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Transcript 411A — When Will the Rapture Occur?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: My question is, almost every minister I talk to, and they say about ninety-five percent believe this, that the church is going to be taken away to avoid the time of trouble they think is coming. Could you tell me, first of all, where this idea has come from, because all the places I've read don't talk about a rapture before the end of time? And second of all, could you give me some scripture that would indicate that we're all going to be raptured at the end of time, at the end of the world, instead of some Christians being taken away first?
And my second question is, when is the last chapter of Zechariah going to be fulfilled, where it talks about armies gathering around Jerusalem? And then the Lord has come back. But then after the Lord has come back, it talks about the world like it's still here, because it says what will happen, that all the nations will come up to Israel and they'll worship the Lord in Jerusalem, and the plagues that will come upon the people who don't go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, that they won't receive rain, that these things will come upon them, these plagues.
Do you understand my questions? I'll take the answer over the air.
HC: The first question is again a very common question today. When will the Rapture take place? Now we've talked about this many times, and I don't mind talking about it again and again, because there is very much confusion about this. Our caller raised the question, where did the idea come from that the church will be raptured before the final tribulation period?
I don't know the answer to that question. I am very very confident, and I don't say this arrogantly, proudly, or belligerently, or whatever, but just as a flat matter of fact, I am very confident that it did not come from the Bible. It did not come from the Bible. I've searched the Bible on this question, and I think I'm quite familiar with all of the passages that might remotely relate to the Rapture. And I find no evidence in the Bible of any kind that would indicate that the Rapture, the bringing of the believers into Heaven, or into the presence of Christ, would occur before the final tribulation period.
As you've heard me say many times on this program, and maybe you're kind of tired of it, maybe you even wish I would not say it any longer, because it troubles you, but you know, in my role I have to be as faithful as possible to the Word of God, every place I turn in the Bible I find that the Bible is crystal clear that the Rapture will be the last day. It will be at the end of time. Let me just give a few passages. I won't develop this to its full extent, although I could easily talk for an hour on this.
In First Corinthians 15:51 & 52 we read, "We'll not all sleep but we'll all be changed, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye." Now that's talking about the Rapture. We'll not all die, but we're all going to receive our resurrected bodies, that is, those who are believers. And then it gives a time clue in that context, "at the sound of the last trumpet." Now when we search the Bible to find out when the last trumpet is, we turn to Revelation 11. There is where the seventh trumpet sounds. There is no eighth trumpet. It is the last trumpet, the seventh trumpet. And the context of Revelation 11, beginning with verse 15, when the seventh trumpet sounds, is that of Judgment Day. It's the end of time.
Or again, in John 6, in 4 places, it's an amazing thing, as a matter of fact, that four times Jesus, in this one chapter, declared that all believers will be resurrected the last day. All believers will be resurrected the last day. Read verse 39, read verse 40, verse 44, read verse 54. Christ made sure that we would get that, that all believers will be resurrected the last day.
Now in First Thessalonians 4 there's no question at all, but that the rapture of the believers will be a simultaneous event with the resurrection of believers. Therefore, if the resurrection of believers is the last day, the rapture of believers is the last day.
Now immediately you can begin to say, "Well, the last day of what?" Well, if it's the last day, it has to be at the end of time, doesn't it? It's not the last day of part of God's economy, or whatever. It's the end of time. The fact is, when Pentecost rolled around, in AD 33, in Acts 2:17, God declares that these were the last days. The whole New Testament period is the last days. But in John 6 Jesus said, "on the last day" the believers will be resurrected.
Well, if you want assurance that that is the end of time, you can read John 12:48, where Christ also declared that this Word will judge the unbelievers on the last day. Well, that means the last day is Judgment Day. And Judgment Day is at the end of time. Therefore, if the believers are resurrected the last day, they are raptured the last day. And therefore the rapture is the end of time.
We can find path after path that teaches this. In Matthew 24, when Jesus is talking about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, He talks about the final tribulation. He says in verse 21, "And then there will be great tribulation such as this world has never known, nor ever shall be. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened." For the sake of who? The elect. Who are the elect? They are the chosen ones. They are the born again believers. We are elect of God. We are chosen by God from before the foundations of the earth.
For our sake those days will be shortened. And Christ is talking about the great tribulation. And then He goes on in verse 29, and He says that "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shine, and the stars will fall to earth." In other words, it's the end of this earth's existence. It's the collapse of the universe.
And then Christ will come with power and great glory, and all the tribes will mourn, when they see Him coming. And what's the very first thing that Jesus will do? He will send out His angels, "with the sound of the trumpet, to gather His elect from the four winds under heaven." You see, the believers will be raptured as a first event upon Christ's coming.
Now I have to admit, and you've heard me say this before, but I still say it, I am utterly amazed. I don't know what word to use. I was going to use the word flabbergasted, but I don't know if that's a very good word. But I'm really amazed that serious students of the Bible have trouble with this. I'm really amazed at this, because the Bible is so plain about it. The passages are so many that indicate that the Rapture is the last day, the end of time. And it fits precisely into everything the Bible teaches about the end time program. And so I really am amazed that serious students of the Bible are troubled by this.
Now I have to admit, of course, that lots of things I know today I did not always hold. Many of the things I can talk about rather glibly at times, I admit, as if anyone ought to know that, came to me only after years of very careful study and prayer for wisdom. And then of course once you have it in your hand, you see how it all fits so beautifully in the Bible, then it's easy to talk about, like anybody should have been able to see this. And so I admit that I have to be very very very patient with those who might have another opinion about this.
But I do encourage anyone to read the Bible carefully. One of the serious problems going on today is that when people begin to face questions of this nature, they run to their library shelves and begin to pick this book or that book off the wall, and see what this author had to say, or that author had to say. And they'll read books that have lots of Biblical quotations. And these books will confidently assert that this is the way it's going to be. And because you trust the author of that book, you trust every statement that he is making.
But frankly, while these authors may be right in ninety percent of everything else they write, they have not done careful homework on the Rapture, if they conclude that the church is going to be raptured before the tribulation or before Judgment Day. This is not taught in the Bible. And I welcome anyone to try to show me where this is in the Bible. I've been teaching this matter of the Rapture being on the last day for more than ten years now, and I'm still waiting for someone to call me, to show me chapter and verse from the Bible where the Rapture is at some other point than the end of time. I'm still waiting. And anybody can call, anybody can do their homework, anybody can consult all of their authorities. They can set all the Scriptures in order, and they can call and I'll be glad to visit with them for a whole hour on the air on this program, to discuss this, if they can really show it to me from the Bible.
But no one has ever done this. Occasionally someone would dare to call with a verse or two, but immediately when we look at that verse very carefully we find that it's not talking about the rapture at all, or it's talking about something else altogether. And these same who would bring this kind of a verse have never faced these other verses that I've begun to talk about tonight.
Really, if I do nothing else on this program, I hope that I encourage you to read the Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible. Find out from the Scriptures what God has to say.