The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Lorraine Hannaford of Ontario, Canada from the tape, GC 1301-L, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 14."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1980. All Rights Reserved.

Question

Do you have any thoughts as to how the Rapture will be explained after we’re gone?

Answer

Yes, I do. People say, "Well, when we’re all just gone, taken out of the earth, won’t everybody say, "Oh, we all believe, we all believe!"? No.

I got an insight into this from a very obscure situation--I’ve told you about maybe before.

A guy came into my office one day and he says, "I’m a new Christian and I’ve been saved out of the occult." He said, "I’m a musician in the rock industry. I came to Hollywood to write a rock opera called “Alisiam 1990” (sp?). I’ll never forget the name of it. It was supposed to be like a sequel to “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which he claimed was written by a medium spirit through automatic writing by a demon. That’s what he claimed.

Anyway he was to write this thing called “Alisiam 1990”(sp?) and he got involved in the Schurmer (sp?)...you remember the Schurmer (sp?) music? Well both of the Schurmer’s (sp?), the biggest music publishing company in America, they publish even church music, the Schurmer’s (sp?) both of them are mediums connected with the occult. They are very highly involved with what’s known as the Mark Age ociety which an occultic thing that meets in Santa Monica in a big old mansion, you know very spooky.

But anyway, I'll see if I can shorten this down. This guy got involved in Schurmer (sp?) music; he was contracted to write this thing. He started to write it and all of a sudden these demon spirits took over. A witch was assigned to him, he met with this witch regularly, and he would sit down and he would write this stuff and he didn’t even know what he was writing but he wrote this entire thing. He brought me the whole thing. This massive rock opera. And he said during the process of this he got involved in mediums and demons and he was going to the Mark Age Society, and he said they gave him a book and I said well let me see the book. He brought me this book, and in this book was an explanation of the Rapture. And this is what he told me they told him. And he gave me the book to read.

The book explains how there are mediums in the U.N. and demons in high places and how they are in key points in the government just like the Prince in Persia in Daniel, how demons infest leaders of government and all the gods of the nations are demons and all this stuff, it was amazing stuff.

Anyway, he said that they told him that the biggest hang up in the world are Christians. We’ve got to get rid of Christians, because Christians hold back society from ascending to the next level of spiritual consciousness. And they told this guy, he didn’t know anything about the Rapture, he said to me, they’re planning to remove all the Christians. So we got to talking about the fact that when the Rapture occurs, at least if you’re in that circle, it’s very explicable, the demons will have claimed to remove those who were retarding society from reaching the next level of spiritual conscientiousness.

Believe me Satan is way ahead of us in anticipation of these things. He’s had a long time to think about it and to get his plans together, and he knows there’s going to be a Rapture, he can read the Bible; he’s heard plenty of sermons too.

So there is no indication at all biblically that there will be a great revival afterwards. In fact, I believe immediately after the Rapture, and this is just a personal belief, that the two witnesses of Revelation 11 will begin their ministry. And what does the world do to them? Kills them. Kills them dead and lets their bodies be on television so everybody can gloat over it and have a party and give each other gifts, they are so happy they’re dead. There’s no revival, so there’ll be some explanation for it. Other than the truth.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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