Will you have a second chance after the rapture?

Reaching back into my childhood nearly 40 years ago, I remember a movie called “A Thief in the Night.” In it, a young couple is portrayed in almost a carefree existence until the husband has a close brush with death. After that, he repents of his sin and turns to Jesus Christ for the salvation of his soul.

While his wife does not convert, she becomes plagued with dreams about waking up some morning and finding him gone in the rapture and the nightmare she would face living in the tribulation. The movie ends with her waking up, and all that is left of him is his electric razor running in the sink — she had been left behind.

One of the unique things about modern media with regard to the rapture is its seeming universal acceptance of the idea that once it has happened, there will be a second chance for those who turned Christianity down beforehand.

Is this true?

While it is true there are multitudes that will turn to Christ after the rapture, we are not told of any second chance. We find the first mention in Revelation 6 when the fifth seal is opened in verses 9-11. Here we find the cause of their deaths, the crying for their deaths and the comfort for their deaths, but no condition of their pre-rapture state.

We find them again in chapter 7 following the 144,000 Israelites, who no doubt are those mentioned in Ezekiel 9 and are marked with a seal in their foreheads. Yet, though we see the source of their salvation, the scope of salvation and the security of their salvation, yet again we are not told of their condition prior to the rapture.

The next place we find them is in chapter 13, and here they are in antagonism to the beast, better known as the Antichrist. And while we can see that the saints were powerless to resist the beast, they refused his mark and so were put to death. But, still no mention as to this being a second chance.

The last place we find the tribulation saints is in chapter 20, where we find the method of their death — beheading. May I be so bold to point out that though Roman Catholicism has used this method of execution in the past, only Islam is using it in our modern day. Still, there is no mention of who these people were prior to the rapture, whether they rejected Christ or had never heard of him.

My question is this: if a person rejects Christ during a time of relative safety, especially in this country with our religious freedom, what makes you think they are going to take up Christ’s cause just because a few people disappear?

The truth is that right now, in our own country, there are countless people who are so incensed against Christianity that they would readily welcome Islam in its place — at least until they found out what it was really all about.

While we cannot find any evidence a second chance in the book of Revelation, there are some curious verses in II Thessalonians that indicate there will not be a second chance.

In chapter two, verses 9-12 say, “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders … because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Those who had the chance to receive the “love of the truth” but chose not to, God judged them and gave them a mind that was closed to the truth. Thus, the rapture becomes just like the point of death to them, and as those who die have no second chance of being able choose Jesus Christ for salvation from the pit of hell, neither do those who reject Christ prior to the rapture have a second shot at salvation during the tribulation period.

Friend, if you are under the false impression that you will have a second chance and so are waiting to see what will happen, just know that the Bible says today is the day of salvation. You are not guaranteed one more day before death will have you in its grasp, and neither are you guaranteed that the rapture will not be tomorrow. The day of salvation is now and today; you may not be given another.

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. Contact him at 357-4229 or ron.hamman@gci.net.

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