Question:
Pastor, If a person has accepted Jesus Christ as his/her personal savior at some point in their life, but is not walking daily with the Lord, according to the word (Bible) will that individual be left behind when Christ comes back to take his church home? My wife and I have been having this discussion, I say yes they will be taken, she says no, they’ll miss out and be left. I don’t want to argue with her, even though I have a good understanding of the word, we disagree. I want to know what the word says.
Answer:
You are correct in that no person who is truly born again will be left behind when Jesus comes back. Please see the question “http://www.pathwaynet.com/libertyb/question/prequest/unconfes.htm”. The bottom line of what you are asking would demand that a person have absolutely no unconfessed sin, or else he would not go up in the Rapture. In that case, there would be very few that would go.
Remember, the Rapture is not our reward for faithful service to the Lord. The Judgment Seat of Christ is where we receive our rewards, or loss of rewards, which are crowns. II Corinthians 5:10 says, “For WE MUST ALL APPEAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” Notice that it says that WE MUST ALL APPEAR (all Christians) before the Judgment Seat of Christ. If some Christians are left behind to face the Tribulation Period, then they would not be appearing before the Judgment Seat of Christ, because it takes place in heaven while the Tribulation Period is happening upon earth. That would contradict Scripture.
Once again, we cannot make the Rapture our reward for faithful service. The Rapture is a promise for all born-again believers. Our rewards are given at the Judgment Seat of Christ. I Corinthians 3:11-15 says, “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, HE SHALL RECEIVE A REWARD. If any man’s work shall be burned, HE SHALL SUFFER LOSS: BUT HE HIMSELF SHALL BE SAVED; yet so as by fire.” A person who dies out of fellowship with the Lord, or who faces the Rapture out of God’s will, is not going to lose his salvation — he is saved, yet so as by fire (he is going to have no rewards, but he is saved). The Bible is clear that salvation cannot be lost, but rewards can be lost. Revelation 3:11 says, “Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, THAT NO MAN TAKE THY CROWN.”
Are you faithfully serving the Lord? The time may be very short, so we need to be faithful! Matthew 24:44 says, “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”