I stopped focusing on the rapture once I realized that Jesus never made a big deal about us going up to heaven, but instead He talked about heaven coming down to us. The original purpose of God putting man on Earth wasn’t for man to be taken off of the Earth some years later, it was for man to multiply and subdue the Earth (the wilderness outside of the Garden), and expand the Garden — which was a representation of heaven on earth.

The Lord’s prayer isn’t, “Your escape pods come, your judgment be done, on man as it is on Satan.”

I personally don’t think that Adam and Eve lived life looking forward to leaving the Garden. Talking every day with each other about this wondrous day when God would come on a cloud and save them from the horrible wilderness that existed outside. They were too busy enjoying life walking with God and having fun being free.

“Yeah, but see, we live in a ‘fallen world’, brother!”

Ah, I used to believe that. Then I realized that the cross actually did a lot more than just “I can be forgiven and when I die I get heaven!” The original intention wasn’t for Adam & Eve to build a building and multiply inside of it. Then they could all be like-minded together, hiding from the world in there, talking about how like-minded they are, away from the scary, wild, craziness, that lived outside of the Garden. The intention was for them to GO INTO ALL THE WORLD, and subdue the scary, wild, craziness, by taking the heaven they lived in, and expanding the life they had outward into all the dry and lifeless wilderness of the world

If you read through the New Testament, you’ll see that the original intention never changed.

The devil was never strong enough to change God’s plan. God wasn’t forced to resort to plan B, which was to stall people for a few thousand years until He could send Jesus to say, “Hey, I came to save you from your sins… I’m coming back in a few thousand years to do that, and then I’ll also rescue you from all of the crazy wicked people. Until then, see ya! (P.s. You won’t know when… *cliffhanger ending*).”

Jesus came to say, “Hey, I’m God. I made you. Do you know why I made you? Well hang out with me for a few years and I’ll show you. See that paralyzed person? Never meant to exist like that, ‘Hey buddy, get up and walk!’ … “See that dead person? Death was neither my invention or my idea. ‘Hey buddy, wake up.’ … Oh btw, I’m giving you this same authority to go fix this stuff too. So when you see someone in a wheelchair, you can say, “Hey! That wasn’t God’s purpose for them! And I have the power to fix it and restore their life to it’s original intention which is to WALK and enjoy life!”

“What about sin Jesus?! Adam sinned, and now we’re all in a fallen world, trapped in sin, with a sin
nature!”

“Well, in a little while, I’m going to die on a cross…”

“But Jesus, no!”

“Shut up, Peter! I’m not finished explaining yet! I’m going to take that sin nature of yours away from you, into my own body, so when I die on that cross, that sin nature of yours will die as well. Consider that your old life in Adam!”

“So then what?!”

“I’ll leave your sin nature in the grave, but I’ll come back out of death and give you the new life I’ve been raised with. A life that doesn’t have the nature of sin, but the nature of God. Just as through your old, earthly father, Adam, you inherited the traits of sin, you will be born of God and will inherit the traits of God!”

“Surely that’s blasphemy! You’re saying we will be like God?”

“You are His sons, created in His image! It’s common sense. A son inherits the traits of his own father, not somebody else’s traits. Adam was the father of who you were, but that person will die with me! Adam won’t be your father anymore, therefore you will no longer have his traits! God is your Father, you’ve been reborn into a new family line.”

“Ohh, is that why you said to call no one on earth Father, because we are only meant to identify ourselves with ONE Father, who is God?”

“Precisely, Marty! Wait! …McFly!?! What are you doing here?”

“Time machine, Jesus!”

“Oh… Word.”

“… Made flesh! HA HA HA HA…”

“Ha-ha, Marty. Now back to your own time! So anyway, Peter… This new life is new for you, but it’s not new for God! It’s how He had always intended for you to live. In full health, full relationship, full of joy and excitement about life. Not a desperate longing to get away from the world, but a desperate longing to go INTO the world and change it! Just as I have been desperately longing to be come in human flesh and reveal the love my Father has for you and the true meaning and purpose of life!”

“Meaning of life? You mean 42?”

“Yes, John! But also so much more than that! The meaning of life is for you to know Me, and my Father. In personal relationship, walking with us everyday just as Adam did, but now we live in you and nothing can separate us from you. We don’t come in and out of the garden on Sunday mornings, we are with you at all times, and you are with us! We are all one with each other! Just as I and the Father are one, You and I are one, and, take a seat, you and Peter are also one! You weren’t meant to relate to us through laws written on stone, but through personal, direct conversations, and co-laboring together to see every person on this planet realize their purpose for living, and understand their true value in me!”

So then what is our message? 2 Cor. 5:19-20, that God has already reconciled the world to himself in Christ. Our message, our mission, is simply to deliever that news to the world, and demonstrate it through the power of the Holy Spirit. When you walk in that reality, leaving the world will be the last thing on your mind!