.

The word "Trinity" isn't in the Bible, which is the word used to convey the concept that God exists in the form of three distinct Persons (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit). Does that mean He doesn't? Listen, if you don't believe that the one true God exists in the form of three distinct Persons, you cannot believe Jesus is God. But if you don't believe Jesus is God, you will die in your sin because as far as you're concerned there was no one worthy to pay your sin's penalty on your behalf, and voilà: You're up a theological creek without a doctrinal paddle.

The word "atheist" isn't in the Bible. No comment necessary.

For heaven's sake, the word "Bible" isn't in the Bible!

As you can see, if you follow this "logic," suddenly God's Word is a lie, you're not "saved" (but not to worry because there's probably nothing to be "saved" from anyway), Christianity is an absurd joke, and you'd might as well check out that Buddhism thing. On the other hand, you could just chuck it all and do whatever feels good—and keep your fingers crossed.

Tua culpa: People who argue the word "Rapture" isn't in the Bible are wrong anyway. It is if you happen to be reading the Latin Vulgate Bible.

Hey, if you don't like the word "Rapture," fine. Then use the Greek word the apostle Paul used: harpazo. Or call it something else. But for crying out loud...whatever you do, if you're going to deny the doctrine of the Rapture, at least don't do it for such a glaringly stupid reason.

In addition to those who flat out deny the existence of the Rapture, I personally include among the ranks of the HDs those who subscribe to a post-tribulation view of the Rapture. I do this in spite of the fact that post-tribbers claim to believe in the Rapture, and the reason is simple: The end result is pretty much the same, which is no kind of Rapture at all.

Post-trib believers see the Rapture as a sort of glorified trampoline jump that occurs in conjunction with the Second Coming. We suffer through the entire seven-year Tribulation, bounce up in the air to be with the Lord (the "Rapture"), and then come right back down to earth with Him minutes (hours?) later at the Second Coming. Woohoo.

Sadly, however, it seems that no provision is made for a few minor details such as the bema seat judgment where Christians will receive rewards, the marriage supper of the Lamb, and the obvious need for some natural-bodied believers to enter the Millennial Kingdom (the "sheep" in the Sheep and Goat Judgment in Matt. 25:31–46), but that doesn't seem to trouble them.

The bottom line is that the post-trib doctrine reduces the Rapture to a non-event; an end-times triviality; a meaningless eschatological footnote that doesn't require a molecule of faith. It turns what Titus 2:13 calls our "blessed hope" into an abortive about-face, so those who believe and teach it richly deserve to be lumped in with the HDs. For all intents and purposes, they really are denying the Rapture.

HDs who believe the doctrine concerning Daniel's 70th Week have one thing in common: They are forced into believing the Church will be on earth and suffering through its entirety, and one of the premier ways in which they justify this is to quote the following verse:

There is one simple point to be made, however, that completely undermines this interpretation: Jesus said "tribulation" and not "the Tribulation." In other words, Jesus is clearly talking about general troubles and trials, and not Daniel's 70th Week—one very specific time of trouble. Definite articles (and in this case, the lack thereof) mean something in Greek, which is an extremely precise language. Why do you think God arranged for the New Testament to be written in it? To ignore such a distinction is to fail to give the text of God's Word the respect it richly deserves.

Not only that, but one could also argue that the HD interpretation of this verse falls flat due to the fact of who Jesus is addressing. Jesus is speaking directly to His 12 disciples, and His remarks here apply specifically to them. Many people routinely extend the meaning of this verse to apply to the entire Church throughout the entire Church Age, but that's not exactly what Jesus said. Don't believe me? Read the previous verse:

Jesus was speaking to the disciples at the Last Supper, and He was telling them the time had come for Him to die. Jesus said they would abandon Him and be scattered, which is precisely what happened a few hours later in the Garden of Gethsemane in fulfillment of prophecy (Zech. 13:7). Then, in verse 33, He tells them they will suffer "tribulation," or general trouble and trials, which they certainly did. Of the 12 disciples He was addressing, 10 would ultimately be martyred for the sake of the gospel.

If you think verse 33 applies to the Church today, re-read verse 32 and then ask yourself:

• Were you in the Garden of Gethsemane the night Jesus was arrested?
• Did you abandon Him by hightailing it out of there to save your own skin?

Me neither. My point is that these verses are not addressing the entire Church throughout the entire Church Age, much less saying the Church will go through Daniel's 70th Week, or the one and only capital "T" Tribulation.

Oh, and lest you think that lets us off the hook...there are plenty of other verses of Scripture that promise us we will be persecuted for living lives that are pleasing to God. For example:

It's just that John 16:33—the verse post-tribbers use to drag the Church through Daniel's 70th Week—doesn't happen to be one of them.

I honestly wish I could commend the HDs for something, but I'm drawing a blank here. What am I supposed to say? They either don't believe, don't understand, or deliberately twist the clear teaching of Scripture, and busy themselves finding tortuous ways to make the Bible say things it doesn't say and mean things it doesn't mean.

A word about imminence

You often hear people talk about how the Rapture is imminent, and so I want to take a little time to unpack this concept a bit further. In ordinary conversation, when we say something is imminent we mean it could happen at any time, usually with a sense that it's going to happen soon. Since some within the Church seem to have developed some misunderstandings of this word as it applies to the Rapture, this would be a good time to define this word in a more precise, biblical manner:

When we say that the Rapture is imminent, we mean that based on the progressive revelation knowledge of His Word that God has currently revealed to us, we cannot conclusively demonstrate from Scripture that any other specific biblical event must precede it.

I know that's a mouthful, but it's important to get this right. First off, note that this has nothing to do with the Rapture happening "soon." (God's definition of "soon" is not the same as ours anyway.) Notice also that it doesn't mean that nothing else can or will happen before the Rapture.

Before we go any further, let's make sure of our foundation. Does the Bible in fact teach that the Rapture is an imminent event?

Well, why don't we ask the guy who first revealed it to begin with? When the apostle Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians around AD 51, could he have legitimately been expecting the Rapture at any moment? In other words:

Does Scripture indicate that Paul believed the Rapture was imminent?

Absolutely! Don't believe me? Well, let's read what he wrote:

Paul said we, and just like every other word in the Bible, the Holy Spirit inspired the writer to use that word and not some other word (in this case, we and not those). He included himself in the group of believers "which are alive and remain" at the time of the Rapture, and so he fully expected to be part of it! The Author of Scripture wanted us to understand that there is nothing else that has to happen before the Rapture. Period. The Holy Spirit is telling us in a clear, straightforward manner that the Rapture is a signless event—and that even in AD 51, nothing else absolutely had to happen first.

Several other passages of Scripture teach imminence just as clearly, but this is my personal favorite. One reason I love this verse is because most pre-tribbers completely miss this, and only believe this verse establishes the fact of the Rapture without telling us anything about its timing.

But it does.

It's amazing how many pre-tribbers overlook the fact that 1 Thessalonians 4:17 actually screams "pre-trib" loud and clear.

Extra credit: For another somewhat subtle pre-trib "sneaker" that most people fly right by, read 1 Corinthians 1:7–8 carefully. (Spoiler alert: Paul didn't tell the Corinthians to wait for the revelation of the Antichrist.)

Obviously, many prophetically significant things have occurred since Paul's day, and the Rapture hasn't happened yet. But at no point during the last two millennia did the Church have the revelation knowledge of Scripture to state definitively that any of those events absolutely had to precede the Rapture before those events actually occurred. After they occur, of course, it's just hindsight. After certain historical events happen, we can see clearly that it made good biblical sense for those things to precede the Rapture.

For example, the reestablishment of the nation of Israel that is foretold in numerous places in the Old Testament. For nearly two millennia, the literal fulfillment of these prophecies seemed like an absurd fantasy, and so many biblical scholars searched for ways to allegorize them into something else—they felt they had little choice. But after these prophecies were precisely fulfilled on May 14, 1948, we can see in retrospect that it makes perfect sense for this to precede the Rapture, since the literal reestablishment of the Jewish nation represents the beginning of the prophesied restoration of Israel that will include the Tribulation, which is precisely what the Church has been promised to be raptured from in the first place. So, we can look back and see that the way God arranged events was perfect, as it invariably is. But we couldn't see all this clearly before 1948, and so it has no bearing on the doctrine of imminence.

Understand that over the centuries, God has progressively revealed to us what He wants us to know about His Word and His plan of redemption when He wants us to know it, and we can look back and see where God has gradually brought to prominence certain doctrines at times when they were most beneficial to the body of Christ.

For example, as apostate Rome reached the pinnacle of her power and control in the sixteenth century, God allowed the Protestant Reformers to recover and re-emphasize such basic doctrines as salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. They effectively exposed the depth of Roman Catholic heresy by shining the light of God's Word into the bowels of their useless, corrupt, man-made rituals. As a result, millions have been freed from slavery to the salvation-by-works juggernaut that is the Roman Catholic "Church" and brought to a saving faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, was salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone always in the Bible? Of course it was. It was right there in black and white the whole time. But the Church had almost completely lost sight of it because it had been buried under tons of heretical teaching by unregenerate men who lusted after worldly wealth and power, and God chose that period of time to allow this fundamental doctrine to be recovered and brought to light in a major way for the good of the body of Christ and for the advancement of His plan of redemption.

Another example is the doctrine of the Rapture itself. By the fourth century, the Church had spiritualized away much of the New Testament's prophecy-related teaching and spun it into allegorical fantasy. It wasn't until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the doctrine of the Rapture began to be recovered, and ultimately began to be popularized—most notably by John Nelson Darby starting around 1827.

Speaking of which...I tire of listening to post-tribbers claim that this proves the Rapture is a "new" and therefore spurious doctrine, when what it does prove is that God's timing is perfect. God knew the Rapture wouldn't happen for another two millennia after Paul introduced it, and He simply allowed the doctrine to be recovered and disseminated when the time was right.

Just curious: I only have one question for those who insist on believing the urban legend about how the doctrine of the Rapture (especially the pre-trib Rapture) was "invented" in the early nineteenth century and so is a spurious, recently concocted heresy that must be rejected. It was only the sixteenth century that the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone was recovered—one of the most fundamental teachings in the entire Bible. So, is that a spurious, recently concocted heresy that must be rejected as well?

Feel free to take your time with that one, post-tribbers. The point is that "Is it new?" is never the question. "Is it biblical?" is the only question. And in the case of the pre-trib Rapture, the answer is a thundering YES.

Catch-22

With a slightly clearer understanding of what imminence means in regard to the Rapture, it is worth taking a moment to discuss what this implies for the various views of its timing with respect to the Tribulation.

We only need to consider two fundamentally different views: the pre-tribulational view and any other view that places the Rapture anywhere within the seven-year time frame of the Tribulation (FYI: I am not aware of any group that believes in the doctrine of the Rapture that thinks it occurs after the Second Coming at the climax of the Tribulation; but even if there were, the same principle would apply.) I'm speaking primarily of the post-trib, mid-trib, and pre-wrath views. For the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to lump these together and call them "intra-trib" views because they all place the Rapture at some point within the Tribulation. And as we shall see, they all fall from the sky and hit the ground with an equally loud thud for precisely the same reason.

OK, let's think this through carefully. Let's say someone believes that the Rapture will occur before the Tribulation begins, or holds to the pre-trib view. That means they believe that other specific end-time events such as the implementation of the seven-year treaty that will launch the Tribulation, the abomination of desolation at its midpoint, the reign of the Antichrist, the Second Coming, etc. will all come after the Rapture. In other words, pre-tribbers see the Rapture as occurring before the curtain goes up on the main event, so to speak. As a result, it's the easiest, most natural thing in the world for a pre-tribber to believe that the Rapture is imminent, or that we can't prove from Scripture that anything else has to happen first.

Now, if this same person studies God's Word and finds strong, consistent, irrefutable support for the pre-trib Rapture in Scripture, what does that do? Does that cause a problem for his belief in imminence? No! In fact, it strengthens it. As he finds one Scripture after another that strongly implies a pre-trib Rapture, imminence remains intact and in turn supports his belief in a pre-trib Rapture. The pre-trib view and imminence go hand in glove.

Now, suppose someone holds to an intra-trib view of the Rapture. Obviously, such a person cannot legitimately believe the Rapture is imminent (or else doesn't have an accurate grasp of the concept of imminence), since in this case specific events must occur before the Rapture—at the very least, the implementation of the seven-year treaty that inaugurates the Tribulation, and possibly other things depending on the flavor of their intra-trib view.

But just because this individual doesn't believe the doctrine of imminence, does that mean the Rapture is not imminent? No! The imminence of the Rapture is taught with complete clarity in several places in Scripture—it's virtually impossible to wiggle around it without taking some heavy-duty pliers to Scripture. Such a person simply believes something that doesn't line up with the Word. It happens every day. People's errant views do no damage to the truth of the Bible.

But notice what would happen if our intrepid intra-tribber studied God's Word and was somehow able to come up with some strong, consistent, irrefutable support for his intra-trib view. In that case, the Bible would be contradicting itself. We would be confronted with a situation where the Bible clearly teaches the imminence of the Rapture on one hand, and then on the other teaches that some other specific end-time events must occur first.

But God's Word cannot contradict itself—and if you think it does, either you or God is confused about something.

Let's summarize:

1. God's Word cannot contradict itself.

2. God's Word clearly teaches that the Rapture is imminent.

3. If...«IF»...one could find strong, consistent, irrefutable support in God's Word for an intra-trib view of the Rapture, then it couldn't be imminent because we would have other specific events that would have to occur first.

4. Therefore God's Word would contradict itself.

Please tell me you've spotted the «WEAK LINK» in the chain here.

As you may recall, a catch-22 is a paradoxical situation in which someone is stymied by the existence of contradictory constraints of some type. For example, a young man with no experience can't get hired because all the jobs require experience, but he can't get any experience until he gets hired.

People who believe the Rapture will occur during or at the end of the Tribulation are confronted with a scriptural catch-22:

If they could prove from Scripture that any intra-trib view was right, it would immediately violate imminence, thus proving it was wrong.

Which leaves us with only one place to go: not one of the intra-trib views of the Rapture can be solidly supported from Scripture.

So tell me something else I didn't know.

Pack your bags!

In stark contrast to the "Hardcore Denial" folks is our second group, the "Any Day Now" gang (the ADNs). These are the folks for whom the Rapture is a borderline obsession, like the woman I mentioned at the beginning of the article. Every time a prophetic trend takes a step forward, they are the ones who will be shouting,

"Pack your bags! This is it!!"

ADNs invariably hold to a pre-tribulational view of the Rapture, and so for them, of course, the Rapture is always imminent. ADNs, however, tend to go a little gaga over the concept of imminence, and get locked in to the idea that "imminent" means "in a minute." They become so focused on the Rapture that it dominates their thinking, and they see signs portending its nearness under every rock and behind every tree.

On one hand, I commend these folks for their faithfulness in obeying Christ's command to long for His appearing. For that, they will be rewarded at the bema seat. I get sick and tired of people in the Church who glibly dismiss prophecy-related matters because they assume it's too complicated—or worse, that it's not important. I am reminded of the old one-liner that goes "I'm a pan-tribber—I believe it will all pan out in the end."

Never forget that a powerful prophetic current rages all the way through the Bible—from Genesis to Revelation—and so to have a cavalier attitude toward prophecy and its fulfillment is to have a cavalier attitude toward God's Word.

On the other hand, however, these people tend to go overboard. They allow themselves to get so focused on the Rapture and so caught up in how soon they think it will happen that they become distracted from other spiritual things they should be paying attention to. Their spiritual lives become unbalanced as other areas get neglected, and they don't grow and mature in their walk with the Lord as they should.

So...what kinds of things should they (and all believers) be doing on a regular basis? Here's a basic to-do list to get you started:

• Pray (1 Thess. 5:17).
• Read and study the Word (2 Tim. 2:15).
• Walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16).
• Don't let sin rule your life (Rom. 6:12–14).
• Long for His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8).
• Build up the faith of other believers (Rom. 15:2).
• Tell others about the life-changing power of the gospel (1 Pet. 3:15).

Notice that longing for the Lord's appearing, or eagerly looking forward to and anticipating the Rapture, is on the list. And I didn't just slap it on there as an afterthought—the verse I referenced (2 Tim. 4:8) says those who long for His appearing (as did Paul according to this verse, which again speaks to the imminence of the pre-trib Rapture every bit as much as 1 Thess. 4:17) will receive a special reward or "crown" for doing so. It rightfully belongs on every believer's spiritual to-do list.

But notice that there are other things on the list as well.

If I have one bone to pick with the ADNs, it is the fact that some of them wander precariously close to the red zone:

Date setting! (cue scary music...)

OK, so maybe they don't actually set dates per se, but they get so charged up over every prophetically noteworthy event that comes along that they start blathering about how the Rapture is s-o-o agonizingly close that they can taste it. Can't you?!

One problem is that less mature, less knowledgeable believers (or even fence-sitting unbelievers) read these comments and get all excited, and then nothing happens. At best, it makes the Church look like the Village Idiot Guild and evokes memories of Harold "The Bible Guarantees It!" Camping.

At worst, it brings reproach on the name that is above every name.

Watching and waiting

So, on one hand we have those who place the Rapture in the same category as alien abductions, and on the other hand we have those who jump three feet in the air every time they hear the word "apocalyptic" mentioned on the news. That brings us to the third group I want to discuss, and that group comprises believers whose attitude toward the Rapture is informed by what Scripture actually teaches.

So...what does Scripture teach?

Although we could profitably look at a couple of different passages of Scripture, I think we can get pretty much what we need from just one:

First of all, there can be little doubt that Paul is not only referring to the Rapture in the above passage, but to a pre-trib Rapture because notice that he didn't say that Jesus...

"...delivers us after we've suffered through the wrath to come."

He said that Jesus...

"...delivers us from the wrath to come."

It is important to understand that the Greek word ek that is translated "from" here means "out from" or "out from among." The word ek communicates a distinct separation or removal from something, and not merely preservation through, within, or in the midst of it.

Oh, and one other thing. Sooner or later, someone who becomes apoplectic at the mere mention of the pre-trib Rapture will come along and try to tell you that the "wrath" mentioned here is hell. It isn't. We don't need to wait for Jesus to come from heaven to deliver us from an eternity in hell—we were delivered from that the moment we changed our mind about our sin and our need for a Savior and trusted Christ for our salvation. Done deal.

Frankly, I don't see how any of this is unclear. It is obvious from the context of the entire epistle of 1 Thessalonians that the Rapture was certainly on Paul's mind when he wrote it, since a mere three chapters later he wrote what is arguably the most definitive Rapture passage in the entire Bible:

The key point I want to bring out, however, has to do with the word "wait." The Greek word translated as "wait" in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 is a form of the word anameno, which is formed from the preposition ana (which suggests the completion of a process which intensifies) and meno (wait, abide, remain). The meaning of anameno (which appears only in this one verse) could be more fully expressed as follows:

anameno — to earnestly and actively watch and wait with rising alertness and intensity and with a sense of patience, trust, and increasing clarity for someone or something that is known and anticipated.

This is the attitude Scripture tells believers to have toward the Rapture:

We are to watch and wait patiently, alertly, and actively, with complete trust and confidence that the Lord will come for us as He promised.

How to boil water

One of the key points that distinguishes this attitude from that of the ADNs is the idea of waiting actively. One of the defining characteristics of the ADN crowd is distraction: They allow themselves to get so caught up in the hype and excitement of seeing Bible prophecy fulfilled that they tend to get distracted from the spiritual things they should be doing. Instead of waiting actively, they're waiting with an obsessive attitude that leads to impatience, frustration, and disappointment. This in turn damages their walk with God, stunts their growth as believers, and typically ends up dishonoring the Lord.

Again, I understand and respect the fact that they're anxious for the Lord to catch us away to be with Him. So am I. And yeah, it actually could be any day now. Trust me, I get that. But when I encounter the overly obsessive ADN types, I often catch myself imagining what Jesus must be thinking:

"What part of 'wait' is confusing to you?"

When I consider the ways people think about the Rapture, especially the "Any Day Now" attitude, I am often reminded of the expression "A watched pot never boils." We've all done it. We want to make a cup of tea, and we're boiling a kettle of water...and we catch ourselves looking at the kettle and thinking it's going to boil a-n-y minute now...and so we wait...and wait...and the kettle creaks and groans and makes funny hissing noises...and we wait some more...but it just won't boil!! AARRGH!!

We're focused intently on the kettle, and now we're committed to waiting with increasing impatience until it boils. We just had to walk into the kitchen and check on the kettle, and now we've spent 30 seconds of our precious time waiting, and so to leave off now would be an admission of failure—an admission that it was stupid of us to stand there and wait to begin with.

And so without further ado, I am pleased to share with you what I believe to be the proper, biblically sound method of boiling water:

1. Fill the kettle with water.

Make that living water:

This is always step one: receiving the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, which we receive the moment we change our mind about the fact that our sin has separated us from a God who loves us, ask for His forgiveness, and believe that His Son paid our penalty in full through His death and gives us the gift of eternal life through His resurrection.

2. Place the kettle on the stove.

I love the old expression "Blossom where God plants you." You can't boil a kettle of water if you put it on the sofa or on top of the TV. You've got to put it where it's supposed to be: on the stove. Strive to find God's will for your life and then strive to remain in it. God knows what He's doing, and so you can trust Him—He's got you in the palm of His hand:

3. Turn on the burner (and leave it on).

The Holy Spirit is also characterized as fire, and we are commanded to be continuously filled with the Spirit, which we do by submitting to His gentle guidance on an ongoing basis. Of course, when we refuse to submit to the Spirit's convicting power and guidance and instead follow our flesh and persist in known sin, we quench that fire and interrupt our fellowship with God. And when we do, we're headed for trouble...not to mention a dose of our Father's discipline. So, keep the fire of His Spirit burning within you.

4. Go occupy yourself with useful, meaningful activities.

Do your job. Don't waste your time staring at the kettle—get busy. Review the to-do list I shared with you earlier. There's work to be done—we all have things we need to be doing in regard to our spiritual growth and our walk with the Lord. So chop chop.

5. Don't wander off and forget all about the kettle.

This is one of the saddest things I see happen to believers—they just give up on prophecy. They chuck everything dealing with end-time prophecy because they think it's too complicated, or maybe they just get tired of hearing people argue about it. Many, I'm sad to say, manage to fall under errant teaching that has them sold on a twisted, convoluted version of what the Bible teaches that robs them of their hope in God's promises. Don't obsess about the Rapture, but don't blow it off either.

6. When you hear the kettle begin to whistle, the water is boiling.

Done. Enjoy your tea. We're there.

Of course, the expression "A watched pot never boils" is not true—as we all know, a watched pot does boil. That pot or kettle doesn't know or care whether anyone is watching it. It makes no difference whatsoever whether you believe that water is going to boil or not, nor does it make any difference when you believe that water is going to boil—none of this depends on anyone's beliefs or opinions. It's going to boil and it's going to boil at a certain time because the laws of physics say so, and staring at the pot won't change a thing.

As a matter of fact, if you had an engineering background and you knew such things as the exact amount of water in the kettle, the water's initial temperature, the temperature of the fire, the ambient temperature, and details of the material and design of the kettle and the burner, you could predict with surprising accuracy the moment at which that water would boil.

It's much the same with the Rapture. It makes no difference whatsoever what anyone believes about this event or its timing: It's going to happen and it's going to happen at the ordained time because God's Word says so. It doesn't depend on anyone's beliefs or opinions.

And as with that kettle of water, if we "study to show ourselves approved" and rightly divide God's Word and are diligent in discerning the times and the progression of fulfilled prophecy, we can cultivate a general sense of how close we are getting to the Rapture. Not with engineering precision necessarily, but the same principle applies.

At the time determined by the laws of physics, that kettle's whistle will begin to blow as a signal, and no matter what we are doing at the time, we will know that the water is boiling and we can finally enjoy that nice hot cup of tea. And if we were occupied with some other useful or engaging activities, it will seem as if it took no time at all.

Similarly, at a time ordained by and known only to God, all those born-again believers who have gone on before and those...er, we who are alive and remain will hear a signal that it's time for us to finally meet the Lord in person and enjoy our heavenly home for the rest of eternity. And if we were occupied with cultivating a deeper relationship with God and a deeper understanding of His Word—and striving to live a life characterized by obedience to that Word, it will seem as if it took no time at all.

Only it won't be a whistle.

It will be a trumpet.

Greg Lauer — NOV '15

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 NOV '15 

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