The Rapture

[oldsailor29]

There has been some posts about the rapture here in the past, and I wanted to share the thoughts of a former SDA religion professor with you.

For some time I have intended to write a short refutation of the extremely popular dispensationalist heresy called "the rapture". This non-Biblical idea is featured in the popular "left behind" series. It is championed by the Dallas Theological Seminary, its roots going back to John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren in 1830s Ireland.

Paul the Apostle is the author and the intended audiences can be discerned from his approximate itinerary, where there is general agreement about probable dates and sites from which he wrote. And we can know something about the founding of the individual churches at Thessalonica and Corinth.

One warning, though. People quote Paul willy-nilly and put together one statement and another as if to enlighten, and are frequently screwing up any hope of real exegesis. The great apostle, just as you and I, grew and changed in understanding over the decades. And, of course, there is going to be a huge difference between his approach to the brand-new, extremely confused group in the foul Corinth, and his sublime message to his home church of Ephesus, a long-established head church of sophisticated thinkers, among whom were the developing Ephesian elders responsible for transmitting to us the majestic Gospel of John.

OK, that's a beginning.

We've got to take these one at a time now. Obviously, the way to do that is to take them by date. That will make the order Thessalonians, Corinthians, and much later, Titus.

..........................................

Alright, so let's not dwell on Paul too much, since he is one of the most written and studied persons in human history. He rivals Moses, is in many ways the shaper of Christianity, was a Roman citizen of the Graeco-Roman world, studied under Gamaliel II, "the teacher of Israel" persecuted the Christians, killing many, and claimed to have seen--quite literally, not in any mystical sense--the risen Christ, who commissioned him. He is often credited as they key figure in the development of what is now known as "Western" thought.

As with Pharisees generally, and especially due to his non-Palestinian background, Paul was anxious to carry out "the Gentile mission" to carry Judaism to the pagan world.

He did so, but in a totally unexpected way. The Judaism he carried was the interpretation of it by Jesus of Nazareth. On his second great tour of the Eastern Roman Empire he visited Thessalonica, capital of the Roman province of Macedonia, and itself a city-state, that is, a free city of 65K, one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire.

Hence this city and the group of believers there was a KEY to Paul's plan to spread the gospel of Christ to the entire eastern half of the Empire, a plan so sweeping and vast that hardly any other Christians believed it could be carried out, much less by one person.

The Book of Acts, 17:1-9 and various references in these two letters and others make it clear that most of the Thessalonica Christians were of a pagan working-class background. It is not known how long Paul remained, though the incessant warfare of the Jews against him made it necessary for him to abandon the city or lose his life. He must have been there longer than the month suggested in Acts, for he says here that he worked night and day to support himself so as not to burden them financially.

The intense opposition to Paul's teachings left him concerned about the group he had been forced to abandon. He returned the trusted Timothy, his younger assistant, to Thessalonica repeatedly. On this first occasion Timothy has mixed news: the believers have kept their faith in Jesus but misunderstood the nature of the second coming of Christ, and how it related to members who had recently died.

Since Paul's itinerary operates within certain narrow parameters, most scholars date the writing from Corinth to 49-51 a.d., with 51 a.d. being the most common likely date. This makes 1 Thessalonians probably the first written work found in the New Testament, the FIRST New Testament book!

Now, about the passage itself.....

......................................

After great commendation for their endurance of fierce persecution, Paul says "Finally," indicating he is done. (Writing was time-consuming and extremely expensive, so being as brief as possible was important.) After the "finally" come four "but...but...but...but" paragraphs, where Paul every so subtly gets to the real point of his letter. But he does so in what appears to be an afterthought, avoiding any appearance of censure of his audience.

The first "but" has at its heart a concern that some of them are not working with their hands, gainfully employed. They must not be dependent on others, an apparent growing danger.

The next "but" concerns not wanting them to be "ignorant" conerning those "asleep" or dead.. They are not lost forever, "for since we have faith [not belief] that Jesus died and rose again, just so, by means of Jesus, God will bring with him [from the dead, clearly, not from heaven, as they are not yet resurrected] those who have fallen asleep."

Next comes his central point, his key sentence, and the one that makes very clear whether there is a rapture of believers suddenly torn away during human history, leaving blank spots: "FOR WE DECLARE TO YOU BY MEANS OF THE WORD OF THE LORD THAT WE WHO ARE ALIVE WHO ARE LEFT UNTIL THE COMING OF THE LORD...."

Please note the setup here. This is all set in the context of "THE COMING OF THE LORD." The living will not go to heaven and leave the dead behind. On the contrary, those who live UNTIL THE COMING OF THE LORD will FOLLOW the resurrected dead in going up. But note!!! What is the event that is being described? Some funny day before the end of the age when folks disappear?

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!

Paul now recites in detail the nature of the Second Coming of Christ to end human history, and the order of events that have so concerned them about their dead:

1.. "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven

with a cry of command

with the archangel's call

with the sound of the trumpet of God.

2. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

3. Then we who are left alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

4. And so we shall eternally be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17

There is the order of events for the final event that ends human history as we know it. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE FOR READING INTO THIS PASSAGE A SNATCHING OF SOME PEOPLE ON SOME DAY NEAR THE END OF HUMAN HISTORY, WITH MANY OTHER DAYS FOLLOWING IT. There is no "rapture" in the popular sense here at all. In fact, the passage as written absolutely prevents such an interpretation of events whatever.

Any other passage that would pretend to teach such a theory would be in direct opposition to the plain and clear teaching right here.

The next "but" (no chapter divisions or punctuation in those original manuscripts, of course) shows us what the NEXT WORDS after this passage were: "But as to the times and seasons [reading the signs of the Second Coming] you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know that THE DAY OF THE LORD will come like a thief in the night."

It could not possibly be clearer that the words in this passage refer exclusively to the Second Coming of Christ--the Day of the Lord in Old Testament prophecy--when human history as we know it ends.

......................................

There is more to say by way of clarification, and I'll do that. For now, as a beginning, point, let's underscore this: THESE ARE THE EARLIEST WRITINGS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, AND THEY ARE BOTH CLEARLY DESCRIPTIONS OF THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.

They are not descriptions of some event prior to the Second Coming. I would add, of course, that the Titus reference to "the blessed hope" is also a clear reference to the Christian hope of Christ's return.

ALL OF THESE WRITINGS ARE PRIOR TO 70 A.D., AND ALL CHRISTIANS LOOKED FORWARD TO CHRIST'S IMMEDIATE RETURN WITHIN THAT GENERATION.

So far, since the Temple had not been destroyed, there was no disjunction to cause the slightest question that Christ would return within a generation.

With that in mind, we'll continue.

At the Second Coming of Christ the righteous dead are resurrected and taken up to meet the Lord in the air. Immediately after that event, the righteous living, who have remained alive on the earth until the Second Coming itself, are also taken up to meet the Lord in the air.

That means that at the Second Coming there are NO righteous (no group like 144,000 Jews) left behind on earth.

In the fuller picture of the Second Coming of Christ that we are about to draw, what happens to the wicked dead at this time? What happens to the great majority of mankind, the living wicked, who have remained alive to witness the Second Coming?

No need for a written answer, just a head start in thinking.

(we're not ready for Rev 7 yet.)

...............................

So how well did the Thessalonians understand Paul's clear description of the events at the Second Coming of Christ? And how well did they respond?

Not well, as the second letter to the Thessalonians shows. "Now concerning THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, and our assembling together to meet Him, we beg you brethren, not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that THE DAY OF THE LORD has already come!"

Note that Paul repeatedly equates the phrase "the Day of the LORD" from classical prophecy with the Second Coming of Christ.

The Day of the LORD in the prophets is the day in which Yahweh appears to bring judgment on ALL the nations at once, and ends human history. Because rebellious nations were destroyed prior to this, and it had been described as "the Day of the LORD" for those nations, as time passed it became commonplace to speak of this GENERAL end of ALL history as "THE GREAT Day of the Lord."

We have already seen that it is ONLY at the Second Coming that the dead rise in the new spiritual bodies to everlasting life, and the LIVING are taken up immediately AFTER the dead to meet the Lord in the air. Thus Paul's clear description prevents any concept of a "rapture" of folks as this modern heresy describes it.

Paul continues: "Let no one deceive you in any way.. For "that day" [another prophetic term] will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God."

As to the fate of the Antichrist, Paul writes: "And then the lawless one will be revealed, AND THE LORD JESUS WILL SLAY HIM WITH THE BREATH OF HIS MOUTH AND DESTROY HIM BY HIS APPEARING AND HIS COMING [or, alternately, by the brightness of his coming]."

Human history does not continue after the Second Coming of Christ. The Antichrist and his minions are destroyed. More about this below. Once again, Paul has made clear (in a further reference that repeats and amplifies the earlier Thessalonian passage) that the living righteous are assembled to meet Christ only on the great Day of the Lord, the day of Christ's appearance in absolute power and majesty to end human history.

Let's amplify the picture of the Second Coming to make that clearer.

Since they were not yet at the Day of the Lord, there was no excuse for quitting their jobs. Once again he warned that they must not be sitting around in idleness. So they didn't want to hear that part of the message in the first letter either!

..................................

About dating: let's use Matthew, for instance. If the world were to last another thousand years, and someone found an ancient email from me that said to TS "I would have written sooner, but I couldn't get my mouse to work" my message could be dated within narrow parameters.

It would be written from the last decade of the 20th century to the second decade of the 21st. "Mouse" no longer means a little rodent. It has to do with writing electronically. It has to do with the use of personal computers at a time when they had become widespread for communication but before voice and thought command had been written into human computing machines.

Matthew, the Gospel to the Jews (as opposed, say, to Mark, the Gospel to the Romans, or Luke, the Gospel to the Greeks) was composed after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 a.d. Well after. During the Jewish reconstruction period, when a NEW religion was born (known as "rabbinic Judaism") on the ruins of the old "Second Temple Judaism", a series of laws against Jewish heretics ("minim") were passed.

The heretics' books were not Scripture nor to be treated as Scripture even though they contained quotes from the Old Testament and the divine name. The heretics themselves were not to be regarded as Jews, and were to be "CAST OUT" of the synagogues. And turned into to Roman authorities, wherever possible, as practitioners of an illegal religion (religio illitica meant possible execution), in an attempt to have them exterminated.

This general persecution of JEWISH Christians is the reason Matthew so often cites Jesus as saying that soon they will hate you everywhere and cast you out of their synagogues and seek your deaths. The Christians, however, answered with a new term. Instead of being victims, "cast out", the called themselves "CALLED OUT" (EK KALEO) and this is the origin of the new term "EKKLESIA" ("church") used after this period.

Hence when we see in Matthew 16 that Jesus says the truth of his Messiahship as perceived by Peter is "the rock on which I will build my CHURCH" his words have been contemporized to the then-current situation by use of a term never used in Christ's time. Indeed, Matthew directly addresses the Pharisee leadership of rabbinic Judaism gathered in Council at Jamnia on the coast of Palestine. That is the meaning of The Seven Woes by which Jesus summarizes the end of his ministry to the Jews in Matthew 23.

After which comes the Eschatological Sermon in Matthew 24 and 25, which emphasizes the certainty of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the need for CONSTANT WATCHFULNESS for the signs of his Second Coming.

These are one or two of the many reasons that scholars date the final edition of Matthew as we now know it (the early fathers tell us it grew from an original in Hebrew--Aramaic--made by Levi Matthew itself--to around 90 a.d., shortly before the writing of Revelation.

So let's see how Matthew and Revelation (aided by earlier Christian writings such as Thessalonians which we looked at) round out the picture of the Second Coming of Christ.

..........................................

Notice that you have to watch nuances! While folks who mentioned being told about wars and rumors of wars are certainly telling the truth, that in fact doesn't fit with a world-state and world-ruler and all the nations united, as the concept of the Antichrist and the world-state in Revelation 13 describes, does it?

But Jesus clearly goes on to the next natural phase, a reaction that unites the nations on a false basis. My point about dating is that Matthew is the most detailed of the eschatological sermons, and is also clearly the most developed, most recent, most final of them all. In addition, Matthew contains all of Matthew 25, unlike anything in Mark or Luke, an extensive additional sermon on the ability of Christians to read signs and know, not the exact day, but the general time period that marks the end of the age, and the necessity TO KNOW THE TIME.

Matthew, like Luke, contains all of Mark, and, apparently, when compared to Luke, all of source Q, the source they have in common. That is, both Matthew and Luke contain all of Mark, edited to their own particular interests, plus clearly another written source that they have likewise also edited each for their own interests, Luke to his Greek audience (to the Church of Paul) and Matthew to his Jewish audience (the Church of Peter).

A good commentary series is The Anchor Bible, and reading the introduction to the synoptic gospels in the volumes on Matthew, Mark, and Luke will explain all this in great and reliable detail.

May I suggest a read-through (if you haven't many times in the past) of the harrowing tale of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d.? Flavius Josephus (Jewish general siding with the Romans, himself a Galilean Pharisee) gives us a graphic eyewitness blow-by-blow account in "The Wars of the Jews". It's pretty rough stuff, and you have to keep in mind with every paragraph that Jesus was saying this is what the whole world will be like before his coming!

One more point, about Revelation 7, that you should know. The list of the sealing of the tribes is only HEARD by John, who is writing it all down. But the list is NOT an Old Testament list of the Twelve Tribes at all. It reflects Christian doctrine that all true Christians are Abraham's seed, his true heirs, and the NEW Israel. Romans and Galatians are very clear on this point. The list omits Dan, the traitor tribe that sided with the Assyrians against the rest of Israel, abandoned its allotment in the Covenant land, etc. (Think of Judas Iscariot.)

It also COUNTS Levi, which was never counted in the Old Testament, for it was the scattered priestly tribe. (Scattered, originally, as a curse for Levi's cruelty: Genesis 49). The way they still got to TWELVE tribes, then, while omitting Levi, was omitting Joseph and counting his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh instead. All this is detailed in Genesis.

The Rev 7 list starts with Judah, the tribe of Christ, as pre-eminent, displacing Reuben. That story is also told in detail in Genesis. While dispensationalists assume the list of tribes in Rev 7 has to do with JEWS, it is IN FACT THE SEALING OF ALL CHRISTIANS. The 144,000 is the square of the tribes (in a perfect square as in Numbers), reflecting the completion, totality and finality of the Church. (In the Biblical model the righteous NEVER evade the time of God's wrath; that is a complete misreading of how God does things.)

After John HEARS all this and writes it down, he TURNS TO LOOK (vs 7:9) expecting to see the 144,000. Then comes the fateful word "IDOU!" in Greek, the equivalent of the Hebrew "HINNEH" which always signals an unexpected and surprising turn of events. What he sees is the Great Multitude, who are coming out of the Great Tribulation. It is the "hinneh/idou" that signals for us John's surprise to learn that the 144,000 (symbolic numerology) are such a great multitude from EVERY tribe on earth!

..............................

Alright, let me answer one last thing, and then we'll be completely and well done with this topic.

We haven't examined the rapturists' ultimate proof text yet. Using "proof texts" is setting together individual verses from different parts of the Bible, irrespective of their context and their exegetical meaning, to create an apparently valid doctrine.

We have already noted that the Pauline descriptions of the Second Coming of Christ are very precise, and that Paul explicitly says that the living righteous are not caught up to meet the Lord in the air until the Second Coming, immediately after the resurrection of the righteous dead.. Revelation 20 says explicitly, that the rest of the dead--the evil dead--do not rise at that time, but a thousand years later, at the end of the millennium.

We have also seen that a huge key to the misunderstanding of the so-called "rapture" is separating the symbol of the 144,000 sealed from the CHRISTIAN Israel and the Great Multitude from every tribe and nation. The theory wrongly assumes a group of exactly 144,000 Christian Jews left to face the Antichrist while these Gentile Christians are all raptured away. That's what happens when you literalize a Biblical symbol, rather than looking at the symbol's background to find out what it represents.

In the 15th century, in the 18th Dynasty, at the time of the Exodus, the Egyptian army traveled in a hollow square, with the Pharaoh, the god-king, encamped in the center. If you will read the description of the War Camp of Israel in Numbers 1-4, you will see that the Israel of the Exodus, in the Wars of Yahweh, encamped in just that way, with the hollow square at the center occupied by the Wilderness Sanctuary, the dwelling of Israel's God-King.

You will even discover there, if you note the symbols of the tribes (from here and Genesis 49, Deuteronomy 32, 33 etc) that the symbols of the four center tribes on the four compass points from the Sanctuary were the Lion, the Ox, the Man, and the Eagle, the same as the Four Beasts of Yahweh's War Chariot in Ezekiel 1, that are repeated in Revelation 4 and 5. The numbering of Israel's warriors in that hollow square is what Revelation 7 is really referring to.

(The War Chariot in Ezekiel 1 is the thing that Von Daniken and other nutcases have said was actually a UFO, showing what happens when you interpret the Bible with no exegetical background.)

And yet Revelation 7 says explicitly that the great multitude is coming out of the great tribulation, a phrase borrowed directly from Christ's eschatological sermon. There is no wiggle room for the rapturists. Their theory is incorrect.

But apart from literalizing a symbol in Revelation 7, is there anything else rapturists appeal to? Well of course. As I said above, it's the "proof text" method, where you quote verses out of context to make up a theory. In this way you can make the Bible say anything you want it to say. You've already seen that at work in the use of the Thessalonian, Corinthian, and Revelation passages. If you get a single verse, disconnected from its context, you can make it say anything you want it to say.

After Jesus finished his discussion of the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem and the parallel events at the end of the age, he speaks of his Second Coming. He emphasizes that it is NOT a MYSTICAL coming, but HISTORICAL, LITERAL, UNIVERSAL, and MAJESTIC beyond description. The "Son of Man" (the human being to whom God commits control of the universe in the Great Judgment in Daniel 7) comes enthroned with the ten thousand times ten thousand (the clouds of heaven in ancient mythology) in power and great glory, to end human history. All the tribes of earth, unprepared, mourn their impending demise.

Jesus immediately refers to a fig tree nearby, pointing out that if you can read a budding tree and tell what season it is, you should be able to know when his coming is near, even at the gates.

He then turns to the subject of the days of Noah and the universal flood that ended the history of the antediluvian race, saying the situation just before his coming will be the same, with people utterly preoccupied, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, but when the flood came and swept them all away they were experiencing what the race as a whole will experience at his coming. Christ here says: SO WILL BE THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN.

The next sentence says: "Then two men will be in the field; one is taken, and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; on is is taken, the other is left."

If I read these verses completely out of context, not knowing that Jesus is in the middle of a long explanation of his Second Coming, I could easily deceive someone into a misconception of a rapture, when on a certain Tuesday lots of folks mysteriously disappear. Such is the possibility when you use "proof texts" taken out of context.

THE NEXT SENTENCE IS "WATCH THEREFORE, FOR YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT DAY YOUR LORD IS COMING." That is, the sentence immediately BEFORE this famous proof text, and the sentence immediately AFTER this famous proof text both say it refers to the Second Coming of Christ.

There is really no excuse for the use of this sentence to prove the rapture heresy.

[Guest]

Wow oldsailor, did you have something to say?

[oldsailor29]

Wow oldsailor, did you have something to say?

Well, I thought it would demonstrate the value of higher and lower criticism studies which were properly used, and illustrate how we could keep Paul without keeping the rapture, and introduce something interesting.

[Guest]

Very good

[oldsailor29]

A friend of mine says that the one taken and one left behind text does not refer to the "rapture." He also says that the ones taken are unrighteous and the ones left behind are the righteous. Now I'm confused.

[Kevin H]

Don't forget when the disciples ask where the ones who are taken are taken to, Jesus' answer is where the scavenger birds gather together.

[BobRyan]

Rapture? yes!

Secret? No!

When? Post Trib.

Big Bounce? nope.

[Steve Billiter]

A friend of mine says that the one taken and one left behind text does not refer to the "rapture." He also says that the ones taken are unrighteous and the ones left behind are the righteous. Now I'm confused.

The “Rapture”

Why Would Jesus Promise; by Joe Crews

There is a theological question that has disturbed millions of Christians and has lent untold doctrinal confusion to the modem religious world. That question revolves around the manner of Christ's coming back to this earth at the end of the world. Multitudes have been led to believe that Christ will return secretly. What about the so-called secret rapture A large number of Christians have been exposed to this "dispensationalist" or "futurist" interpretation of prophecy and have been hopelessly confused.

According to this view, the coming of Jesus will be in two separate events. First, He will come secretly to take the church to heaven, and then, seven years later, He will come in an open demonstration of power and glory. In between those two events, the Antichrist is supposed to come into power and the great tribulation period takes place.

But the truth is that the Bible nowhere speaks of these two separate comings of

Jesus. There is no second stage of His coming that occurs seven years after the so-called "rapture." By the way, that word "rapture" is also an invention of theologians. It can't be found in the Bible in even a single instance. It is a word coined for the second advent of Jesus.

Now here is what we find in the Scriptures: Christ's coming, the resurrection, and catching up of the saints to meet Jesus in the air, all take place at the same time, at the end of the world. This is why Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). Now why would Jesus promise to be with the church until the end of the world if He intended to come seven years before the end to take them out of the world The promise would have no meaning.

TWO

Will It Be Secret

The secret rapture doctrine contradicts the words of Christ in Matthew chapter 13 when He said that the

wheat and tares would grow together until the "end of the world" and then would be separated. According to the two-stage teaching of His coming, both groups would not grow together until the end of the world. The righteous would be separated from the wicked seven years before the end. And what about the promise of the resurrection Christ said, concerning the righteous, "And I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40). No one denies that this means the last day of the world.

Yet Paul declares that the saints are caught up to meet the Lord at the same time the dead in Christ are raised. He says, "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: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17).

Please keep in mind that Jesus called this resurrection the "last day." But how could it be the "last day" if this gathering of the saints takes place seven years before the

end of the world And how could the "last trump" sound if it really wasn't the very last moment of time

Can you imagine the graves opening and the righteous rising and no one knowing that it had occurred And consider this additional testimony of the Word of God:

• Revelation 6:16,17 When the wicked see Christ come, they cry out to the rocks and mountains, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand"

• Matthew 24:27 "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."

• 1 Corinthians 15:52 "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised."

• Psalm 50:3 "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence."

• Revelation 1:7 "Every eye shall see him. "

• Matthew 24:30 "Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

• Matthew 24:31 "He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (This is clearly the time when Christ comes to gather His saints.)

To say that the second coming of Christ to gather His saints will be secret, in view of these clear texts of Scripture, and in the absence of any text that even hints at His coming being secret, is to deny the Bible as the Word of God. In an attempt to uphold their contrived theory, the rapturists quote Matthew 24:40, 41 out of context. Notice this entire passage:

"But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating

and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left" (Matthew 24:37-41).

Jesus is clearly drawing a parallel between the second coming and the days of Noah. Those who entered the ark in Noah's day were saved, and those who refused to enter the ark were left outside. But what were they left for For another chance No, obviously they were left to be destroyed by the Flood. So, says Jesus, will it be when He comes at the end of the world. One will be taken to heaven with Jesus, and the other will be left for destruction. Verse 51 makes clear what will happen to those who are left: "And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there

shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Read Luke 17:26-37 for Luke's parallel account of these same words of Jesus. In verse 36, this statement is made: "Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left." Now notice verse 37 and the question the disciples asked: "And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord" They wanted to know where those who didn't go to heaven were going to be left. Notice Jesus' clear answer: "And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together."

Take note how Jesus taught that the bodies of the wicked are going to be left on the ground for the eagles to consume. Scripture is too plain to be misunderstood. Only as we accept all that the Bible says can we be safe from such deceptive teachings that are confusing millions of sincere Christians today concerning this most glorious event of all ages, the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Now, I realize that the rapturists hang onto the texts that liken the Lord's coming to "a thief in the night." They assume that this must be a quiet, secret coming. But

does it really mean that Let's show that it definitely does not. Here is one of those texts in 2 Peter 3: 10: "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." Obviously the "thief' part has nothing to do with secrecy because the heavens will pass away with a great noise! And if coming "as a thief' is the secret rapture which takes place seven years before the end of the world, how can the heavens and earth "pass away," as Peter describes it The heavens and earth could not pass away seven years before the world ends - that is the end!

The fact is that Jesus Himself explained clearly just how a thief's coming could be related to His coming: "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would

come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up" (Matthew 24:42, 43). There it is, so plain and simple! The thief would come unexpectedly when the owners were not looking for a thief. In the same way, His coming would take people by surprise. They would not be watching or looking for it.

THREE

Will Christ Return in Two Phases

The dispensationalists teach that the two separate stages of Christ's coming are indicated "in the Greek." They argue that there will first be the rapture (parousia), a secret coming; then seven years later will be the revelation (apokalupsis), His coming in power and glory. But, actually, instead of teaching two separate events, the Greek terms are used interchangeably in the Bible. They give no indication of a seven-year interval.

For example, Paul uses the word "parousia" in the famous rapture chapter of 1 Thessalonians 4 in speaking of the coming of our Lord and our gathering together unto Him. He then goes right on to show that this "parousia" will destroy the man of sin. Speaking of the Antichrist, Paul

says, "whom the Lord shall ... destroy with the brightness of his coming parousia" (2 Thessalonians 2:8). These texts clearly describe the coming (parousia) of Christ as taking place after the reign of the man of sin, not as an escape rapture before the reign of the Antichrist begins.

The other Greek word "apokalupsis" (revelation) is used in a way that indicates it is not a separate coming from the time the believers are gathered up. Peter said to "be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation apokalupsis of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13). Why would Christians be exhorted to keep hoping to the very end of the world for the grace brought through the revelation of Christ if their real hope was a secret rapture seven years before the revelation

Now look at some verses that prove beyond a doubt that the two words "parousia" and "apokalupsis" refer to the same event. In Matthew 24:37 we read, "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming parousia of the Son of man be." Luke's account of the same passage says

"As it was in the days of Noe ... Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed apokalupsis" (Luke 17:26, 30). This shows that the coming (parousia) of Christ and the revelation (apokalupsis) of Christ are the same event. There is absolutely no basis for placing seven years in between.

Many dispensationalist teachers actually claim that the rapture is not really the "coming" of Jesus at all. They say His coming is when Christ returns in power seven years after the rapture. But what a contradictory, confusing explanation that is! The fact is that there are many Scriptures that admonish Christians to wait and watch for the coming of the Lord. For example, James 5:7 says, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." But why should Christians need to be patient unto the coming of the Lord if there is to be a secret rapture to take them to heaven seven years before His coming

Strange as it may seem, this whole counterfeit secret rapture is built upon a constant repetition of words and ideas that

are not found in the Bible at all.

But they have been repeated so often that millions have assumed that they must be soundly biblical. Let's take a look at some of the texts that have been used to support the doctrine of a two-phase coming of Christ. And please notice that none of the verses actually say what some try to read into them. In fact, it is only after a person has already assumed that Christ will return in two separate comings that these verses could even suggest the idea.

Revelation 3:10 is often quoted to try to prove that the righteous will be taken out of the world before the tribulation. "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." It is immediately obvious that this text does not speak of the righteous leaving this world at all. Jesus completely clarified the meaning by something He said in John 17:6, 15 which sounds very similar.

"They have kept thy word. O I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world

but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." Don't miss the significance of the term "kept the word" in both these texts. Both statements are talking about the same group of people - the faithful ones.

Now if those who "kept the word" can be "kept from the evil" of the world without being taken out of the world, why should we suppose that a special coming and secret rapture is required for those who "kept the word" to be "kept from the hour of temptation" Whatever else may be taught in Revelation 3: 10, it is evident that no extra coming of Christ is indicated.

True biblical doctrine must be based upon clear statements of what the entire Bible teaches on a subject and not upon verses that offer only veiled inferences. Luke 21:36 is an example of that very thing. Jesus said to His disciples, "Pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass." How By a secret rapture to take them to heaven seven years before the end of the world Definitely not, for in the prayer of Jesus we read, "I pray not that thou shouldest

take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." When He told them to "pray ... to escape," He must have meant the same as when He prayed, "I pray not ... take them out of the world but ... keep them." This rules out a secret rapture entirely. The text that is used to prove the rapture is seen actually to forbid the saints being taken out of this world during the time of trouble.

FOUR

The Seven-Year Tribulation

Since so much rapturist theology revolves around the seven-year period, one would assume that the Bible must speak frequently of such a time period. But not so. There is not one single scriptural reference that ties the seven years to the end of the world or the coming of Christ. Most rapturist literature mentions the seven-year tribulation period without offering any Bible proof or explanation. Millions have assumed that it must be so well documented that no proof is needed.

In fact, the opposite is true. There just isn't any evidence to give.

Most Bible students are amazed to learn that the rapturists try to justify their seven years by lifting a prophecy of Daniel completely out of its context. In Daniel 9:24-27 God made a daring prophecy concerning the probation of the nation of Israel. He said to Daniel, "Seventy weeks 'weeks of years' RSV are determined upon thy people ... to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins" (v. 24). Please notice that God was going to allow Daniel's people seventy weeks to see what they would do with the Messiah when He appeared. The seventy weeks are prophetic time, and each day represents a literal year (Ezekiel 4:6). So the seventy weeks would be a literal period of 490 years, after which the Israelites would no longer be God's people. They would be rejected as a nation because of their rejection of the Messiah.

Don't miss the point in Daniel 9:25 that the prophecy of the seventy weeks was to begin with the decree to restore and build Jerusalem. That well-known date is

457 B.C., when Artaxerxes sent out the decree (Ezra 7:13). From that date, 457 B.C., the Jews would have exactly 490 years to finish filling up their cup of iniquity by rejecting the Messiah. That 490-year probation ended in A.D. 34, and the Jews ceased to be God's chosen people. Daniel 9:25 says that the Messiah would be anointed after sixty-nine of those prophetic weeks had passed by. That would be 483 years from the decree date of 457 B.C. It takes no mathematician to figure the end of that prediction. It brings us to the year A.D. 27, the very year that Jesus was baptized by John and the Holy Spirit anointed Him for His ministry. Since "Messiah" means" Anointed One," this had to be the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy that the Messiah would appear in A.D 27.

Now mark this fact: seventy weeks were assigned to the Jewish probation, but Christ appeared as the Messiah after sixty-nine weeks. That leaves the seventieth week for Christ to minister before the Jews' probation ended. What was to happen in the seventieth week Daniel 9:27 tells us, "And he shall confirm the covenant with many

for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease."

The midst of the week would be three and a half prophetic days (literal years) from His baptism. And according to the Bible, the ministry of Jesus lasted for three and a half years. In the spring of A.D. 31 He was crucified. The veil of the temple was rent (Matthew 27:51), signifying the end of sacrifices. By His death He caused them to cease. Another three and a half years would lead up to the end of the seventy weeks and the end of Jewish probation. During that three and a half years the disciples labored largely for the Jews. But in A.D. 34 the seventy weeks ended; Stephen was stoned and the gospel began to go to the Gentiles (Acts 8:4). The Jews had rejected the gospel message and were no longer God's people - just as Daniel had predicted. Henceforth they could be saved only as individuals, in exactly the same way as the Gentiles. As a nation, they had been rejected as the chosen people. Here is the way the Bible describes that rejection:

• Matthew21:43 "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you."

• Matthew 21:19 "And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away." (The fig tree was a symbol of the Jewish nation.)

• Matthew 23:38 "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

• Galatians 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."

• Galatians 3:29 "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

• Romans 10:12 "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him."

• Romans 9:6-8 "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham,

are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are ... the children of the promise are counted for the seed." (The New Testament teaches the acceptance of spiritual Israel, and the rejection of physical Israel and the children of the flesh.)

• Romans 2:28, 29 "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter."

• Acts 13:46 "It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles."

The rapturists get their seven years' tribulation by lifting that seventieth week of Daniel's prophecy completely out of its context and shoving it far into the future.

They claim it will be fulfilled after Christ comes to snatch away the righteous secretly. Incredible Absolutely! But they must grasp desperately for some text to support their seven years. They agree that the sixty-nine weeks of Daniel 9:25 refer to the period before Christ's first advent, but then they insert a 2,000-year gap before the seventieth week is fulfilled. They allot 69 weeks plus 2,000 years plus one week, or a total of 2,490 years. By this devious manipulation of God's Word, the rapturists believe they have extended the Jewish probation; and based upon this, they teach that all the fleshly Jews will be saved in a great second chance after the "secret rapture" takes place.

The tragedy of the rapture theory is that it takes these beautiful verses of Daniel 9:24-27 that predict the coming of Jesus, His baptism and crucifixion, and apply them to Antichrist. They do this by stating that it is Antichrist that causes the sacrifice and oblation to cease after three and one-half years. But Daniel states that it is Jesus who caused the sacrificial system of the Jews to cease when He died on the

cross. A misinterpretation that confuses something Christ has done, and applies it to the devil instead, is certainly a tragic occurrence. And yet this is the only way one can arrive at a seven-year tribulation period. How sad!

FIVE

When Does the Antichrist Appear

Now we are brought to focus on the most glaring inconsistency of the rapture theory, and that is that the Antichrist will not appear until after the saints are caught away - seven years before the end of the world. Paul settles the entire matter for us in the first few verses of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day of our gathering together unto Him

shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin Antichrist be revealed, the son of perdition;

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (vs. 1-4).

The words of Paul are so plain that it is difficult to comment on them. How can they be plainer Christ's coming will not take place "except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed." Show these words to any child who has learned to read; show them to anyone not prejudiced by "private" interpretations, and he will say, "These verses say that the man of sin (Antichrist) is going to be revealed before Jesus comes."

Paul is not referring to some superman suddenly to appear 2,000 years after his epistles. He wrote, "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work" (v. 7). While Paul lived, he combated the emerging spirit of the Antichrist. By the sixth century A.D., Antichrist had matured. The crowning act

in the great drama of deception, however, occurs just before the return of Christ: "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming."' Verse 8. This clearly states that Antichrist will be destroyed when Christ comes. He does not arrive after the Second Advent.

And here's the crowning clarification in this whole thing. Revelation 20:4 assures us that some of those who are raised in the first resurrection will be those who refused to worship the beast and receive his mark! How completely this demolishes the futuristic school of prophetic interpretation is evident, for they claim that the emergence of the Antichrist and the imposition of his mark are to be looked for after the first resurrection and what they call the secret rapture. Recently a radio preacher expressed this belief:

"I don't expect to be here when the beast is enforcing his mark upon the people. I expect to go up in the rapture and be in heaven during the great tribulation time." But these verses declare

that some of those who come up in the "first resurrection," when Christ comes the second time, have already refused to worship the Antichrist or receive his mark! Thus, the Antichrist must have already been on the stage of action carrying on his oppressive work before the "first resurrection" and well before the second coming of Jesus.

Without attempting to establish the identity of Antichrist at this point, let us notice how this teaching - that the Antichrist will come in the future - originated. At the time of the Reformation, most of the reformers understood the prophecy of the Antichrist to refer to the great apostate system of Romanism that developed during the Middle Ages. Of course, Rome did not appreciate this interpretation. Please notice Rome's course of action to nullify this interpretation:

"So great a hold did the conviction that the Papacy was the Antichrist gain upon the minds of men, that Rome at last saw she must bestir herself, and try, by putting forth other systems of interpretation, to

counteract the identification of the Papacy with the Antichrist.

"Accordingly, toward the close of the century of the Reformation, two of the most learned doctors set themselves to the task, each endeavoring by different means to accomplish the same end, namely, that of diverting men's minds from perceiving the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Antichrist in the papal system. The Jesuit Alcazar devoted himself to bring into prominence the preterist method of interpretation, ... and thus endeavored to show that the prophecies of Antichrist were fulfilled before the popes ever ruled in Rome, and therefore could not apply to the Papacy.

"On the other hand, the Jesuit Ribera tried to set aside the application of these prophecies to the papal power by bringing out the futurist system, which asserts that these prophecies

refer properly, not to the career of the Papacy, but to some future supernatural individual, who is yet to appear, and continue in power for three and a half years. Thus, as Alford says, the Jesuit Ribera, about A.D. 1580, may be regarded as the founder of the futurist system of modern times.

"It is a matter for deep regret that those who advocate the futurist system at the present day, Protestants as they are for the most part, are really playing into the hands of Rome, and helping to screen the Papacy from detection as the Antichrist."1

Thus, the whole theory of the secret rapture with its future Antichrist had its origin with the Jesuits in an attempt to take the blame off the Papacy.

The origin of the two-phase coming of Christ has an equally unsavory history. It was not until around the year 1830 that this view began to be taught. In the

Scottish church pastored by Edward Irving, a Miss Margaret McDonald gave what was believed at the time to be an inspired utterance. She spoke of the visible, open, and glorious second coming of Christ. But as the utterance continued, she spoke of another coming of Christ - a secret and special coming in which those who were truly ready would be raptured.2

However, it was John Nelson Darby - Brethren preacher and diligent writer of the time in England - who was largely responsible for introducing this new teaching on a large scale. The teaching spread to the United States in the 1850s and 1860s, where it was to receive its biggest boost when Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, a strong believer in Darby's teachings, incorporated it into the notes of his Scofield Reference Bible, which was published in 1909. Since that time, this view has been widely accepted - often by people who are completely unaware that this was not the belief held by Christians over the centuries. Many fine Christians hold his view today who have never questioned its authority.

Oswald Smith, noted minister and author of Toronto, says in his booklet Tribulation or Rapture - Which that he once held the two-stage teaching, but that when he began to search the Scriptures for himself, he discovered that there is not a single verse in the Bible to uphold this view. He confessed: "I had been taught that the Greek word 'parousia' always referred to the Rapture and that other words were used for the coming of Christ in glory ... but I found that this is not true. ... We might go through all the writers of the New Testament, and we would fail to discover any indication of the so-called 'two stages' of our Lord's coming ... That theory had to be invented by man. Search and see. There is no verse in the Bible that even mentions it."

SIX

The Second Chance

Finally, the secret rapturists claim that during the tribulation those not raptured will be given another chance to be saved.

Let it be categorically stated that nowhere does Scripture speak of a second chance, nor does the Bible anywhere speak of people being saved after Jesus comes. This is just another manmade doctrine that is indeed pleasing to the carnal heart of man. Actually, the Bible teaches the opposite. Notice these clear texts of Scripture:

• 2 Corinthians 6:2 "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

• Revelation 22:11, 12 "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me." (Evidently probation closes just prior to the Second Advent.)

• Jeremiah 8:20 "The harvest (day of second coming) is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."

When Jesus comes the second time, He carries "in his hand a sharp sickle" (Revelation 14:14). This is the reaping

time after sixty centuries of the sowing of the seeds of sin. This is the harvest time, and "the harvest is the end of the world" (Matthew 13:39). "And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped" (Revelation 14:16). Truly did Jeremiah say, "The harvest is past ... and we are not saved" (Jeremiah 8:20). There can be no saving after the reaping of earth's harvest at the coming of Christ.

When Jesus and His holy angels appear, then "before him shall be gathered all nations" (Matthew 25:32). There will only be two classes in that great company. The destiny of each has been set by what he did before the coming of Christ.

Let us stand firm on the Word of God alone and reject these man made, man pleasing ideas that form the bulk of the whole secret rapture theory. As we have noticed, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus Christ will come the second time in glorious majesty to take His redeemed home with Him. It will be a personal, visible, and earthshaking event that everyone alive will know about. The righteous will

be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4: 17), whereas the wicked will be slain by the brightness of that coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8). Let us carefully study our Bibles that we will not be deceived concerning this most important and wonderful hope, the second coming of Jesus.

ENDNOTES

1Reverend Joseph Tanner, Daniel and the Revelation, pp. 16,17. (See also L. E. Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol 2, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1950, pp. 484-510.)

2Dave MacPherson, The Incredible Cover-Up, Logos International, 1975, Omega Publications, Medford, OR.

________________________________________

[olger]

A friend of mine says that the one taken and one left behind text does not refer to the "rapture." He also says that the ones taken are unrighteous and the ones left behind are the righteous. Now I'm confused.

There is some textual evidence that supports this understanding.

og