The day of separation: Why every Christian must wake up now

Can you feel it? Do you sense that something big is about to happen? And by big, I mean an event or events affecting people on a global scale.

I am convinced that Spirit-filled believers are detecting what the Puritans called the “quickening.” To quicken is to bring to life, accelerate, or incite. Pregnant women experience quickening with a baby’s first movements, and more importantly, the term also describes an advanced stage of pregnancy that alerts the mother that her long-awaited day is near — even imminent.

Christian, you and I have the greatest motivator ever — we have an appointment with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that people are spiritually quickened or made alive when they are born again and will be physically quickened at the resurrection.

Now, ask yourself: Are there signs that events are accelerating before us, moving us toward the end of the age? Is there a tension that seems to indicate that God is about to intervene in our lives?

I would say: Yes! This quickening is a reminder to the church of what is soon to come. And it is a tremendous time to be alive. It is true that anti-Christian sentiment is rising — as we should expect — because believing in Jesus Christ divides. I can say any name at any given time, anywhere, and it’s not a problem. Yet division is guaranteed when anyone mentions the name of Jesus Christ outside the walls of a church. If believing in Jesus is divisive, believing in the rapture and its imminency creates an even greater divide.

How so? It was Jesus Himself who introduced the doctrine of the rapture in John 14:1-3.

The Bible tells us that the rapture will separate believers from non-believers. Suddenly, without notice or any prerequisite, believers will instantly vanish, being transformed and translated into the spirit realm.

Though believers are awaiting that day, many others are not. Sadly, husbands, wives, family, and friends who do not know the Lord will not experience this blessed hope. Many even mock the rapture as a fairy tale, the proverbial pie in the sky, or escapism. But being raptured is not without precedent. It has happened before.

Christians believe in the rapture because it is clearly taught in the Bible. It is a biblical doctrine. Some challenge that statement because the word “rapture” doesn’t appear in our English Bibles, but it does appear in the Latin Bible as rapturo. To be raptured is to be “caught up or pulled up suddenly.”

Remember, Jesus introduced the doctrine of the rapture in John 14:1-3, when He said: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

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To skeptics who doubt the veracity of the rapture, I have a couple of questions. Following His resurrection, did Jesus ascend to heaven?

Yes, He did. According to Acts 1:9, the disciples watched as He was taken up. So is Jesus in heaven right now? Yes, He is. And did Jesus say He was going to prepare a place for us and come back just long enough to pick us up and take us back to where He is? Yes, He did, in John 14:2-3. I submit to you that the way Jesus will accomplish this is through the rapture.

Every Bible-believing Christian familiar with scripture understands that the rapture is a fact. They may disagree on the timing of it — before, during, or after the seven-year tribulation period — and that is OK with me. Believers can disagree on timing, but we cannot say, “There is no rapture.” To say that would mean deleting John 14:1-3 and numerous other passages right out of the Bible.

When God’s word speaks of the coming separation of the righteous from the unrighteous, it doesn’t leave us in the dark as to how it will happen. Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Paul understood the rapture to be imminent, meaning there is nothing more that needs to be fulfilled in biblical prophecy before this event occurs. This exciting news would have thrilled the hearts of the Thessalonians, as it should for us today.

Wherever you are right now, can you take a moment to say, “Thank You, God, for this ever-present blessed hope!”

God’s great gift to mankind was manifested in Jesus because God the Father “so loved the world that He gave” — gifted the world — “His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). A gift is meant to be received, but it cannot be received unless the recipient chooses to accept it.

‘Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

It is tragic when gifts are rejected with the words “return to sender.” Refusing an extravagant gift from someone who cares deeply about you is a heartbreaking form of rejection. Yet people do that with the gospel. The gospel goes out, and they say, “I don’t want or need it.”

But believe me, when the day of separation comes, you will want to have received the gift of salvation through Christ. He is your passport to heaven.

I cannot stress this enough: No one will want to be an earth-dweller when Jesus Christ returns at His second coming!

The Lord knows who you are and how to deliver you, dear saint. In this age of facial-recognition technology, air travelers can now move through international customs by facing a screen and allowing it to scan their faces, which it does instantly. If a green light appears, the customs door opens. No identification or passport is needed.

If we, through technology, can identify others, how much more can God identify us who are marked by His Holy Spirit? We will not be forgotten or left behind when Christ comes for His own! “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

What stimulates, encourages, provokes, and compels you to do what you do? In other words, what motivates you in life?

I don’t know about you, but when there is a special appointment or a long-awaited event I’m looking forward to, I am motivated to get ready for that day. Christian, you and I have the greatest motivator ever — we have an appointment with the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do we get ready for such an important date?

“Do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:11-12).

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