IS THE RAPTURE A REWARD? - Is the Rapture a Salvific Issue, unconditionally?

The purpose of this study is to address some important questions related to the Doctrine of the Rapture. Is the Rapture a Reward, post-Salvation to be merited? How can a Church Age Believer in Jesus cross over into the Tribulation Period? And if so, if they end-up taking the Mark of the Beast, they will lose their Salvation? What happened to ‘Once Saved, Always Saved?’ For all that has been stated, with Scripture, one is arguing that one’s interpretation is that the Rapture is not a Salvation issue.

And that it is to be merited as a Reward for being a Faithful Bride, waiting, watching for the ‘Call’ of the Groom to be taken, i.e., the Rapture, etc. One has the sense that the push-back puts the Rapture back to it being a Salvation Issue. And thus, it is covered ‘unconditionally’, regardless of how a Believer and Follower of Jesus chooses to live their lives or not challenge the ‘official narrative’. It is that one-and-all in the Body of Christ will go up in the Rapture regardless of Sin or Abandonment in one’s life.

One has provided verses of those specific Brethren from the bible that were clearly ‘Saved’ but suffered a loss. One argues, they did not lose their Salvation but their ‘Positional Relationship’ with Jesus. These verses cannot be ignored and need to be reconciled and not dismissed. If the logic is that it does not matter what the Bride of Christ does or says or thinks, and she can then indulge in Sin, ‘Adultery’ because what is the difference in the end?

Are all going to get raptured no matter what?’ One might as well become a Calvinist. In that case why strive to be Holy? Why separate from the world? Committing both physical and spiritual Adultery is then really inconsequential, as it does not matter, it is all preordained, as the Rapture is unconditional and not part of the Rewards, etc.

If the Rapture is unconditional, then Jesus has to change His Parables in that it will not matter that there is a difference between the Wheat and the Tares. Both will be gathered in the barn and not be burned. Those taken either in the field, at the mill or in bed will not need to worry as they will all be raptured together and none will left behind. In that case, why build the Ark? Consider these specific instances of those ‘Saved’.

1) Lot’s Wife, ‘Saved’ did not enter her allotted Salvation/Deliverance.

2) The 10 Virgins, ‘Saved’ but 5 are left behind, did not maintain their Lambs, negligence.

Positional Relationship
So, consider Lot’s Wife and those others that suffered loss and how one equates that to the Rapture being a Reward that can be lost. All of Lot’s family was called to be ‘Saved’. They were ensured Salvation and did not need to suffer from the Wrath that came. Yet, Lot’s Wife chose to return. She did not proceed and walk away from the world and into that Salvation that was allotted to her. She was ‘Saved’ but lost her life.

She lost her Positional Relationship. She did not lose her Salvation, she lost her relationship with both her husband and GOD. She suffered the same Wrath appointed to those not promised to escape from it. Regardless if one believes the 10 Virgins either represents the Bridesmaids or the Bride, some got ‘Left Behind’. But one’s point is, demonstrated from Scripture, that there is loss to consider as a consequence, thus the Rapture is a Reward that likewise can be forfeited, in one’s assessment.

Here is one’s rationale and line of thought about it. Obviously, one can be totally off and incorrect in this understanding. But what makes the Church Age unique and amazing is that there exists on Earth, presently something that has not ever existed before in all of Creation. It is the Body of Christ. It is a living organism in how it is likened in the New Testament to a Spiritual Building that is being built-up with ‘Living Bricks’.

Think of it as a Noah’s Ark typology. So, yes, every Human that comes to Faith in Jesus, genuinely is placed in that Boat, on that wall as a ‘brick’, etc. There is protection there, a covering and despite GOD allowing persecution, suffering and martyrdom, that Boat or Ark is impossible to destroy or wall to tear-down. It is because it is like the Israelite Camp having the Tabernacle, another type of the Ark, literally as in the Ark of the Covenant that was in their midst.

The Bible teaches that the curses of Balaam could not occur, because there was a ‘Shout of the King’. Where? It was within the Congregation, that ‘ship’ in the desert. Lucifer cannot curse what YHVH has blessed. Jesus thus promised that His Church, His Body would likewise never be prevailed over by any attempt from without by Lucifer and his Gates of Hell. Now from within? Yes, as in sabotage in how Balek caused ‘Sin in the Camp’ to occur through sex. And? YHVH had to judge them.

One’s point is that the Positional Relationship was not inconsequential. Incidentally, this is a Sin that plagued many of the 7 Churches of Asia for which Jesus called them out and warned them about. Yet in the last Church iteration, Laodicea voted Jesus out of the Congregation. They were all ‘Saved’ but got vomited-out of their Salvation? No, their Positional Relationship with Christ Jesus.

What makes the coming 70th Week of Daniel a tragedy for those of the Church Age is that it is a Sabbath that Jacob still owes YHVH for not keeping the Sabbath of the Land. The Church has no physical Promised Land, City or Temple to contend over nor owes Jesus any ‘Rent’ for not keeping all that. So, one’s rationale is that it is the Body of Christ, the ‘Ark’ that will be removed, taken as it will no longer exist on Earth going forward from the point of the Rapture event.

Body of Christ, Exit ‘Up’
This is why during the Tribulation Period, the AntiChrist will be allowed to come against the people of Jesus, Jew and Gentile and the AntiChrist will prevail over them. Why? It is because the Ark, the ‘Boat’ has left the dock, the Train has left the station, etc. But single individuals from the Church Age, like the ‘Wife’ of Lot, or Demas, or the 5 Virgins, metaphorically, those of the Church Age, blood-bought and sealed with the Holy Spirit will be left behind, in one’s interpretation. What?

It is because such did not allow the Holy Spirit to mold them, fashion them, like a Potter with the clay. They were not a ‘brick’ that allowed itself to be used to finish the Spiritual Building, i.e., the Bride and New Jerusalem that is to come down 1 day to Earth, etc. One is precisely arguing that it is all about those that are ‘Born-Again’, without a doubt that can never be taken from the hands of Jesus.

If one acknowledges that the Holy Spirit can be quenched or grieved by one’s own volition, it is precisely because GOD honors one’s will to allow it. If the Rapture was unconditional, why is it being permitted? And if a Believer, like a Judas, or a Demas, or those that become Enemies of the Cross, being Saved chose to not to want to be in a relationship anymore with Jesus, then Christ Jesus will honor that disposition.

Again, the Rapture is not about losing one’s Salvation but forfeiting one’s ‘Positional Relationship’, etc. It is like the old cliché of a Father, even that of the Prodigal Son. The Positional Relationship of a Father to Son is just that, unchangeable. But when the son decided to leave the Relationship, he did not stop being the Son.

He left the Relationship and suffered loss for it, though. One’s point is that Relationships matter. How will that translate in Heaven, as to those that miss the Rapture? One does not know the mechanics of how it will be dealt with. But even in Heaven there is a Hierarchy of how Sin will be judged, to degrees of severity. And likewise, ones’ Works or Rewards will pan-out in terms of position, power and authority given, etc.

Jesus is not casting out all that come to Him for Salvation, but for Relationship? He vomits those that vote Him out. He will not force a Relationship on you, the Saved. Yet, being and doing this is a ‘Work’ in itself. To ‘walk’, to confess, to repent? That is all Works, no? Is not the Salvation that is by Faith alone, by Grace alone activated by an act, a Work? What? Where does the Bible teach that? See the following verse from the Gospel of John.

-JOHN 6:28-30
Then they inquired, ‘What must we do to perform the Works of GOD?’ Jesus replied, ‘The Work of GOD is this: to believe in the One He has sent’. So they asked Him, ’What Sign then will You perform, so that we may see it and believe You? What will You do?’

So why dismiss a conditional Rapture that is to rely on Works? Christ has not saved His Bride to be a compulsory Spouse, a Robot that is as a Slave to having to be in a Relationship with the Groom, etc. This Bride betrothal has to be and is based on a declared commitment, a vow, a Holy Vow based on Love and Free Will.

Is that not what the Muslims believe about Jesus that He is a ‘Slave’ of Allah. No, what Jesus has procured in the ‘Full Salvation Package’ is the privilege to enter the very Relationship He as GOD the Son, has with GOD the Father. We are now able to call His Father, our Father. And Jesus no longer calls us ‘Servants’ but ‘Fiends’.

‘No longer do I call you Servants, for a Servant does not understand what his Master is doing. But I have called you Friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give you.’

Jesus will not lose anyone that He has saved. Again, it is a conflation of what is beyond one’s security in one’s Salvation in Jesus alone. No, the Bride of Christ cannot ‘jump out of Jesus' Hand, dominion or power. But He will not violate our volition to not want to be with Him, co-ruling and reigning in Glory.

Works matter as every act or Work is being recorded. And that is what will be going through the Bema Seat Fire. And for that purpose, there is a ‘Heavenly Ledge’ being kept of one’s Life, down to our very Tears one sheds in suffering and despair even.

Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a Book of Remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the Lord. And who meditate on His Name. ‘They shall be Mine’, says the LORD of Hosts. On the day that I make them My Jewels. And I will spare them. As a man spares his own Son who serves him’.

In spite of such Sin, will they escape? In Your Anger, O GOD, cast down the Nations. You have taken account of my wanderings. Put my Tears in Your bottle— are they not in Your Book? Then my Enemies will retreat on the day I cry for help. By this I will know that God is on my side’.

Hopefully, those that may find themselves crossing into the Time of Jacob’s Trouble will act accordingly. They will no longer have the ‘Ark’ to be covered by and seek refuge in. Yet knowing what they had chosen instead like Lot’s Wife or Demas will have the wisdom and experience not to take the Mark of the Beast.

It is beyond one’s ability to speculate what that will entail. There is a compelling assessment that how can a Born-Again, Spirit-Sealed and Filled, Believer in Jesus, ‘Once Saved Always Saved’ (OSOS), be left behind to face the Mark and then lose one’s Salvation if they take it? Again, consider that, assuming and subscribing to Dispensationalism, the 70th Week of Daniel is in full effect.

That is as far as one, with confidence can take the argument to. But one must realize that it will be no different for the ‘Tribulation Saints’ in that matter. They too, having come to Faith in Jesus, will be redeemed, sealed by the Holy Spirit, etc. Yet, they too will have no Body of Christ. They will face the Mark. And if some that are Saved take the Mark? Technically by the Biblical stipulation given, they can forfeit their Salvation in this time.

So, all the tribulation saints will be in the same predicament as those that had crossed over from the Church Age, having missed the Rapture, presumably. What will be sobering is how those that come to Faith in Jesus during the Tribulation Period will look upon those that had the ‘Ark’, the Church Body to seek refuge and protect in, but refused and rejected, neglected ‘So great a Salvation’.

Allowing for the possible scenario to play out, one would venture to say that all who may be ‘left behind’ will be brought to repentance. And that sobering will perhaps make them courageous enough to refuse the Mark of the Beast that will forfeit one’s Salvation when that time comes calling. But as one has discoursed with others about this same question, ‘Is the Rapture a Reward?’ Or is it unconditional? The answer is simple.

So long as a Believer and Follower of Jesus is walking with the LORD, confessing Sin, such need not worry if they will make it in the Rapture, if one has doubts. They key is the 4 Anchors of the Faith that will keep one’s ‘Boat of Faith’ from drifting. The 4 Anchors are to be anchored in the following.

1) Learning

2) Fellowshipping

3) Praying

4) Worshiping

Still, many believe that to ‘turn away from Jesus’ means such people were never really of Jesus to begin with. It is true that 'only Christ knows who are His'. And sometimes Christians can only be pretending and fooling others. Or that one thinks one may know presumably that they when in fact they are not.

For sure it is the case with a lot of 'Professing Christians'. But the Scriptures do give some Protocols to help one assess the Spirit and Fruit of those that profess to be of Christ Jesus. But many in the Body of Christ do not really know or appreciate just how lucky they are to be living in this Age of Grace and Mercy and to be part of all that Jesus is and has and is yet to be revealed.
_____________________

Audio Synopsis