Left Behind? Miss the Rapture? Ed Hindson on What To Do. [Mirrored]
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“Will there be a second
chance for salvation after the rapture?”
Some Bible interpreters
believe that there will be absolutely no chance for salvation after the
rapture. However, there is no place in the Bible that says this or even hints
to it. There will be many people who come to Christ during the tribulation. The
144,000 Jewish witnesses (Revelation 7:4) are Jewish believers. If no
one can come to Christ during the tribulation, then why are people being
beheaded for their faith (Revelation 20:4)? No passage of Scripture
argues against people having a chance to be saved after the rapture. Many
passages indicate the opposite.
Another view is that those who hear the gospel and reject it
before the rapture cannot be saved. Those saved during the tribulation, then,
are those who had never heard the gospel before the rapture. The “proof text”
for this view is 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11, which says the
antichrist will work miracles to deceive “those who are perishing” and that God
Himself will “send them a powerful delusion” to confirm them in their unbelief.
The reason given is that “they refused to love the truth and so be saved”
(verse 10). Granted, those who are hard-hearted toward the gospel before the
rapture are likely to remain so. And the antichrist will deceive many (Matthew
24:5). But “those who refused to love the truth” does not necessarily refer
to people who heard the gospel before the rapture. It could be anyone who
wholly rejects God’s salvation, at any time. So, there is no clear scriptural
evidence to support this view.
Revelation 6:9-11 speaks of those martyred during the tribulation “because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained.” These martyrs will correctly interpret what they see during the tribulation and will believe the gospel themselves and call on others to repent and believe as well. The antichrist and his followers will not tolerate their evangelism and will kill them. All of these martyrs are people who were alive before the rapture, but who were not believers until afterward. Therefore, there must be opportunity to come to Christ in faith after the rapture.
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“Could an alien deception be part of the end times?”
We know that the events surrounding the end times, as described in the Bible, will include a powerful deception (Matthew 24:24). Recently, interest has been rising in the theory that this deception will include alien beings from another planet. Odd as it may seem, this theory is entirely plausible from a Christian perspective. Although the Bible gives us no word about whether or not aliens exist—there is no inclusion of them in the creation account in Genesis, and no mention of them elsewhere—the Bible does tell us about visitors from another world—the spiritual world.
Since the beginning, instances of demons (fallen angels)
visiting the earth have been witnessed and recorded. We know from Eve’s
encounter with Satan that demons are interested in monitoring (and altering)
the progress of humanity. They want to be involved, with the goal of drawing
humanity away from the worship of God and turning mankind’s attention instead
to them. Another notable instance of their interaction with us is found in Genesis
6:4 with the arrival of the “sons of God.” The Genesis account
states that these powerful beings had sexual intercourse with women and
produced a super race of beings known as the Nephilim. This sounds like the
stuff of science fiction, yet it is right there in the Bible. There are
striking similarities between this account and the accounts of other ancient
cultures. The writings of the ancient Sumerians, for example (who were the
first to produce a written language) mention the presence of the “Anunnaki” who
were deities that came from heaven to dwell on earth with men. It is also
interesting to note that the Sumerians’ gods often came to them in the form of
snakes.
These accounts, seen alongside the amazing things created by
ancient man, make it possible to theorize that demons, in the form of beings
from another world, came to earth, bringing spectacular wisdom and knowledge to
men, and “intermarrying” with their daughters in an attempt to draw men away
from God. We already see from Eve’s experience with the serpent that demons
will use the temptation of superior wisdom to ensnare man and that man is very
susceptible to it.
Could the end times include a similar alien deception? The
Bible doesn’t directly address the issue, but it is certainly plausible, for a
variety of reasons. First, the Bible tells us that the world will unite under
the power of the Antichrist. In order to achieve an agreement between all the
world’s religions, it would make sense for the “uniter” to come from an
entirely new source—an extraterrestrial source. It is hard to imagine one
religion becoming head of all the others, unless new, unearthly knowledge were
the source of the appeal and power of the new “religion.” This would be in
keeping with past deceptions and would be a very effective way to deceive a
large number of people.
Second, this deception could provide an answer to the
problem of earth’s origins. The scientific theory that the evolution of life on
earth was spontaneously generated still has no answer for life’s beginnings.
There is evidence for a “big bang,” but
that still doesn’t explain what caused the big bang to occur. If alien beings
arrived and gave us an extraterrestrial explanation for life on earth, the
origins of the world religions, and even the origins of our planet, it would be
very persuasive.
That said, we should not fear. The Lord has said that He
will not leave us or forsake us, and that He will protect us (1 Kings 8:57; Matthew
10:31; Isaiah 41:10). Demons / angels are not
omnipotent, nor are they omnipresent. Jesus said that in the end times His
appearing would be like lightning—easily visible to all. He said to be wary of
any being that says “I am the Christ” or any group that says “He’s over there”
or “He’s in here” (Matthew 24:23-24). He said that vultures
gather around a dead body, meaning that if you see a group of people gathering
around someone claiming to be Christ, that person is death and a false prophet.
We should be wary of any person or being that produces signs
and wonders without biblical fidelity or the presence of obedience to the Lord
Jesus, anyone who provides a way to unite the world religions or governments (Revelation
13:5-8), any being that promotes unnatural sexual relationships (Genesis
6:4; Jude
1:6-7), and of course, any person who denies that Jesus is God (2
John 1:7). Furthermore, anyone who presents a “substitute” Jesus, who
represents Him as “a god but not the God” or who claims He was merely a good
teacher, simply a human, or even a super-human or an alien creature, is a
deceiver.
Lastly, if demons manifesting as aliens are part of the end times, we should remember that they, too, are created beings subject to a sovereign God and ultimately answerable to Him. Whether in alien form or not, the descriptions of demons in Revelation are frightening (Revelation 9:1-12), but we should not fear those who can only kill the body. Instead, we should only fear the One who can kill the body and the soul in hell (Matthew 10:28). No matter what happens to us on the earth, we should trust that the Lord is the Savior, Redeemer, and Protector of the souls of those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 9:10; 22:5).
Could an alien deception be part of the end times?
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