Does it matter how you believe the rapture is going to happen?
Have you ever come across these well-meaning words?
"It does not matter if Christians do or do not believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, it's not a salvation issue."
I’d like to share a word of caution regarding Christians or pastors who teach this kind of things to you. First and foremost, who told them that this is not a salvation issue? Where do they get it from? Did it come from the 66 books of the Holy Bible? The answer is 'No.' In fact, the Bible has this to say:
2 Thessalonians 2:10 "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved."
The key phrase to note in this verse is "love of the truth," without which, one cannot be saved. If you do not care about what's written in the Holy Bible, there is no "love of the truth" in you. In fact, those who tell you that it does not matter what you believe about the rapture are like the new-agers who tell you that it does not matter what you believe in, but you are still going to heaven regardless. People who teach this kind of things have not the love of the truth in themselves, yet they teach others the same.
Matthew 23:15 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."
Christians and pastors who tell you that it is not a salvation issue no matter what you believe about the rapture are like the scribes and Pharisees who taught false doctrines to their disciples, putting stumbling blocks in their paths, making it twice as hard for them to enter into heaven.
Matthew 23:13 "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."
Jesus calls them "hypocrites" in this verse. One of the things about hypocrites is that they will pretend. They will pretend that it's okay and you don't have to believe what the Bible tells you about how the rapture is going to happen, and you're still going to heaven for rejecting what has been plainly laid out in the words of the Lord in Matthew 24:29-31 and Mark 13:24-27.
Recall what happened in the garden of Eden:
Genesis 3:4-5 "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Compare the words of those well-meaning Christians to the words of the serpent in the garden of Eden. While God has said with no uncertain terms that the penalty of taking from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is certain death (Genesis 2:17), the serpent reinterpreted it to the woman and caused her to think that it is perfectly safe to reject God’s words and it carries no penalty. Eve might be thinking: “Oh, God didn’t really meant what he said in Genesis 2:17.”
Genesis 2:17 "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Likewise for these well-meaning words: “It doesn’t matter how you believe the rapture is going to happen. It’s not a salvation issue.” These are words that can cause a person to think that it is perfectly safe to reject what God has plainly said in Matthew 24:29-31 and Mark 13:24-27, or that those words may be subjected to personal interpretation, and it carries no penalty whatsoever, because it is not a salvation issue.
Well, was it an issue of life and death in the case of Adam and Eve? The answer is a most definite ‘Yes.’ In fact, every word of God matters if you are a born again believer with the love of the truth in you. But of course, if you have not the love of the truth in you, then these things won't bother you.