I was out riding my bike one day not long ago and had stopped to rest on a bench just off the sidewalk in town. I  was sitting there enjoying a very pleasant summer day when I noticed a middle aged man walking down the sidewalk towards me.  I said "Hi" to him as he got close and he stopped to talk as he returned my greeting.  I discovered that he was a vistor staying at the local resort and he wanted to know more about the area and its history.  His name was George and he seemed to be especially curious about different churches in the area and after we had talked for several minutes, George asked me if I had read the article about 'End Times' in 'Time Magazine' a few weeks ago. The following is basically the gist of the conversation that I had with him:

"As a matter of fact, I have read it--my nephew e-mailed me a link to it and I read it on the internet." I replied.

"What did you think?" he asked.

"About what?" I asked back.

"About the article." he said.

"Not much." I replied.

"Why do you say that? George asked.

"Well, the Scriptures don't say that spiritual things are determined by opinion polls or popularity contests." I replied.

"What do you mean?"he inquired.

"Well, God says, 'Spiritual things are spiritually discerned' and I believe that you have to be very careful trying to find truth in any article written about truth in secular publications written by secular writers, almost all of whose articles sow serious seeds of doubt even in the very existence of God and even in the very existence of absolute truth itself.  Is it not written, 'The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God' and does not Jesus tell us that the Spirit of God, the Comforter, is given to guide us into all truth and comfort us with truth?" I asked.

"Well, yes...", he said.

As he paused for a few moments, I asked, "Well, then, how can those who, having not received the things of God precisely because of doubting His very existence and the very existence of absolute truth itself, guide us into spiritual truth?"

"I guess they really can't," he admitted, "but they interviewed some well-known people and popular authors and ministers for the articles didn't they?"

"All the more reason to be suspicious about them, don't you think?" I questioned.

"Now, why do you say that?" he asked.

"If Jesus tells us that 'Broad is the way that leads to destruction and narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it', shouldn't we be looking askance at what's popular with the masses and comparing it carefully with the Scriptures before accepting anything, especially truths concerning the second coming of Christ and of the end of the world?" I asked.

"Are you saying that people like Hal Lindsey and Tim Lahaye, the author of the 'Left Behind' series, and others whom the article interviewed are lying to us?" he asked incredulously.

"I would never judge the integrity or sincerity of anyone, but in Matthew chapter 24 when Jesus was asked by His disciples about the end of the world and His coming again, He told them that right before He comes again especially, wolves thinking to devour the flocks of God will be disguising themselves in sheep's clothing and at that time the deceptions will be so great that, "if it were possible, even the very elect of God would be deceived."

"I think I'm beginning to see your point at being careful as to what we believe, but I've read most of 'The Left Behind' books and I think they make most people think about spiritual things." he said.

"Of course, thinking about spiritual things and our relationship to God is the place to start, but there is a vast difference in thinking about spiritual things and living a Godly life, don't you think? According to the doctrine and theology of the 'Left Behind' promoters, Jesus could come secretly and invisibly for His people at anytime. According to 'Left Behind' theology, what would happen to you, George, if Jesus came right now and you weren't ready?" I asked.

George pondered for a moment and then said, "As I understand it, if He came today and I wasn't ready, I don't think anything would happen to me, as far as I know; but I would soon become very aware of the absence and of the reports of a lot of missing people all over the world."

"And, then, what would happen to you?" I asked.

"Well, then, I guess I'd have seven years to get my life life right with God while the earth was going through the greatest tribulation ever witnessed." he replied.

"George, I've got a small Bible in the saddlebag on my bike, would you mind if I read to you what Jesus says about God's people and the great tribulation or time of trouble right before He comes again?

"By all means, do so." he said

After retrieving my Bible, I found the passage I wanted and began to read, 'For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.'" (Matthew 24:21,22).  Now, George what do you think Jesus is trying to get us to understand here?

He asked me to read the passage to him again, which I did, and after thinking for a minute, he said, "If the good Lord is going to shorten the greatest tribulation the world has ever seen for His people's sake, it can only mean that His people must be going through that great time of trouble along with the rest of the world. The question this brings to my mind though is why would God allow His people to suffer through such a terrible 'time of trouble' as you call it?" George questioned.

"Well, George, it seems to me if entrance into heaven were based on profession alone, the whole world would say, 'I believe'. There are many who today are saying 'I believe' who will, when that most terrible time of trouble comes upon the whole world, blame and lash out against God just as most in the world does now when things go wrong in their lives. To whom do we really belong when we cry out against our maker and our God when things go wrong?" I asked him.

"To the enemy of God, I guess." he answered.

"Let me read another verse I recently read in God's Word, 'For what glory is it, if, when you are treated harshly when you do wrong and you take it patiently? But if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable to God.' (1Peter 2:20). Why did He allow faithful ones in the past to suffer and be martyred? How can God take to heaven those who will not even consent to suffer for their faults, let alone for doing well? Jesus did not suffer and die because of His badness, but they killed Him because His goodness was such a reproach to sinful men. 'Indeed, all who will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.' (2Tim. 3:12). Since Cain killed righteous Able, it has always been and it will continue to be, especially in these last of the last days, that the ones who are faithful to God who will suffer the greatest persecution."

"What you're saying is making me think I have a lot more work to do in my life than I've ever thought." he said.

"I don't want to be disagreeable, George, but I don't believe that it's a matter of work or of working our way to heaven. I really believe it is a matter of attitude and of changing our minds toward God and about what happens to us in our lives. I really believe that our priorities are out of order and we go astray because our picture of God is distorted however so slightly.  I believe that much of the lawlessness, wickedness, and just plain indifference that you witness today is plain evidence that people are trying to 'make it up' to themselves for believing that they have been treated unjustly by God and by others in the past.  I think many subconsciously, and maybe some consciously, blame God for allowing all the hurts and the losses, great and small, that they haved sustained in their lives and so they justify themselves in rebellion against His Kingdom and in dwelling as outlaws in this world to His Kingdom.  Sin, it seems to me, to the worldly mind has become a reward for a sense of loss and past indignations that many people feel."

"I've never thought of it like that before." he said

"We can lament how bad things are in the world or how bad things have been in our lives, but how is that going to change anything? God asks each of us a very important question in Romans chapter 2, 'Do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?' (verse 4).  God's people have to be in the world, but we cannot afford to be 'of' the world if we are to be a witness to those lost in it. We cannot afford to identify with the fleshly mind where the laws of retribution and compensation reign, blaming God as if He isn't in control, and yet, at the same time thinking that God's great Love will overlook our sins and our separation from Him. We cannot afford to think as the world does."

"How can we, who consider ourselves to be God's property and to be in an inseparable union with Him, go romping around constantly on the enemy's ground thinking to do just as we please and as the world thinks we should?  No, God's people living in the visible world must live and love within His invisible Kingdom and within the invisible boundaries of His Law."

"As childen, as we grow, we learn to greatly respect the Law of Gravity because of what happens to us if we don't.  God established His Ten Commandments just as He established His Law of Gravity, but because the results of breaking His Commandments aren't always immediately apparent or injurious to us as is our defiance of the Law of Gravity, the great majority go through their whole lives defying God's Moral Law all the while blaming God for the poor harvest they have reaped when they, themselves, are the ones who have sowed weed seeds, not only in their own hearts and lives, but in the hearts and lives of others."

George thought for some time before he said anything and finally said, "I've always been taught the New Testament or New Covenant does away with God's Law and that now there are only the Two Great Commandments, the first is loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and the Second is loving one another as we love ourselves?"

"On the surface, that argument sounds good, George, but nowhere can I find a place in the New Testament where Jesus ever says or ever even hints that those Two Great Commandments did away with the Ten Commandments; what He did say was that 'On these Two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.' (Matthew 22:40).  To 'hang' in this case does not mean to 'hang' as an outlaw who would be 'executed by being suspended from the neck', but here 'hang' means 'to depend upon' and by no means does 'hang' here mean 'to destroy or kill'.  In other words, having and keeping the Ten Commandments 'depends upon' our having and keeping the Love of God in our hearts for Him and for others. In the Two Great Commandments, Jesus was speaking only to our motivations for obeying God's Law, not anything else. God does not accept obedience for any other reason other than Love for God and for our fellow man because 'God is Love' and any other reason is being separated from God."

"That's why our Lord tells us, 'Love is the fulfilling of the Law' (Romans 13:10).  They would never say it in so many words because it is so absurd, but the essence of many churches' teaching about the Law of God being done away with really is 'Love is the transgression of the Law', just the opposite of what God says. Jesus is plain in saying that those who teach such things about the Law of God are the least of men (see Matthew 5:18-20).  Love is the great motivating power by which the Law is fulfilled.  By the way, of the Two Great Commandments, Jesus magnified and clarified the Second when He said to His disciples, 'As I have Loved you Love one another' because He knew many would misinterpret and misapply 'loving one another as we love ourselves' since many love themselves in perverted ways."

"Many people think that the New Covenant is God's Love doing away with His Law for the world's sake or for the sake of the Gentiles. BUT I CHALLENGE YOU (OR ANHYONE READING THIS) TO SHOW ME ANYWHERE IN THE SCRIPTURES WHERE GOD MAKES A SAVING COVENANT WITH THE GENTILES."

George looked as if the wheels were turning in his head and didn't reply, so I continued on:

"Paul explains the New Covenant in the book of Hebrews: 'Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ...For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my Laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.' (Hebrews 8:8, 10-12).  Paul was expanding upon the New Covenant that was revealed to Jeremiah: 'Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.' (Jeremiah 31:31).

"Wow, this is a revelation to me!" George exclaimed.

"Nowhere in Scripture do you find any saving covenant made with anyone but Israelites! So if you want to be saved, you must be born again, as a spiritual Jew.  I am not saying that Christians must now be circumcised and sacrifice lambs, but we must have the spiritual equivalent of these things made manifest in our lives: Jesus, the Lamb of God, and circumcision of the heart. 'For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.' (Philippians 3:3). God says, 'Know therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.' (Galatians 3:7).  Abraham was the father of the Jews and if you are a spiritual child of Abraham, then you are a spiritual Jew.  Jesus said, 'Salvation is of the Jews' (John 4:22), not just because He was a Jew, but because the things of God that pertain to salvation, including and especially the Law of God, were first given to the Jews. God's people are Jews and you don't have to be born of Jewish heritage to become a Jew; to become a Jew all you have to do is believe and accept the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and follow Him."

"I've never seen it like this before." George said.

"God says, 'And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.' (Galatians 3:29). 'For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.' (Romans 2:28, 29)."

"George, I'm sorry, I have to go now or I'll be late for an appointment, but I tell you the truth,  whether out of ignorance or misunderstanding, the 'Left Behind' people's theology is misleading many people, and by believing that the 'Left Behind' series is based on Biblical truth you ARE receiving a lie. The truth is, many of God's people WILL have to go through the greatest time of trouble and tribulation the world has ever seen, just as the Israelites went through the ten plagues along with the Egyptians; but as God protected the Israelites and saw them through those plagues, so, too, God will protect His people and see them safely through."

"As Jesus says, 'He who shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.' (Matthew 24:13). When Jesus comes again there will no more second chances or seven years to get right with God; and if the 'Left Behinders' are not telling the truth according to the Scriptures, aren't they giving many people a false sense of security in thinking they'll have seven years to change their lives when God says no man really knows how long it will be until Jesus comes again, even though His people will know when His coming is very near?"

"Jesus talks about His coming again in Matthew 24:27 and in the very next verse He talks about the vultures being gathered over dead bodies. God says in 1 Thess. 4:16,17, 'For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them (the dead in Christ ) in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord'.   So it can only be those who believed the lie of 'Left Behind' who are not caught up in the air to meet Jesus and they are the ones "slain by the brightness of His coming" (2Thess. 2:8) and the one the vultures are gathered over!" I said in earnest as I was getting on my bike to leave.

George got up as I did and held out his hand and as I took it he said, "I don't want to be 'Left Behind' holding onto a bag of lies when Jesus comes and there is much I have to think and study and pray about, thank you for giving me much food for thought."

Before leaving, I got George's address and I promised to send him a book on prophecy and on the history of the Church since Jesus walked the earth and he promised to read it.  It is my prayer and I hope it is yours that we all would be guided by His Spirit into all Truth that we will not be 'Left Behind' when He comes again in the clouds. There is comfort in real Truth, that's why the Spirit of God is called The Comforter.

by Jon Zwayer