And when these things begin to come to pass,
then look up, and lift up your heads;
for your redemption draweth nigh.
|
|
March 20, 2008:Traditions | Just a few more weary days and then... I'll fly away... And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. |
| December 29, 2007:New Year's 2008 | ||
| November 3, 2007:How To Be Successful in Christian Ministry | ||
| October 23, 2007:Salmon |
| |||||||||
| The Timing of the Rapture William H. Haller |
|---|
Last week, Max made a statement that there was no mention of the Rapture in the Bible. So, since we are at the Revelation 2-3 / Revelation 4 juncture where I believe the Rapture is timed in the book of Revelation, I thought this would be a good time to address this topic before moving into the rest of Revelation. We'll cover the Rapture first, and then move into the rest of Chapter 4. A certain amount of this information is taken from previous articles I've written on the subject.
What permanent outcomes do we have to look forward to as Christians? There are two outcomes that will occur, depending on whether we have died or are still living when Christ returns. In the first scenario, we die before Christ returns. Our body decays to dust to await the resurrection of the body at the rapture, and our soul/spirit is taken to Heaven. If we are alive when He returns, we will be reunited with Christ in the air as he raptures His church and takes all who are ready to heaven.
For all the times the word rapture is used by Christians today, the word itself does not appear in most Bible translations I have. Max is correct in that statement. However, the process that is meant when Christians speak of the rapture is clearly prophesied in the Bible. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul speaks of being caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord.
There will be no signs to look for concerning the rapture. When it occurs, there will be a mighty shout, there will be a trumpet blast when the dead in Christ rise and when those who are alive are caught up in the air, but it will be too fast for anyone to change their heart and get right with God. It will simply happen and be done.
Those who have died, will be joined to their resurrected bodies and those bodies, along with those of Christians who are alive and ready for His coming will be changed to an incorruptible state which will be ready to live forever with Christ in heaven.
This must indeed be the hope for every Christian in this and every future age if God tarries.
Christians, don't let down your guard and miss the time of His appearing. For those of you who haven't yet made a decision to follow Christ, don't delay. It is truly going to be very hard to become a Christian once the church is raptured. If you were playing around with Christianity before but hadn't made a decision, it is going to be very hard to go back.
When will these things come about? Every generation (including Paul's) expected that the time could be immediate. Paul certainly expected that it could be in his generation, and spread that word to all the churches he founded. Yet when he reached the end of his time on earth, he had just as much faith in Jesus and the gospel message as he had after Jesus first confronted him on the road to Damascus. He was trying to live each day as Christ wanted him to live, regardless of the surroundings and circumstances. He lived each day as if it was his last, doing God's will to the best of his ability. It would be great if all churches today and all in this body - myself included - were doing as good a job as Paul was, knowing that the rapture of the church could still occur at any time.
There are many interpretations of prophecy in Daniel and Revelation which try to pin down a better time as to when the rapture must occur. Many radical splinter groups have made horrible names for themselves and hurt the work of Christ in picking dates that later proved wrong.
About the only thing that can be done is to place the time in the context of other Biblical events which prophecy says must occur. In mainstream Christianity, there are three general schools of thought. Listing them in order of time, the first is that the rapture will come before the time of tribulation, the second that it will come at the midpoint in the tribulation, and the third and least popular view is that it will be at the end of the tribulation. The exact view depends at least in part in the view of the rest of the prophecies and their order.
I don't believe there will be 3 1/2 years or 7 years of fulfilled scriptural prophecy which will lead up to the rapture. I happen to believe that scripture indicates the time of the rapture of the Church will be sometime before the tribulation begins. For those here who are of the mid-persuasion, I will give my scriptures to back up my point of view. Any scriptures you would like to present for an alternate view would be welcome.
I know that if you hold an opinion on the subject, that opinion is probably held firmly if you have studied it at all. It is one of those basic gut opinions which is hard to change once set. Little that people say seems able to change a mind. I count myself among that group. For those of you who don't agree I only ask that you write down the scriptures and study them yourselves. Try to listen with an open heart to the message and to what God says to you. Ask for God's illumination. I may not change any minds, but it is something I feel strongly about, and something that I feel can be a dangerous thing to believe incorrectly - especially if the rapture actually occurs before you believe and teach that it will.
I am going to present some of my thoughts and interpretations along with those of others. Most of the scripture references and some of the commentary comes from abridged comments from Dake. Other occasional thoughts and scriptures comes from a book called Bible Doctrines by P.C. Nelson.
About the only thing that I will say with absolute certainty is that it will happen. In my pre-tribulation view, the people remaining on earth after the rapture will have the best sign of all to mark the beginning of the end of this age of those mentioned in Matthew 24 where Christ gives the great Olivet prophecy.
Dissecting this passage gives clear insight into the timing of the rapture of the church, the revelation of the anti-Christ, and the day of the Lord. I believe that this section of scripture is primarily written as a warning to those who miss the rapture as follows:
There are only three things which hinder lawlessness today:
The first two of these will remain after the rapture and during the tribulation, although the government in many parts of the world will be changed. The only one which can be removed is the church - the true body of Christ, and by scripture that is by the rapture. Since this scripture indicates that the Antichrist will rise after the hinderer is removed, and other scriptures point out that the Antichrist rises at the start of the tribulation (the rider of the white horse), this pushes the time of the rapture to before his rise to power or pre-tribulation.
For me, this is probably the hardest scripture make fit any other time than pre-tribulation.
The second passage I want to refer to is found in 1 Thessalonians, right after the discussion we read above about the rapture itself:
This whole passage is speaking of the day of the Lord, and the travails which precede it. Paul says clearly in verse 9 that God has not appointed Christians to wrath but to obtain salvation by Christ. In verse 11, he says this should be a comfort to us. After pointing out the travails which occur in the tribulation time before the day of the Lord at the end of this age and the start of the Millennium, this reference to Christ being our salvation and God not appointing Christians to this wrath also points to a rapture before the tribulation.
The last section of scripture is in the book of Revelation itself. First, I would like to review a bit about its basic structure starting with what John is commanded by Jesus to write since we have been in Daniel for some weeks.
In this passage, Christ commands that John write the things which he has seen - the vision in verses 12 through 20, the things which are, chapter 2:1 through 3:22, and the things which shall be hereafter, comprising the rest of Revelation. The revelation of the character of Christ in chapter 1 is part of the things which John has seen:
Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation describe the church and form the body of the things which are. They give direct challenges of God to the church to get in line with what God desires, clean up their faults, and do Christ's work. How many times does Jesus say?
Then, Christ or His agents begin describing the things which are to come. This occurs in the first verse of chapter 4. The word hereafter in 4:1 is from the Greek meta tauta - meaning after these things. What can it be after except the church age?
Dake comments that these elders are the leaders of those who have been raptured. There are 24, signifying either the order of the old priesthood which had 24 elders or the 12 tribes and 12 apostles. He comments that the clothing in white in heaven is reserved for Christ and the saints. Likewise, the crowns of gold and thrones are promised to believers and overcomers. These are present in heaven directly after the closing of the church age, and before any of the main prophetical events of the rest of Revelation have occurred. Clearly, there are Old Testament and New Testament saints who have already died and who are in heaven now which he could have seen.
However, it is significant to me that the church is mentioned 19 times in chapters 1 through 3 of Revelation as the seven churches' works are examined. The word church is very popular. Once chapter 3 closes, the church is not mentioned again until the conclusion in Revelation 22:6-21. For me, this is just as significant as that of 2 Thessalonians 2. If the church isn't raptured between the end of chapter 3 and the start of chapter 4, then when? There is the rapture of the 144,000 sealed manchild, the resurrection of the tribulation saints, and the resurrection of the two witnesses, but no mention of the rapture of the church. The manchild and witnesses have particular specific identities and functions. The tribulation saints are all martyred. Yet the earlier scriptures on the rapture of the church indicate a transformation of those who are living. None of these seem to fit with any of the resurrected or rapture groups here.
Although not a direct scriptural argument, the entire tone of the writing of the apostles seems to also point to a pre-tribulation rapture. I noted before that they expected to be raptured at any time. Some of these can be found in the following scriptures taken from the introductions to two of the Epistles.
Paul doesn't state that Jesus delivers the saints from a current wrath but from a future wrath. There is indeed a different level of tribulation which begins in the last 3 1/2 years of the total tribulation period. However, to imply that there is no wrath of God being poured out in the first 3 1/2 years is wrong. The wrath of God begins at the Sixth Seal, and there is a permissive aspect to God causing the first 5 seals to be opened which certainly are detrimental to the well-being of the inhabitants of the Earth with the rise of the Antichrist, wars, famine, and death and hell rampant because of them. As the remainder of the seals and the first six trumpet judgments occur before the midpoint of the tribulation marked by the 7th trumpet, there is certainly a lot of God's wrath being poured out. Yet 1 Thessalonians 1:10 says Christ comes to deliver the church from that wrath.
Further, if the rapture was to occur mid-tribulation or even post-tribulation, then the apostles would have been giving advice concerning definite tribulation signs to look for. Instead, they point to looking toward the sky for the coming of Christ in the air.
There will be no mistaking the tribulation on the earth for anyone who has studied Revelation. In my personal opinion, a teaching which says that the rapture is mid-tribulation or post-tribulation is dangerous for the following reason. It will be hard to mistake the first five seals, but certainly by the sixth seal with the sun being made black and the moon as blood, with the accompanying great earthquake, it will be clear that Revelation is being fulfilled. A pre-tribulation teaching means you must be ready at all times for the rapture to occur. A mid or post-tribulation teaching gives you many signs to look for to get ready. If the pre-tribulation teaching is an incorrect interpretation of scripture, no great loss. Those who believe as I do will see the signs in the first 3 1/2 years, conclude that we were wrong, and wait for the mid or post tribulation rapture.
On the other hand, those who believe in a mid or post tribulation rapture and who aren't living a life that is quite right with God may well be very surprised if we pre-tribulation people are correct instead. They would have little concern that they would miss the rapture, human nature being what it is, regardless of the type of life they are leading, It would always be clear that there was a definite time coming in which you had to get your life in order, and then you would be set - you would only have to live completely right for a short time. I say this fully aware of the many who will die during the 3 1/2 years of the lesser tribulation. But realistically, even in trying times, the vast majority of non-suicidal and non-terminal humans don't wake up saying that today is the day I am going to die. A person lives out the day under the absolute certainty that they will be alive to go to sleep tonight. I suspect it will be no different during the tribulation.
This has gone into the start of chapter 4. We won't meet next week as many will be out of town for Memorial Day. We will pick up with the rest of chapter 4 and chapter 5 next time we meet. This will take us from the view of heaven to the start of Daniel's 70th week which commences with chapter 6.
