An Examination Of The Rapture Of The Church – Part 3 Of 4 Series

AN EXAMINATION OF THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH – PART 3 OF 4

Part 2 considered the Christian’s glorious hope the bible calls “the blessed hope” and the fact that the word “apostasy” in Thessalonians should be translated as “departure”. In today’s teaching on the Rapture we will begin by looking at the main views people have of the Rapture. The 4 that I have chosen are the main ones I have experienced, though there are other deviations from those.

[F]. WHAT RAPTURE IS CORRECT?

Terms are thrown around and arguments take place over exactly when the Rapture will occur in the future. I suppose the four schools of thought are these (The 4 I am covering are the 4 I have encountered as the main ones):

1. Mid-Tribulation Rapture. These adherents believe the Church must endure the first three and a half years of the seven year Tribulation, which some people like to call “the beginning of sorrows” and then the Rapture happens before the “heavier judgements” begin. The problem with this view is that Revelation chapter 6 is still the execution of the wrath of God and that begins the Tribulation. The opening of the first seal is the start of all that will happen. At that time the world realises what is happening, although they must have known from the start that they find themselves in supernatural times – {{Revelation 6 v 16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb Rev 6:17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”}} We are NOT destined to wrath and we are delivered from that wrath that is to come, so this view of a mid-tribulation Rapture is absolutely erroneous. It is amazing that any true bible student can hold to such a Christ-dishonouring idea for it lessens that work of the cross where the Lord took the wrath against sin in our place. There is NO MORE wrath for us. There is no way God will put His children through the wrath against sin when the Saviour bore it for us.

2. Rapture immediately preceding the Second Coming. This belief is popular for those who dismiss a separate rapture 7 years before the Second Coming. They claim there is a rapture but that it happens immediately before the Second Coming – rapture followed by Christ's appearing, almost as if it was one event but in two parts. This view would have the Christians here on earth going right through the Tribulation and enduring the wrath of God, which Jesus took for us on the cross so that we would not endure God’s wrath against sin. This belief of the Rapture is false. In fact I think it is disgusting.

3. No such thing at all as a separate Rapture. This is a common belief among those who do not accept dispensational teaching and/or dismiss the concept of a Tribulation (such as the SDAs, Reformed theology, Replacement Theology. It is also found in some Charismatic belief). They believe everything continues as it is now until the Second Coming. For them there is only one coming. The prophecies of the Old Testament are written off as history and turned into replacement theology. Remember we quoted the Nicean and Apostles’ Creed earlier - “He shall come to judge the living and the dead”. This is the accepted view of those who follow The Apostles’ Creed rather than the bible. It includes the RC church, the Anglicans, the Reformed churches, the Lutherans, some of the Methodists and Presbyterians and others. There is a strong correlation between this belief and covenant theology and replacement theology, horrible systems that dismiss Israel altogether in prophecy, and transfer all the Old Testament prophecies for Israel to the church in a spiritual sense. For me personally, this is a dishonouring, objectionable belief. Any system that would write off the Jews is not from God in any shape or form. It is a false doctrine, a doctrine of demons.

4. The separate Rapture as the next event in God’s program. This is the biblical position we hold to, “the blessed hope of the Church”. Christians are looking forward to the blessed hope of the Lord’s return. The Rapture is pre-Tribulation and pre-millennial. The Lord comes to snatch away His Bride before God’s wrath is poured from heaven. It is the only credence that is consistent and harmonious with all of scripture. The departure of the Church must occur before any release of judgment upon the earth. Surely Noah is a pertinent lesson here. He was raised from the earth while the judgment raged below, and when that had finished, he returned to earth. We shall be taken from the earth and the judgement rages below, then we come back with the Lord. We are in the “Ark” when we leave and we will be with the “Ark” when we return. Christ is the Ark.