Reverse Rapture - Part 3 - The Insider Itch

Reverse Rapture Part 1

Reverse Rapture Part 2 

I am frustrated. So deeply frustrated.

Sixteen years ago I wrote about grief when a pastor I respected turned his back on Christ for Judaism. Today? The grief has hardened into something else entirely.

A Pastor Fell

Back then, the One New Man movement hit Singapore with obviously noble intentions: teaching about Jewish roots of faith. But people got drunk on “insider” knowledge. Suddenly they weren’t learning; they were standing apart, superior to the rest of the Body who didn’t get their special understanding.

It was never about Hebrew songs or shofars. It was about the itch, that hunger for secret knowledge, for feeling closer to God than the ordinary believers around you.

That same itch fuels today’s reverse rapture nonsense. And here’s what makes me want to scream: we have zero excuse for falling for this garbage anymore.

In my university days, working a few hours at McDonald’s could buy you a copy of the Bible in your own language. Go back fifty years and you couldn’t even take that for granted. What believers could only dream of a lifetime ago, we carry in our pockets: endless translations, free of charge, on devices more powerful than supercomputers. Greek and Hebrew interlinears with full search capability. You want to know how “logos” and “rhema” are actually used in the New Testament instead of parroting some preacher’s made-up distinction? Five minutes of research. You can even argue with AI to test your theological ideas against objective logic that doesn’t care about your feelings.

Given all that, people really should not be falling for amateur-hour false prophecy. But they are. Why?

Because the itch isn’t about information. It’s about status. 

And sometimes that drive for status is powered and energized by trauma. I know a sister who got abused by her boyfriend, abandoned by her church, and instead of doing the hard work of healing, she went shopping for a cause that would make her feel important again. The vaccine wars became her altar. Refuse the jab, join the remnant, judge everyone else as compromised.

I get why medical institutions lost credibility. My father ended up in ICU after one dose, and watching the gaslighting that followed was infuriating. But turning health decisions into salvation tests isn’t discernment. It’s lazy theology disguised as spiritual warfare.

The tools are right there. The resources are free. The excuses are running out.

So what do we do? The same things we should have been doing all along, but with less patience for excuses:

1. Use the tools. Stop outsourcing your brain to YouTube prophets. You have access to better biblical resources than any generation in history. Use them. Start by reading your Bible and grow from there.

2. Test everything. Does your “special knowledge” make you more loving or just more judgmental? If it’s the latter, stop and check where you left the straight paths. 1 Corinthians 8:1 is still in the Bible, the last I checked... 

3. Stop coddling spiritual laziness. Yes, care for the wounded, but don’t enable their refusal to think. Compassion doesn’t mean accepting garbage theology.

4. Build churches that actually disciple people. If your congregation can’t tell the difference between Scripture and conspiracy theories, that’s a leadership failure. And for God’s sake, when someone reports abuse, investigate it properly. Don’t be the kind of church that forces God to work around your negligence.

5. Call out the grifters. These false prophets aren’t innocent mistakes. They’re businesses exploiting vulnerable people. Treat them accordingly. That's why i actually wade through this frustration to write all this stuff. 

The pattern I wrote about in 2009 is still here: people wanting to feel superior through “special knowledge.” The difference now is we have no excuse for not recognizing it.

The reverse rapture isn’t a prophetic event. It’s a spiritual tantrum. It’s people floating away on balloons of superiority because doing the actual work of discipleship is harder than joining a club that tells you you’re already special.

If you’re tempted by the insider itch, if you find yourself looking down on other believers because they don’t share your particular obsession, here’s my advice: Get over yourself. Read your Bible. Join a church. Learn to carry your pain without turning it into a weapon against the Body of Christ.

Because the moment you start believing you’re part of some special remnant that’s smarter than everyone else, you’ve already been raptured... right out of the humility that makes faith possible in the first place.