The Rapture: Left Behind - The Bible Studies (Paperback)

Chapter One

The Rapture

Lesson 1 Early Edition (How Biblical Prophecy Works)

1. Why are so many people fascinated with the future? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

2. What are some methods people use to try to see into the future? In your opinion what makes books like Left Behind so popular with readers? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

3. If you have read the Left Behind books, which one is your favorite, and why? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

4. What in the books has made the biggest impression on you? Is your life different as a result? In what way? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Unfolding the Story (Left Behind, pp. 121-23)

The first book of the Left Behind series begins with the sudden disappearance (i.e., the Rapture) of all Christians everywhere. Those not caught up to meet Christ in the air (i.e., unbelievers) are left on the earth to try to make heads or tails of this cataclysmic event.

One of the main characters in the novels, an airline pilot named Rayford Steele, is not a believer in Jesus Christ. He has been left behind. Understandably, he is mourning the disappearance of his wife and son and more than a little concerned about the fate of his daughter and himself. Rayford's wife had been a devout Christian who had tried repeatedly to talk to her stubborn husband about the Bible and the need for faith in Christ. He hadn't listened.

Rayford Steele lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. Sleep had come hard and intermittently, and he hated the logy feeling. He didn't want to watch the news. He didn't want to read the paper, even knowing a new one had flopped up onto the porch before dawn. All he wanted was for Chloe to get home so they could grieve together. There was nothing, he decided, more lonely than grief.

He and his daughter would have work to do, too. He wanted to investigate, to learn, to know, to act. He started by searching for a Bible, not the family Bible that had collected dust on his shelf for years, but Irene's. Hers would have notes in that, maybe something that would point him in the right direction.

It wasn't hard to find. It was usually within arm's reach of where she slept. He found it on the floor, next to the bed. Would there be some guide? An index? Something that referred to the Rapture or the judgment or something? If not, maybe he'd start at the end. If genesis meant "beginning," maybe revelation had something to do with the end, even though it didn't mean that. The only Bible verse Rayford could quote by heart was Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." He hoped there'd be some corresponding verse at the end of the Bible that said something like, "In the end God took all his people to heaven and gave everybody else one more chance."

But no such luck. The very last verse in the Bible meant nothing to him. It said, "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen." And it sounded like the religious mumbo jumbo he had heard in church. He backed up a verse and read, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming quickly.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."

Now he was getting somewhere. Who was this who testified of these things, and what were these things? The quoted words were in red. What did that mean? He looked through the Bible and then noticed on the spine, "Words of Christ in Red." So Jesus said he was coming quickly. Had he come? And if the Bible was as old as it seemed, what did "quickly" mean? It must have meant soon, unless it was from the perspective of someone with a long view of history. Maybe Jesus meant that when he came, he would do it quickly. Was that what this was all about? Rayford glanced at the last chapter as a whole. Three other verses had red letters, and two of those repeated the business about coming quickly.

Rayford could make no sense of the text of the chapter. It seemed old and formal. But near the end of the chapter was a verse that ended with words that had a strange impact on him. Without a hint of their meaning, he read, "Let the one who is thirsty come: let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost."

Jesus wouldn't have been the one who was thirsty. He would not have been the one who wished to take the water of life. That. Rayford assumed, referred to the reader. It struck him that he was thirsty, soul thirsty. But what was the water of life? He had already paid a terrible cost for missing it. Whatever it was, it had been in this book for hundreds of years.

Rayford idly leafed through the Bible to other passages, none of which made sense to him. They discouraged him because they didn't seem to flow together, to refer to each other, to have a direction. Language and concepts foreign to him were not helping.

5. Why do you think Rayford opted for his wife's Bible and not the big family Bible on the living room shelf? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

6. Why do you think he went looking for help and answers in the book of Revelation? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Back to Reality

Rayford wasn't alone in his confusion, in his inability to understand the Bible. Most people, including a high percentage of Christians, don't have a clue how to make sense of the Bible, especially the parts of the Bible that concern future things.

7. What would you say are the primary reasons the average person doesn't know more about the Bible? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

8. What keeps people (especially those who claim to be followers of Christ) from reading and studying the Bible? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

9. On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 meaning "total cluelessness" and 10 meaning "absolute comprehension"), how would you rate your own understanding of what the Bible says about the end times? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

10. What sources have been most influential in helping you understand prophecy to the degree that you do? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Understanding the Word

Whatever reasons people give for not reading and studying the Bible, the fact remains that a huge blessing awaits those who do dig into God's Word. You are to be commended for embarking on this study. If you will make the effort to know and understand God's truth and if you will persevere in these lessons, you will find great blessing.

Consider the example of Ezra, a priest during Israel's time in exile. Notice his practice with regard to God's Word:

Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of the Lord and to teach those laws and regulations to the people of Israel. (Ezra 7:10)

Ponder the response of the God-fearing Jews of Berea when the apostle Paul came and preached in their synagogue:

Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11 NASB)

11. How did these different people from history approach God's Word? Do you see any common themes in these passages? What qualities in Ezra and the Bereans should we imitate? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

And then we have Paul's rousing counsel to Timothy, a leader in the early church: Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15 NASB)

12. What did Paul mean when, reminding Timothy of the need to handle God's Word with accuracy, he urged him to be a "diligent ... workman"? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Second Timothy 3:16-17 says:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.

13. What does this passage tell us about the importance of studying the Bible? Based on the Bible's purposes, in what ways do we benefit by studying what God's Word has to say about the end times? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Finding the Connection

At the beginning of Left Behind, Ravford Steele is a worldly man. Like most people, he is busy and distracted. He has no real interest in the Bible. He does not share his wife's hunger to know God's truth, and so he is oblivious to what the Word of God says about most everything, including the end times. The Bible, to Rayford, is nothing more than a quaint religious relic. Because he sees the Scriptures as irrelevant to modern life, he chooses to remain ignorant as to their content.

By contrast, Ezra, the Bereans, and Timothy made God's Word a priority. They followed in the footsteps of the psalmist who cried: "Truly, I love your commands more than gold, even the finest gold" (Psalm 119:127). They were eager to know what God had said. They diligently (and daily!) studied his Word. And-here's the crucial point-much of what they studied was prophetic material: that is, God's revelation about things to come. Bible teacher and scholar Charles Ryrie has written:

It is said that one-fourth of the Bible was prophecy when it was written (of course many of those prophecies have already been fulfilled) and that one out of every five verses in Paul's writings concerns prophecy....

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