How do we know there will be a rapture?

March 16, 2010

 

When you teach on the Rapture, are you suggesting a "third coming" of Christ? Is there anything in the Bible to suggest a third coming? And how do we know that the Church will escape the Tribulation?

In answer to your first question, there is no Biblical teaching concerning a "third coming" of Christ. Our Lord has already come to earth once (during His Earthly ministry from approximately 4 BC - AD 30), and Scripture calls for His eventual return to live on Earth and reign as King for 1,000 years. His return is often called His Second Coming. There is no other time of Christ returning to Earth.

Regarding the Rapture of the saints before the Tribulation, we first must understand the purpose of Tribulation itself. The Bible teaches repeatedly and clearly that the time of Tribulation is a time of judgment specifically intended for the Jewish nation. We teach extensively concerning this period of judgment in our Revelation, Isaiah, Luke and Ruth studies. As we teach in those courses, the seven-year period of Tribulation is intended by God to chasten Israel for Her sins under the Mosaic Covenant, and it will lead the nation as a whole to repent and turn to the Christ.

We invite you to study the following passages to understand God's purpose in bringing Tribulation:

Ezek 20-33-38 - God promises to bring Israel back into her land for a period of judgment and redemption
Dan 9:24 - God lists seven reasons why Israel must experience the seven years of Tribulation
Jer 30:2-9 - God promises an unprecedented period of distress coming for Israel called the time of "Jacob's troubles" but the nation will be saved in the end.

In summary, the seven-year period of worldwide distress we call Tribulation is a time of judgment specifically directed toward the nation of Israel for the purpose of bringing Israel back to God. Due to the unprecedented nature of this time of judgment, it impacts the entire world and brings distress to everyone living on Earth in those days.  Nevertheless, it is a result of Israel's sin and is directed specifically against that nation.

Because the purpose of Tribulation is for Israel (and not the Church), Paul teaches that the Church will not be subjected to this time of distress when it comes. We can see Paul's teaching on the Rapture and it's relationship to Tribulation in several passages, beginning with 1Thess 4:

1Th. 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
1Th. 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
1Th. 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until  the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
1Th. 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the  trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
1Th. 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
1Th. 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

In this passage, Paul writes to comfort the church concerning the fate of those of faith who die before Christ's return for His Church. Paul assures the church that those who die (i.e., are "asleep") will not be left behind at the resurrection, but in fact they will rise first to meet Christ. After the dead rise, those saints who are still alive on Earth will be "caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air."

Notice that the Lord is not descending to Earth, and therefore this is not His second coming.  He remains "in the air" and only meets the resurrection saints after they have departed the Earth. This detail demonstrates that this moment is a unique event, one that is distinctly different from Jesus' second coming to Earth. The Church has taken to calling this unique event the "Rapture," because when the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible was published in the early 5th Century, it used the Latin word "rapere" for the Greek word "harpazo," which translated into English means "caught up."

Paul wrote to assure the Church that the Lord intends to collect His Bride "in the air" before the time of Tribulation begins. Paul describes the timing of the Rapture in the next series of verses from 1Thess:

1Th. 5:1 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.
1Th. 5:2 For you yourselves know full well that  the day of the Lord will come  just like a thief in the night.
1Th. 5:3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.
1Th. 5:4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief;
1Th. 5:5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;
1Th. 5:6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
1Th. 5:7 For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night.
1Th. 5:8 But since  we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the  breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
1Th. 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th. 5:10  who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

Concerning the timing of these events, Paul teaches that the Rapture will be closely associated in time with a worldwide period of calamity and judgment. We know this judgment time to be the time of Tribulation, and in keeping with the earlier Scripture references regarding Tribulation's focus on the Jewish nation, we understand Paul is assuring the Church that we are not "appointed" to this coming wrath (v.9) and that this "day" will not overtake us (v.4).  Only the Jewish nation is "appointed" to this time of wrath.

Consequently, we understand Paul is teaching that Tribulation is a time of judgment intended for the Jewish nation and the unbelieving world, and the Church will escape this time, because Christ collects the Church from the Earth and escorts His Bride away before the coming judgment.

(By the way, you can also see a prophetic picture of the coming Rapture in the story of Isaac and Rebecca from Genesis 24.  For more information, please refer to our teaching on this scene in Lessons 24A & 24B from our Genesis III study, and also in Ruth 3B and 4B in our Ruth study. You can find both studies on our website.)

Finally, Paul also references the Rapture in passing in 1Cor:

1Cor. 15:51 Behold, I tell you a  mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be  changed,
1Cor. 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and  the dead will be raised  imperishable, and we will be changed.
1Cor. 15:53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Paul's main point in 1Cor 15 is to demonstrate the truth of resurrection and the need for a new "incorruptible" body before men can enter into the heavenly realm. As he teaches on this point, Paul introduces a "mystery," a hidden truth that God is now unveiling through Paul's writing. The mystery Paul revealed in this passage was that not every Christian will experience physical death (i.e., "sleep") before they receive their new, incorruptible body. Though most Christians will experience a physical death before the resurrection of the righteous, some Christians will still be living when the moment of resurrection takes place.

Paul then says that in a moment (in Greek, the phrase literally means in "an atom of time"), the dead are raised into their new bodies and the living are "changed." The Greek word is "allasso," which means an exchange of one thing for another. Paul is teaching that at the moment of the resurrection for all saints, any believers who are still alive at that moment will instantly exchange their present body for a new body. The exchange for a new incorruptible form is necessary because we are immediately escorted into Heaven with the Lord. This is the same Rapture Paul described in 1Thess, and it is a moment the Church has expected and longed for since Paul wrote these words.