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What Does the Bible Say About the Rapture?

Apologetics, ,

What Does the Bible Say About the Rapture?

First of all, to understand the Biblical concept of the rapture, we must put it into its Jewish cultural context. How would the Bible’s readers have understood what it is saying? Many believers today have the tendency to dismiss the Old Testament as irrelevant, preferring to focus on Jesus as though He was not born into a family with a history and cultural background. That leaves us open to all sorts of misunderstandings and misinterpretations.

Would it surprise you to discover that the Bible is about a wedding? When God met the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, His intention was to invite them into a marriage relationship with Himself. He spoke marriage talk to them. His language followed the Hebrew courtship process exactly:
Step 1: Exodus 6:7 – “I will take you as my own (segula) people …”
Step 2: Exodus 19:5 – “…out of all the nations you will be my treasured (lachah) possession.”
Step 3: Exodus 19:10 – “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash (mikvah) their clothes…’”
Step 4: Exodus 20:1-17 – The marriage contract (ketubah).
Step 5: Exodus 19:18 – “Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace; the whole mountain trembled violently.” The wedding ceremony took place under the canopy (chuppa) provided in this case by fire and smoke.

In a Hebrew wedding ceremony, after the marriage has been contracted under the chuppa, the bride and groom are escorted to the bridal chamber, prepared by the bridegroom at his fathers’ house and approved by his father. The groom picks up (raptures) his bride and carries her over the threshold into the bridal chamber where the marriage is consummated. Then the bridal couple return to their waiting guests to enjoy their wedding feast.

At Mount Sinai, God invited His people into a marriage bond with Himself and treated them as His wife, even though they rejected Him and were unfaithful to Him. On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on the believers, the same phenomena occurred as at Mount Sinai, noise and fire. This time the people responded to God, and the church – the bride of Christ – was born. The consummation of that marriage awaits Jesus’ return for His bride – “I am going there (to my Father’s house – understood) 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 14:2b,3. NIV).

When Jesus returns He will pick up (rapture) His bride and consummate His eternal spiritual union with her, followed by the marriage supper of the Lamb – Revelation 19:7,9. – “Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and the bride has made herself ready…Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’”

In contrast to the theory that Jesus will come secretly to snatch His bride away, the Biblical picture is clearly that of a noisy affair. At Sinai there was the blowing of trumpets and the noise of shouting (thunder – which should be translated ‘voices’) – Exodus 19:16, which accompanied God’s proposal of marriage. At Pentecost there was the noise of a violent wind and tongues of fire when the believers responded to His proposal of marriage.

When Jesus returns, His coming will be announced by the blowing of trumpets and the shout of the archangel, hardly a quiet affair according to Scripture! “For the Lord Himself will come down with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and 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 (raptured) together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17.

Scripture is clear that everything will happen simultaneously on Jesus’ return. “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. 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. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marvelled at among all those who have believed.” 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10a.

There is never a hint of a third return of Jesus in Scripture. Two comings, yes! The first time Jesus came, He introduced us to His Father and prepared the way for us to be reconnected to Himself by His death. He invited us into a marriage relationship with Himself and the engagement period began at Pentecost. In the interim the bride is being prepared for her wedding day and the bridegroom has returned to His Father’s house to prepare the bridal chamber.

When He returns to claim His bride, that’s it! Like the five foolish virgins who were not ready, all who have not been made righteous by His blood and have not lived out that righteousness as a reflection of Him, – “…fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints)” – Revelation 19:8 – will be shut out of the presence of the Lord and consigned to eternal separation from God.

Once again, if we understand Scripture correctly, we are never encouraged to be apathetic about living out our faith because there will be a second chance for those who miss it the first time. There is no second chance. When Jesus returns, all creation will know it and all humanity will be judged; the righteous reputed into the bridal chamber with Jesus and the unrighteous consigned to eternal fire – instantaneously. Too many people have been lulled by this false teaching into believing that they will have time to respond – a typical Satanic deception to lure people off course. Jesus had spoken – “Watch and pray. Do not be deceived.”

So Who Is Right?

Apologetics,

SO WHO IS RIGHT?

Before I conclude these studies on the Biblical picture of antichrist in relation to the widespread popular teaching found in books, movies and current preaching and teaching, let me do a quick review.

Popular teaching presents the picture like this:

1. There will be a silent and secret rapture of the church during which Jesus will snatch believers away from the earth and the Holy Spirit will be removed with the church. This implies that Jesus’ return will happen in two parts; when He raptures the church and when He returns to the earth with the saints, separated by a period of time.

2. After the rapture, the antichrist will make his appearance in the world, an evil and powerful world leader who will come from outside the church. His appearance will trigger seven years of tribulation during which time people will still become believers in Christ.

3. He will invade the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem after three and half years, stop the daily sacrifice and proclaim himself to be God.

4. At the height of his power, Jesus will return with His saints in power and glory to overthrow the antichrist and set up His millennial reign on earth.

A serious study of Scripture contradicts these teachings on the following points:

1. Antichrist, as presented by both Paul and John, is not a single, evil individual who arises outside the church in the end times but a spirit that was already operating in people from within the church in their day. “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.” 1 John 2:18 (NIV).

Anyone who manifests the treacherous spirit of Judas, one of Jesus’ trusted followers whom Jesus called ‘the one doomed to destruction,’ (John 17:12b; 2 Thessalonians 2:3b), is operating in the spirit of antichrist. “Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist…” 1 John 4:3a (NIV). He is not an obvious evil character from outside the church but a less obvious trend in people within the church who occupy positions of leadership and influence.

2. The rapture will not be silent and secret: “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 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 forever.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17. (NIV). This is a fulfilment of the Feast of Trumpets which heralded the Day of Atonement in which God judged His people.

3. The Roman Empire, not the church or the Holy Spirit, was the restrainer, holding back the power of the Church until Rome fell and the centre of government moved to Constantinople.

4. The influence of antichrist arose after the restrainer was removed and in the wake of a massive falling away during which the churches moved away from the simplicity and power of the early church with it devotion to Christ and faithfulness to the teachings of the apostles and became more and more ritualistic and dominated by the church of Rome.

5. The Roman church, led by a succession of corrupt popes, became self-exalting, usurping the authority of God in His own temple, the church. It became a man-led and man-centred kingdom (Daniel 7:19-21), making great claims for itself. It was powerful and made war on the saints, (between the 6th and 18th century, the Roman Catholic Church has murdered 150 million in the name of the church!).

6. According to historians, it was the church, not the barbarians who came down from the north, that cause the Dark Ages. It was the church that stifled learning, reasoning, scientific discovery and philosophy. The Bible was taken away from the people, illiteracy was encouraged and even the priests could not read the Bible.

The church, which had been an organism of life and blessing to the world, had become a monster. The Reformers of the 16th century stood up against Rome and called the people back to the Bible.

(To be continued…)