Book review by Terry James
Imagine you’re a young mother. You’re expecting your second child within the month, and you are pushing a shopping cart. Your three-year-old son is sitting in the cart’s seat as you move down an aisle of the grocery store looking for specific items.
In less than a second, the child in front of your eyes disappears. At that same moment, an indescribable sensation within your body convulses and you collapse to the hard floor. You know something has happened to the baby you are carrying.
What a terrible way to start a review of a book you want people to purchase and read. Can any good come from such a thought—such a fictional depiction?
Let me assure you, there is no such scene in this terrific novel by Skye Burgdorf. But the horrific scene I created to begin this review is a fact that will be experienced perhaps millions of times in one moment to come.
I know there is an entire seminary line of thinking that says all children will not go in the Rapture. I totally discount this teaching, as many know. Every child below the age of accountability will go to the Lord Jesus Christ when He calls all believers to Himself in that stunning moment. This includes every child that has just been conceived.
In that instant, God will make an unmistakable statement about the sanctity of life and about when life begins.
This isn’t even up for debate with me, so I proceed with this review with my contention that this is truth concerning the question: Will all children go to Christ at the Rapture?
The point I wish to make in beginning this way is that none of us who are born again want this to happen to any such woman–or to have anything like this horror happen to anyone, for that matter.
This novel account of that post-Rapture time is, I believe, a description of Tribulation-era evil that can lead unbelievers to a sober realization. I’m sure it will be used by the Holy Spirit to convict those who haven’t accepted Christ to do so before it’s too late.
Skye Burgdorf, in Lost but Not Forgotten, portrays in a real-to-life fashion what life might be like following the Rapture. By “real-to-life,” I mean her characters come alive and she moves them in a truly believable way through that horrific time Jesus said will be the worst that has ever been on earth or would ever be again (Matthew 24: 21).
Here’s a synopsis:
Following the Rapture, a paralegal from the big city scrambles to find out what really happened. Were her parents right about their Christian theology? Savy and her best friend, Jules, a hairdresser whom she has known since elementary school, decide to weed through the chaos in the streets to go back to their hometown in Leipers Fork, Tennessee. They begin to meet people who were intertwined into their lives for a purpose and share stories of where they were when “The Big Change” happened. As a one-world government forms, a new world leader emerges. Savy and her new family endure the hardships of global tribulation by pulling together and trying to live in a world of exponentially increasing evil. Jules felt the need to care for her grandfather when things first started, but when camps are set up between her and Savy, will she ever make it back to her? How will they survive the coming devastations? Where will they go? Who will they look to for all the answers? When she gets home, she sees things that could possibly help her survive, not knowing there is a hidden secret her parents left for her just in case she remained lost.
Through the intense, moment-by-moment struggle to evade and survive forces of wickedness, there emerge moments of sharing the soul-saving message of the Gospel. Just as there are demonic forces at work, the heavenly force is even more in evidence while those left behind after the Rapture learn to rely on their only hope–the Blessed Hope of Titus 2:13.
The novel kept me wanting to read more and provoked a bit of irritation when I had to put it aside in order to get one thing or the other done. So it is a story I can wholeheartedly recommend that you get into the hands of those who are on your heart in regard to their salvation. This story will, I believe, convict them to consider what being lost at the moment of Rapture would mean to them personally and, we can pray, convince them to accept the only safe harbor, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lost but Not Forgotten: A Story of Redemption During the Great Tribulation
Author: Skye Burgdorf
ISBN: 9798987167205
To purchase:
Terry James Prophecy Line 
Thanks for the recommendation Terry. While the unsaved might not be encouraged by this story (but hopefully shaken to their shoes with conviction about redemption), I love reading fiction by faithful Christian writers. I’ve devoured many historical fiction books by Christian authors, particularly those who write about biblical accounts in the Old Testament and through the end of the first century.
I just ordered this book on Kindle, thank you!
I suppose no one can know for sure whether all children—including unborn babies—will be taken in the Rapture. But I don’t believe that Scripture supports such a position. Consider this:
1. God did not spare any children outside the Ark during the flood.
2. God did not spare any children in Sodom and Gomorrah when He rained fire and brimstone.
3. God did not spare any children in Canaan when he told the Hebrews to wipe out the pagan tribes.
4. God did not spare any children whose parents sided against Moses.
5. God did not spare the children of Achan, when Achan disobeyed Moses’ instructions.
These incidents demonstrate that children share the fate of their parents when God judges a rebellious society or family, And nothing in the Bible indicates otherwise.
I agree that children who are caught in these kinds of judgments are taken to heaven when they perish. Their deaths are supremely tragic. However, I don’t know of any instance in Scripture where—in the midst of these kinds of judgment—such children are separated from their mother and father, and then spared their mom and dad’s fate.
In addition, if the basis of sparing such children at the Rapture is a matter of “fairness,” then what about all the children who will be conceived after the Rapture takes place? (See Matt. 24:19.) Is it “fair” to let those children go through what the raptured children escaped? (For that matter, is it “fair” when God allows any innocent child to suffer or die?)
And as for the notion that God would suddenly pluck hundreds of thousands of unborn babies right out of their mothers’ wombs…well, that just seems a little too bizarre for me.
From my perspective, then, the lesson is that parents have an awesome responsibility for the lives of their kids. And if neither parent is saved, then none of their kids will be raptured. And that is all the more reason for every mom and dad to turn to God while there is still time.
I agree with you. Have not read the book yet but maybe the Mom is a Christian and as such her innocent children would be saved, not yet reached the age of accountability.
I had a miscarriage in the first trimester of a pregnancy. I believe that baby is in heaven because I believe life begins at conception.
My baby brother died when he was 10-days old. My parents were both Christians. I had a dream about him in Heaven with my Mother after her death a few years ago. He died in 1947.
My daughter had a baby who died shortly after birth, lived an hour. I believe my grandson is in Heaven. Both parents are Christians.
What a amazing storie and I in the moment start thinking what will I do if this happen to my child.