What Will Happen After the Rapture? (Part I)

Prophecy is something that has interested me since I was very young, however until I fully turned over my life to Christ understanding of it eluded me. God by the grace of His precious Holy Spirit has shown me some of what is going to happen after the rapture of the church, but before I get into it I’d like to first talk about exactly who will be left behind, and why.

In these end times there are so many false Christs being presented to the world that many are being deceived. If the people who call themselves Christians would actually practice the faith and search the scriptures for themselves instead of farming all their spiritual discernment out to false shepherds, the church wouldn’t be in the mess it is today. What they don’t seem to understand is one devastating fact; most of them will be left behind when the rapture of the church occurs.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Revelation 3:17 (KJV)

Let’s see; wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Do those sound like positive traits for the bride of Christ? Scripture plainly tells us the state of the Laodicean church, and as bad as it is, she is also utterly ignorant as to her fallen state. But is she really ‘fallen from grace’ as Paul put it? Oh yes, she is!

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Revelation 3:20 (KJV)

Reality check; if Christ is standing outside of the Laodicean church knocking to get in, guess what? He ain’t inside! Now compare the Laodicean church to the true bride of Christ:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Revelation 19:7 (KJV)

The Laodicean church has been lulled into a false sense of eternal security. They will tell you there is nothing required of them by God. Not only that, but some will say that simply trying to please God by turning from our sins and doing good works equates to trying to earn our salvation! For me this begs the question; How does one become so tolerant of their inherent sin nature? It truly boggles the mind, just as does a woman who is wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked thinking they need nothing.

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Ephesians 4:17-19 (KJV)

I’d like to focus for a moment on the blindness of the Laodicean church. It is not a normal blindness of course, but the spiritual blindness of the heart. What is the nature of this spiritual blindness though? It is intentional blindness caused by closing the eyes!

For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Matthew 13:15 (KJV)

There is no blindness as dangerous as that of the person with their eyes wide shut. They hear the Word of God but reject it, because they are not willing to change their ways. No matter how many scripture passages you share with them that plainly say things like we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, endure to the end and wash our robes they will not heed. Why? Because the gospel of the Word of God is not what they signed up for! They signed up for a false Christ, who requires nothing of them but that they once half-heartedly mumbled some promises with their lips that they never really intended to keep.

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation 7:14 (KJV)

Most Christians seem to be aware of the description of the end times in Matthew 24, however Luke’s account of this same conversation adds a most wonderful promise. Here we are presented with those who have washed their robes, but with one big difference. These have come out of the great tribulation. You see, Luke 21:36 (KJV) makes it quite clear that only some will be found worthy to escape the great tribulation. Plain logic dictates that for a person to be found worthy they must have done something different than others have. If some are found worthy, others must be unworthy. We call that conditional security. And before you try to claim that all Christians will be found worthy and the unworthy described here are the unsaved, let me remind you that those in the above verse were only found worthy after the great tribulation had already begun. Only those who have washed their robes before the tribulation will escape it.

Once the church has been caught up and the Antichrist revealed there will be a small window of opportunity for those left behind to wash their robes, which simply means to repent of their sins and return to the Father's house like the prodigal son did. Once that window of opportunity has closed those who still refuse to repent will be overtaken by the strong delusion, which I will explain in Part II.

The rapture of the church will mark the moment when the Holy Spirit has been taken from the earth. How do I know that? Quite simply the Spirit showed it to me, glory to God! Let’s look at the scriptural evidence:

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 (KJV)

Who is this that restrains the ‘Wicked’ from being revealed to the earth? It is He, the Holy Spirit who is the restraining force that must first be taken out of the Antichrist’s way before he is revealed. The fact that the word ‘Wicked’ is capitalized here betrays the fact that it isn’t an adjective but a noun, specifically a person. Now for the very simple revelation that the Holy Spirit gave me. Where is He? Is the Holy Spirit floating around us in the ether? Nope.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6:19 (KJV)

Since the Holy Spirit resides within the heart of every true Christian, what becomes of them when He is taken out of the way? Is the Holy Spirit going to be ripped from the hearts of God’s people, leaving them on the earth without a comforter? Of course not! Every single Spirit-filled Christian will be caught up and taken out along with Him because He is a part of us! Glory to God! The Antichrist cannot be revealed until that has happened. The problem is that a large swath of people who call themselves Christians are not Spirit-filled. So, what will become of them? They will be left behind.

I am going to tell you what is going to happen next, but most of you will not be inclined to believe me. Why? Because it is probably going to be the strangest thing you have ever heard. The first time God showed it to me I thought my imagination had gone wild. It took Him a full twenty years to confirm for me that what seemed to be utter science fiction fantasy was soon going to become reality for the world.

GO TO PART II