Wanted: More Atheist Pilots!!

Written By Christopher Mentzer

One of the more popular religious beliefs today is that of Premillennialism and the Left Behind theory. It involves the sudden rapture of Christians who mysteriously disappear during everyday life. The fear is unmanned cars will crash and non-piloted planes will drop out of the sky. In fact, here’s something I found through www.snopes.com about this very concern…

[Collected on the Internet, 2004]

I was raised a Southern Baptist and twice now a preacher has made reference to airlines pairing their pilots with one Christian (or saved) and one non-Christian (or un-saved). This is done on the pre-text that if and when the 2nd coming of Christ happens and the one Christian pilot is taken into the clouds with Christ, leaving the non-Christian pilot to supposedly land the plane safely alone. One preacher specifically mentioned American Airlines as having this policy.

This turned out to be a false statement and here’s what the FAA had to say concerning it…

"The FAA does not have any regulations referencing religious beliefs." Likewise, our query in this vein to American Airlines was met with the assurance that AA does not now have such a policy, nor has it ever had one. Ergo, since neither airline nor FAA policy covers this event, if you're unsure of your state of salvation, pray for an atheist on the flight deck.

The scripture they use as proof of the Rapture is 1 Thess. 4: 16-18, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; 17. then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Although this sounds very convincing, it doesn’t say what’s to become of non-believers. This, of course, is where the discussion of the Rapture comes into play. But what does Jesus say? “For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself: 27. and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man. 28. Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, 29. and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5: 26-29). Here we see that Jesus states that ALL will come forth when they hear His voice. Both the righteous and the wicked will rise up. This is not in contradiction with what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. His letter was focusing on those righteous people that had fallen asleep to give them comfort in the resurrection. Read all of 1 Thess. 4. The Premillennialist wants to isolate this passage to use it for their own doctrine. Unless you read the entire chapter, you could fall victim to this same belief.

There should be no fear of unmanned cars crashing and planes falling out of the sky. When Jesus returns we will be caught up with Him and the planet and its works will cease to exist (2 Peter 3: 10).

More and more people are encouraged by books like the Left Behind series rather than reading what the Bible has to say. Don’t take a shortcut and have someone else tell you what the scripture say but read it for yourself. (Rom. 10: 17)