After Rapture Financial Dilemma
Written article:
If you’re like me, perhaps you’ve thought about your financial situation in light of what happens after the Rapture. Frankly, I’ve never seen anyone else discuss this, but I’ve personally considered it a number of times over the years. If you don’t think the Rapture is imminent, then this isn’t even “a thing” with you. However, if you believe like me that Jesus will indeed return at any time for His true church, then a financial conundrum develops. Have you ever pondered this and wondered what to do?
Here’s the issue: Right now, it’s fairly easy to determine good places in which to sow your money into God’s Kingdom. Of course, first and foremost we’re to tithe to the church where we’re predominantly fed the Word of God. Beyond that, we can find reputable ministries through such organizations like the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability which provide a financial breakdown of where your money goes so that you can send offerings and donations with confidence. All well and good pre-Rapture when the people working at these ministries are all – for the most part (presumably) – born-again believers.
But what happens after the Rapture?
At that glorious moment, all true believers in Jesus Christ who are saved by His blood are called into the clouds and heaven by the Lord Himself, where we remain for the entire seven years of the Tribulation until we follow Jesus back to earth in His 2nd Coming.
Of course, we’ve either read the book or seen the movie. There are many Left Behind – many who thought that they were in good shape with God because they’d said “the prayer.” As Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins portrayed, a goodly number of these folks will have been in churches or working in various Christian ministries. This is when a Christian’s financial legacy gets dicey.
It’s unclear how society will deal with wills and charitable gifts in the wake of the Rapture. Normally, a person must be proven as deceased in order to trigger the execution of these financial instruments. That’s not going to technically be possible with the disappearance of so many people. So, what do the legal eagles and the courts do to resolve this?
Compounding this problem is that at this point those remaining in positions of Christian trust will react quite differently one from another. Some will realize their mistake and immediately fall to their knees in repentance and ask for God’s mercy. A certain number will do so later. However, I have no doubt that many who are left behind will feel great anger and resentment at God. They will shake their fist at Him and seek revenge. One sure way in their minds to do this will be to embezzle the funds coming into the churches and ministries at which they’re employed. The odds of any financial legacy at this time actually being used for the intended purpose will be virtually nil.
Thus the conundrum we, who wish to leave monies to advance God’s Kingdom, face. The last thing any of want to do is have our hard-earned assets end up in someone’s pocket, even if it may only be there for at most seven years.
What to do?
In my case I contacted Terry James at Rapture Ready and posed the question to him. He responded with such simple rationale that I could only say, “Of course!” when I read it. Here’s some of Terry’s reply:
My own thinking in this regard is that once we are gone the government will confiscate all that was in the accounts of those missing . . . Monetarily, I don’t think the government will leave a leaf unturned to find those assets, so, doing nothing in that regard is as good as anything we can do.
Thank you, Terry! I think you’re absolutely right. Given the attitudes and hard hearts of the day, there will certainly be a concerted effort to locate and appropriate all such funds. It really won’t matter what we try to do with whatever we’ve designated for good works. One way or another that money will disappear. It’ll be stolen by a faux Christian employee if it somehow makes it to the charity, or more likely the government bureaucracy will claim it for its own.
The bottom line for me seems to be Terry’s good advice: Don’t worry about it. Set up whatever you wanted to as if the Rapture wasn’t going to happen. When it does occur in the very near future, we won’t care anyway because God’s got all these kinds of issues under His control, and we can leave it to Him to make things right.
As always, the Biblical advice remains: Don’t be anxious about anything.
Whoever gets it, gets it. That’s my thought.
You hate to see it wasted, but that’s what’ll happen.
I never had any other picture in my mind than a bunch of jackals tearing their prey and each other to get at the spoils left behind. After the Rapture there will be so much chaos in the power grab following that not one penny will get to a church. Those who suddenly find Jesus will not be thinking about money and those who deny Jesus never thought of anything else. So, why should they change now? All I can say today is, “Come quickly Lord Jesus”.
Good image. I think you’re right that’s exactly what they’ll look like.
All the more reason to give to ministry work now and to store up our true treasures in heaven.
Another post rapture consideration will be pets. Shelters will be overwhelmed. A book I read years ago about pets left in apartments after 9-11 gave a pretty good glimpse of what it could be like.
I’ve thought a lot about this issue of pets. I wonder if in God’s mercy, because He knows we love them, that somehow they won’t be left behind on their own to die a possibly gruesome death? Perhaps He mercifully ends their lives? Perhaps they even come with us in some way at the Rapture? I don’t know, but I just don’t think God will leave them helpless. Knowing that they might suffer, it would ruin our joy in some measure of being with Him in that moment. I think He’s got a plan for that.