The next major event on God’s prophetic calendar is the Rapture of church-age believers. 

The word “rapture” does not appear in the Bible, but it describes the catching away of the church-age saints at the end of the age. 

There are two major passages that describe the Rapture: 1 Thessalonians 4:13 -- 5:11 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-58.

The Greek word translated “caught up” in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 is used in Acts 8:39 of the Spirit of God snatching away Philip after the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. 

1 Thessalonians 4:13 -- 5:11

1. The Rapture is an event in which the dead in Christ will be raised (1 Th. 4:14-16) and the living New Testament saints will be changed and glorified (1 Th. 4:17).

2. The dead in Christ are presently with Him in heaven (1 Th. 4:14). The dead in Christ do not “sleep in the grave” as some false teachers claim.

3. The Rapture is the believer’s hope and comfort (1 Th. 4:13, 18). This is what we are waiting for. We are not looking for the antichrist and the Great Tribulation. If the Rapture did not occur until the end of the Great Tribulation, it could not produce hope and comfort for the Christian. 

4. The Rapture occurs before the Day of the Lord’s wrath (1 Th. 5:1-10).

a. The “Day of the Lord” is the time of Tribulation when God will judge the world for its sin and idolatry. In that “day,” God will be exalted and rebellious men will be humbled. See Isaiah 2:10-21. 

b. Note the change in pronouns in this passage. In verse 3 the pronoun “they” is used, because the Day of the Lord will come upon the unsaved world. But in verses 4-5 the pronoun “ye” is used, referring to believers. That day will not overtake us. 

c. The Rapture will occur as a thief in the night (1 Th. 5:2), but this is not how the Lord’s return in glory will occur. It will come with unmistakeable signs in the heavens and will be seen by all (Mat. 24:27-31). The Rapture pertains to the church, whereas Christ’s Second Coming pertains to Israel and the world.

d. The believer is to be watching for the Lord’s return at all times (1 Th. 5:6). We do not know when it will happen. It is imminent. 

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“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

Fuller went on to defend the Getty/Townend “contemporary hymn movement” as being (allegedly) different in character than the Contemporary Christian Music field. 

In this he is dead wrong. As we have documented in The Directory of Christian Worship Musicians, Stuart Townend is an out-and-out Christian rocker, a radical charismatic, and a rabid ecumenist who associates with Rome and promotes the Alpha program and is therefore building the one-world church. By their intimate and non-critical association with Townend, the Gettys have demonstrated that they are one in spirit. 

The people who are writing the “contemporary hymns” are not separated from the wider field of CCM. They are ALL holding hands. They are ALL the same rebellious spirit. NONE of them are friends of a fundamentalist position. ALL of them are avowed enemies of biblical separation. ALL of them have an ecumenical, charismatic mystical agenda. This is not mere opinion. We have studied these things “from the horse’s mouth” for nearly 40 years and have carefully documented our warnings. 

To not consider “the source” of the contemporary music is unscriptural foolishness. God’s Word forbids us to associate with end-time apostasy. We are to touch not the unclean thing. To be careful about associations is the very heart and soul of biblical separatism. 

“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).

The use of CCM is definitely a “slippery slope” toward compromise and error, and those who are playing with it are playing with fire. 

This warning has nothing to do with “politics.” I can’t speak for others, but I know that my motive in warning against the slippery slope of CCM is a passion for the truth that I found in Christ. 

There are issues that I did not raise in the Encyclopedia, though, and I have decided to publish my reply to a letter from a Bible college student in which he asked me five questions in relation to church matters. I have extended and edited the original reply so that it more thoroughly and clearly explains my position, as I have had more time to consider the issue and have come to what I believe to be a better understanding from Scripture.

Concerning my position on the church, I can say that I don’t exactly fit in anywhere. 

I have good friends that are Landmark Baptists; and though I appreciate their emphasis on the New Testament assembly and a pure church and many other things, I don’t go along with successionism and the definition of alien baptism or the idea that baptism is the door to the church. I believe, rather, that baptism is a requirement for church membership, and there is a significant difference between the two positions. 

I also have good friends who are proponents of the standard “universal church” idea and the standard Scofield dispensational view that the church started at Pentecost, but I don’t go all of the way with that, either.  

During the early part of our missionary work in South Asia, I determined to research the issue of the church for myself. We arrived on the mission field in 1979 and a year or so later I came to the conclusion that I did not understand the church and missionary work sufficiently. I had been challenged in various ways with the Protestant position, the Scofield position, the Pentecostal position, as well as strong Baptist positions, including the Brider position. 

To research the issue I did not collect a bunch of books on the subject by various men. I shut myself up, rather, to the one Book that really counts: The Bible, my sole authority for faith and practice. I set out to determine exactly what the New Testament has to say about the “church.” What did the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles want me to believe on this issue? First I used Strong’s Concordance and carefully examined every reference to the English word “church” and to the Greek word “ecclesia.” I spent much time studying the book of Acts and the church epistles. I examined the Pastoral Epistles almost word for word and read them dozens of times. I wrote down everything I learned about the church, and that study formed the basis for a course that I first taught in Asia in our church planting work in the 1980s That material eventually became an entry in the Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity and more recently appeared in an updated version as one of our Advanced Bible Studies Series courses entitled “The New Testament Church.”

“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6).

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Romans 13:11-12).

The result of the recent U.S. election was not surprising to the Bible believer who knows the frightful spiritual condition of America, and we should not respond as unbelievers and heretics and nominal Christians respond to these confusing, frustrating times. Many are in despair, frantically trying to find a safe heaven for their wealth.

But we are not Christians in name only; we are born again by God’s Spirit and we walk in the light of God’s infallible Word. We know the times, or at least we should. We understand the underlying spiritual fundamentals of society. We are pilgrims. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we are exhorted to set our affection on things above, not on things on earth (Col. 3:1-4; Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11).

The Bible shines brilliant light upon our situation in this present world, and gives us clear instructions about how to live and act in the face of the challenges of these times.

Let me say at the outset that I understand that politics and government are important, that politics and government affect our daily lives. I am not saying that we should have nothing to do with politics and that we should have no interest in what is happening at the political level.

I am simply arguing in this report that politics is not the answer to the moral, social, and economic ills our nations are facing, and we need to focus our attention on the real fundamental issues, and on God’s will, and on the things that can bring real change, and on things that have eternal value.

THE LIGHT OF JEREMIAH 23:15

“Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.”

The root problem in America is the same as that in Israel of old. God told Jeremiah that it was the prophets of Israel who had spread profaneness and filthiness throughout the land (Jer. 23:15). The fundamental issue was the apostate, compromising condition of the prophets. This is true in America (and Canada, etc.). The battle for the nation is won or lost in the churches and the Christian homes, not in the realm of politics and social warfare. The root problem with America’s deep moral sickness is the apostasy in the churches. America does not have the fear of God because the churches are not preaching the fear of God, and that is because the pastors are compromisers and apostates who fear the people more than they fear God and who care more about their individual bottom line than about the truth.