Pastor's Weekly Update

OCTOBER 17, 2024

Lakeshore Friends—

What do you think about when I mention an event in the Bible called the Rapture of the church?  Based on my many years of experience, many people either don’t know about it or know so little about it that they lack any sense of appreciation for what it is.  And that includes so many Christians.

I think many people know more about Taylor Swift’s current concert schedule than God’s end-time prophetic schedule, which begins with the Rapture of the church.

How could it be that this incredible event—this absolutely world transforming event—is treated with such indifference?  I think there are many reasons:

1. Many churches don’t believe in it.  They have some vague concept that Jesus may come back and leave it at that.  The Rapture is too detailed and controversial to them.

2. Many churches are more focused on social justice issues and trying to change the planet.  In their efforts to focus on these temporal issues, they fail to realize that the only change that will make a difference is when individual lives are changed by Jesus.

3. Many Christians don’t know much about it.  In fact, they know so little about God’s plan for the future and that is sad because one-fourth of the Bible is spent on detailing the future.

4. Many people are living for this life and don’t concern themselves with the afterlife.  What makes this so sad is that compared to this life, the afterlife is infinitely longer.

Despite these facts, we’re out to change this by teaching you all about the Rapture of the church on Sunday.  It’s so important that it's called the "blessed hope" in Titus 2:14.  It is the event that is so consequential that it will rescue every true Christian from the seven-year tribulation period that ends the world as we know it, and will leave behind everyone who is not a Christian to try and endure this time of great trouble.  Those left behind after the Rapture of the church will endure a time of trouble that is so severe that an entire book of the Bible (Revelation) is dedicated to explaining it in painstaking detail.

How could this incredible event be seen with such indifference?

I hope you’ll be here on Sunday.  I hope you’ll invite as many people as are open to it to join you.  I’ll break it down in an easy-to-understand way and answer all of the big questions that you have about it.

Warmly,
Vince