The Rapture
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The Second
Advent
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The Lord descends to the air.
Raptured believers go to heaven with
Christ.
He comes for his own.
He claims his bride.
He comes for his bride.
It is impending. It can happen at any time.
There are no preceding signs.
Only believers are involved in this.
It happens before the day of God’s
wrath, rescuing believers from this.
The day of God’s wrath (the tribulation
period) begins after this.
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The Lord descends right down to the
earth.
Raptured believers return later to earth
with the Lord.
He comes with his own.
He returns with his bride.
He comes to destroy Antichrist.
It happens at the end of the Tribulation
period.
There are definite signs which precede
this.
This affects everyone on earth.
It happens at the end of the day of
God’s wrath.
The millennial reign of Christ on earth
begins after this.
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The Rapture
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The Second Advent
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Jesus returns
for his bride and rescues us from the coming day of God’s wrath, the
tribulation
‘In my Father’s house are many rooms; if
it were not so, I would have told you.
I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.’
(John 14:2-3)
‘…and to wait for his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.’
(1 Thess. 1:10)
‘For God did not appoint us to suffer
wrath but to receive salvation though our Lord Jesus Christ.’
(1 Thess. 5:9)
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The Lord returns
to destroy Antichrist, and to judge
‘This will happen when the Lord Jesus is
revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God
and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.’
(2 Thess. 1:7-8)
‘And then the lawless one will be
revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and
destroy by the splendour of his coming.’ (2 Thess. 2:8)
and see also Rev. 19:17-21
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The rapture is
imminent, has no preceding signs and its time is unknown
‘No-one knows about that day or hour,
not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.’ (Matt.
24:36)
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The Lord returns
after the tribulation, and definite visible signs precede this
‘Immediately after the distress of those
days… “the sun will be darkened…” At
that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky… They will see
the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory…’
(Matt. 24:29-30)
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The Lord
descends to the air
‘For the Lord himself will come down
from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with
the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are
left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air. And so we will be with the
Lord for ever.’
(1 Thess. 4:16-17)
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The Lord returns
and descends right down to the earth
‘I saw heaven standing open and there
before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. The armies of heaven were following him… Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with
which to strike down the nations.’
(Rev. 19:11,14-15)
‘On that day his feet will stand on the
Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem …’ (Zech. 14:4)
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The dead in
Christ are raised and living believers are raptured
see 1 Thess. 4:16-17 above
‘We will not all sleep, but we will all
be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,
the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.’
(1 Cor. 15:51-52)
‘I am the resurrection and the
life. He who believes in me will live,
even though he dies [RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD IN CHRIST], and whoever lives
and believes in me will never die [RAPTURE OF THOSE WHO ARE ALIVE AND REMAIN].’
(John 11:25-26)
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Believers who
died in the tribulation are raised after the Second Advent
‘And I saw the souls of those who had
been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of
God. They had not worshipped the beast
or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ
for a thousand years.’ (Rev. 20:4)
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What
about the parable of the weeds and the parable of the net in Matthew ch.13?
Those who believe in a post-tribulation
rapture (post-tribulationists as we call them) often cite the parable of the
weeds and the parable of the net in Matthew ch.13 in support of their
view. These two parables both pertain to
the time when God’s future judgement will take place. They describe how evil people, or weeds as
they are referred to, are removed from God’s kingdom so that only the
righteous, or the wheat remain. So put
simply, in these two parables the unrighteous and ungodly are removed whereas
the righteous and godly remain. It is
important to emphasise that those who believe in the pre-tribulation rapture
believe the truth of these passages just as post-tribulationists do.
However, as we have seen previously,
passages that support a pre-tribulation rapture teach the opposite, vis.
that the righteous and godly are removed from earth whereas the ungodly are
left behind to go through the tribulation.
See Table 4.3 below:
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Examples of passages which show that the righteous are taken in the rapture and the unrighteous remain on earth |
Examples of passages which show that the unrighteous are removed through judgement and the righteous remain in God’s kingdom |
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‘In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.’ (John 14:2-3) ‘For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever.’ (1 Thess. 4:16-17) ‘Two men will be in a field: one will be
taken and the other left. Two women
will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.’ (Matt.
24:40-41)
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‘As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.’ (Matt. 13:40-43) ‘This is how it will be at the end of
the age. The angels will come and
separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matt. 13:49-50)
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Table
4.3 Comparison of these two sets of passages
So do we have a contradiction here? No, because these two sets of passages
are simply describing different events that happen at different times. Understanding this is the way to resolve the
difference between these two sets of passages.
The events described in the two parables in Matthew ch.13 will take
place at the ‘end of the age’ (vv.40,49), and both pre-tribulationists and
post-tribulationists agree on this.
However, the other passages which indicate that the righteous are
removed and the ungodly remain refer to a different event, the rapture, which
happens at a different time and before the end-times tribulation ensues. For post-tribulationists to cite these two
parables in Matthew ch.13 to support their view of a post-tribulation rapture (followed
immediately by the final judgement) simply means that they have to completely
ignore and live in denial of the other passages, which do refer to a separate
event which we know as the pre-tribulation rapture. However, if we are to be faithful to the whole
of the scriptures, then we must accept both these sets of passages and learn to
interpret them correctly, as referring to different events that happen at
different times.
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