Chapter One After The Vanishing
What Has Happened
Chapter One of “After the Vanishing” By Dave White.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not preceed those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
And then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
(1 Thessalonians 4: 13-17)
What undoubtedly was the greatest moment in the life of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ has become the greatest nightmare for those left behind.
You have missed the Rapture, that is, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Church and the beginning of “many sorrows” for those left behind. Read verse 17 again:
“And then we who are alive and remain will be “caught up” together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. This scripture almost 2,000 years old, given by The Holy Spirit to the apostle Paul, is unmistakable. No matter how many excuses and explanations you are certain to hear, remember, God has laid out His plan for the ages. Through the prophecies of Daniel, The Book of Revelation and many others, everything was revealed to us in advance.
Maybe you know already what you’ve missed. Maybe you thought you were “saved.”
But you were warned:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the father, but is from the world.
The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
THEY WENT OUT FROM AMONG US, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they are not all of us.
( 1 John 2: 15-19)
This verse of scripture clearly states that many who have attended church or considered themselves “Christian“ were either deceivers or deceived. In the book of John, chapter 10, beginning in verse 25, Jesus said,
I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in My Fathers name, these testify of me.
But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give eternal Life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
And further, Jesus declares:
“I am the vine, you are the branches…Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” (John15: 4-6)
What does it mean to abide? It means to hang in there, don’t let go, to last. Jesus wanted (and still does) us to hold on to Him and the ways He taught us; to believe in Him and never waver. He foretold how difficult it would be to abide in Him in the years leading up to the great vanishing and especially in the years just after:
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
HOLDING TO A FORM OF GODLINESS BUT DENYING ITS POWER.
…but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 TIM 3:1-5, 4: 3-5)
But the Spirit explicitly says that in the last days some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. (1 TIM 4:1)
Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “where is the sign of His coming?”
(2 peter 3: 3,4)
And finally, when our Lords’ disciples asked Him what would be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age, He replied,
See to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in My name saying, “I am the Christ, and will mislead many,
At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.
Many false prophets will arise and mislead many. Because lawlessness has increased most peoples love will grow cold.
For false Christ’s and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, even the elect.
(Matthew 24: 4,5,10,11,12,24,25)
There is no question that in the early 21st century the predictions in the bible were coming true. Do you recall the “Columbine” high school shootings and murders committed by younger and younger children? Do you remember the call for “separation of church and state”?
The prohibition of prayer in public schools?
But most of all do you recall a simple turning away from the One true God of the Bible as the source of wisdom for the questions of life?
America, America, God shed His grace on thee,
And crowned the good, with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.
What an inheritance we squandered. And right until the end, America believed She was indestructible. Now, soon after the great vanishing, She will learn differently.
