The Jewish wedding tradition
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The heavenly Bridegroom and his bride
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The groom
leaves his father’s home and goes to his prospective bride’s home.
The groom
establishes a marriage covenant by paying a tribute or purchase price for his
prospective bride.
The groom
promises to return, leaving the bride at her father’s house and going back to
his father’s house. They remain
separated for a period of time, normally about a year.
During
the year of separation, the groom would stay at his father’s house to build
living accommodation for him and his wife.
The
groom, on an unannounced night, at the end of the year of separation, would
come and take his bride to be with him.
This would happen only after the living quarters were finished and
after his father gave approval, and told him he could go and get his bride.
When
the bridegroom came, he and his male escorts would wait outside the bride’s
house until she was ready. They would shout “Behold, the bridegroom comes!”,
and a shofar would then be blown.
When
the bride came out, the couple would return by torchlight procession to the
groom’s father’s house.
Upon returning to the groom’s father’s house, the wedding ceremony
took place, and the new couple remained hidden in the bridal chamber for
seven days in what was known as ‘the seven days of the bridal chamber.’
At the end of the seventh day, the groom would come out of hiding with
his bride, so that everyone could see his bride.
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Jesus
left heaven to come to earth.
Jesus
establishes the new covenant through his blood, redeeming us to himself.
Jesus
promised to return, left the believers on earth and went to his Father’s
house (John 14:2-3).
Jesus
said he would go and prepare a place, to which he will later bring his bride.
Jesus, at the end of the separation, will come from his Father’s house at an unannounced time (Mark 13:32). He will come at his Father’s command (1 Thess. 4:16).
When
Jesus comes, he will not come the whole way down to earth, but will wait in
the air. The archangel will cry out
that the Bridegroom has come (Matt. 25:6), and the trumpet call of God will
sound (1 Thess. 4:16). Then the bride
will come up into the air to meet him.
Jesus
will return with his bride to his Father’s house to begin living in the many
rooms prepared for us there.
When Jesus and his bride return to the Father’s house, they will ‘go
into hiding’ for seven years, during the time that the tribulation takes
place on earth.
At the end of the seven years, Jesus will come out of hiding in his
Second Advent, and return to earth to rule and reign. The bride will come with him in full public
display for all to see.
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Table
3.1 The parallel between the traditional Jewish wedding and the rapture of the
bride of Christ
Is there a prophetic connection between the rapture
and the feast of trumpets?
There are some believers, both Jews and Gentiles, who believe
that, when it happens, the resurrection-rapture event will be the prophetic and
messianic fulfilment of the Hebrew feast of trumpets. This annual Jewish feast is normally
celebrated towards the end of September.
Therefore, these believers sincerely think and hope that the rapture, in
whichever year it does happen, will take place on one of the two days on which
this feast is celebrated. However, there
are others who, for various reasons, think that this viewpoint is not
true. This section briefly presents the
evidence for both of these viewpoints, so that the reader can understand why
people think and believe differently on this point.
A. The rapture as the prophetic messianic fulfilment
of the feast of trumpets
According to this viewpoint, from Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians
15:51-52 we can discern a potential connection between the rapture and feast of
trumpets, Yom Teruah (cf. Lev. 23:23-25).
The feast of trumpets was the first of the three autumn feasts which
Jews were commanded to celebrate, and, just as the three spring feasts found
their messianic fulfilment in the life and work of Christ, this feast also has messianic
prophetic significance. Today it is
often referred to as Rosh Hashanah and it marks the beginning of the Jewish civil
new year. It was held on the first day
of the seventh month (Tishri), and its purpose was to call the Jews to a period
of prayer, confession, repentance and putting things right in their life, in
preparation for the day of atonement (Yom Kippur) which would take place on the
tenth day of that same month. These ten days
of prayer and repentance, beginning on Rosh Hashanah and ending on Yom Kippur,
are called ‘the days of awe.’
Each day during this period, the shofar (trumpet) is blown to
awaken the people, and to warn them to repent and return to God since his
judgement of sin on Yom Kippur is coming soon.
The final shofar blast on Rosh Hashanah was known as ‘the last trump’
(i.e. the last blast of the shofar). It
is this ‘last trumpet’ blast which some believers think that Paul was referring
to in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52. This
should not be confused with ‘the trumpet call of God’ mentioned in 1
Thessalonians 4:16, as this refers to the shofar blast in the Jewish wedding
analogy, as we have seen above.
After the rapture of
the bride of Christ, this world will enter into a time of God’s call to
repentance and the pouring out of his wrath on earth because of human sin, a
period of time which is often referred to as ‘the tribulation.’ During the time of the seven trumpets and the
seven bowls of wrath in the book of Revelation, there are references to
repentance, or rather to the lack of it (see Rev. 9:20-21; 16:9-10). This is the time when many Jewish people will
repent and find Jesus as their Messiah (cf. Zech. 12:10 – 13:1). This time of worldwide tribulation is then
followed by the Second Advent of Christ (seen as the messianic fulfilment of
Yom Kippur) when the Lord will judge the nations (Matt. 25:31-46).
Furthermore, the feast
of trumpets is also known as the ‘wedding of Messiah.’ In the analogy of a traditional Jewish
wedding, the marriage takes place over a period of time known as the ‘bridal
week.’ During this bridal week, the
groom and bride consummate their relations in the bridal room which was built
in the father’s home. At the end of this
week, the marriage supper is held. This
bridal week represents the time when the bride of Christ is in heaven after the
rapture, while on earth there will be a time of tribulation.
In Matthew 24:36, we
can see another potential connection between the rapture and the feast of trumpets:
‘No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor
the Son, but only the Father.’ (Matt. 24:36)
It will be made clear in chapter 6 that this verse does not
refer to the Second Advent of Christ, but to the event of the rapture. So, according to this verse, the day when the
rapture will happen is known only by the Father. Even the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, does not
know when it will be. He is waiting for
his Father to tell him when the right time has come to go and get his bride, in
parallel with the Jewish wedding tradition.
Furthermore, the feast of trumpets was known as the feast about
which ‘we do not know the day or the hour.’
This was because this feast day (and therefore the civil new year) could
only be announced to have arrived by the priests when two reliable witnesses
had both seen the new crescent moon rising. The new moon is very difficult to see on the first day, because
it can be seen only around the time of sunset, and it is very close to the sun
which is travelling north. So, locating a
very slim and faint crescent moon, which is very close to the sun, is difficult. If the crescent moon was not seen
on that day, then the new year was announced by default the next day. It is for this reason
that Yom Teruah is celebrated for two days, with the two being thought
of as one long day.
This is the only one of the biblical feasts that the Jews do not know
the exact day on which to keep it. They know the season
in which it is to be kept, of course, but not the day or the hour. Therefore, they have to be alert and to watch
out for it. So some believers think
that, in his words about the rapture in Matthew 24:36 above, Jesus was making
an implicit reference to the feast of trumpets.
So, according to this interpretation, the feast of trumpets will find
its prophetic messianic fulfilment in the event of the rapture. It foreshadows the return of the heavenly
Bridegroom for his bride. Therefore, supporters
of this viewpoint believe that the rapture, when it does actually take place,
will happen on the feast of trumpets, although we do not know in which year or
on which of its two days that will be, of course. So it will happen on the exact day of its
biblical counterpart, in just the same way that Jesus died on the cross exactly
on the day of Passover, in just the same way that he was raised from the dead exactly
on the day of the Feast of Firstfruits, and in just the same way that the
Church came into being exactly on the day of the Feast of Weeks (the day of
Pentecost). However, because Rosh
Hashanah is celebrated as a two-day feast, this means that we do not know the day
or the hour when the rapture would happen, just as it says in Matthew 24:36.
Furthermore, this
viewpoint also notes the fact that, in Jewish tradition, there are three
particular trumpet blasts that have a name.
These are ‘the first trump’ (blown on the feast of weeks whose messianic
fulfilment was in the birth of the Church, cf. Acts 2:1-41), ‘the last trump’
(the Tekiah Gedolah, the final one of the many blasts blown on the feast
of trumpets whose messianic fulfilment is believed to be in the rapture of the bride
of Christ), and ‘the great trump’ (blown on the Day of Atonement whose
messianic fulfilment is believed to be at the Second Advent of Christ, cf.
Matt. 24:31, Isa. 27:13).[1]
This viewpoint is summed up in the references below:
The spring Hebrew feasts
Passover Lev. 23:4-8 Jesus, the spotless Lamb of
/ Unleavened
Bread God,
bearing our sin
Feast of
Firstfruits Lev. 23:9-14 Jesus’ resurrection
Feast of Weeks Lev. 23:15-22 The day of Pentecost / Birth of the Church
The autumn Hebrew feasts
Feast of
Trumpets Lev. 23:23-25 The rapture of the bride
Day of Atonement Lev. 23-26-32 The Second Advent of Jesus as Judge
Feast of
Tabernacles Lev. 23:33-43 The millennial reign of Christ
B. The
rapture is impending and it can happen at any time
According to this
viewpoint, the rapture has no intrinsic messianic connection with the feast of
trumpets. The rapture is an impending
event, and it can happen at any time.
This certainly seems to be implied by the following verses:
‘No one knows about
that day or hour…’ (Matt. 24:36)
‘Therefore keep
watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.’ (Matt. 24:42)
‘…the Son of Man will
come at an hour when you do not expect him.’ (Matt. 24:44)
‘...the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring
about in his own time…’ (1 Tim. 6:14-15)
This viewpoint
believes that Paul’s words ‘the last trumpet’ in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 do not
refer to the last of the trumpet blasts on the feast of trumpets, but to the
final one of seven trumpet blasts which would be sounded from the south-western
corner of Temple Mount in Jerusalem to remind the local Jews that they needed
to be ready and prepared for whatever occasion was being heralded, be it the
upcoming sabbath or any other given occasion.
This viewpoint identifies the final trumpet blast of the feast of
trumpets with the loud trumpet blast of Matthew 24:31, and therefore with the
Second Advent when Jesus returns to earth.
Moreover, the feast
of trumpets is a Jewish feast and therefore it will be fulfilled messianically
in the life of national Israel, just as the spring feasts were, rather than in
the rapture in which the mainly Gentile bride of Christ is taken away. However, in response to this, believing Jews
in Israel will be raptured, not just Gentiles, so can this not be considered to
be an event in the life of national Israel?
The feast of trumpets
will have its prophetic messianic fulfilment in the Second Advent, as indicated
below:
The autumn Hebrew feasts
Feast of
Trumpets Lev. 23:23-25 The Second Advent
Day of
Atonement Lev. 23:26-32 The repentance of Jews
when Christ returns (cf. Zech. 12:10-13)
Feast of
Tabernacles Lev. 23:33-43 The millennial reign of Christ
Therefore, we should
be looking forward to the rapture happening at any time. It is not connected to a two-day feast on the
Jewish calendar. A human trumpet blast
blown in Jerusalem on the feast of trumpets is not the herald of Christ coming
for his bride. Christ is waiting for his
Father’s command in heaven, not for a human trumpet blast on earth. If the rapture were connected to a two-day
Jewish feast in September, then this means that every year that this feast goes
by without the rapture happening, we then have to wait for another entire year
for this feast to come around again, for it to potentially happen then. So we would actually spend most of the
calendar year not expecting the rapture to happen at any time, because our
faith would be hanging on two specific days in September. This clearly contradicts the words of Matthew
24:42,44 above that we need to be ready at all times. We do not know when the rapture will happen.
Moreover, the
repetition of the fact that the ‘day or hour’ is unknown in Matthew
24:36,42,44,50; 25:13 implies that we should take the words of Matthew 24:36
simply at face value as they stand without seeing any implicit connection with
the feast of trumpets. However, this
does not mean that the rapture cannot happen on the feast of trumpets, it
certainly could because it can happen at any time.[2] It is just as wrong to say that it won’t
happen on the feast of trumpets or on any other given day, as it is to say that
it will. We simply do not know!
From Jesus’ words in
Matthew 24:40-41, we can also look at this in another way. Firstly, if two men are in the field working,
then this is evidently during the daytime; if two women are grinding at the
mill, then this is also during the daytime; if a couple are in bed, then this
is at night (Luke 17:34); and if someone is on their roof, then they are
perhaps entertaining guests, so this would be in the evening (Luke 17:31). We are told that the master of the house
could come back in the evening, during the night, at dawn, or in the morning
(Mark 13:35, Luke 12:38), so he could therefore come back at any time.
And secondly, to try
to set a specific day or time when Jesus will come back is meaningless when we
consider where we live on the globe.
What is 2 a.m. at night in Australia, for example, is 2 p.m. on the
previous day in UK. So if Jesus comes at
what is 2 a.m. in Australia when people are sleeping, then he will come at
about 2 p.m. in the afternoon on the previous day in UK when everyone is
working, i.e. at a different time on what for them is a different day.
The
rapture happens before ‘the day of the Lord’
Reading:
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
It should be clear by now that the rapture
happens before ‘the day of the Lord,’ i.e. before the period of tribulation on
earth. The content of chapters 5 and 6
will add further weight to this viewpoint, and it is also clear from the
apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.
The whole of the passage in 1
Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:11 forms one natural section in this epistle. It is important that we remember that when
Paul wrote this epistle, he did not insert chapter and verse numbers. These were added into the text at a much
later stage. So Paul’s teaching about
the ‘day of the Lord,’ the time of tribulation and God’s wrath on earth,
follows on naturally from his teaching about the rapture. It is given to us quite clearly in the
context of the rapture.
Evidently then, the purpose of the rapture
is for the Lord to take his bride away before the time of wrath begins. Paul states explicitly that, because we are
God’s children and we do not live in darkness, that day will not surprise us
like a thief (5:4, cf. Matt. 24:42-44), and he also states that, as the bride
of Christ, we are not destined for wrath, but to obtain salvation through
Christ (5:9). Because Jesus is the
propitiation for our sins, then the wrath of God towards our sin has been
completely removed, and we are the objects of his love. Therefore, Jesus will come for us in order to
rescue us from the coming wrath (1:10). So
it is clearly the case that the sudden event of the rapture will save us away
from the onset of ‘the day of the Lord,’ and then, after this period of
tribulation on earth has finished, we will return with the Lord at his Second
Advent (4:14).
Furthermore, we are told that the rapture
will happen suddenly and unexpectedly in a time of relative ‘peace and safety’
on earth. After the rapture, the world
will then be plunged suddenly into the time of destruction of the tribulation
(5:3). ‘Peace and safety’ on earth will
not be characteristic of the time of tribulation, rather it will be a time when
people’s hearts will fail them for fear of what is coming upon the earth (Luke
21:25-26). So the rapture cannot happen at
the end of the time of tribulation, or even sometime after it starts, it
must happen before this time.
These words ‘peace and safety’ in 1
Thessalonians 5:3 can also be understood in a slightly different but related
way. The Greek word asphaleia
used in this verse refers to something that is ‘not liable to fall,’ and hence
to ‘security,’ ‘certainty’ or ‘safety,’ and the word eirene meaning
‘peace’ implies a state of being in which prosperity can develop.
So this phrase ‘peace and safety’ could
very well be rendered ‘peace and security,’ and this of course makes it
immediately relevant to the days in which we presently live. The search for ‘peace and security in our time,’
especially in the Middle East, is the cry on the lips of politicians everywhere
today, obviously in the light of the continual wars and upheavals which have
characterised human life over the last several decades. Their hope, which they are working
continually to fulfil, is that ‘peace and security’ in human life will be found
through the establishment of the globalist new world order, rather than through
Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
However, instead of these globalist dreams
being fulfilled, what they will actually find is the complete opposite. According to 1 Thessalonians 5:3, it is
precisely when people are saying ‘peace and security’ that the destruction of
the tribulation will suddenly come upon them, when the rapture has taken place
and during the time of Antichrist.
This understanding clearly implies that
the rapture and the tribulation which follows must therefore take place very
soon.
Figures 3.1 and 3.2 below give diagrammatic summaries of the apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:11.
Figure 3.1: The teaching of 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:11
Figure 3.2: A summary of this teaching
Why is our heavenly Bridegroom staying away so long?
We
saw in chapter 2 that the early church expected Jesus to return for his bride
in their own lifetime, and this expectation has been the hope of every
generation of believers since then. It
is a long time now that Jesus has been away, but the hope of his promise
remains fresh for every generation of believers:
‘The bridegroom was a long time in
coming…’ (Matt.
25:5)
There
are at least four reasons why the Lord is staying away so long:
·
God
the Father is working for the fullness of the Gentile harvest to come in. He is not willing that any should perish,
neither us, nor our children nor our grandchildren. He wants everyone to come to repentance, and his patience means salvation for us (Rom.
11:25; 2 Peter 3:9,15). So he
continues to wait patiently through people’s lifetimes, while one generation gives
way to another, for people to repent and to turn to him in faith through
Christ.
·
The
Lord is preparing a place for his bride (John 14:2-3). He is still waiting
for his Father’s command to come and get his bride.
·
He
is waiting for his bride to prepare for his coming and to get herself ready
(Matt. 24:44, cf. Rev. 19:7). He does
not want her to go through the end-times day of his wrath. He wants pure-hearted and obedient believers
who are looking forward with eager anticipation to his coming.
·
The
time for the rise of Antichrist and the pouring out of God’s wrath on this
world during the tribulation has not yet come.
The rapture will happen just prior to this. In his grace, God is waiting for as many
people as possible to embrace the gospel that they might be saved.
When will the rapture occur in relation to the period
of tribulation?
There are traditionally three major
viewpoints as to when the rapture will occur in relation to the tribulation
period. These are known as the
pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation and post-tribulation viewpoints. So, although everyone says they accept that
it will happen on a day and at a time which is unknown to us (cf. Matt. 24:36),
some believe that the rapture will happen before the day of the Lord; some
believe that it will happen in the middle of this period, and others that it
will happen at the end.
The post-tribulation viewpoint holds that
the rapture will occur at the end of the tribulation, i.e. at the time of the
Second Advent of Christ. So this
viewpoint conflates John 14:2-3 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 which are about the
rapture, with the passages in Matthew 24:29-31 and Revelation 19:11-16 which
are about the Second Advent. People who
believe this, think that the gathering referred to in Matthew 24:31 is the same
as the rapture we have described in this chapter.
Hence, in this scenario, all believers
would go through the time of tribulation, and would then be raptured at the end
of it. So they would be snatched up into
the air to meet Christ as he descends from heaven at his Second Advent, only to
then immediately come back down to the earth with him. It is the conflation of the passages
mentioned above which leads to this confused and wrong belief.[3]
In this viewpoint, there is no analogy of
the rapture with the Jewish wedding traditions as I have described in this
chapter, and the deeply loved bride of Christ effectively becomes an object of
God’s wrath along with everyone else on earth during the tribulation. This would be something fearful to have to
look forward to, and it would no doubt fill us with anxiety, worry and stress,
rather than looking forward with anticipation and joy to the rapture happening
before the tribulation, as I have described.
No, those who walk in a living and loving
covenant relationship with Christ cannot go through the time of the
outpouring of God’s wrath on earth. It
is simply a contradiction in terms to say that we are deeply loved by Christ as
his bride, and that he is totally committed to us through covenant, but that we
will also experience what it is to go through God’s wrath. What kind of bridegroom who loves his bride
would ever pour out his wrath upon her?!
Additionally, although we do not know when
the rapture will occur, yet we do know exactly when the Second Advent will
occur. It occurs immediately after the
time of tribulation on earth, and it is preceded by signs in the sun, moon and
stars, as described by Jesus himself in Matthew 24:29-30. So, anyone who was alive on earth in those
days and who knew the Scriptures well, would be able to tell exactly when the Second
Advent (and therefore the rapture) was going to occur. S/he would simply have to wait for the end of
the time of tribulation and to see the signs in the sun, moon and stars,
because it is then that it will occur. So
this event does not happen suddenly like a thief coming in the night, and this
viewpoint therefore falls clearly into contradiction with Matthew 24:36 which
says that we cannot know the day or the hour.
It begs the question as to why we are supposed to watch and wait for an
impending event to happen, evidently in the hope that it will take place, when
that expected event can supposedly only take place at the end of a seven-year
period at some future stage of world history?!
Surely this is simply a contradiction in terms!
As far as the mid-tribulation viewpoint is
concerned, it can be shown from the word of God that there are two distinct halves
in the tribulation period, each lasting 3½ years. So again, if we were alive at that time and
knew the Scriptures well, we would know exactly when the first half of the
tribulation would draw to a close. We would
simply have to count down the number of days since it began (cf. Rev. 11:3),
and then the rapture will occur. A
similar argument also holds for the second half of the tribulation and for the
post-tribulation viewpoint. It simply
means that the rapture, when it came, would not break into our life suddenly
and unexpectedly, which is the picture of it given to us in the Scriptures.
This viewpoint
also conflates the last of the seven trumpets in the book of Revelation (which
will happen at the mid-point of the tribulation period, cf. Rev. 11:15) with
the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15:52.
However, the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11:15 is simply the last of
seven trumpet blasts which will be sounded in heaven, but not heard on
earth. So they are not the same thing.
There is another viewpoint of when the
rapture will occur in relation to the tribulation period. This is called the pre-wrath viewpoint, and
basically it says that the rapture will happen about three-quarters of the way
through the seven-year period of the tribulation, just prior to the pouring out
of the bowls of God’s wrath (cf. Rev. ch.16).
However, as with the post-tribulation viewpoint, this means that the
bride of Christ will have to experience at least part of the reign of
Antichrist, and that the rapture cannot happen until after Antichrist has risen
up. So then, according to this
viewpoint, the first thing we need to look out for is Antichrist, rather than
the return of the Bridegroom. Again, this
contradicts Matthew 24:36 which says that we cannot know the day or the hour:
we cannot say that it must be after Antichrist arises. There are no signs which the Bible says must
happen before the rapture takes place.
It will happen suddenly and unexpectedly, and it is something that we
need to be ready for.
For these reasons, and for the other
reasons given both in this chapter and in the next two chapters, I believe that
the rapture will come before the day of the Lord, the time of
tribulation on earth. So this book is
presenting a pre-tribulation viewpoint of the rapture.
This viewpoint is consistent both with the
Scriptures and with the Jewish wedding analogy which is used by both the Lord
Jesus and the apostle Paul as its parallel.
No-one knows the day or hour when the rapture will take place, and there
are no signs which the Bible says must precede it. It is the next great event in the life of
the global church, and it will happen suddenly and unexpectedly in a time of
relative ‘peace and safety,’ before the period of tribulation. As the bride of Christ, it is this event that
we are encouraged by the apostle Paul to look forward to with anticipation, inward
peace and joy, rather than being fearful and anxious of going through the
tribulation (1 Thess. 4:18, 5:11). After
we have been raptured, we will return to earth with Jesus at his Second Advent at
the end of the tribulation (1 Thess. 4:14).
Remembering and celebrating
the coming rapture annually
Just as we remember
and celebrate Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day (even though he was actually born
sometime around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles in mid-October), we also
remember Jesus’ death on Good Friday and celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday
(which are normally somewhere around the time of Passover and the Feast of
Firstfruits). So too, we remember the
coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost at the time of the Feast of
Weeks, often celebrating it in church on the Sunday closest to that date.
These spring Hebrew
feasts are significant to us because they were fulfilled to the very day by
Jesus and the Holy Spirit. So they have
become permanent markers in our calendar, pinpointing days which are deeply
significant to us in our redemption. No
local church worthy of the name should ever forget these days and what they
mean for us as believers, and the truths they signify should be preached,
taught and expounded at those times of the year in particular, so that we never
forget what they mean to us in Christ.
Although many
churches do faithfully remember and teach on the redemptive truths mentioned
above which have to do with the first coming of Christ, and they do this at
those particular and significant times of the year, yet they can sometimes be
weak on remembering scriptural truths which have to do with the second coming
of Christ. In fact, some churches do not
teach at all (or very rarely so) on topics which have to do with the second
coming of Christ. There are no special
days on which we remember them, in contrast with the spring feast days, so
their significance can easily be lost or forgotten. The root problem behind this is of course
replacement theology, which has attempted historically to deny and remove from
the Christian Church the redemptive and prophetic significance of the autumn
Hebrew feasts.
This is why we need
to get back to remembering the autumn Hebrew feasts every year when they occur
in September/October. These feasts
are prophetic of end-time eschatological events, so therefore at that
time of year we can proactively remember and celebrate the rapture and Second
Advent of Christ. Whether or not we
believe that the rapture may happen on the feast of trumpets, we can still make
a point of teaching on the rapture in our church meetings around that time of
year. In this way, we will remind
ourselves of this redemptive truth and refresh our faith in it at least once
every calendar year. We will celebrate
the fact that we know Jesus our heavenly Bridegroom is coming back very soon for
us, and we will thereby refresh our eager anticipation of this event. If we do this annually at this time of year,
we will not lose sight of the fact of the coming rapture and the scriptural
truth of Jesus’ coming, and as a result this will never fade from our mind or
grow stale as a biblical truth. We
are then far more likely to live our daily life in the joyful anticipation of
it, as we should!
[1] See for
example https://www.harpscrossing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Overview-of-The-Seven-Feasts.pdf.
[2] See for example Amir
Tsarfati’s presentation at https://youtu.be/uoE9bR5UxLE?si=T-oa8y-iDSnxKD2U, accessed
27.09.2025.
[3] The Greek phrase εις απαντησιν (lit. ‘into a
meeting’) is rendered in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 simply as ‘to meet’ [the Lord in
the air]. The underlying noun απαντησις
was used in everyday speech to refer to when people would go out of a city to
officially welcome a newly arriving dignitary such as a magistrate. They would go out to greet him, and would
then accompany him as he continued to make his way to the city. His arrival and presence in the city would
then be his parousia. The word απαντησις
is used in this way in Acts 28:15. Those
who believe in a post-tribulation rapture often use this fact to justify their
wrong belief that the rapture is part of the Second Advent proper, i.e. that
believers would go up into the air to meet Christ and then come down with him
straight away as he continues his descent to earth.
However, the conceptual error inherent in this
viewpoint is that it makes the apantesis of the rapture into the major
motif concerning the rapture. This is
wrong. The major scriptural motif of the
rapture is the return of the Bridegroom for the bride of Christ, as this
chapter discusses, based on Jesus’ promise in John 14:2-3. We are transformed, we rise up to meet the
Lord in the air, but then we stay with him in his Father’s house for the
duration of the tribulation period on earth, and then we return with him
at his Second Advent proper. So the apentesis
of believers in the rapture has to be understood and interpreted in the context
of this major motif, rather than considering it alone and conveniently ignoring
the major motif of the return of the Bridegroom for the bride. This is the way its use in 1 Thessalonians
4:17 and Matthew 25:6 should be understood.
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