Why the Rapture Contrasts the Character of God
Christians believe that anyone at any point in time, can turn towards God and find personal salvation. Would God be just if all of history ended with some of His children never having the chance to receive the Gospel or other teachings from the Word of God?
And even if someone does “receive the Gospel” what if their version of Christianity was tainted and corrupt to the point that it leads towards to hell rather than heaven?
“God can save all people, and the process of salvation is something that each person has to experience for themselves. It is because that we have sinned, that we know there’s a better path. It is because we have fallen that we know how to stand properly and to stand up for what matters. It’s about the comeback story that we see time and time again in the Bible and about how we can use the experiences of the often flawed, Biblical heroes that show us how failure and rejection could just be the set up necessary for a more glorious and grand plot.
If all of history stopped in an instant, people would be deprived of their chance to experience that process of spiritual growth that necessarily takes place in the context of a life on Earth.
God is fully capable of wiping away the evils of this world at any given time. But that would deprive His Children of the faith that endures trials, the courage that overcomes their fears, and the love that heals the broken.
If the world suddenly ended, how would you ever know the better that only comes when you persist and the more that comes to you when you learn to master sin?
This process of redeeming this world will take many acts of self-sacrifice, many difficult conversations over an extended period of time with no guarantee that it will be bloodless. However, before we start the journey of repairing this world, redeeming the world begins with your personal redemption from God. How would you save, when you yourself have not been saved. And how would you be able to bring peace, if you do not have inner peace. Finding peace and salvation in yourself through God is the very first step for you to contribute to the redemption of this world.”
No, our problems will not go away in a single instance. No, there is not guarantee that our faith in God is steadfast or permanent. Every moment is a choice in faith.
Eternal hell and eternal heaven are abstract concepts that we do not and cannot really understand as humans. What we can deduce is that whatever our conceptions of hell and heaven is, it is probably a simplified abstraction that misses out on a lot of nuance, especially if the only source for knowledge of the afterlife is the Bible and reference to one religion if one is not drawing on the Spirit for the nature of God’s revelation.
We are the ones that will have to come up with real solutions to our very real problems. And the only way we get to a real better, is with God.
Christians, Jesus will not return as an overcharged, overpowered, dictator who gets his way on absolutely everything. Jesus is not a self-righteous narcissist who passes judgment and destroys those who disagree with him. You should be grateful for that. If the fruits of the Holy Spirit completely contrast to the Jesus of the Rapture, perhaps the Jesus of the Rapture is a made-up conception that serves to misguide and deceive.
