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Will Some Christians Be Left Behind in the Rapture?

Question of the Week: Will Some Christians Be Left Behind in the Rapture?

The short answer to this question is no. Born-Again Christians by definition of what they are before God will not miss the Rapture. In order to understand this more completely, a distinction has to be made between a born-again Christian and someone attending church. Once we have properly identified what it means to be a Christian, anything apart from that will not benefit from what applies to them.

What is a Christian?

Christian is a term used to describe someone as a follower of Christ. The term originated in the city of Antioch and historically documented in Acts 11:26. Jesus described His followers as those who;
1. Believe in the One whom He (God) has sent. (John 6:28-29)
2. Do the Will of the Father. (Matthew 7:21)
3. Have been drawn by the Father. (John 6:44)
4. Believe in the Son. (John 3:18)
5. Believe and are Baptized. (Mark 16:16)

Hopefully you’re seeing a common theme. The fine line between someone who is and isn’t a Christian is where and when they have personally received a relationship with Christ through belief in His claims and what He’s done to verify them.

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
John 3:36 (NKJV)

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:9-13 (NKJV)

What is a Church?

A church is a gathering of like-minded people. In the context of Christianity, it is referring to the gathering of those who share the same mindset and perspective about Jesus. In modern society, it has more commonly been associated with a building where these like-minded people gather. While this isn’t necessary wrong in so far as those with the same mind towards Jesus are the focus, the error is replacing the building with those in it. Jesus Himself clarified that where His followers gather is irrelevant. He would be present wherever His followers are gathered to fellowship with Him and each other.

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.
Matthew 18:20 (NKJV)

This is where the distinction is made. Your presence in a building doesn’t result in you having eternal life. Having a relationship with Jesus through belief in who He is and what He did to prove it results in you having eternal life. This is what brings us to the question about the Rapture. Who benefits from it? Christians. Who doesn’t? Not Christians. The wrath of God remains on those who have not received His mercy. This includes those alive at the time where He comes to take His people from the wrath that will be poured out on the world during the Great Tribulation.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 (NKJV)

Salvation and your qualification for the Rapture go hand in hand. If you understand what it means to be saved, then you won’t have to worry about being left behind.

A Reason For Hope is a ministry of Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson

Listen: Monday – Friday 5-6pm, on 106.3FM Reach Radio

Email your questions:

questionsforhope@gmail.com

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Watch our Frequently Asked Questions on YouTube.

Is the Gift of Prophecy still practiced today?

Question of the Week: Is prophecy still practiced today?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is actually a question. What do you mean by prophecy? The office of a prophet, as well as the Apostles, is a specific calling with requirements that would not allow them to be practiced today. The spiritual gift of prophecy defined in 1 Corinthians 14:3 takes place whenever someone accurately and consistently teaches the Bible. Obviously that would have to still be in place in order for there to be a church. In order to properly understand and practice discernment between the two, we need to approach both topics with as much background information about them as we can. The more you know the real deal, the easier it will be to spot a counterfeit. And the more you appreciate the real deal, the less you’ll be reactionary towards those who abuse it.

Beginning with the Old Testament, the gift of prophecy belonged to those who were called to be prophets. In the broadest possible sense, it refers to someone sharing God’s word. At this time in history, however, the Bible hadn’t been written yet. Therefore the people who claimed to be speaking in His name needed to be held to a high level of scrutiny given how easy it was and is to simply claim God told you to say something. The office of a prophet and thus the person whose words spoken in the name of God were recorded as scripture, were all tested according to the pioneer of this spiritual calling. Moses was used by God to reveal His Law, as well as the history of mankind’s relationship with God as it pertained to our redemption. With Israel as the focus, Moses was sent with many miracles in order to be taken seriously. That standard going forward would not only be how future prophets were judged to be authentic, but also on his authority the crime of being a false prophet became a capital offense.

I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy 18:18-22 (NKJV)

Going on to the New Testament, the judge of scripture going forward would be judged by what had already been revealed in the Old Testament. The eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection used the Old Testament to conclude He was the Messiah. Likewise, the individuals who made these claims were held to the same standard that Old Testament prophets would be given their calling came from the same God that spoke through Moses. The Apostle Peter points this out when they have to determine who met the qualifications to replace Judas Iscariot as an eyewitness among the twelve.

“Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
Acts 1:21-22 (NKJV)

Without exception, everyone who recorded scripture in the Old and New Testament were accurate in the information they recorded, consistent in the God they presented, accountable for the things they reported, and verified by God as prophets through miracles. This is what defines for us not only what makes someone a prophet, but what a prophet was supposed to do. To prophesy means to speak on behalf of someone else. In the context of religious truths, the one you’re speaking on behalf of is God.

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
Hebrews 1:1-2 (NKJV)

This kind of prophecy is obviously not able to be practiced today. Anyone who could have been an eyewitness of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection from the time of John the Baptist’s baptism all the way to His ascension into Heaven from the Mount of Olives died in the early 2nd century at the latest. Likewise, the need for further prophets in the Old Testament sense is no longer necessary given that we have the full counsel of God’s word in the Bible. So the question is if prophecy can be practiced today, what other kind is there apart from those who revealed scripture? The answer is those who teach it.

Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.
1 Corinthians 14:1-5 (NKJV)

Paul the Apostle is giving instructions for a church to practice the gift of prophecy and tongues properly. Like any Jewish Rabbi, he enjoyed teaching through contrasts. Tongues and prophecy both had their place, but their purpose needed to be understood as well. Tongues speak to God while Prophecy speaks to men. Tongues aren’t understood by men, while prophecy is. Tongues edifies the individual, while prophecy edifies, exhorts, and comforts the entire church. Without an interpretation, tongues serves no purpose. Prophecy is an interpretation in of itself, and serves the main purpose for which Christians are gathering together in the first place. That is why Paul the Apostle not only encourages both, but gives preference to a spiritual gift that is very much still being practiced at and beyond the time Paul wrote this letter. If prophecy only means revealing scripture in the strictest sense, then Paul should have clarified that none should prophecy apart from those in the Old Testament office of a prophet. He doesn’t. Instead, he gives instructions for the proper use of both spiritual gifts towards the church in general. Therefore it is right to conclude that prophecy can be practiced by those outside of the Old Testament Prophets and New Testament Apostles.

Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 (NKJV)

A Reason For Hope is a ministry of Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson

Listen: Monday – Friday 5-6pm, on 106.3FM Reach Radio

Email your questions:

questionsforhope@gmail.com

Follow Twitter: @ScottR4H

Follow on CCF Facebook: facebook.com/ccftucson
Watch our Frequently Asked Questions on YouTube.

Is Jesus Referred to as the Pagan Deity Amun?

Question of the Week: When Jesus is referred to as “The Amen” is it referencing the pagan Egyptian deity Amun?

The word Amen is a word from the Hebrew language meaning “to agree” or affirm what you say as true. The name Amun in the Egyptian language is taken to mean many things, none of which have anything to do with the Hebrew term Jesus used to describe Himself in Revelation 3:14.

“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:
Revelation 3:14 (NKJV)

In order to properly understand what Jesus is referencing, we first need to understand the background to Jesus’ statement. Then once we can positively affirm what is being said, we can compare it to what we know about the pagan deity Amun in order to come to a proper conclusion about this accusation.

What does Jesus mean when He refers to Himself as “The Amen?” Alongside other references to the Old Testament that were associating Him with the God of the Old Testament, He is clarifying to a church who is speaking to them based on these particular traits. The author of Revelation, the Apostle John, frequently clarifies in His gospel and epistles that Jesus came to this world in order to show us what the Creator of the Universe is like. The beginning, or literally genesis, of the Creation of God is one example. Jesus is given credit for the sort of thing the God of Israel claimed to do in Genesis 1:1.

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
John 1:3 (NKJV)

Now that we understand John’s use of language concerning Jesus, what would be accomplished by Jesus in referring to Himself as the Amen? It falls in line with the other title Jesus refers to Himself as being the Faithful and True Witness. A Witness is something or someone that has seen something. Being a witness is to be a living example of something in order to show or explain it to others. This is what John describes Jesus as when He adopted human nature in a moment of history.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (NKJV)

All of these terms Jesus refers to Himself as fall in line with one common feature. He is the living example of the God of the Jewish Old Testament. We need to understand that is the culture Jesus is speaking to and from in order to properly represent what the significance of “Amen” means. Because Jesus uses Hebrew terms, familiar to a Hebrew audience, having a Hebrew background, and always in association with the God of the Hebrews, we need to conclude that this is a statement alluding to Hebrew culture. Not Egyptian. Further confirmation of this exists in the fact that the church Jesus is speaking to would be located in modern day Turkey, which was populated by Greeks. No association with Egypt or paganism is suggested in any way whatsoever. Jesus, as a Jew, is using Jewish terms to associate Himself with traits of the Jewish God.

With all of that said, Jesus’ affirmation to be the living personification of the God of Israel leaves no room for any association with Egyptian culture with one exception. The word Amun sounds like the word Amen. Therefore, does that mean we should conclude that despite being different languages from different cultures with different meanings, we should associate them both in terms of their theology and rewrite the entire Bible in the image of Egyptian paganism? Obviously not. The phonetic fallacy is when you falsely assume similar words from two different languages should be understood to have the same meaning. This accusation actually takes it a step farther. If one word can be compared to a word from an entirely different language, culture, and theology in any way, we should assume they are referring to the same deity. This is not only false on logical grounds, but historic as well.

Our understanding of Egyptian paganism is limited to the hieroglyphs and writings we have available to us which are laughably small compared to our understanding of the Jewish God in the Old Testament. Amun’s story can be understood as a development of an older god by the name of Ra. They are often referred to in ancient Pyramid texts in Thebes as Amun-Ra with Ra being the more prominent name of the two. Being referred to as “The Hidden One” and associated with water in contradiction with Ra’s association with the sun, the religion of Egypt underwent many changes from the time of Moses all the way to the time of the Assyrian conquest of Egypt in the mid 600’s BC. We don’t actually know anything about him until after this time period, and it is then that parallels with the Jewish God of Israel begin to appear. An objective historian would conclude that since Egypt had many interactions with Israel and had a demonstrably flexible religion, they copied these aspects of Amun from the Jewish God YHVH, not vice versa. And even then, his common traits actually put further distance between himself and Jesus rather than bringing them closer together. They refer to Amun as the Creator, but leave out the detail that Amun created himself from Chaos. The God of Israel is eternal, and thus never had a moment of creation. They refer to Amun as one of a series of multiple members who acted in Creation, but fail to clarify that it was an Ogdoad of eight distinct and separate deities rather than a Trinity of the one and only God. Amun had a consort to produce offspring. Jesus doesn’t. Amun at the height of his popularity was considered the most prominent of many gods in Egypt. Jews and early Christians never considered Jesus a lesser or distinct deity from the Father until the time of Joseph Smith and Charles Taze Russell. Both of which are founders of heretical cults and treated as such by Orthodox Christians even to this day. The worship of Amun in Egyptian paganism ceased in the 5th century AD. The worship of Jesus as God in Christianity continues even to this day. These are merely a handful of examples with many more available. The point is simply this. Egyptian paganism and its portrayal of Amun is in no way reconcilable with Jesus as He’s portrayed in the Old and New Testament. Anyone who would claim otherwise is depending on the ignorance of their audience in order to take these kind of claims seriously.

A Reason For Hope is a ministry of Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson

Listen: Monday – Friday 5-6pm, on 106.3FM Reach Radio

Email your questions:

questionsforhope@gmail.com

Follow Twitter: @ScottR4H

Follow on CCF Facebook: facebook.com/ccftucson
Watch our Frequently Asked Questions on YouTube.

A Reason for Hope Question of the Week – January 15th, 2021

Question of the Week: What is the purpose of spiritual warfare?

Whenever the topic of spiritual warfare comes up, the focus goes entirely to the topic of warfare. In warfare, the focus is on understanding the nature of your enemy with the long term goal of victory against them. In the Bible, the focus of spiritual warfare is the complete opposite. Instead of fighting for victory, we fight from victory. Instead of focusing on the nature of our enemy, our attention should be focused entirely on the nature of our commander and chief. With these two proper perspectives in mind, we will avoid getting caught up in sensational and misleading doctrines about the unbiblical rituals we apparently have to fulfill in order to take a power away from the enemy he never had to begin with.

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
Colossians 2:13-15 (NKJV)

This is the first key principal to grasp if we are to have a proper understanding of spiritual warfare. A disarmed foe is no longer a threat. If we treat the enemy of our souls as if he still has the power and authority taken away from him, then his goal in distracting us has been achieved. The Apostle Peter described the enemy as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8-9) With a further exhortation to resist him, he immediately clarifies what’s actually being resisted. Persecution, Hatred of the Gospel, and the suffering we experience in this world are all examples of the impact the enemy has on the hearts of those who don’t know the Lord. A state we were all once in according to Ephesians 2:1-3. If we base our understanding of the enemy on more information rather than less, and the best possible information rather than second hand experiences, we won’t buy into the enemy’s greatest tool. Don’t be deceived. He can’t possess you. 1 John 4:4. He can’t separate you from the love of God. Romans 8:38-39. He can’t even touch you. 1 John 5:18. It is from these facts about our enemy that the real goal of spiritual warfare becomes clear.

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James 4:7-8 (NKJV)

The question isn’t whether or not we sin. It’s what we do with it that matters. 1 John 1:8-10 is our combat zone. The question isn’t whether or not we will experience opposition. The question is what is actually being opposed. Matthew 11:28-30 is our responsibility in this battle. The question isn’t if we’re in this fight. The question is how do we fight. 2 Corinthians 10:4-6, Hebrews 4:12, and Ephesians 6:14-18 are the weapons we fight with. Not kinetic tools, but a working and practical knowledge of the truth. That is how you respond to a liar. Not by acknowledging or focusing on the lie, but bringing it face to face with the truth. Any confrontation of the enemy on our end is pointless. That is why James gives as simple an explanation as possible concerning how we resist the devil. Draw near to God. If you want to destroy darkness, walk towards the light.

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:5-7 (NKJV)

A Reason For Hope is a ministry of Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson

Listen: Monday – Friday 5-6pm, on 106.3FM Reach Radio

Email your questions:

questionsforhope@gmail.com

Follow Twitter: @ScottR4H

Follow on CCF Facebook: facebook.com/ccftucson
Watch our Frequently Asked Questions on YouTube.

How Do We Know the Gospels Are Accurate?

Question of the Week: If the gospels were written 20-50 years after the events they report, how can we know they got everything Jesus said right?

In order to properly address this question, there are some false assumptions behind it that the critics bringing it up hope you don’t catch onto. First, the gospel accounts never claim to be an exhaustive record of everything Jesus said and did. The Apostle John even notes at the end of his biography that the things that were written had a purpose. That you may believe. Summaries of Jesus’ more popular sermons, overviews of His most significant miracles, and collections of His parables make up the majority of the information we’re given in order to come to conclusions about who He was. To claim that the disciples couldn’t remember everything is a straw-man of the gospels as a whole. They never claimed to be giving us everything there was to know about Jesus. They only report the things we needed to know in order to come to an informed conclusion about Him.

And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.
John 21:25 (NKJV)

Second, the authors of the Gospels were living in 1st Century Judea. Not 21st Century Europe or the United States. They were a culture that prided themselves on memorization of the entire Old Testament and the commentaries of their Rabbi’s. A poor disciple was noted in the writings of ancient Jewish scribes as one that could only recite 100 pages of their rabbi’s sayings from memory. A good disciple would number over 400. Jesus chose the Twelve Apostles to not only recall the information He shared with them, but used the term disciple in the way a 1st Century audience understood it. They weren’t as prone to distraction as we are today. Their choices for entertainment were fairly limited, and included reciting and listening to each other recall what Jesus said and did. Given the fact they spent 3 whole years with Jesus to receive this information, spent the rest of their lives daily talking about this information, and believed this information were the words of God, it would be dishonest to claim that forgetfulness should be an assumed factor given the background and culture of the Gospel’s authors.

Third, 20-50 years of time for multiple biographies to be formed according to ancient historical standards is an incredibly short amount of time when you compare it to other accounts written at this time. The Roman Historian Tacitus is the primary source for the majority of what we know about the reigns of most of the early Emperors. His book “Annals” reports extensive details about the reign of Caesar Augustus, despite being written a full century after his death. Skeptics of Christianity claim we know plenty about Augustus despite all the sources on him being written over 2-5 times the amount of time between the events of Jesus’ life and the gospels. Likewise, the earliest and most extensive biography on Alexander the Great was Plutarch’s “Life of Alexander.” Alexander of Macedonia lived 350 years before the time of Christ. Plutarch’s biography was written over 100 years after the time of Christ. 450 years took place between Alexander the Great’s death and his first complete written biography. We are fully willing to teach that information in school as reliable history. The reason why is because it is completely reliable information for both Augustus and Alexander. There is no sound historical reason to dismiss the information because of the material being written after the fact. You generally can’t write down things that happened until they actually happen. The only alternative is for them to write these things down before they happened. People who dismiss the gospels as reliable history are either being deceptive about what the gospels are, or inconsistent in how they judge history.

A Reason For Hope is a ministry of Calvary Christian Fellowship of Tucson

Listen: Monday – Friday 5-6pm, on 106.3FM Reach Radio

Email your questions:

questionsforhope@gmail.com

Follow Twitter: @ScottR4H

Follow on CCF Facebook: facebook.com/ccftucson
Watch our Frequently Asked Questions on YouTube.

Follow us on our social media platforms!

Will Some Christians Be Left Behind in the Rapture?

Is the Gift of Prophecy still practiced today?

Is Jesus Referred to as the Pagan Deity Amun?

A Reason for Hope Question of the Week – January 15th, 2021

How Do We Know the Gospels Are Accurate?

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