Fire On Your Head

Much Reading For Those Left Behind

These days there is lots of talk of “the Rapture” in the Body of Christ. A huge market in Christian books and movies has developed in recent years following this concept. The Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is something Christians have been looking forward to for nearly 2000 years. But is this idea of a pre-tribulation ‘rapture’ actually a biblical concept? Will Jesus really return in secret for his chosen faithful ones and leave behind the rest to judgement and tribulation for seven years before returning for more saints? This paper is an attempt to delve into this controversial topic and demonstrate, by looking briefly at the history of the Church’s stance on the Lord’s Coming, and by carefully examining a select few “rapture passages”, that the answer is actually no. These passages will be used to demonstrate that the Rapture and the Second Coming are indeed the same event that are not separated by a seven year period contrary to popular opinion.

There are numerous other things to consider when discussing the rapture but due to the brevity of this study, will not be covered. Therefore focus will be made mostly on select passages that those in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture camp hold on to as foundational for belief in the rapture, and study on where the view originated.

History of the Rapture Theories

The idea of Christ returning for his people prior to the Great Tribulation, the rise of the antichrist to world power, and the details of the last days as outlined in the book of Revelation, are not new concepts by any means. However, the predominant views regarding the chronology of these events can be regarded as fairly recent in origin.

Pre-tribulation Rapture represents the belief that Christ will come snatch away true believers before the Tribulation period begins. As an established view, it can be traced back to John Darby, leader of the Britain-based Plymouth Brethren movement in the 1830s. Some biblical researchers can trace the view back further than this, but a widely regarded possibility is this view even being originally attributed to a charismatic visionary woman named Margaret MacDonald, two years prior to Darby. Champions of the Pre-Trib Rapture theory include Dr. C.I. Scofield, W.E. Vine, Dr. John F. Walvoord, Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost, Dr. Charles C. Ryrie and numerous others.

The Post-Tribulation Rapture, the view this paper favors, is possibly the oldest view, as careful study of the Olivet Discourse in the Gospel accounts (key passages Matt 24:29-41, Mark 13:24-31, Luke 21:25-28), and a few of the Pauline epistles (1 Cor 15:50-58, 1 Thess 4:13-18, 2 Thess 2:1-12), demonstrate that the early church was expecting to see these events of the last days unfold themselves. Scripture doesn’t indicate the idea that they felt they would be absent when the events of the last days unfolded. Contemporary advocates of the Post-Trib theory include Dr. George E. Ladd, J. Barton Payne , Dave Macpherson, Larry Simmons, William Arnold III among others.

There is another camp, the Mid-Tribulation Rapture theory, which is even more recent in origin than Pre-Trib. Proponents of the Mid-Trib rapture theory believe that the Body of Christ will go through some or part of the Great Tribulation and be raptured up three and one-half years into the Tribulation. A major advocate is Norman B. Harrison, and other scholars such as J. Oliver Buswell, Harold J. Ockenga, Gleason Archer also championed this cause. Many of its followers see this as a mediating position between the post and pre-trib theories. Some of its advocates can find no clear reasoning or definite Scriptural basis for neither a post-trib rapture or a pre-trib rapture.

Examination of Key Scripture Texts

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 “The Dead in Christ Shall Rise First”

This is the only “rapture” passage in the Bible. In fact the word “rapture” doesn’t even occur in the Bible at all. Previously in Paul’s letter to the church in Thessolonica, Paul had spoken about the second coming of the Lord Jesus (2:19), and the believers had no doubt that this would take place. Paul proceeds to address things here that had come up in their midst since he had departed, such as the fact that many had died. Verse 15 gives the impression Paul, and subsequently the believers he was writing to; were expecting to see the Lord’s return in their lifetime, so the believers were wondering how this could take place if some were already dead. In this passage Paul is explaining that those dead will rise first (v. 16), and those alive at the second advent of Christ will be caught up together to meet them in the air. So far so good. The meeting in the air with both those dead and those alive is something both pre and post- tribulationists agree on. However, a plain literal reading of this text in no way indicates that the coming of the Lord and the “catching away” of those alive and dead in Christ are two separate events. The only way the text can suggest such an idea is for it to be imposed on it with a pre-supposed view that they are separate events. Paul does not teach the separation of the Rapture and the Second Coming with any amount of time elapsing between the two.

The trumpet being sounded–spoken of in verse 16, is an Old Testament concept linked with the Day of the Lord, with His arrival or coming to His people (Ex 19:16, Isa 27:13, Joel 2:1, Zc 9:14), and is linked elsewhere with the return of Christ (Matt 24:31, 1 Cor 15:52). The Greek Word for coming used here is parousia, which means “presence, coming, advent” and in the New Testament was usually used regarding Christ’s return. It also was used in the technical term for the official welcome of a newly arrived dignitary, and it is suitable in the context here (see Matt 25:16, Acts 28:15). Appropriately, a plain reading of this passage shows that when Christ returns, that is the moment when we are raptured, and we proceed to escort our King to the earth at that moment which He arrives to judge the earth and set up His earthly Kingdom. This passage does not demonstrate two separate comings, one for Christ’s church, and the other for judgement of the earth. But rather the Lord’s return is described as a singular event, not plural.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-10 “The Great Apostasy”
In this passage Paul dispels erroneous ideas that the believers in Thessolonica had learned about the Second Coming and is supplementing what he’s already told them in person. The saints were not fearful necessarily that the Rapture had occurred and that they had missed it, but that they were already in the Day of the Lord. They were being heavily persecuted and it was very easy for them to think the things that were to accompany the Tribulation were already upon them. The first and second verses of this chapter indicate it is a false teaching Paul is trying to correct, and that it’s possible someone had forged a letter pretending to be Paul, and thus the idea spread that Paul taught the Day of the Lord had already begun.

The wording in verse 3, where Paul proceeds to tell the saints why the Rapture had not happened–is the clearest denial of an “any moment” Rapture as one could imagine: “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.” There really is not much upon which to expound. This passage speaks for itself. The case for immenency–an any moment Rapture, hence an incentive for holy living and the key component of the whole pre-trib theory, is clearly not able to be derived from this key passage, since wording like “…that Day will not come unless…” have a connotation of being patient until the events described take place first. Paul then proceeds in verses 3 and 4 to describe the ‘falling away’, or the wholesale abandonment of Christianity–a complete rejection of the faith, followed by or resulting in a man of sin arising and exalting himself above God who is worshipped in the temple of God. In other words, Paul is telling them “the Day of the Lord has not happened yet, and this is evidenced by the fact all these other things have not taken place yet.” Also worth considering, Paul’s strong exhortation in verse 3 to let no one deceive them, is pretty interesting language for him to use if the Church were going to be raptured prior to all the events he was about to describe. Why would Paul warn them of what to look for if he and the believers believed they wouldn’t be around to see these events take place?

The “restrainer” mentioned in verse 6 and 7 is of much controversy. It is commonly espoused to be the Holy Spirit, but the argument that the Holy Spirit is removed along with the Christians He indwells at the Rapture only holds up if an actual Rapture takes place. Since this paper does not favor that interpretation, let’s proceed to discuss other views. In verse 6 the restrainer is described in an impersonal way, but then in verse 7 it is a person. Common views as to the identity of this restrainer include (1) the Roman Empire, (2) the Jewish State, (3) Satan, (4) the principle of law and order as found in human government, (5) God, and (6) the true Church as indwelt by the Spirit. Since verse 7 refers to the restrainer as a type of person, it’s necessary to assume this is some form of person or angelic being. This idea that the restrainer is the archangel Michael therefore is not at all unfeasible. Christian and Jewish scholars both recognize Michael as having a special guardian relationship to Israel (Dan 10:12-13), and in relation to Israel, he is called “Michael, your prince” (Dan 10:21). The beginning of Daniel chapter twelve indicates Michael stands over “the sons of your [Israel’s] people”. Also Revelation 12 describes a war that occurs in heaven (Rev 12:6, 13-14) precisely in the middle of Daniel’s 70th week—the period of time referred to as the 7-year Tribulation. We see in Jude 9 the interaction that takes place between the devil and Michael, indicating the archangel’s role in keeping Satan from doing harm to the body of Moses. Therefore we see the one who had the job of hindering the Antichrist will step aside at this time prior to the Lord’s return; that is Michael the archangel will no longer be a restraint between the Antichrist and those the Antichrist is persecuting.

1 Corinthians 15:50-54 “The Twinkling An Eye”
This passage and 1 Thessalonians 4:17 are probably the two most common passages people think of in relation to the Rapture. We often hear it said that we will be caught up “in the twinkling of an eye” (verse 52). However, the Rapture is mentioned nowhere here. All it states is that a trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised and we will be changed. That’s it!
Worth noting is how Paul begins this discussion with his statement about how the living will inherit the kingdom (v. 50) which takes place at the second coming. In other words, Paul is saying, “Even the living will be changed in order to enter the kingdom in glorified bodies.”

In this entire chapter, Paul is discussing the resurrection. Paul stated already that one must first die in order to receive the glorified body (vv. 35-38, 42-44). Verse 50 explains how you cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven with a corruptible body, so the Corinthians no doubt were wondering what would happen to those believers who were still alive physically at Christ’s return. Paul told them that those who are still living will not have to die to receive a glorified body but will be transformed while they are still alive—that not everyone will have to die first, but everyone will be changed (v.51).

As already mentioned, this passage does not say anything about the Rapture, although a plain reading of the text does indicate that Paul is describing what will happen to the bodies of that generation who is alive on the earth for the Lord’s return. The only reason people associate this verse with the Rapture is because of the similar events described in 1 Thess. 4:13-17, except one has to impose a Rapture and Second Coming distinction on this passage. A clear case for this distinction is not exegetical from either this passage or 1 Thess. 4. Therefore, these events cannot be used to describe the chronology of the events surrounding a rapture if the case has not been established that there actually is a rapture. Before discussing what kind of clothing the men on Mars wear, one must first establish that there is life on Mars.

Matthew 24:29-31 “The Son of Man Coming on the Clouds”
This entire chapter in Matthew lines up in perfect harmony and chronology with Revelation 6. Also, this passage here seems pretty indicative of the idea the church goes through the Tribulation, considering the statement “immediately after the tribulation…then the Son of Man will appear in heaven” (v.29-30)

One reason pre-tribulationists deny that Jesus is talking about the Rapture here is the claim that Jesus was talking specifically to the Jews in this instance, and that this passage does not apply to the Church. This claim is true to some extent, Jesus was talking to the disciples who were Jewish (Matt. 24:3). Naturally, the gospel had not been given to the Gentiles yet, so most everything Jesus said was to Jews. If Jesus talking to Jews makes a passage inapplicable to us, then so are the various blessings that Jesus spoke to them that we the Gentile church partake in—we can’t have it both ways.

In this instance, Jesus was talking specifically to the disciples in private (v. 3). These men were the foundation of the Church (Eph. 2:20). It does not seem reasonable to think that this was not really the coming they were to look for. Why answer them with a description of the Great Tribulation followed by a description of his coming in the clouds–with the sound of a great trumpet and the gathering of his elect–if really they were going to miss all this by means of a pre-tribulation rapture? That would be suggesting that Jesus Himself was inaccurate of the information He Himself was providing or that He was deceiving his hearers. However, the signs are more directional in nature than chronological. They tell the disciples which way the Lord’s coming will take place, rather than what time.

Application
I’ve personally never concerned myself much with when the Rapture would occur, but always assumed that when the time of Great Tribulation came, that I was on the first train out of here. The more I became interested in studying the Word of God as the basis for forming my opinions, the more questions I had regarding the events of the end times. While contemplating doing some thorough investigation into this matter, I had to ask myself “how come I believe this theory?” I personally was brought to a place where I had to admit that I had just believed what I was told without questioning it or scrutinizing it in the light of God’s authoritative Word. Sadly, I think a lot of believers today are just twiddling their thumbs waiting for the Rapture simply because they believe what they’ve been told.

Certainly the idea that we ourselves won’t have to go through any difficulty or face any suffering is a comfortable doctrine, but the very fact it brings comfort to us should be the first red flag that there may be something wrong with this view. Jesus told us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. He told his followers things like “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for my sake.” The straightforward Gospel is pretty harmful to our flesh, and if our lives are going to be patterned after His, then clearly, we need the purification that the Great Tribulation will bring to us as a body of believers.

Paul told Timothy “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers.” (2 Timothy 4:3 NKJV). Surely, the pre-Trib Rapture is a doctrine for itching ears. Today, countless believers tenaciously cling to it, not because of any basis in Scripture, but simply because that’s how they hope the end-times will unfold. Clearly the pre-trib view is not as much of an incentive for holiness as pre-tribbers would have you think. If you told a professional football team to practice for the big play-off game–but they were not actually gonna play in the big game, but instead be benched seven minutes before it started–they certainly would not be as prepared as they would if they thought they were going to play.

Conclusion
From a plain literal approach to interpreting the Scriptures often cited to prove the pre-tribulation Rapture theory, we can see that in no place is the Coming of the Lord described as a plural event, but a singular. It’s safe to assume that the pre-trib Rapture is not actually a biblical concept, and there is clearly no distinction between the Rapture and the Second Coming. If there is no distinction, then there is no 7-year interval either. The fact that the pre-tribulation view is fairly recent in origin should help indicate that it may not be biblical and that the early Church didn’t believe in it. Rather, the pre-tribulation view is an idea birthed out of lack of desire to face intense persecution, and is fueled by the comfortable notion that people desire not to go through anything bad, and is a view that cannot be proven exegetically.

End Notes

1 Rosenthal, Marvin The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church, Nashville, Thomas Nelson Inc. c. 1990, p. 53
Macpherson, Dave, The Unoriginal John Darby, http://www.apostolic.net/biblicalstudies/post/davem12.htm In this brief article, Macpherson shows why Darby was not necessarily the key figure in the birth of “pre-millenial dispensationalism” and that he likely copied and plagarized ideas from others and was indeed not the first to teach most of his ideas, including the pre-tribulation rapture.
Duffield, Guy P. and N.M. Van Cleave, Foundations of Pentecostal Theology, L.I.F.E. Bible College, Los Angeles, c. 1983 p. 531
Ibid, p.529
Rosenthal, Pre-Wrath Rapture, 56-57
Arnold III, William, The Post Tribulation Rapture, http://www.apostolic.net/biblicalstudies/post/link2.htm
Morris, Leon, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, ed. William B. Eardmans, Grand Rapids, 1984, p.92
Strong, James, Strongest Strong’s Concordance of the Bible, Grand Rapids, Zondervan, Strong # 3952
Morris, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, p.94
Ibid, p.125
MacDonald, William, Believer’s Bible Commentary, ed. Art Farstad, Nelson, Nashville, c.1995, p.2053
Arnold III, William , The Post Tribulation Rapture, http://www.apostolic.net/biblicalstudies/post/link2.htm
MacDonald, William, Believer’s Bible Commentary, ed. Art Farstad, Nelson, Nashville, c.1995, p.2053
Ibid, p. 2054
Rosenthal The Pre-Wrath Rapture, p. 256
Ibid, p. 257
Arnold III, William, The Post Tribulation Rapture, http://www.apostolic.net/biblicalstudies/post/link2.htm
Simmons, Larry Unmasking Pre-Trib Fallacies
Arnold III, William, The Post Tribulation Rapture, http://www.apostolic.net/biblicalstudies/post/link2.htm
Rosenthal, The Pre-Wrath Rapture, p.97

If sickness and disease is the will of God…

…then why was there none in his original creation, and why is there none when he restores the earth?

…then why did Jesus bear our sicknesses and carry our infirmities on the cross?

…then why did God give doctors the knowledge they have in order to help combat it?

…then hospitals are houses of rebellion rather than houses of mercy, and doctors are agents of rebellion trying to get you out of God’s will, so why go?

…then why did God give the human body an immune system to help combat sickness and disease?

…then why did Jesus, who was the will of God in the flesh, heal ALL who came to Him, and never made one person sick?

…then by healing the sick, Jesus was in rebellion against God, and therefore in sin and could not have died as our substitute on the cross

…then why does the Word of God say Jesus went about doing GOOD, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil?

…then why is there no sickness in heaven where God’s will is carried out in perfection?

…then why does the Word of God say that He “forgives ALL our iniquities and heals ALL our diseases” instead of He heals only some of our disease or makes us sick?

…and if it’s for His glory, then why not get sicker where He can be more glorified?

…then why does James tell us to call on the elders of the church and be anointed with oil and the prayer of faith will heal the sick (as opposed to I guess telling them to submit to God and let Him teach them something by their sickness)?

…then why in Mark 16 did Jesus commission believers to lay hands on the sick and have them recover and not get sicker (so God could I guess be more glorified)?

When Jesus was casting out devils the Jewish leaders said He does it by satan. Jesus said a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. If God is allowing the sickness on you and then healing you, His kingdom is divided and cannot stand.

Catherine Booth
Edited and paraphrased by Keith and Melody Green

“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.’” -Mark 16:15

“And I said, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”‘ -Acts 26:15-18

I was thinking, while I was reading these passages, what if we could erase from our minds all knowledge of the history of Christianity from the close of the period described in the book of Acts – and then looking at the book of Acts, sit down and try to calculate what was likely to happen in the world. We would most likely expect very different results – a radically changed world as the outcome of it all. A system which started with such power, under such promises and declarations on the part of its Author, and producing, as it did in its first century, such gigantic and monumentous results! We would have thought (if we knew nothing of what has intervened from then until now) that the whole world would have fallen long ago to the influence of that system, and would have been brought under the authority of its great Originator and Founder. I say from reading these Acts, and from observing the Spirit which moved the early disciples, that we should have anticipated ten thousand times greater results – and in my opinion, this anticipation would have been perfectly rational and just.

We Christians profess to have in the Gospel of Christ a mighty lever which, rightly and universally applied, would lift the entire burden of sin and misery from the shoulders (that is from the souls) of our fellow man – a total remedy for all the moral and spiritual woes of humanity. We all profess to believe this – Christians have professed to believe this for generations – and yet look at the world, look at so-called “Christian England and America.” The great majority in these nations utterly ignore God, not even making a pretense of remembering Him even one day a week. And then look at the rest of the world. I have often become so depressed with this view of things that I have felt as if my heart would break. I don’t know how other Christians feel, but I can truly say that “My eyes shed streams of water, because they do not keep Thy law.” (Psalm 119:136) And because it seems to me that this dispensation 1compared with what God intended it to be, has been, and still is, as great a failure as the one that preceded it. 2

Now I ask, how can this be? I do not for one moment believe that this is in accordance with the purpose of God. Some people have a very convenient way of hiding behind “God’s purposes,” and saying, “Oh! He will do His own will.” I wish He did! They say, “You know, God’s will is done after all.” I wish it were! He says (in the Scriptures) it is not done, and over and over again laments the fact that it is not done. He wants it to be done… but it is NOT DONE! It is of no use to stand up and state theories and theologies that are in conflict with things as they really are. There has been far too much of this, and it has had a disastrous effect. We see the world is in this terrible condition… nearly 2,000 years have rolled by and here we are! How little has been done, comparatively. What little change has occurred in the habits, attitudes, and choices of the human race.

But some of you will say, “Well, but there has been a great deal done.” Thank God for that! It would be sad if there were nothing done; but it looks like a drop in the ocean compared with what should have been done. Now I cannot accept any theory which so tarnishes the love and goodness of God in people’s eyes, so as to make Him to blame for this lack of vitality and power in Christianity. And so far as my influence extends, I will not allow the responsibility and the blame for all of this to be rolled back upon God, Who so loved the world that He gave His only Son to suffering and death in order to redeem it. I do not believe it for a moment! I believe that the old arch enemy has succeeded in bringing about this state of things – in retarding the accomplishment of God’s purposes and keeping the world largely under his own power and influence. And I believe he has succeeded in doing this, as he has always succeeded before – by deceiving God’s own people .He has always done so. He has always conjured up a look – alike of God’s real thing, and the closer he can get it to look like the original, the more successful he is.

He has succeeded in deceiving God’s people:

First, as to the standard of their own religious life.

And secondly – he has succeeded in deceiving them as to their duties and obligations to the world.

He has succeeded first in deceiving them as to the standard of their own religious life. He has gotten the church, nearly as a whole, to receive what I call an “Oh, wretched man that I am” religion! He has gotten them to lower the standard which Jesus Christ Himself established in His Book – a standard not only to be aimed at, but to be attained – a standard of victory over sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil – real, living, reigning, triumphing Christianity! Satan knew the secret of the great success of those early disciples. It was their wholehearted devotion, their all-encompassing love for Christ, their utter renunciation of the world. It was their entire absorption in the salvation of their fellow man and the glory of their God. It was an enthusiastic religion that swallowed them up and made them willing to become wanderers and vagabonds – for His sake to dwell in dens and caves, to be torn in two, and to endure persecution in every form to the ends of the earth.

It was this degree of devotion which Satan saw he had no chance against. Such people as these he knew would ultimately conquer the world! People could not resist that kind of spirit, that amount of love and zeal, and if Christians had only gone on as they began long ago, then the glorious prophecy would have already been fulfilled – the kingdoms of this world would have already “become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.” (Rev. 11:15)

Lowering The Standard

Therefore the arch enemy said, “What must I do? I will be defeated after all. I will lose my supremacy as the god of this world. What can I do?” No use bringing in a gigantic system of error, which everyone will see to be error. Oh dear no! That has never been Satan’s way. His plan has been to get a hold of a good man here and there who will, as the apostle says, creep in unaware and preach another doctrine, and who will “mislead, if possible, even the elect.” (Matt.24:24) And he did it! He accomplished his design. He gradually lowered the standard of Christian life and character. And although in every revival in church history God has raised it again to some extent, we have never gotten back completely to the simplicity, purity, and devotion set before us in these Acts of the apostles. For every time God was raising the temperature in the church so that people were once again on fire with the Holy Spirit – in every age Satan has gotten someone to oppose and to show that this was too high a standard for human nature. It was altogether beyond us, and therefore Christians must sit down and just be content to be “Oh wretched man that I am” people, to the end of their days. He has gotten the Church into a condition that sometimes makes one positively ashamed to hear professing Christians talk. It is no wonder that thoughtful, intelligent men are being driven from such Christianity as this. It would have driven me off too, if I had not known the power of godliness. I believe this kind of religion has made more atheists than all the “atheist books” ever written.

Yes, Satan knew that he must get Christians down from that high pinnacle of wholehearted consecration to God. He knew that he had no chance till he tempted them down from that blessed vantage point. And so he began to spread those false doctrines, to counteract what John wrote in his epistles – for before he died, John saw what was coming and sounded the alarm down the ages – “Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (I John 3:7-8) Oh Lord revive that doctrine! Help us afresh to put up the standard!

Oh! The great evil is that dishonest-hearted people, because they feel it condemns them, lower the standard to their miserable experience. I said when I was young (and I have repeated it many times in my mature years) that even if it sent me to hell I would never pull the standard down. Oh, that God’s people felt like that! There, in the Bible, the glorious standard is placed before us, the power is offered, the conditions laid down, and we can all attain it if we are willing. But even if we are not willing – for the sake of the children and for generations yet unborn, do not let us drag the standard down, trying to make it meet our weak and failing Christian experience. LET US KEEP IT UP! That is the way to get the world to look at it. Show the world a real, living, self-sacrificing, hard-working, toiling, triumphing Christianity, and the world will be influenced by it; but anything short of that, they will turn around and spit upon.

Duties And Obligations To The World

Secondly, Satan has deceived even those whom he could not succeed in getting to lower the standard of their own lives, concerning their duties and obligations to the world. I have been reading the New Testament lately with special reference to the aggressive spirit of original Christianity. And as far as I can see, we come infinitely short by comparison. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.” Look at what is implied in this commission. I believe that no generation since that first century has yet fathomed the meaning of this divine commission. Look at it! Would it ever occur to you that it really meant, “Go and build chapels and churches, and invite the people to come in, but if they won’t – leave them alone”? “GO!” To whom? “To all creation.” Where am I to get at them? WHERE THEY ARE. “All creation.” This is the extent of your commission. Seek them out, run after them, wherever you can get at them. “All creation” -wherever you find a creature that has a soul – there go and preach My Gospel to him. If I understand it, that is the meaning and spirit of this commission.

In another commission to Paul, God says “…I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God.” (Acts 26:17-18) They are asleep – go and wake them up. They do not see their danger. If they did, there would be no need for you to run after them. They are preoccupied. Open their eyes, and turn them around by your desperate earnestness, intense persuasion, and moral force. Oh! It makes me tremble when I think of how much one man can do for another! ‘”Turn from darkness to light, and from the dominion of Satan to God.” How did Paul understand this? He says, “We persuade men.”(II Cor.5:11) Do not be content with just putting it before them, giving them gentle invitations, and then leaving them alone. Paul ran after the poor souls, and pulled them out of the fire. Do the same! Take the blindfold off their eyes which Satan has bound them with; knock and hammer and burn your words into their poor, hardened, darkened hearts with the fire of the Holy Ghost, until they begin to realize that they are IN DANGER! Go after them. If I understand it, that is the spirit of the apostles and of the early Christians.

Sure it’s okay to build churches and chapels; we should invite the people to them. But do you think it is consistent with these commissions to rest only in this, when three-fourths of the population utterly ignore our invitations and take no notice whatsoever of our buildings and of our services? They will not come to us. That is an established fact. Jesus Christ says, “Go after them.” He says, “Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled.” (Luke 14:23) Iwill have guests, and if you can’t get them in by nice, civil measures, use military measures. Go and compel them to come in.

Oh! People say you must be very cautious. You must not push religion down people’s throats. What! Should I wait until an unconverted, godless man wants to be saved before I try to save him? Am I to let my unconverted friends and acquaintances go quietly down to damnation, and never tell them about their souls until they ask, “If you please, I want you to preach to me!” Is this anything like the spirit of early Christianity? No! Therefore we must make them look, and if they run away from you in one place, meet them in another, and let them have no peace until they submit to God. This is what Christianity ought to be doing in this land, and there are plenty of Christians around to do it. Why, we might give the world such a time of it, that they would get saved in self-defense – if we were only aggressive enough and determined that they should have no peace in their sins.

An Example

I had been speaking in a town in the west of England on the subject of the responsibility of Christians for the salvation of people’s souls. The gentleman with whom I was staying had winced a bit under the truth, but instead of taking it to heart in love and having it enable him to better serve God, he said, “I thought you were rather hard on us this morning.” I said, “Did you? I should be very sorry to be harder on anyone than the Lord Jesus Christ would be.” He said, “You can push things to extremes you know. You were talking about seeking souls, and making sacrifices. Now you know that we build the chapels and churches and pay the ministers – and if the people won’t get saved, we can t help it!” I said, “It is very heartless and ungrateful of the people, I agree. But my dear sir, you would not reason this way in a serious physical matter. Suppose a plague were to break out in London, and the Board of Health appropriated all the hospitals and public buildings for the treatment of the disease. And suppose they were to issue proclamations saying that anyone who came to these buildings would be treated free of charge – and best of all, that the treatment was guaranteed to cure them. Now what if the people were so blind to their own well-being, so indifferent and uncaring, that they refused to come, and consequently the plague increased and thousands were dying. What would you say? ‘Well, the Board of Health has done all they could, and if the people will not go to be healed, they deserve to perish – let them alone!’ What? Let the whole land be depopulated? No! If the people will not come to them, they must go to the people and make sure that everyone had the necessary treatment to be saved from the plague.”

I did not have to explain any further… he understood perfectly, and I believe, by the Spirit of God, he was able to see his mistake, to take it to heart, and determine to get to work for perishing souls.

What We Must Do

Men are preoccupied with many things, and we need to bring this subject of salvation powerfully to their attention. There is some one soul that you have more influence with than any other person on earth. Are you doing all you can for their salvation? Take them lovingly aside and say, “My dear friend, I have never spoken to you closely, carefully, and prayerfully about your soul.” Let them see the tears in your eyes, or if you can’t weep, let them hear the tears in your voice. Let them realize that you feel their danger, and are in distress for them. Then God will give His Holy Spirit so they can be saved.

It is a bad sign for the Christianity of this day that it provokes so little opposition. If there were no other evidence of it being wrong, I could tell from just that. When the Church and the world can jog comfortably along together, you can be sure there is something wrong. The world has not compromised – its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was. If Christians were equally as faithful to the Lord, separated from the world, and living so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as it ever did. It is the Church that has compromised, not the world. You say, “You’re implying that we should be getting into endless conflict with the world!” Yes- “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34) There would be uproar, yes! The Acts of the apostles are full of stories of uproars. One uproar was so great, that the Chief Captain had to get Paul over the shoulders of the people, otherwise he would have been torn to pieces. “What a commotion!” you say. Yes, and bless God, if it was like that now, we would have thousands of sinners saved.

The Dignity Of Love

“But,” you say, “wouldn’t that be inconsistent with the dignity of the Gospel?” It depends on what you mean by “dignity.” It was a very undignified thing, humanly speaking, to die on a cross between two thieves. The Pharisees spat upon the humbled sufferer and shook their heads and said, “He saved others, He cannot save Himself.” Ah! But He was intent on saving others. That was the dignity of everlasting, unquenchable love, baring its bosom to suffer in the place of its rebellious creature – man. It was incarnate God, standing in the place of condemned man – the dignity of LOVE!

Oh friends! Will you get this baptism of love! Then you will, like the apostles, be willing to stuff your body into a basket and be let down by the wall, if need be – or suffer shipwreck, hunger, peril, nakedness, fire, or sword, or even beheading (II Cor. 11:23-33) -if thereby you may enlarge His Kingdom and win souls for whom He shed His blood. Oh Lord, fill us with this love and baptize us with this fire! And then the Gospel will arise and become glorious in the earth, and men will believe in us, and in it. They will feel its power, and they will yield to it by the thousands, and by the grace of God, THEY SHALL!

Catherine Booth (1829-1890) and her husband William founded The Salvation Army in 1865 in heir home country, England. Together they raised eight dedicated Christian children and preached the Gospel worldwide. Intent on saving others to the end Catherine stepped out boldly in ways that many women (even in our day) are reluctant to go. And in the Army William and Catherine led, men and women worked side by side for the salvation of the world. Her life made such an impression that at her death over 50,000 people flocked to Congress Hall in London to pay tribute to the “Mother of the Salvation Army.’ More than 36,000 attended her funeral, and at the invitation to give their hearts to God, hundreds rose to their feet.

Catherine authored six books as well as various pamphlets and articles. Her biography “Catherine Booth,” written by her granddaughter, is published by Hodder & Stoughton.