Left Behind: Not!
A prophetic expectation?
For the Christian Church, indeed for the world at large, there is prophetic significance attached to the Jewish festivals and feasts. The spring feasts of Passover and Pentecost saw the death and resurrection of Christ and, 50 days later, the coming of the promised Holy Spirit.
Last month, as always at this time of year, Jews around the world came together for the first day of their year to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets (‘Yom HaTeruah’; Num 29:1-6) as the commencement of the cycle of the Autumn feasts.
This year, ‘Rosh HaShanah’, the first day of Tishrei, was on 23 September – the date of the Jewish calendar adopted as the ‘head/beginning’ of the Jewish New Year (Ezek. 40:1). It commences a time of preparation leading up to the holiest day in the Jewish calendar which is The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur; Lev. 23:27-28). Five days later each year sees the commencement of the 7-day Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot/Feast of Booths) which commemorates God’s provision during Israel’s journey through the wilderness. It is one of the three pilgrim festivals and many Jews live in fragile shelters during the period.
These Autumn feasts and festivals are considered by many to have profound significance for future events - including the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s here we get to other related event of this most recent season of the Autumn Feasts.
The event which never happened
Just prior to the Feast of Trumpets, internet discussion forums and social media were awash with a ‘prophecy’ given by a South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela who was claiming that Jesus would return on the 23rd or 24th of September. To give it its other name, Rosh HaShanah is characterised by mighty blasts of the Shofar. The pastor’s dream connected with verses like 1 Thess. 4:16-17 and 1 Cor. 15:51-52 where “the trumpet will sound” and “the dead in Christ will rise first”.
Needless to say ... this event did not happen.
Needless to say, and to the great disappointment of all who had looked forward to being caught up into heaven, this event did not happen.
The most important background to all of this is the widespread belief and teaching of an invisible return of Jesus to remove believers from the earth prior to the great tribulation (cf Rev. 7:14).
The cause of the disappointment
Without getting tied up with debates about what early Church fathers may or may not have believed, both the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine and its surrounding framework of Dispensational theology have flooded into the Christian world-scene since first being introduced in the 1830s by Bible teacher John Nelson Darby (1800-82).
The Anglican/Irish churchman took his teaching across the Atlantic where the movement gained mainstream momentum with the publication in 1909 of the eponymous Reference Bible by US lawyer C.I. Scofield. His dispensational notes were carried to lay readers across denominations and his view was taught to pastors through Bible colleges like Dallas Theological Seminary (founded in 1924). The teaching was later popularised by books like Hal Lindsay’s ‘Late Great Planet Earth’ and the Tim LaHaye’s ‘Left Behind’ series of films.
The essence of the pre-tribulation rapture view is that Christ will make not one, but two future returns to earth.
The essence of the pre-tribulation rapture view is that Christ will make not one, but two future returns to earth. The first of these, it is said, will be the aforementioned invisible coming “for the saints” to spirit believers away from the earth. This world-shattering event will then be followed seven years later by Jesus’ physical return “with the saints”. These beliefs draw on a number of Bible verses which, it is claimed, substantiate the teaching.
Eisegesis or Exegesis?
With regard to those who will be “left behind” on earth while believers are raptured away, reference is made to the verses relating to two men and two women; in each case “one will be taken and the other left” (Matt 24:40-41). However, the context and an analogy is given by Jesus in the preceding verses (Matt 24:37-39). It is those who were lost who were ‘taken away’ by the flood. (It has been wisely stated that “a verse out of context is a ‘proof text for a pretext’”. Presuppositional thinking produces eisegesis ̶ reading into Scripture ̶ rather than exegesis, which is the drawing out from Scripture.)
Another oft-quoted verse in support of the pre-trib rapture view is the occasion when Paul reassured believers that “God has not appointed us to wrath” (1 Thess 5:9). This verse is used to suggest that we will escape the Great Tribulation. The error here is in failing to distinguish between the wrath of God on unbelievers (Eph 5:6, Col 3:6, Heb 3:11, Rev 6:16-17, 15:7, 16:19, Rev. 19:15) and the devil’s wrath on the unbelieving world (Rev 12:12).
So, while believers are free from the ultimate wrath of God in final judgement (Rom 5:9, 1 Thess 1:10), this is not the situation for those who have rejected His son. Neither is it the case that our world will not suffer under the devil’s schemes.
By far the most serious view posited by dispensational teaching is the assertion that there is no present-day connection or relationship between Christians and the Jews.
Yet another verse employed refers to the fact that Jesus will return as a “thief in the night” bringing sudden destruction (1 Thess. 5:1-3). However, the verse immediately following tells us that believers “are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thess. 5:4).
The pre-tribulation rapture teaching leads its adherents to believe that the bulk of the book of Revelation is irrelevant for them: i.e. that believers will leave the earth from chapter 4 until the final consummation of all things in the two concluding chapters. It is suggested that the ‘move to heaven’ follows the invitation to John (Rev 4:1). However, further on John is viewing the scene from an earthly perspective (Rev. 10:1). Indeed, John is instructed to: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” (Rev 10:8)
But by far the most serious view posited by dispensational teaching is the assertion that there is no present-day connection or relationship between Christians and the Jews. The former termed “God’s heavenly people” and the latter “God’s earthly people.” This is an outright denial of Paul’s teaching to the church in Rome (Rom. Ch 11) and Ephesus (Eph. 2:11-19). The dispensational view suggests that in the present day, God has moved his focus onto the Gentiles, and that He will resume His dealings with Jews after the invisible rapture.
The differing views should never be a cause of division amongst those who earnestly follow Christ and long for his appearing.
Watching and standing together
While all this is very distressing in terms of the teaching that has invaded the Church, the dispensational pre-trib view is held by a great number of earnest and sincere believers.
While there are great consequences in terms of our respective understandings of the prophetic outworking preceding Christ’s return, the differing views should never be a cause of division amongst those who earnestly follow Christ and long for his appearing.
So meanwhile, we watch and look up while together crying: “Maranatha”.
Colin Wilson, 24/10/2025