Dear Shepard,
As a Christian who has ties to your flock, I am concerned for some of your sheep, and I write you as to inform you how I see people are taking your message home and it disturbs me right to the core.
The Jesus I worship did not want to die on the cross (Luke 22:42, Mark 14:36) but did so obediently. The Jesus I worship earned his way to the cross, by stating the truth to and about those who lived lies. The Jesus I worship would not be welcomed in many of His churches today, instead he'd be found calling on to those in AA meetings, bars, casinos, crack houses, psychiatric wards, jails and other such places where people are desperate for hope and salvation.
What concerns me is the way many of your sheep stand high upon a hill waiting and wanting The Rapture to happen. In my opinion, The Bible does not call such an event The Rapture nor is it stated as part of the sequence of events (Mark 13:32) that define The Tribulation. Throughout The Bible we have seen God spare His people the brunt of His wrath and promises to do so again (Rev 3:10). While The Bible states (I Cor 15:52) such will happen in a twinkling of an eye, I had a slightly different vision of being raptured, and it saddens me.
My dream has me as a teenager in my mother's front yard when suddenly I felt and saw myself being lifted. My cat Sylvester was near me and I went and reached for him as I was being lifted and he was not. The dream ended there and I awoke saddened to my core. While my cat has long since passed, it saddens me to know that ANYONE or ANYTHING that I love will be left behind to face the wrath of The Creator.
To me, those who want The Rapture to happen now are lukewarm selfish sloths with little regard of Our Father's wrath. Do they not know what they are wishing upon others? Have we lost our fear and dread of the wrath of our God because so far in our finite life times, his patience and mercy seem infinite? The accounts of Sodom and Gamora (Gen 18:20), The Flood (Gen 6:13) and The Pharaoh in the time of Exodus (Ex 2:24) detail that even God has His limits. Noah must have heard people outside the arc as their laughter became screams of terror (Gen 7:21)! Did not the heart of Lott break when he saw his wife become a pillar of salt (Gen 19:26)?
I actually heard a pastor say that he would like to see the day the walls and the rocks praised the Lord! The day that the Lord has to find praise from that which he placed beneath our feet is truly a sad day (Luke 19:40). That is the day that the panicle of His creation has failed Him.
So, when will God come and remove His people? I dare say that God knows the hour, but not the minute; we have free will. Prepare microwavable popcorn; most pop around the same time, but some kernels just take longer to pop, so we wait as the bag expands and the pops diminish. Sadly, some kernels ae just never going to pop, and those get tossed away.
Who are we? Are we the servant that brought back only what was given to us, or are we the servants that brought back more than we were given in the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30)?
While few of us want to be called out or cast aside by our friends, coworkers and / or family, do any of these people know that you are a Christian by any other means (Matt 7:6) than you are usually busy Sunday morning?
Let us not be concerned about something that even our Savior does not know (Mark 13:32), but instead let us remember that we have a job to do as told to us in John 4:35.
In conclusion let us not abandon the fields waiting for The Master to call us, instead let The Master see us hard at work when He comes to call us.