Saturdays are no longer my favorites like they were when I worked full time in my jobs in advertising and public relations. Back then, I welcomed the relaxation that came with the day immediately following hectic weeks of meetings with clients and concocting and conducting campaigns for corporations to get products and services in front of the public.

Nowadays, Saturdays bore me, because I like to start my days early by listening to TV programs while sipping coffee. The programs are mostly preacher boys (as they’re sometimes called here in the south) such as Dr. David Jeremiah, Dr. Robert Jeffress, Les Feldick, and others who present daily programs. These regularly scheduled programs aren’t on my satellite system on Saturdays. My routine is disrupted.

However, a past Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised while clicking through the channels when I heard a program that was presenting a documentary that piqued my interest. It was on Daystar Television, and it featured of a number of men and a couple of women talking about how true Bible prophecy is a dwindling topic in most all churches in America.

I suspected who a couple of the men were, but never knew for sure, because, of course, I’m now blind. I started watching somewhere in the middle of the documentary, so didn’t have a frame of reference for those speaking in brief clips.

I did think I recognized my dear friend Jan Markell—she will have to let me know—but she was the only one who sounded familiar.

Those who addressed the matters involved were true Bible teachers, to be sure. They outlined precisely how the churches in America today are avoiding talk of prophecy and of Christ’s return. Pastors, they correctly surmised, are most afraid that talk of the Rapture of the Church and of Christ’s return and other prophetic topics will somehow interfere with “growing their churches.”

How sad but true their collective assessments were. The closer the time comes for Jesus to return to earth and correct this horrendous mess Satan and his minions have made of the planet, the less preachers want to preach it, and the more many in the pews prefer not to hear about it.

I thought while listening: How true it is, the forewarning of Jesus Himself when He asked whether He would find faith on the earth when He comes back.

Those being interviewed in the documentary went into depth about how those with the Holy Spirit were the people mentioned in the parable of the ten virgins. How those who have the Holy Spirit within will go into the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Those without the “oil for their lamps” (the Holy Spirit) won’t be part of that glorious event. They spoke of how there was great resistance not only to talk of the Rapture, but to the belief that the Holy Spirit even, in fact, exists.

It is abundantly clear that those who don’t even believe the Holy Spirit exists lead the way in the “Rapture resistance” that is the title of this commentary. A study looks more deeply into this tragic, downward spiral in Christendom.

Of an estimated 176 million American adults who identify as Christian, just 6% or 15 million of them actually hold a biblical worldview, a new study from Arizona Christian University shows.

The finding was published by the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University in its recently released American Worldview Inventory, an annual survey that evaluates the worldview of the U.S. adult population. Conducted in February, the survey included a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults.

The study shows, in general, that while a majority of America’s self-identified Christians, including many who identify as evangelical, believe that God is all-powerful, all-knowing and is the Creator of the universe, more than half reject a number of biblical teachings and principles, including the existence of the Holy Spirit.

Strong majorities also errantly believe that all religious faiths are of equal value, people are basically good and that people can use acts of goodness to earn their way into Heaven. The study further showed that majorities don’t believe in moral absolutes; consider feelings, experience, or the input of friends and family as their most trusted sources of moral guidance; and say that having faith matters more than which faith you pursue. (“Most adult U.S. Christians don’t believe Holy Spirit is real: Study,” by Leonardo Blair, Christian Post Reporter, Christian Post, October 1, 2021)

How accurate this polling research is, I don’t know. But certainly all one has to do is to mention the Rapture to most who claim to be Christians and there is either silence or statements like “I don’t like to think about prophecy. It scares me.”

It apparently scares most pastors, too, but for a different reason—the one mentioned earlier.

To eliminate the Holy Spirit is to eliminate the “hope” that is within the “blessed hope” of Titus 2: 13.

Jesus told the disciples—and us down through the centuries—that if He went away, He would send the “comforter”—the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit (the Third Person of the Triune Godhead) came at Pentecost (see Acts chapter 2) to indwell and comfort believers until Jesus returns bodily to set up His Millennial Kingdom.

The Holy Spirit is the Restrainer (see 2 Thessalonians chapter 2). He holds back full-blown wickedness at this very moment. The Holy Spirit will remove from that office of Restrainer when we who are true believers are taken instantly to be with Christ.

Here is what Jesus said about that moment. And, despite what a number of seminary professors say, it is a Rapture passage—a mystery that the great Apostle Paul would later reveal in His epistles to the Corinthians and Thessalonians.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1–3)