‘Implosion’ Author Joel Rosenberg Discusses the Rapture

For years, best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg has studied and written about external threats to the United States. His six New York Times best-selling novels have been almost prophetic when it comes to events in the Middle East.

His latest non-fiction book, Implosion: Can America Recover From Its Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time?, takes on the internal challenges of America and its teetering future.

Charisma News caught up with Rosenberg recently to discuss the external threats to America as well as the United States’ role in the end times.

Charisma News: Is it only a matter of time before China, and perhaps other nations, release the weapons and additional destructive strategies against the U.S. you described in Chapter 10?

Rosenberg: It’s hard to say. My goal in terms of describing foreign policy threats is simply to make people understand that this is not a secure world, even though we have been, in recent decades, the world’s only super power. There are other forces out there that are building rapidly and gaining destructive power and strategic advantages.

I don’t want to speculate on how rapidly that could happen beyond what I have written in Implosion. It is a fine line I’m walking and I realize that. I’m not trying to be an alarmist by what we don’t know. I’m trying to say what we do know is enough to make us alarmed. It is just that most people are not focusing on or adding up the details to come to that conclusion. But, the data is chilling.

Charisma News: In Chapter 12, you are quoted as saying, “While the Bible does not indicate precisely when the Rapture will happen, it does teach that all true followers of Jesus Christ will be removed from the earth prior to the beginning of the Tribulation.” How would you back that statement up to those who believe in a mid-Tribulation Rapture?

Rosenberg: The short version would be in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4. It describes the Tribulation, and then chapter 5 says that the Rapture will happen like a thief in the night. It will happen as a surprise, when people are saying peace and safety.

Once the Tribulation begins, however, no person on this planet in his right mind will be able to say there is peace and safety in the world. It starts with the second seal in Revelation 6. Massive death and destruction builds in intensity to where more than a quarter of the population of the earth is killed in Chapter 6 alone.

At what point during the death of 2 billion-plus people will anyone say, peace and safety? It is ludicrous. This is only one of the pieces of Scripture that will help us understand that that the Rapture won’t be happening during the Tribulation.

Another element is in Chapter 5 of I Thessalonians. The Word says that believers are not appointed to suffer wrath. Wrath is mentioned more than a dozen times during the Tribulation in the book of Revelation. So, we’re to be rescued from that. Not because we’re such wonderful people, but because we have accepted Christ and are born again. That is the gift he has given us to take us out of the Tribulation.