Bible Q&A: Will church members be 'Left Behind'?

November 14, 2002

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Bible Question: "I have been reading the Left Behind books for about a year now, and have noticed something. I haven't seen anyone who didn't go to church get raptured. Does this imply that if you don't go to church that you aren't going to heaven?"--V.R.
Bible Answer: The short answer is "no, you don't necessarily have to go to church to go to heaven." But if we turn that question around to ask "Will everybody who goes to church go to heaven?" we must say the answer to that question is also "no."
The best-selling series of Left Behind books, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, depict the events foretold in the Bible known as the rapture and the last seven years of this age, known as the Tribulation Period, ending with the return of Christ.
The event known as the rapture is described in 1 Thessalonians 5:14-17.
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord."
Most Bible scholars believe this event will occur at the start or shortly before the seven years of the Tribulation, and those who will be "caught up" alive from the earth are those who "believe that Jesus died and rose again."
That's about as short a definition of what it means to be saved as you can put together. And if you're saved, you will be included in the rapture, and if you're not saved you'll be "left behind" to face the terrible seven years of the Tribulation.
Romans 10:9 is perhaps the most succinct verse on how to be saved.
"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved," Paul writes.
As the Left Behind books depict, many church members will be left behind that day because they joined the church but never really believed in Jesus and got saved.
And though the books don't address the possibility, I suppose there may be Christians who don't regularly attend church who will be caught up in the rapture.
But I would say it's a pretty good rule of thumb that people who are really saved are people who go to church. But in the end, it won't be what we do -- whether we go to church or not -- but what we have believed or not believed that will determine where we spend eternity, and whether we will be "left behind" on the rapture day.

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(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)