A few weeks before I moved from Austin, Tx to the New Philadelphia area of Ohio earlier this year, I somehow got into what was a confusing conversation for me with one of the nursing assistants in my hospital system. It was confusing for me largely because these days I am very far removed from the mainstream heaven-when-you-die rapture belief. I simply forget sometimes that some people are so entrenched in that belief system they either can’t or won’t consider anything else. I don’t even remember how the subject came up, but it ended up with her telling me that I was on “dangerous ground” by teaching people what the Bible explicitly states about life and immortality. And to top that off, I was informed that if I don’t believe in the rapture that not only will I miss it when it happens, but that I will regret it because I will be forced to be here for the Great Tribulation.
Unfortunately, the conversation devolved quite rapidly. I was surprised to discover she had never even heard of Preterism, much less Partial Preterism (views that deal with End-times beliefs from a different perspective than the typical Futurist belief), but ignorance is fine if you’re willing to listen to me explain what it is. Nobody knows everything, and we all have opportunities to learn new things. However, not only was everything I said falling on deaf ears, but that she was trying to paint me in this heretical-teacher-bound-for-judgment role, and I wasn’t having it. Am I a Fivefold Teacher? Yes. Do I need to be responsible with the things I teach and say? Yes. Do I attempt to do that precisely because I understand why and how it is important? Also yes. It is precisely because I understand the value of solid Christian teaching and how it has an impact on our lives that I write books and weekly articles and will launch The Kings of Eden Podcast this year. Hosea 4:6 tells us that “my people die/are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Even in my job as a nurse, I see people who grow sick and on occasion die because of things they didn’t know or things they thought they knew but understood incorrectly. What we don’t know can and often does hurt us, and my heart is for everyone to live in the fullness and abundant life that Jesus provided for us, so I want to provide information and resources so people can access those things.
The funny thing to me is that in this conversation, while I was being told that I would miss out on the rapture and that she believed I was a false teacher, I was unphased by these things she was trying to firmly warn me about. In fact I told her I was “comfortable with that” when she told me that what I am teaching is fringe theology. Why? Because I am. It might be fringe now, but it will one day be mainstream, and as a forerunner, it’s my job to spread the word early.
The other thing this woman didn’t realize (nor do I think she would have understood if she did) is that decades ago when I still believed in the Rapture, I literally would pray and ask God to let me remain for the Tribulation so I could help people through it. You see, I’m pretty serious about this whole Life thing. Death is an enemy, it needs to be fully put down once and for all, the pain of the world must be healed, and the decay removed from the cosmos. And while that all might sound like big ideals, its literally what Jesus came to accomplish, and I think that nothing less than His full reward is appropriate.
So if Rapture-ready heaven-if-you-die theology isn’t it, what should we believe and why? We need to remember that death never has been our means of access to heaven—Jesus is. My book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality” lays out Jesus’s plan for us. The book title is taken from 2 Timothy 1:10-11 where Paul declares that the gospel he preached is one of life and immortality—life of ever-increasing quantity and quality. In addition to extensive scripture references to lay out where this message is all throughout the Bible, I include an entire chapter on the subject of death not being our means of access to heaven, as well as a chapter discussing end-times theology and what to do with it. I also highly recommend my friend Tommy Miller’s books “Deathless” and “Transfigured”. All three of these resources will help you have a deeper understanding of God’s plan for us that does not include death or a rapture. You might also check out the book Victorious Eschatology by Harold Eberle if you want a theological deep-dive into end-times/rapture stuff.
