Left Behind (Part 8)

See: Previous Parts, One,  Two,  Three,  Four,  Five,  Six,  Seven

Parables..

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 24:45-51 (NIV)

This parable does not fit the end times scenario Left Behind presents, and therefore argues against the fictional seven-year tribulation having any basis in fact.

How so?

Well, the master returns and rewards the faithful and wise servant, while at the same time sending the unfaithful servant into everlasting punishment (“weeping and gnashing of teeth”).

This could not describe an invisible return of Christ to rapture believers while leaving the rest behind to face the  tribulation, because no one is sent into everlasting  punishment in this scenario. Nor could it describe Left Behind’s supposed second return of Christ, when all believers will display a holographic cross on their foreheads and unbelievers will wear the mark of the beast.

The novels depict all of Christ’s servants knowing that his Glorious Appearing is due precisely at the end of the seven years, rather than ‘on a day when they do not expect him.’

The novels also fail to depict any unfaithful servants of Christ who are found carrying on badly at his supposed second return.

So, the two-stage return of Christ presented in the Left Behind novels completely ignores this parable where Jesus shows the Master returning unexpectedly with eternal rewards and punishments for his faithful and
unfaithful servants.

Bible-believing Christians have traditionally understood this parable to picture Christ and the Church at his return.

Methodist founder John Wesley wrote,

“If ministers are the persons here primarily intended, there is a peculiar propriety in the expression. For no hypocrisy can be baser, than to call ourselves ministers of Christ, while we are the slaves of avarice, ambition, or sensuality. Wherever such are found, may God reform them by his grace, or disarm them of that power and influence, which they continually abuse to his dishonour, and to their own aggravated damnation!” ( John Wesley’s Notes on the Bible, Matt. 24:51)

So, Wesley expected Christ’s return to plunge unfaithful clergymen into damnation, like the servant in Jesus’  parable. Instead, Left Behind shows hypocritical assistant pastor Bruce Barnes receiving a second chance.

* Compare also, Jesus’ parables of the wheat and the tares Matt. 13:36-43,  the sheep and the goats, Matt. 25:31-46, and the ten virgins, Matt. 25:1-13.  All of them point to a sudden separation when Christ returns, with some rewarded and others sent into everlasting punishment at the same time, not seven years later.

Matthew 25:1-13

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” (NIV)

This parable belies the Left Behind theory that nominal Christians who fail to keep watch will have a second chance to enter the kingdom.

Consider the novels’ prominent character Bruce Barnes, the assistant pastor who finds himself left behind at the Rapture. He is certainly a ‘foolish virgin’ who failed to ‘keep watch,’ and was not ready when the bridegroom arrived and took the rest of his congregation to heaven. But, unlike those in the parable who find the ‘door shut’ because they had not kept watch, Bruce and others like him get a “Second Chance”—the title of the second volume of the Left Behind “Kids” series.

Such a thought is foreign to the understanding Bible readers have had for centuries.

In the mid-1500’s John Calvin (1509-1564) wrote, “all who shall not be ready at the very moment when they shall be called will be shut out from entering into heaven.” (Calvin’s Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists)

The idea of a second chance at Christ’s return was unknown to the Reformers.

Two hundred years later in the early 1700’s commentator Matthew Henry got the same point from Jesus’ illustration:

“The state of saints and sinners will then be unalterably fixed, and those that are shut out then, will be shut out forever.” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Vol. V, p. 371)

And in the late 1800’s British pastor and teacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote,

“when once in the last days as Master of the house he shall rise up and shut the door, it will be in vain for mere professors to knock, and cry Lord, Lord open unto us, for that same door which shuts in the wise virgins will shut out the foolish for ever.” (Morning and Evening: Daily Readings, for the morning of June 5, titled “The Lord shut him in,” commenting on Genesis 7:16).

Yes, Bible readers have always understood that the ‘foolish virgins’ would not get a second chance.

* Compare, also, Jesus’ parables of the wheat and the tares  Matt. 13:36-43,  the sheep and the goats, Matt. 25:31-46, and the faithful and the evil slave, Matt. 24:45-51.

Matthew 25:14-15, 19

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his ability; and straightway took his journey. …After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoned with them.” (KJV)

This is another of the parables Jesus used to illustrate his coming.

As noted above, the authors of Left Behind say that the unexpected coming Jesus referred to is the Rapture before the tribulation. (See our discussion of Matthew 24:44.) But when the Lord of the servants comes in this parable, he rewards his faithful servants and casts “the unprofitable servant into outer darkness” where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (vs. 30)

Hypocritical assistant pastor Bruce Barnes in the Left Behind novels would certainly fit the picture of the unfaithful servant who failed to do business with his talent. But, instead of being thrown into outer darkness, he is given a second chance.

Writing later in Glorious Appearing: The End of Days, the Left Behind authors say it is at the end of the seven-year tribulation that some are “cast into outer darkness.” (page 382) Yet Christ’s appearing at that time is not portrayed as unexpected.

These contradictory interpretations are a natural consequence of their attempt to divide the return of Christ into two separate events seven years apart.

Matthew 25:31-46

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. … Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. … Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels….Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (NIV)

This parable offers strong evidence against the dispensationalist view of the rapture followed by a seven year tribulation.

Here the Lord separates the sheep from the goats, those who treated him and his followers well from those who abused him by abusing his followers, and tells the abusers to “Depart from me… into everlasting fire” (vs. 41)

Dispensationalists can’t place this event at the rapture, because no one is sent into everlasting fire then, according to their Theory. So, they must place it at the end of their seven-year tribulation.

However, the parable doesn’t fit that situation either.

Those who are sent into everlasting fire are surprised, and ask, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” (vs. 44) And even those rewarded ask, “’Lord,
when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?” (vs. 37)

How unlike the picture the dispensationalists offer where, at the end of a seven year tribulation, nearly everyone is clearly marked with a cross on their forehead or the mark of the beast! No room for surprises in that case! Everyone is already clearly identified as being on Jesus’ side or against him.

This “sheep-and-goats judgment” is discussed and portrayed in No. 12 of the Left Behind series, Glorious Appearing: The End of Days. It is shown to take place at the end of the seven years. One of the characters remarks:

“Those are the ‘goats’ over there, the followers of Antichrist.” (page 376)

Apparently the authors forgot how they interpreted Matthew 24:44 above, stating that it applies to the Rapture, before the seven years.

In that verse Jesus exhorted followers to be “ready” for his unexpected return and gave a string of parables illustrating this: the faithful and unfaithful servants, the ten virgins, the talents, and the sheep and goats.

As noted above, on page 116 of Are We Living in the End Times? LaHaye and Jenkins quote verse 44 and say,

“Only the pre-Tribulation rapture preserves that at-any- moment expectation of His coming.”

Here, though, they try to make the sheep and goats parable fit a later time. Such confusion should be expected—it is a natural consequence of trying to divide Christ’s return into two different events.

It should also be noted that LaHaye and Jenkins apply Jesus’ words:

“whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine”

…to the Jews. (Matt. 25:40 NIV)

They assert:

“Those who honored the Jews are the sheep, and those who did not are the goats.” (Glorious Appearing, pages 367-368)

Was Jesus referring to the Jews as his “brothers” here?

No, because the Lord made clear that “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother.” (Matt. 12:50) And Hebrews 2:11 explains that “those who are made holy” are the ones Jesus calls “brothers.”

So, Jesus was referring here to his faithful followers rather than to the Jews.

Continued…