Author Bio
Dr. Gary Frazier is a much sought-after speaker on the subject of Bible prophecy. His Prophecy seminars are spiritually awakening experiences, giving new insight into current events in these last days with an emphasis on the Middle East. Dr. Frazier speaks in approximately 40 churches a year. He has appeared on numerous Christian radio and television talk shows. In addition, Gary speaks nation wide along with Dr. Tim LaHaye and Dr, Ed Hindson in the Left Behind and Global Warning Prophecy Conferences being hosted by America's largest churches.
First Chapter
The Great Disappearing
Ashley laid her six-month old baby girl, Madison in her crib, quietly turned out the light and paused at the door for one last glimpse before returning to the living room. Ashley and her husband Bill relaxed on the sofa and began to talk about the events of their day. Suddenly, for some strange reason, Ashley jumped from the sofa and immediately bolted to Madison’s bedroom and opened the door. She stood in the doorway with disbelief in her eyes. The crib was empty and Madison was gone. It happened just that fast, in the blink of an eye. This same scene played out over and over again in untold thousands of homes in America and throughout the world. One can only imagine the thoughts racing through the hearts and minds of those who found loved ones gone or instantaneously vanish before their eyes. How will people respond? What will they think? Where will they turn? How would you respond and, more important, would you be ready?
What do you suppose would happen if 100 million people vanished from this planet? One can only imagine the terror that would result in such a catastrophic occurrence. Will those who find themselves left behind notice that millions of people were missing. How will it be explained, and by who? Where did they go? Who took them? Why didn’t they take me? These are very logical questions, in light of what would have taken place. There is no doubt in my mind that when this worldwide event will occur the media will be racing to offer one suggestion after another. I can picture reporters standing in the middle of the street attempting to be heard over the screaming of those whose loved ones have simply vanished. No doubt, the networks will feature 24-hour coverage of this incredible event. I can just imagine some of the ideas will be discussed at news desks around the world. Some will say there has been an abduction by aliens or “space brothers” of all those who needed to undergo evolutionary reprogramming. Others will no doubt speak about the fact that we have long believed that there is life on other planets and now an invasion has finally taken place. But wait a minute. I’m getting ahead of myself. Allow me go back to the beginning, where the story really starts. Let’s go back to creation.
Back to the beginning
God had a plan when He created the galaxies, put the stars and the planets in their place, and when He created the animals, and lastly, humanity. Scripture clearly says that God already knew the beginning from the end, and that He has had a plan for the earth we occupy since before its creation. Revelation 13:8 says “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” Even the crucifixion of Christ was a part of God’s plan before there was ever a need for His sacrifice. The Bible is our guide to that plan, and in it we can find a clear, accurate, and reliable picture of what has been, and what is yet to come in our world’s future.
I personally believe that God’s plan is a 7,000 year plan. I realize we are told by the academic world that the earth upon which we reside is millions of years old. In fact, if you visit the Grand Canyon and read the literature provided at the visitor’s center, you will be told it was formed 270 million years ago. Was anyone there to substantiate this? Is this fact? I do not concur with the theory of evolution. I know it’s hard to read the Bible and, at the same time, go through our public education system, where you’ll be taught this unfounded theory as though it were fact. I might remind those who believe in evolution that even the founder of the Theory of Evolution, Charles Darwin, admitted that evolution was only a theory. A theory is something that hasn’t been proven in an observable, verifiable way. No one has ever seen a monkey evolve into a human. A fish has never been seen sprouting legs and walking out of a body of water onto dry land. Therefore, to teach or accept a theory as fact is academic deception, and believing it takes a giant leap of faith. Since this is true, why not simply accept the creation record in Genesis as being fact? Frankly, I am persuaded it takes a greater step of faith to accept evolution than to simply accept the Biblical record.
As I stated, God’s plan is a seven thousand year program. From creation to the call of Abraham, was two thousand years. From Abraham to Jesus Christ, was another two thousand years. From Jesus Christ to the end of the era in which we now live, is going to be two thousand years, and then all that’s left is the return of Christ, and His one thousand year reign on earth. I believe this because I believe God is organized. He does not work randomly, as we can see in nature itself. Right now, you might be asking yourself, how he can say that the time from Christ’s sacrifice to His return will be two thousand years, when we have already passed the year A. D. 2,000. The fact is we know that our calendars are not accurate. Your calendar may tell you it’s been more than 2,000 years since the time of Christ, but its accuracy was in question from the time it was created. When the sixth-century scholar Dionysius Exiguus created the Gregorian calendar that we use today, he based it on the birth of Christ and the beginning of the Christian era. However, he didn’t use an accurate date for the birth of Christ. Since his starting point wasn’t accurate, we already know that the year 2000 wasn’t really 2,000 years from the time of Christ. That’s just one error among many.
We can see evidence of God’s ordered, 7,000 year plan when we look at how God works. He created all that exists in six, literal twenty-four hour days and rested on the seventh. God initiated seven Jewish feast days, and seven is God’s number of perfection. This by itself would not be very good evidence, except that in the New Testament the apostle Peter states, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8).
As I write these words, I am keenly aware that much of modern Christianity and the entire secular academic world dismiss this thought as foolishness. However, this makes perfect sense to me, and as I look at the big picture of God’s plan, it fits perfectly with the prophetic teaching of God’s Word. I believe it will make perfect sense to you as well, when you’ve read what God’s plan holds in store for us next, and see the convincing proof that exists for our generation being the final generation that will see Christ’s return.
The Bible begins with God creating the world we now live in. He created Adam and Eve, and placed them in a controlled environment with virtually everything they could possibly need or even want. He only placed one restriction on their lives in the Garden of Eden. They were not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve chose to break this command, and sin entered into the world. Over a process of time, as the earth was populated and sin continued to corrupt the lives of the people, God’s plan called for the destruction of a the world with a global flood, sparing only eight people – Noah and his family. Following the flood, these eight began to repopulate the earth. Once again man’s sinful nature led to the continued violation of God’s plan of obedience for humankind.
Eventually, God spoke to a man named Abraham, and through Abraham and his wife, Sarah, God miraculously brought a child into the world named Isaac. Thus began the Jewish race upon the earth. The Jews were God’s chosen people in a wicked world, and it would be this race that God would use to send a living sacrifice, capable of covering the sins of the world. Jesus, born to a virgin girl named Mary in a small village in Israel called Nazareth, lived upon the earth for 33 ½ years and was crucified upon a cross. Three days later He rose from the dead, walked among the people of this earth, and was witnessed by as many as 500 people at one given time before ascending into heaven from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Fifty days after His resurrection, Christ’s church was born on the Jewish festival of Pentecost, when the followers of Christ received the Holy Spirit, as had been promised by Jesus before His death and resurrection. Pentecost began the world’s final two-thousand-year period, before God’s plan will be concluded with the physical reign of Christ upon the earth, known as the Millennial Reign. This period in which we now live will draw to its end in an event known as the Rapture, when Christ will receive unto Himself every person on this globe that has trusted Him as the Savior of his or her soul and the Lord of his or her life.
Jesus described His return and the gathering of the Church in Matthew 24:40-41, when He said, “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”
No matter how hard we try, I don’t believe it’s possible for anyone to comprehend what this earth-shaking event will really be like. Perhaps it’s this wonder and mystery that makes the Rapture such a controversial topic in our world today. There is much disagreement, even within the Christian community, regarding the Rapture, and the secular world mocks those who find hope in Christ’s promised return for His followers. However, needlessly divisive arguments among Christians, and the opinions of those who don’t know any better, make Christ’s promise no less real and imminent, as we will see.
What exactly is the Rapture, anyway?
According to the manufacturers of Ping golf clubs, it is the newest and best driver on the market, the Rapture 460. However, this is not the Rapture we are seeking to define in this context. The word “Rapture” comes from a Latin word which has its root in a Greek word meaning to catch up or snatch up. Therefore, when one speaks of the Rapture, they are speaking of an event in which Jesus Christ will appear in the sky to snatch all true believers up to Himself, and ultimately to heaven.
Many today say that the very idea of the Rapture is traceable only back to the 1860’s when a preacher by the name of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) began to spread this idea among his followers. The Rapture skeptics also point to a young Scottish girl by the name of Margaret McDonald who supposedly had a vision and, from that vision, the idea of a Rapture taking place before the Tribulation period was born. Further, they point out that the word Rapture never appears in scripture. If you point out that the Bible was written in Koine Greek, and not English, they will respond only with a blank stare. It never occurs to them that an English word would be decidedly out of place in Greek writings, and they don’t bother to examine what the Bible does say about this prophetic event.
All of these arguments are nothing more than smoke and mirrors. The Biblical teaching of the Rapture comes from the Lord Jesus himself, as well as from the written word of the Apostles. Jesus said to the disciples, as recorded in John 14:1-3, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
The fact is, Jesus was speaking to those who, by faith, committed themselves to Him. In other words, this earth-shaking event is not for everyone, but only for those who love Christ and are looking for His return. The disciples and the early followers of Christ expected Jesus to return in their lifetime. I believe, based on the writings of the apostles Paul, Peter, and James, that the Bible teaches an eminent return of Christ for His Church. Since Jesus might come again for His followers at any moment, we must be ready for His return at all times. In addition, I believe His return will precede a seven-year, worldwide Tribulation, when God finally judges the wicked nations of the world and those who rejected Christ.
This teaching is commonly known in Christian circles as the Pre-Tribulation view of the Rapture. Is it a new idea? No. However, it is a rediscovered teaching that was lost to the church for hundreds of years as the world languished through what is labeled historically as the Dark Ages. In the thousand plus years of the Dark Ages, most could not read, and illiteracy reigned. The Bibles that existed were found mostly in churches, chained to lecterns, and read only by the clergy. In addition, government-controlled religion was the order of the day, and what scripture the masses did hear was often chosen with politics, money, and power in mind, rather than the spiritual growth of the Church. The result was that some of the great truths of God’s prophetic Word were lost to most, and remained so until the period known as the Enlightenment to the secular world, and the Reformation to the Christian world.
The idea that someone might be translated from earth directly into heaven without seeing death is also not a new idea. In the Old Testament, Enoch was taken into the presence of God while still very much alive (Genesis 5:18-24). Hebrews 11:5 tells us that, just as will be the case with the Rapture, faith was a requirement for Enoch to be translated into the presence of the Lord. Likewise, Elijah was taken up into heaven like a whirlwind because of his faith, and was seen no more (2 Kings 2:11-12).
So we can see that the translation of a living human on Earth into the heavenly realm has been used by God in the past to bring believers into His presence. But, what about the translation of the entire body of believers, prior to the Tribulation? It is a fact that the early Christians looked forward with hope and longing to a time when Christ, as He promised in Matthew 24, would return and translate all believers into the heavenly realm to be with Him in His Father’s house. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
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