Imagine How I Feel

In previous posts, we have discussed the TrueBeliever's Facebook group. They are the ones who believe Jesus will take the true believers away in the rapture on May 21, 2011. They have even set the time as 6:00 PM on that day, but we have not seen any information as to what time zone that would be. Interestingly, the people discussing that possibility seem to be mostly in the good old USofA. We gather they arrived at that time as the same time of day Elijah was calling down fire from heaven during his challenge to the prophets of Baal and Asherah. (1 Kings 18:20-40) We would have to suppose from that the time would really be 6:00 PM (if that is even the right time) in Israel. That would make it 8:00 AM here on the west coast. As of this writing there are about 450 people in the group, including me. I was put into the group by a longtime friend for whatever reason.

Do not count me as one of the TrueBelievers. I am truly skeptical of that date and time for various reasons, but I am much more troubled by some of the other doctrine of the group. I read some of the posts and have chatted on Facebook with a few members of the group. There would not seem to be much point in detailing their bad doctrine except to point out in regard to our personal responsibility to accept Jesus as Lord of our lives, they would be considered hyper-Calvinists. They believe we have no responsibility whatsoever for our own, individual salvation. They believe God has chosen a group of people from before the foundation of the world to be born-again and dwell eternally with Him. Through a complex series of mathematical calculations (bear in mind all mathematical calculations are complex to this writer) they have been able to unlock the mysteries of the Bible as to the timing of events and numbers of those who will be born-again. If you are not in, you are not in. This has caused some pause and even some fear amongst people who belong to the group. They truly do not know if they are among the chosen. It has also given yours truly many opportunities to minister to some of those people. That is what this is post is really about.

I was kind of walking around the house praying the other morning and some frustration, aggravation, and maybe a little anger rose up in me as I thought about the people who have fallen victim to some of the false doctrine. I was complaining to the Lord about the situation, telling Him it was making me angry. I had no sooner gotten the words out of my mouth than I heard in my spirit, "Imagine how I feel."

Preachers occasionally like to remind congregations of a scene in heaven. One never quite knows for sure about such things, but the scene is most likely fictional. The angels in heaven have witnessed the Passion of Jesus and ask the Father what the plan is now that Jesus will be returning to heaven. God responds that the gospel will now be entrusted to born-again men who will preach His salvation to the world. The angels, who have observed mankind for some millennia by that time question God as to His back-up plan should man fail. He tells them there is no back-up plan. That is probably overly-simplistic, but the fact remains that we are the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:27) For now we are sons and daughters of God locked in flesh and blood, but we know that when Jesus appears we will be like Him. (1 John 3:2)

I cannot tell you exactly how God feels about people who do the wrong thing with every good intention because they have been seduced and deceived. I have to think they are not blameless because they did have a part in their deception. We enter into the deception of sin when we are tempted to do the wrong thing and do it because of our own desires. (James 1:14) One has to wonder if the TrueBelievers (on anyone else for that matter) would be quite so sure about their interpretation, analysis, and mathematical computations of the scriptures if they really understood they will be held accountable before God for whatever harm they cause to people who listen to them. (see Mark 9:42) On more than one occasion, I have reminded the TrueBelievers that, "...God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) God did not keep salvation a secret from anyone, let alone those whom He called. He calls all who He knows will respond. We would have to think by this point in history we would be talking about billions of people. They have the number down to only several million. Again, their math, and I do not understand it, so I remain skeptical. I am already working on a post for May 22nd, you know, just in case. If Jesus really does come that day, I will not be here to finish it. I sincerely hope none of you reading this post will be either.

One of my former pastors gave an invitation to receive Jesus at nearly every service he preached. He was fond of saying, "You know if you have been born-again as surely as you know if you have a driver's license." If you are not sure about either of those check your wallet first. If you do not have a license do not drive. Then check your spirit because the Bible certainly says, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." (Romans 8:16) If there is no witness, you can take care of that immediately by asking Jesus to be Lord of your life. Imagine how God would feel to have you as part of His forever family.