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Transcript 198B — The Timing of the Rapture
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. I wanted to ask about the rapture of the church, when it's supposed to occur in the timetable, where it's indicated in the scriptures.
HC: The Bible speaks about the rapture in many many places. It never uses the word rapture, in speaking of that moment when those who are born again believers will be instantly changed into their resurrected bodies and caught up in the air to be with Christ.
Now for example, in Matthew 24:37 we read: "As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the Flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field. One is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One is taken and one is left."
Now this tells us what to expect. We are encouraged, in verse 37, to look at Noah. Now Noah lived on this earth right up until the day that the floods came. And on the day, the very day that the floods came, that brought God's judgment upon all the wicked of the earth, on that day he entered the ark. He was brought to safety, you see. But the unsaved were caught in the judgment of God.
And likewise it will be when Christ comes. "Two men will be in the field. One is taken." One is taken to safety and to the presence of Christ. That's the rapture. The other is left for judgment. The rapture is on the Last Day. It's right at the end of time.
CALLER: You're saying that the rapture and the second coming are the same thing.
HC: Yes.
CALLER: But some say that the rapture is coming at the beginning of the seven-year tribulation, and then the Second Coming follows that.
HC: Where do they read that in the Bible?
CALLER: I don't know. This is what gets me. I've heard this so many times. The rapture is referred to in I Thessalonians 4:16, I guess. This is to precede the seven-year tribulation, in which the abomination of desolation will be set up. And then at the end of that seven years, then will be the Second Coming. That just doesn't make any sense.
HC: 1 Thessalonians 4 doesn't talk about a seven-year tribulation, does it?
CALLER: No, but I mean that is the scripture they use to teach being caught up in the air, or a rapture, that occurs before the tribulation. And then following that is the second coming. But isn't that really the second coming that's referred to in I Thessalonians also?
HC: In I Thessalonians 4 it's talking about the very same event. It's talking about the coming of the Lord. And those of us who have not died will at the same time as those who are in the graves come forth to the resurrection be caught up with them in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
Now I Thessalonians 4 is simply teaching that when Christ comes He will come with the archangel's call, with the sound of the trumpet, and it will be simultaneous with the resurrection of those who have died previously. Now when will the resurrection of those who had died occur?
We know from John 6:40 and verse 44 and verse 54 that the resurrection of believers is on the Last Day, again teaching exactly the same truth. "I will raise him up on the Last Day," Jesus says 4 times in John 6. Now in John 12:48 Jesus taught that Judgment Day is the Last Day. "This Word will judge them on the Last Day." And so that means that the resurrection of the unbelievers has to be on the Last Day, because the resurrection of the unbelievers has to be at the time of judgment.
And this is taught very plainly in John 5:28 & 29: "The hour cometh when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth, some to the resurrection of judgment and some to the resurrection of eternal life." You see, everything that I have quoted here (and I haven't taken anything out of context, and I haven't pushed at anything, or spiritualized anything) very literally says exactly the same thing. It points to the Last Day.
Now I Corinthians 15:51 & 52 say the same thing: "We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet." And the last trumpet is the seventh trumpet, and we know from Revelation 11 that when the seventh trumpet blows, then its' time for judgment, and for the rewarding of the saints, and so on.
CALLER: Revelation 19, is that saying the same thing?
HC: That's Judgment Day again. Revelation 6, Revelation 16, Revelation 19, Revelation 17, Revelation 18, a few verses in Revelation 20, all are discussing Judgment Day.
Now this idea that the rapture could come at any moment, I don't know where it's taught in the Bible. I know a great many believers hold this. And I wish that they would go to the scriptures and try to prove it from the scriptures. If we hold an idea, then let's be sure that we can back it up with scriptures. And in backing this up with scriptures, not only do you have to find verses that seem to teach that (and I don't know which they are), more than that you have to reckon with every one of these verses that I quoted, and try to figure out, "Well, how do we read those?"
In Matthew 24, beginning with verse 21, it says that "Then there Will be great tribulation, such as this world has never known." And then in verse 29 it says that "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven." In other words, the universe begins to collapse. "And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." It's the coming of the Lord, you see.
And then notice the next verse, which speaks just like I Thessalonians 4: "And He will send out His angels, with a loud trumpet call. And they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the skies (or one end of the heaven) to the other." The same elements are here that we find in I Thessalonians 4. There's the loud trumpet call, there's the activity of the angels, and there is the gathering of the believers. That's the rapture.
Instantaneously we are given our resurrected bodies, and we are caught up in the air to be with Christ.
CALLER: That means we have to live through the tribulation.
HC: Well, the Bible says, "In the world you will have tribulation." People who have been thrown to the lions and who have been burned at the stake, and who are rotting away in concentration camps - are they going through tribulation? Of course they are.
This idea that the Christian does not go through tribulation is absolutely foreign to the Bible. And it's developed because we live in a wonderful land, which is an unusual land in that we have the freedom to worship that we have. But that is not normative for the believers throughout time.
Thank you so much for sharing that. Good night.