As
we approach the time of the fall feasts in Israel, many believe we are entering
the season of the rapture of the Church.
Although I tend to believe that the rapture could occur at any time, a
position called immanency, there are reasonable arguments supporting the
rapture happening on or around the feast days.
There are those, however, who choose not to believe in the rapture of
the Church and/or confuse it with the Second Coming of Christ which occurs at
the end of the Great Tribulation. The
following article caught my attention this past week and I thought it very well
written and wanted to share it with you today.
7 Reasons Why
the Rapture is Not the Second Coming
by Jonathan Brentner
Is the
rapture unique or just another way of describing the second coming?
Pastors,
teachers, and Christian writers have differing opinions on this. One assistant
pastor at a Bible-believing church once told me he did not believe in the
rapture. Along with such denials, many today assert that the book of Revelation
is mostly allegory or past history, which necessitates that the rapture and
second coming be the same event.
When I look
at Scripture, I see two unique events separated by a period of time. The New
Testament teaches Jesus will appear to take believers back to His Father’s
house in heaven.
As I separate
these two future events, I assume a premillennial belief. A time of great
tribulation is coming upon the world just as Jesus taught in Matthew 24 and
Revelation 6-16 describes. After that, Jesus will rule for a thousand years
seated upon the throne of David just the Scriptures proclaim. After that, He
will usher in the eternal state of Revelation 21-22.
If
premillennialism is true, and it absolutely is, then then the following
differences between the rapture and second coming passages argue strongly for
regarding them as totally separate events.
1. The Place
of the Resurrection in the Order of Events
In 1
Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul tells us the “dead in Christ will rise first.”
After raising the dead saints, Jesus catches up living saints to meet him in
the clouds. We see this same sequence in 1 Corinthians 15:52: When Jesus comes
for us, He raises the dead in Christ first.
During the
rapture, the resurrection of the saints occurs before anything else; it happens
immediately.
In Revelation
20, however, the resurrection of the dead tribulation saints occurs after Jesus’
triumphal return to earth, His defeat of the vast armies gathered against him,
His destruction of the false prophet and antichrist, and the imprisonment of
Satan. After all of these time-consuming events, the Lord sets up thrones on
the earth and raises the dead tribulation saints from the grave (Rev.
19:11-20:6). The resurrection of saints happens late in the sequence of events
in Christ’s return to earth, perhaps not even the same day.
The place of
the resurrection in the order of events is totally different in passages
dealing with the rapture versus those of the second coming. How can they be the
same event?
2. The
Participants of the Resurrection
Not only does
the place of the resurrection differ in the order of events, but so is the
identification of its participants. John identifies those Jesus raises from the
dead at His second coming as those killed during the tribulation (Rev. 20:4).
When Paul writes about the rapture, he says Jesus will raise up all the “dead
in Christ,” rather than a subset of believers as John specifies in Revelation
(1 Thess. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52).
John Walvoord
made this point about the difference in participants in the two resurrections
of the saints:
It is most impressive that when the
resurrection is mentioned in Revelation 20:4, it is specifically limited to the
tribulation saints as contrasted to the church. If the tribulation saints were
a part of the church, why was not the expression “the dead in Christ” used as
in I Thessalonians 4? The fact that this group is singled out for resurrection,
as if they were a special body of saints, points to the conclusion that the
church had been previously raptured.[i]
When Jesus
comes for his church, he raises all the dead in Christ. After his return to
earth, he only raises those saints who perished during the tribulation.
3. The Place
Jesus Gathers the Saints
In 1
Thessalonians 4:17, Paul states that believers who are alive will be “caught
up” along with the resurrected saints to” meet the Lord in the air.” Jesus does
not come to the earth, but gathers us to Himself in the clouds. He meets us “in
the air.”
This differs
significantly with passages related to the second coming. Rather than catch
believers up to meet him in the air, Jesus returns to the earth with much fanfare,
signs in heavens, and defeats all His enemies in a great battle. He then sends
out his angels to gather living believers and unbelievers for judgment (Matt.
25:31-46). Notice that He gathers both believers and unbelievers to a place on
the earth, not in the air.
Do you see
how this differs significantly from the rapture passages? Rather than meet
believers in the clouds as Jesus does during the rapture, with the second
coming He sends out His angels to gather His elect to a place on the earth.
4. The
Transformation of Living Believers
In Paul’s 1
Corinthian 15 description of the rapture, Jesus transforms the bodies of living
believers as well as those already in the grave; He gives both imperishable
bodies (vv. 53-54). We also see this emphasis in Philippians 3:20-21, where the
apostle again states that when the Lord comes for us He “will transform our
lowly body to be like his glorious body.”
In passages
that speak of Jesus’ second coming, we do not find such a transformation of
living believers. Yes, after his return to earth Jesus sends his angels to
gather the elect, but the text does not say anywhere that He gives them
imperishable bodies.
To the saints
who survive the tribulation, Jesus invites them to “inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mat. 25:34). Jesus does not
mention any transformation of their bodies.
Furthermore,
Scripture tells us people will enter His kingdom with natural bodies.
5. The
Presence of People in Natural Bodies During the Millennium
When Jesus
returns to earth, He judges all those alive at the time. Matthew 25:31-46
depicts Jesus separating the sheep from the goats, believers from those who are
not. The former group enters the kingdom while Jesus sends the others away to
“eternal punishment.” Believers enter the kingdom in natural bodies as noted
earlier.
If the
rapture and second coming are the same the event, all the believers would
already possess glorified bodies before this judgment. Jesus would not need to
separate the goats from the sheep because everyone that remained would be
goats. Everyone with a glorified body would automatically be a part of God’s
kingdom while all others would face condemnation.
If the
rapture and second coming are the same event, no one would enter the thousand
year reign of Jesus in natural bodies; everyone would possess immortal ones.
This, however, is far, far different from what both the Old and New Testament
tell us about the millennium, Jesus’ kingdom.
John
MacArthur says this about the distinction:
If God raptures and glorifies all believers
just prior to the inauguration of the millennial kingdom (as a
posttribulational Rapture demands), no one would be left to populate and
propagate the earthly kingdom of Christ promised to Israel. It is not within
the Lord’s plan and purpose to use glorified individuals to propagate the earth
during the Millennium. Therefore, the Rapture needs to occur earlier so that
after God has raptured all believers, He can save more souls—including Israel’s
remnant—during the seven-year Tribulation. Those people can then enter the
millennial kingdom in earthly form.[ii]
Zechariah
14:9-19 refers to people during the millennium that have the capacity to sin.
At this time when Jesus rules over the nations of the earth, people rebel
against Him by refusing to come to Jerusalem to worship Him in Jerusalem. At
the end of the millennium there will be a massive uprising against the Lord as
described in Revelation 20:7-9.
These
scenarios cannot exist if the rapture and second coming are the same event or
even if one happens shortly after the other because all who are left would have
glorified bodies and thus be incapable of sinning.
Isaiah
65:19-20 speaks of a time after Jesus’ glorious return when there will be
infants signifying marriage and reproduction. The passage also says death and
sin will exist, things not possible if the rapture and second coming occur at
the same time. Living believers at the end of the tribulation must enter the
millennium in natural bodies, which tells us there must a significant amount of
time between the two events.
6. The
Destination of Believers
The accounts
of Jesus’ second coming in the Gospels and in the book of Revelation do not
include any return to heaven either for the Lord or for us. This differs from
the passages related to the rapture. In John 14:2-3, Jesus promises to take us
back to “place,” the physical dwelling he is preparing for us in his “Father’s
house.”
Jesus’
assurance in John 14 consists of taking us back to heaven. Why mention His
Father’s house in heaven in this context if he does not intend to take us there
when he comes for us? What’ the purpose of mentioning the place He’s preparing
for us if not to take us there?
The meeting
in the air of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, foreign to passages dealing with the second
coming, also implies a return to heaven.
Paul says
this in Colossians 3:4, “When Christ who is your life appears, they you also
will appear with him in glory.” Once the rapture occurs, we will be in glory
rather than the earth; our destination is heaven!
The feet of
those on the earth at the time of second coming never leave the ground; there
is no meeting in the air. The angels gather the “elect” to a place on the earth
(Matt. 24:31; 25:32). The same with the resurrected tribulation saints, they
meet Jesus on the earth and remain there.
But with the
rapture, we meet Jesus in the air and He takes us home.
7. The Rapture as a Mystery
In 1
Corinthians 15:51, the apostle Paul begins his description of the rapture with
these words, “Behold! I tell you a mystery.” Last year, my wife and I saw the
movie Murder on the Orient Express, a depiction of the novel written by Agatha
Christie. This story is a mystery; we do not know who murdered the man on the
train until the end of the movie. This is what we typically think of when we
hear that something is a “mystery.”
The use of
the word “mystery” in the New Testament differs much from this definition. The
word as the apostles used it designates something new, a truth God did not
reveal in the Old Testament. When Paul introduces the Lord’s return for his
church in the book of 1 Thessalonians he says, “For this we declare to you by a
word from the Lord . . .” (4:15). He was telling the Thessalonians something
new.
On the other
hand, we find references to the second coming all through the Old Testament. We
even see from the book of Jude that God revealed the Lord’s second coming to
Enoch who lived before the flood of Noah (see Jude 14-15). The second coming
was definitely not something new in the church era; God revealed the second
coming to his people long before the birth of Jesus.
Why all the
fuss in separating the rapture from the Second Coming? It matters because it
relates to our expectation of what comes next for us.
If the two
represent the same event, then our immediate prospect is not Jesus’ appearing
but seven frightful years of devastating tribulation on the earth. On the other
hand, if they are distinct events separated by seven years, we live in
anticipation of suddenly being in Jesus’ presence.
The New
Testament never tells us to prepare for the tribulation. It does, however,
teach us to wait expectantly for the Lord’s return as something that could
happen at any moment. Our expectation and hope is Jesus’ appearing to take us
to His Father’s house in heaven (John 14:2-3).
This also
argues strongly for the rapture occurring before the time of the tribulation.
If the two cannot be the same event, as shown above, and must be separated by a
significant amount of time, it seems logical to place it before the
tribulation.
It
should come as no surprise to those who follow my blog that my belief is that
the rapture is the event we as believers are commanded to watch for. Furthermore, to those who choose to do so, it
seems readily apparent we are on the verge of our departure. My hope and prayer is that you have made the
decision to believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and you have accepted
Him as your Lord and Savior so you too can meet Him in the air when He returns
to take us home.
Keep
Watching
