Do you remember the story about “The Boy The Cried Wolf”? The boy cried wolf so many times that when the wolf finally came no one believed him.  This is what I believe has happened to so many Christians in our nation.  Now the Lord told us explicitly in the word not to believe any one who said Jesus is coming on a given date at a given time:

Matthew 25:13

Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

Anyone that tells you that Jesus is coming back on such and such a day is totally working under the spirit of Anti-Christ, because this is “anti” what Christ said.  I knew after Y2K  that people would begin to tire of end times teaching - but this was the Devil’s plan.  Do you remember Y2K?  They told us that all of the computers would melt down and all of the power would go off.   People went out and bought gallons and gallons of water, and pounds of can goods: sardines and vienna sausages.  But at midnight nothing happened.  All the black people were reciting Prince “2000 zero, zero party over oops out of time” from his song “1999”

I remember that I preached at a new years service that night telling everyone that nothing will happen that night and nothing did.  (I  didn’t buy not even one bottle of water)  How did I know?  First of all the Bible said that when Christ comes the world will not be looking.  The Bible says that he will come as a “thief in the night.”

A thief can’t come when everyone is looking. 

Luke 12:40

Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Yet I knew when the Y2K scam was over that this would be the last time that anyone in the world would take the rapture seriously.  Unfortunately, this was also applicable to the church.  It is almost taboo, and considered folly to talk about end times in most churches.  In African-American Churches the teaching is almost non-existent.  No gospel singers, sing of the Rapture anymore.  (Remember Soon and very Soon by Andrae Crouch?) Yet this is the message that God challenges me to preach almost every time I go to a church.  Furthermore the fact that almost nobody is interested in the “Left Behind” phenomena anymore means that we are very close to the rapture because Bible prophecy is literally being fulfilled. 

2Peter 3:3-4

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 promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”

So why should we focus on end-times?  “Either He is coming back before I die or He won’t.  Why should I be concerned about Jesus coming back?  Since I am a Christian when Jesus comes back I will automatically go with him.”  This is what many Christians have told me.  Before I answer these false statements let preface the answer.    Most Bible prophecy teachers skate around what I am getting ready to tell you because many of them are fundamentalist and are hemmed-in by their security of the believer doctrine.  I too believe that a believer is secure, but my qualifications for a “true believer” is far more strict than most fundamentalists. First of all the rules for and after the rapture generation will be a little different than the generations before.   We all know that the rule for all humanity has been

Hebrews 9:27

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

We know that this rule will be suspended for the raptured-generation.  There is a generation that will not experience any death whatsoever.  Most church-goers have been made to believe that any person that has ever said the “sinners prayer” and attends church pretty regularly will be included in the Rapture.  This is not what the Bible teaches.  The Bible teaches in Revelations that lukewarm Christians will be rejected by God. 

Revelation 3:16

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Will luke-warm Christians be raptured with everyone else?  It doesn’t sound like it, does it?  If a Christian was going to skip over death wouldn’t there be some higher  qualifications?  I believe that this is what the Bible teaches.  Lets look at the first person to skip death and be raptured, Enoch.

Genesis 5:24

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Hebrews 11:5

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Enoch was translated or raptured because he pleased God.  I believe that Enoch is the model of the end times Christian.  No matter what was going on in the world, Enoch walked with God.  He was also acutely aware of what would be happening in the end times generation.  We know that, unlike the fundamentalists, Enoch believed in the supernatural because he prophesied about the Second Coming of Christ (after the Rapture). 

Jude 1:14

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

So here is my first two criteria.  The Christian who will be raptured must:

1. Walk closely with God.  (Enoch wasn’t: a homosexual, living with his girl-friend; drinking alchohol, etc. like many of todays “Christians” who expect to go in the rapture)

2. He operated in the Supernatural and understood prophetic events.  (Most present-day Church goers are spiritually blind and deaf.  They can’t see or notice the prophetic events around them and they have no experience with the Supernatural.  Personally I can’t see how any Christian can make it in our nation without heavily leaning on the Holy Spirit and His gifts.)

Jesus also gave very clear criteria for going in the rapture. 

Revelation 3:3

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Lets look at this scripture closely.  Jesus says that the person participating in the rapture must be faithful to the word, must endure (hold fast), and must turn from a lifestyle of sin. Jesus says that these three things are what He defines as watching, because after He list the three criteria He says if you don’t “watch” (do these three things) I will come on you as a thief and you will not know when I came.  Notice,  he doesn’t say a robber, he says a thief.  How do you know when I thief has been in a store or business?   Only when you discover something is missing.  Jesus says if the Christian is not watching, they will discover that He has come and gone just as the world will - because others will be missing but they will remain.  Notice Jesus says that the Christian will not know what hour it happened.

Is he talking about knowing the hour beforehand?  No! He already said in Matthew 25:13 that no man knows the day nor the hour.  So He has to be talking about after the event.  He is saying that the “Christian” that doesn’t watch will miss the entire event and not know (the hour)  when it happened. Notice this scripture was written to the Church not to sinners.

This gives us three more criteria for the Rapture.

3. Remain faithful to the word, the logos and rhema (written and revelatory).

4. Must endure, keep the faith until the end.

5. Must turn from a lifestyle of sin. (fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, etc)

Paul also stated some criteria as it relates to the rapture.

2Tim. 4:8

And now the prize awaits me the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that great day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his glorious return.

Paul states plainly that Christ is coming for those who are eagerly looking for His appearing. 

Heb. 9:28

so also Christ died only once as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people.

He will come again but not to deal with our sins again. This time he will bring salvation to all those who are eagerly waiting for him.

6. Must be eagerly looking for the return of Christ. 

I know so many Christians who treat the Rapture like it is a bad word.  They act like waiting for Christ makes them some unbalanced fanatic. Jesus said in another scripture that we should pray to escape.

Luke 21:36

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

From this we have developed a list of seven criteria for a “Christian” to go in the rapture.  Note we don’t consider this works, because we believe that if a person is a true believer they will ultimately meet these criteria. 

To go in the Rapture a person must:

1.Be saved according to the scripture (Rom 10:9; John 3:16)

2. Walk closely with God. 

3. Operate in the Supernatural and understand prophetic events. 
4. Remain faithful to the word, the logos and rhema (written and revelatory).

5. Must endure, keep the faith until the end.

6. Must turn from a lifestyle of sin. (fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, etc)

7. Must be looking eagerly for the return of Christ.