Ashamed At the Rapture? :: By Mark A. Becker
Have you ever wondered about the few passages of Scriptures that seem to indicate that some people will be Ashamed at the Rapture? I have.
At first glance, this can really seem to be a strange concept. Who is it for and what is their immediate fate?
We are going to do something a little different in this article. We are going to examine selected passages of Scripture that reveal there will be those who, at some point in time, will be ashamed. Two are clearly speaking of some who will be Ashamed at the Rapture, and the other two complimentary verses on one teaching from our Lord I would like the reader to assess for themselves.
When it comes to possibilities, we will not leave the reader without potential options to reflect on. There may even be some prospects we have yet to consider, and all of this is where your valuable input comes in.
My main objective in this exercise is to hear from the reader! From Bible prophecy students, teachers, and writers, I am asking that you share with me your thoughts and understandings of these very interesting passages of Scripture.
Ashamed At the Rapture
“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” – 1 John 2:28 [Underlined Scripture passages are my own emphasis.]
The Greek for “ashamed” is αἰσχυνθῶμεν “aischynthōmen” – used only here – with 153 αἰσχύνομαι “aischynō” and means to be suffused with shame, be made ashamed, be ashamed.
John is clearly alluding to the rapture in this verse.
So, the questions I am posing to the reader are:
Who will “be ashamed before [Christ] at His coming?” Just who are these people who will be Ashamed At the Rapture?
What is their immediate fate?
Three Categories of Professing Christians in the Church
I have discovered through my personal Bible study time that there are a few general categories of professing Christians who are in the church, and all of them were addressed by Christ in the gospels and the epistles of His Apostles. The challenge for the Bible student is in trying to determine which group of people are being addressed in any given passage.
The most common people Christ and the Apostles addressed were obviously true believers in Messiah Yeshua!
True Spirit-Led Christians
This is an easy category of professing Christians to define.
True Spirit-led Christians are those who have understood and accepted the gospel, believed Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who came in the flesh to live a sinless life, paid the penalty we as sinners deserved, shed His perfectly sinless blood on the cross for our sins, and have truly given their hearts to Him as Creator, Lord, and Savior of their lives.
Spirit-filled and Spirit-led believers are fruitful Christians, full of good works that God had prepared for them to do (Ephesians 2:10).
Carnal Christians
Paul gives us a definition of Carnal Christians in 1 Corinthians:
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” – 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
Basically, Carnal Christians are true believers, but they live in and are led by their flesh and not by the Spirit.
Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, addresses a very real concern for those who are currently living in the flesh as Carnal professing Christians:
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” – Romans 8:5-8
Therefore, Carnal professing Christians desperately need to reflect on their spiritual state and standing before God!
False Converts
We have discussed false converts in many of our studies.
Recently, in our study Matthew 25:1-13 – The Parable of the 10 Virgins, we highlighted the five foolish virgins that clearly represent False Converts in the church when we observed:
“But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.” – Matthew 25:12
As false converts, the Lord knew them not. Therefore, they would have no choice but to go into the Tribulation and come to Christ then, if they so choose, by truly humbling themselves and earnestly seeking salvation on Christ’s terms with a contrite heart…
Four of the saddest words anyone could ever hear from the Creator and Savior are, “I know you not” and/or “I never knew you.” Here is an important truth: Not only is it vitally important that any professing Christian comes to the real Jesus of Scripture in faith and to know Him personally, it is equally of vital importance that the real Jesus of Scripture personally knows you!
False Converts have always been in the church, and this is why the Bible speaks of them often and warns professing believers to be certain of their true conversion to Christ. After all, this was the clear message that John was trying to establish in his First Epistle — that of knowing one’s salvation.
[Note: I have discovered that when one reads the New Testament Scriptures, knowing that these three people groups (True Believers, Carnal Christians, and False Converts) all reside within the church – and that our Lord and His Apostles would necessarily address all three groups in differing situations – that many of the seemingly difficult passages a believer will come across should begin to make much more sense when applied properly.]
Christians Who Are Not Watching and Waiting for Christ’s Return
Christians who do not believe or understand the Biblical doctrine of the Pre-Tribulation rapture of the church and are therefore not watching and waiting for our Lord’s return for His bride are another category of Christians we may want to consider.
On this subject, may it not be said of us who do believe and understand the Biblical doctrine of the Pre-Tribulation rapture of the church that we are not in a constant state of readiness, soberly watching and waiting for our Bridegroom’s return for His bride!
These are the four categories of people that immediately come to my mind when it comes to our topic at hand as we consider who those are that will be Ashamed at the Rapture.
Here is our first study verse once again:
“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” – 1 John 2:28
Our questions on this verse, as posed above, are:
Who will “be ashamed before [Christ] at His coming?” Just who are these people who will be Ashamed at the Rapture?
What is their immediate fate?
What about Revelation 16:15?
“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” – Revelation 16:15
“Shame” is the Greek ἀσχημοσύνην “aschēmosynēn” (very similar to “aischynthōmen” in 1 John 2:28), used only here and Romans 1:27 (808 ἀσχημοσύνη “aschémosuné“) where it is translated “that which is unseemly,” and means nakedness, shame, indecency, that which is unseemly. From 1/A “without” and 4976 /sxḗma, “form”) – properly, deformity (improperly fashioned); (figuratively) improper behavior that fails to fulfill the needed purpose (lacking what is fitting or proper).
This verse is found sandwiched in between a passage of the Sixth Vial Judgment prior to the Second Coming. Because of this verse’s location in Revelation 16, many believe it is a Second Coming warning to those left on Earth. This is not the case for the following reasons.
For 2,000 years, Christ’s bride has been reading Revelation, and this blessing and warning is inserted just for them. Revelation 16:15 is a blessed reminder that if they are watching and keeping their garments, they will not have to go through the Tribulation, which they are reading about in Revelation 16, because He will take them out at the rapture. But it is also a dire warning for others, which is our topic at hand.
Only of the rapture could it be said that Jesus is “coming as a thief.”
The Second Coming, on the other hand, will see the Antichrist and False Prophet, what is left of the world’s remaining armies of rebels who have taken The Mark of The Beast, and the rest of the world waiting for Christ as the previous two verses before Revelation 16:15 attest:
“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” – Revelation 16:13-14
Though the world will not know exactly when Christ will return at His Second Coming, they will all – saved and enemy alike – be gathered together in their own locations throughout the surviving world while observing the last Vial Judgments and watching and waiting for His very soon return that everyone is expecting — the very thing Christ and His Apostles repeatedly admonished the body of Christ to do so that they would not be taken by surprise when the rapture of the church occurs when they least expect it!
Virtually everyone will be expecting the returning King of kings and Lord of lords along with His heavenly armies at His Second Coming. He is not returning as a thief!
Our questions for Revelation 16:15 are similar:
Who is it that will “walk naked” and have “shame” at the rapture?
What will be their immediate fate?
Are these the same people in 1 John 2:28?
“For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.” – Luke 9:26
“Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” – Mark 8:38
The Hebrew word for “ashamed” in Luke 9:26 and Mark 8:38, above, is 1870 ἐπαισχύνομαι “epaischunomai” [“epaischynthē” (Aorist Subjective Passive – 3rd Person Singular) for “whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me,” and “epaischynthēsetai” (Future Indicative Passive – 3rd Person Singular) for “of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed“] and means, properly, disgraced, like someone “singled out” because they misplaced their confidence or support (“believed the big lie”); to be ashamed (personally humiliated). In sum, 1870/epaisxynomai (“dishonor“) refers to being disgraced, bringing on “fitting” shame that matches the error of wrongly identifying (aligning) with something.
This word is obviously not the same word for “ashamed” in 1 John 2:28 or “ashamed” in Revelation 16:15.
Here are our questions for these two complementary verses:
Who will be ashamed of Christ and His Words? Just as they were ashamed of Christ and His Words, Jesus said He will be ashamed of them when He comes “in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the Holy Angels.”
What will be these people’s immediate fate?
Are these complementary passages speaking of the rapture, too?
Again, I would love to hear your thoughts on all of this!
Final Thoughts on ‘Carnal Christians’ and ‘False Converts’
What I have discovered in my many years of Bible study is that the themes presented in the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) of Carnal Christians, that Paul spoke of, and False Converts, alluded to throughout, are very much linked together.
That is, on the one hand, Carnal Christians and False Converts are an eternity apart when it comes to salvation, but, on the other hand, both groups of people are not separated by much.
Because the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), professing Christians who may be Carnal Christians or False Converts are hardly distinguishable from each other. The one has truly accepted Christ’s sacrifice for their sins, while the other has deceived themselves into thinking they are saved when they actually are not, yet their outward behaviors tend to be similar. Sometimes False Converts can even have a more righteous veneer than the Carnal Christian. In the end, only the Lord Himself is able to distinguish between the two.
But how is one to know if they are spiritually walking this razor’s edge? Consider the Bible’s admonitions:
“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure…” – 2 Peter 1:10
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” – 2 Corinthians 13:5
These are urgent commands for every professing Christian to consider and undertake!
There is a fine line between Carnal professing Christians and False Converts that can become indistinct and at times impossible to distinguish.
When it comes to these two categories of professing Christians, the following passage comes to my mind:
“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
“For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.” – Hebrews 6:4-8
Conclusion
I would really like to hear from everyone on our selected passages of Scripture — Bible prophecy students, writers, and teachers alike.
Again, our passages and the questions we are posing are:
“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” – 1 John 2:28
Who will “be ashamed before [Christ] at His coming?” Just who are these people who will be Ashamed at the Rapture?
What is their immediate fate?
“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” – Revelation 16:15
Who is it that will “walk naked” and have “shame” at the rapture?
What will be their immediate fate?
Are these the same people in 1 John 2:28?
“For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels.” – Luke 9:26
“Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” – Mark 8:38
Who will be ashamed of Christ and His Words? Just as they were ashamed of Christ and His Words, Jesus said He will be ashamed of them when “He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels?”
What will be these people’s immediate fate?
Are these complementary passages speaking of the rapture, too?
We did give the reader a few different available possibilities in this article, but there may be something that we just did not consider or overlooked. Either way, this is where you all come in. I am looking very forward to hearing a variety of opinions on this somewhat unusual subject matter.
You can email me with your thoughts, opinions, and answers to our questions on these verses at mab10666@yahoo.com – as always, I really do love to hear from you all!
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May we all keep Answering the Call of The Great Commission, and giving an answer to every man and woman who so desperately needs Jesus and asks us, “Why Am I Here and What Is It All About?”
Love, grace, mercy, and shalom in Messiah Yeshua, and Maranatha!
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