This is the third in a series of possible, fictional scenarios of what it would be like after the Rapture of the born-again Christians. What will happen in the Rapture is all the true, saved, Christian believers will vanish as Jesus calls them up to heaven. In the first post, I showed how the Progressive Christians may react. I think they’ll get it. In the second episode, I featured two Catholic priests who were left behind. Today, we’ll take a look at an interesting couple with a secular worldview — the “Coexist”, the “to each his own”, believer.
We don’t know when the Rapture will happen. When it does, it will happen at the same moment everywhere around the world. So, if it’s morning in Phoenix, AZ, it will be night in Australia. Each of these stories will take place at different days and times. The idea behind this, is to get you to understand that you have to be ready. It could happen at any moment and you really don’t want to be left behind.
Again, this is FICTION. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is pure coincidence. Today, we’re in a nice North Phoenix residential neighborhood.
Left Behind at the Rapture: The Jew and the Secular “Christian”
Phoenix, AZ, a Sunday Morning, 10 am — sometime in the near future — post COVID — things are back to normal.
Miriam Schwartz and Craig Sanders, both in their mid 40s, were relaxing, drinking coffee, in the backyard of their North Phoenix home. It was a beautiful clear and cool, spring morning. The dogs were chasing each other around the pool. Miriam and Craig weren’t married, but they owned the home together. Miriam was of Jewish background, originally from New York and still had a heavy Brooklyn accent. Craig was a native Phoenician who had grown up in a Baptist church, but never really surrendered his life to Jesus Christ.
Miriam’s parents were raised Reformed Jewish and eventually just stopped going to temple. Craig was baptized when he was 12 years old, but he did it just to please his parents. Needless to say, his parents were not very happy when he moved in with Miriam without getting married first.
They both adapted a secular worldview. They each had a “Coexist” bumper sticker on their cars. Very much part of today’s culture, they thought they had it all — a nice house in a fairly upscale neighborhood, decent incomes, 2 dogs in the yard, 2 cars in the garage. The perfect life! Until that Sunday morning.
Around 10 am, they heard a crash from the house next door. Miriam and Craig stood up and looked over the fence, but couldn’t see anything. They ran out the front and saw that the neighbors’ car had crashed into their garage door. Running over, Craig’s first thought was that Harry, who was in his 60s, had had a heart attack or something. However, nobody was getting out of the car. When they both reached the car, they saw that there was no one in it!
“Where are they?” Miriam asked.
Craig walked around to the driver’s side, “I don’t know! They both seem to be gone. All their clothes are in the car and it’s still running.” The doors were locked and inside, where Harry and his wife Sarah would have been sitting, were their clothes, jewelry, sun glasses, cell phones and Sarah’s purse. “What the….?”
Then, they both heard the sound of car horns from the main street two blocks away. They ran over only to see angry drivers, trying to get into locked cars, that were still running, but there were no drivers in them. Both lanes in both directions were blocked. One of the empty cars was a police SUV!
Craig’s phone rang. It was his sister. “Linda?”
“No, it’s Michael,” his teenage nephew replied, sounding distressed. “Mom and Dad are gone and so are Grandma and Gramps.”
“What?! And your sister?” Craig’s niece, Tammy was just 11, she loved going to church and hanging out with all the kids there. Michael replied, “Everyone from the church is gone! I think this was the Rapture!”
Craig scoffed at the thought, “You’re kidding, right?”
“Uncle Craig, I wish I weren’t. I remember hearing about it at youth camp last summer, but I didn’t pay attention to it. Some of the kids at camp got baptized, but I wasn’t ready. I wanted to have fun a little longer. Little did I know that it would come so soon! What do I do?”
Craig thought for a moment. The streets were clogged. There was no way either of their cars could get through. He needed a scooter or a motorcycle. Then, he remembered a neighbor who had one. “Hang in there Mike, I’m coming to get you. I’ll borrow a scooter and get there as soon as I can. Pack what you can carry for now.”
He looked up at Miriam. “My sister, Nick, and Tammy are gone, so are my parents.”
Miriam hugged Craig. “What’s going on?!”
“Mike thinks it’s the Rapture of the Christians,” Craig said solemnly. “We missed the boat.”
“What are you talking about?!”
“Listen, I’ve got to go get Mike. I’m going to see if I can borrow the Anderson’s scooter. Get on the Web and see what you can find on the Rapture.” He kissed Miriam and ran off to the neighbor’s house.
Miriam walked back to their house in a daze. She got online and searched on YouTube and came across this video…
Miriam watched it through twice. Then she got up and started rummaging through a book shelf. “There it is!” She exclaimed, pulling out a Bible a friend had given her some years ago. She remembers her friend telling her, “You should read it. It’s a history of your people.” She meant the Jews. Miriam was so far removed from her Jewish faith that she didn’t know where to start. She searched and watched more videos and furiously wrote down Bible verses that were quoted in the films.
She then sat down with the Bible and her notes and started studying.
Meanwhile, Craig found his neighbor who owned the scooter also gone. Gratefully, the scooter was there and he found the key in his neighbor’s pants which he found on the couch. His mind was rushing with thoughts of his childhood growing up going to church. Why didn’t he get it?! He felt he didn’t need God. He guessed that’s what his nephew Mike was thinking, too.
His sister’s house was not that far away, but Craig was shocked at all the cars and trucks that were driverless and ended up crashed everywhere. He watched as a small plane that had just taken off from Deer Valley Airport, just north of where he was, puttered silent and crashed the hills to the east. There were people crying and screaming looking around for loved ones who were gone.
Craig managed to get to his sister’s house and Mike was waiting for him with a backpack. Mike jumped on the back of the scooter and they sped off. Craig had to drive on the sidewalk and through people’s lawns to get around the driverless vehicles. He could hear Mike sobbing with his head on his shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry, kid. We’ll figure this out.”
They found Miriam engrossed in a Bible, something Craig had never seen before. He remembers when she brought it home. A friend had given it to her. What if she or he had started reading it back then? Where would we be now?
“Craig! Look what I found!” Miriam played the video for him and Mike. Then she read some of the Bible passages…
27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
Mark 13:27 NIV
That’s Jesus speaking. He then said…
32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
Mark 13:32-37 NIV
“We missed it, Craig! With everything that’s going on, the pandemic, the political unrest, the lawlessness, the “new world order” and the “Great Reset“. That’s all predicted in the Bible! It’s all right here! Here’s more…”
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
Matthew 24:36-44 NIV
Mike had been listening intently, “Is it too late for us?”
“No,” Miriam told him. “The lady on the video said that if we’re left behind, that we can still turn to Jesus for salvation. However, we’re going to have to go through the Great Tribulation, and from what I gather, that’s not going to be fun. Look,” she walked over the computer, “I found my friend’s website and she has a page that tells us what we need to do to invite Jesus into our hearts. Here’s a prayer.”
The three of them prayed the prayer and they all felt at peace.
“Alright, then!” Craig exclaimed. “We’ll have to stick together and trust God for guidance in everything we do.”
“Uncle Craig, let’s baptize each other in the pool.”
“Yes! Let’s!”
That began their new adventure. They eventually found the folks from Beatitudes and they formed a core group of believers who tried to stay ahead of the “new world order” that was forming amidst the chaos.
Will You Be Left Behind?
That was the question that I asked myself after I read the first of the “Left Behind” series in the ’90s. “Will I be left behind?” I didn’t know. The only way I could know for sure was to invite Jesus into my heart and ask Him to forgive my sins.
If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…
